Individual differences in goal adjustment: convergence and divergence among three theoretical models.

Introduction: Individual differences in dealing with unattainable goals or resource-consumptive goal pursuit are conceptualized as goal adjustment processes in three theoretical approaches: accommodative coping (), compensatory secondary coping (), and goal disengagement and goal reengagement (). The aim of this paper is to conceptually and empirically analyze convergences and divergences between the three approaches as well as their relationship with indicators of well-being and their intersections with cognitive emotion regulation.

Methods: The empirical study is based on a cross-sectional online survey ( = 433;  = 28.

You have to let go sometimes: advances in understanding goal disengagement.

While research on tenacious goal pursuit and persistence has evoked a myriad of research efforts, research on goal disengagement has rather been neglected and has been focusing mainly on positive consequences of individual differences in goal disengagement capacities. In recent years, however, research on goal disengagement has seen an upsurge in studies, specifically addressing the conceptualization of goal disengagement, the processes involved, and factors facilitating or undermining it. However, many questions remain unanswered or only partly answered providing numerous opportunities for further investigation.

Inducing and blocking the goal to belong in an experimental setting: goal disengagement research using Cyberball.

In the present research, the Cyberball ostracism paradigm was adapted for experimental goal disengagement (GD) research: the goal to belong to a particular group is first induced in participants (via social interaction) and then blocked (via social exclusion) to trigger GD processes. In an online group setting, we experimentally tested the procedure's suitability to investigate goal disengagement processes. A pilot study demonstrated successful induction of the goal to belong.

Accommodative self-regulation: The sample case of imprisonment in young adulthood.

Objective: The present study examined the role of self-esteem stabilization processes in response to restrictive developmental conditions in early adulthood. It did so by investigating accommodative adjustments among incarcerated young adults. It was argued that an adjustment of how an individual desires to be to how they actually perceive themselves (i.

Observing parental behavior in challenging tasks: Its role for goal engagement and disengagement in children.

Children are constantly faced with challenges. They need to learn to persist but also to disengage from (still) unsolvable or too resource-consuming tasks. We examined the role of observing parental behavior in a challenging task for children's goal regulation behavior in the same task (modeling effect) and its transfer to another type of task (transfer effect).

Age differences in negotiations: Older adults achieve poorer joint outcomes in integrative negotiations.

In integrative as opposed to distributive negotiations, the interests of the negotiation partners can be simultaneously realized to some degree, which results in higher individual as well as joint outcomes. Perspective taking is important to detect and tap into this integrative potential. In negotiations, priority-related information exchange can be seen as a behavioral consequence of perspective taking.

Long-term antecedents of constraints and mastery: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study.

Whereas it is well established that having a sense of control over one's life circumstances facilitates positive aging-related outcomes across adulthood and old age, far less is known about what factors contribute to perceived control and whether these factors differ across the adult life span. We used longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,624, M age at 2006 = 67.50 years, range 50-104, 59% women) to examine whether level of, and time-related change in, episodic memory, depressive symptoms, and health (functional limitations, self-rated health) predict levels of 2 distinct components of perceived control: constraints and mastery.

Activation, Inhibition, or Something Else: An Exploratory Study on Response Priming Using Moving Dots as Primes in Middle-Aged and Old Adults.

Response priming refers to the finding that a prime stimulus preceding a target stimulus influences the response to the following target stimulus. With young subjects, using moving dot stimuli as primes indicated faster responses to compatible targets (i.e.

Linking the Positivity Effect in Attention with Affective Outcomes: Age Group Differences and the Role of Arousal.

Despite its assumed importance for emotional well-being, studies investigating the positivity effect (PE) in older adults' information processing rarely tested its relationship with immediate or general affective outcome measures like emotional reactivity or emotional well-being. Moreover, the arousal level of the to-be-processed emotional stimuli has rarely been taken into account as a moderator for the occurrence of the PE and its relationship with affective outcomes. Age group differences (young vs.

Fear of Crime in Old Age: A Sample Case of Resilience?

Objectives: Research on fear of crime (FOC) in adulthood has often shown a positive age relation, whereas the risk of criminal victimization decreases with age. The present study distinguishes three dimensions of FOC (affective, cognitive, and behavioral component) and attempts to investigate possible explanations for differential age correlations by referring to processes of adaptation and resilience. In particular, the functionality of FOC and its impact on the individual's well-being is assumed to be influenced by the individual's capacity to accommodate to adverse circumstances.

Speaking about feelings: Further evidence for multidirectional age differences in anger and sadness.

This study investigated age differences in anger and sadness in a sample of 82 younger (Mage = 26, SDage = 4.05) and 80 older (Mage = 70, SDage = 3.95) adults.

Modelling goal adjustment in social relationships: Two experimental studies with children and adults.

In two experiments, we investigated observational learning in social relationships as one possible pathway to the development of goal adjustment processes. In the first experiment, 56 children (M = 9.29 years) observed their parent as a model; in the second, 50 adults (M = 32.

The Emotional Stroop as an Emotion Regulation Task.

Background/study Context: The present studies investigate age differences observed when performing the emotional Stroop task considered as an expression of emotion regulation. Previous studies employing this task showed mixed findings regarding age differences, with a lack of evidence for positivity effects. However, moderating factors such as arousal or dispositional (emotion) regulation strategies were mostly not taken into account.

Emotional aging: a discrete emotions perspective.

Perhaps the most important single finding in the field of emotional aging has been that the overall quality of affective experience steadily improves during adulthood and can be maintained into old age. Recent lifespan developmental theories have provided motivation- and experience-based explanations for this phenomenon. These theories suggest that, as individuals grow older, they become increasingly motivated and able to regulate their emotions, which could result in reduced negativity and enhanced positivity.

Fear of crime in old age: precautious behaviour and its relation to situational fear.

This study aimed to provide further insight into the question of why older adults show a higher precautionary behaviour regarding crime (behavioural fear), although they do not estimate their victimisation risk as higher than young adults and they do not experience fear more often. In two cross-sectional studies, the hypothesis was tested that the age-related increase in precautionary behaviour is an expression of higher dispositional fear with age. The vignette technique was employed to induce situational fear of crime across various situations as a proxy for dispositional fear.