Social Cognition and Aging PDF
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CONTRIBUTORS Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin. Ronald P. Abeles (xvii) Behavioral and Social Research Program, National Institute on Aging, Office of Behavioral Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 Jane M. Berry (69) Department of Psychology, University of Richmond, Rich mond, Virginia 23173 Fredda Blanchard-Fields (1, 219) School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 Jochen Brandtstadter (123) Department of Psychology, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany Laura L. Carstensen (319) Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CaHfomia 94305 Susan T\irk Charles (319) Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 Roger A. Dixon (267) Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victo ria, British Columbia V8W 3P5, Canada Joan T. Erber (197) Department of Psychology, Florida International Univer sity, Miami, Florida 33199 Joseph M. Fitzgerald (143) Psychology Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202 Christopher Hertzog (43) School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technol ogy, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 Thomas M. Hess (1, 237) Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695 XV XVI CONTRIBUTORS Karen Hooker (97) Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97330 Mary Lee Hummert (175) Communication Studies Department, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 Margie E. Lachman (17) Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254 Tara T. Lineweaver (43) Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University/University of California at San Diego, La JoUa, Cali fornia 92093 Christy L. McGuire (43) School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technol ogy, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 Joan E. Norris (291) Department of Family Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario NIG 2W1, Canada Irene G. Prager (197) Department of Psychology, Florida International Univer sity, Miami, Florida 33199 Michael W. Pratt (291) Department of Psychology, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada Lisa M. Soederberg Miller (17) Department of Psychology, Brandeis Univer sity, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254 Ursula M. Staudinger (343) Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany FOREWORD Social psychology, especially as practiced by psychologists, has hardly been influenced by the emergence of life-span perspectives in psychology and sociol ogy since the 1970s (Baltes, 1978; Baltes & Schaie, 1973; Brim & Kagan, 1980; Goulet & Baltes, 1970; Riley, Johnson, & Foner, 1972; S0rensen, Weinert, & Sherrod, 1986). Social psychological theory and research have remained mostly atemporal in that social psychological processes are assumed to be qualitatively constant over the life course and historical time (Gergen, 1973; Gergen & Gergen, 1984). With a few notable exceptions (e.g., Abeles, 1987; Blank, 1982; Rodin & Langer, 1977; Sears, 1981), social psychologists have not considered age-related processes to be of theoretical or substantive interest. In his book A Social Psychology of Developing Adults, Thomas Blank (1982, pp. 11-18) identified four types of critiques of social psychology: assumptions, theories, methods, and areas of interest. Although these critiques were made as far back as 1982, they still ring true. First, in regard to assumptions, social psychol ogy embraces positivism by assuming that there are "transpersonal and transsitu- ational regularities of social behavior and cognition" that are "brought about ... by the existence of universal psychological (and/or social structural) mecha nisms." Although this assumption could lead to complex models of development, instead rather simplistic models of linear accumulation are adopted. These mod els rule out the possibility of qualitative changes in underlying processes as peo ple age and across historical epochs. Second, and following from the first, social psychological theories tend to emphasize stabilities in behaviors and cognition and to be nondevelopmental. For example, the amount and kinds of attributional bias shown by individuals and the forces shaping attributional processes are pre sumed implicitly to be constant over the life course. Third, social psychological XVII XVIII FOREWORD methods rely heavily on research designs that are inadequate to the task of uncovering temporal processes. At best, short-term repeated-measure designs are employed to measure change in variable levels (e.g., attitude change studies) but are unlikely to reveal developmental changes. Following directly from the first assumption, social psychology continues to rely on a restricted segment of the population for its research subjects (Sears, 1987). The almost exclusive use of college students not only raises questions about generalizability to other seg ments of the population (e.g., their noncollege contemporaries, other age groups) but it rules out the exploration of developmental processes by excluding other age groups. Finally, substantive areas of interest are influenced by the restricted subject population and the assumptions of stabilities in behaviors and cogni tions. For example, in the area of interpersonal relations, emphasis is placed on initial interpersonal attraction and friendship formation. Almost no attention is given to processes of friendship maintenance and dissolution or to whether the processes of friendship or intimate relationships may change as people move through multiple episodes as they age (cf. Carstensen, 1995). NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING Over the past decade or so, while I was associate director for behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the NIA engaged in a series of activities designed to bring to bear concepts from social psychology on issues and concerns of aging people. Although the primary goal was to improve understanding of the behavior and cognition of older people, a secondary goal was to draw the attention of mainstream social psychology to life-span perspec tives. The NIA's first effort was directed toward stimulating research on sense of control (self-efficacy) throughout the life course. The NIA convened workshops, including one on social support and sense of control in cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation Research Program on Determinants and Consequences of Health-Promoting and Health-Damaging Behavior (Judith Rodin, chair). These culminated in the issuance of a call for research (cf. NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts, April 1989) and the subsequent awarding of several research grants during the following years. The NIA's efforts then shifted toward social cognition more generally. Again, the NIH convened a series of workshops and commissioned papers to identify the key concepts, questions, and barriers in applying social cognition to research on aging. Participants in these activities were mainstream social psychologists as well as social psychology researchers on aging, including the editors and many of the authors of this book. (This book is not a direct product of the NIA's initiative, although I would be proud to claim it as one.) These workshops, discussions, and commissioned papers identified six broad issues^ deserving of more research: (1) knowledge structures or schemas, self- FOREWORD XIX representation, and defense mechanisms; (2) the effects of context (e.g., cul tural, cohort, social situational) on cognitive performance and social reasoning; (3) the interface between cognition and emotion; (4) the interface between cog nition and motivation; (5) the effect of normative changes in basic cognitive skills on social judgments; and (6) the effect of social cognitive processes on everyday adaptation (e.g., health-related behaviors). AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES OR SCHEMAS A substantial literature exists on mental representations about the self and oth ers, social scripts, stereotypes, implicit theories, and the role of beliefs in health and illness. These knowledge structures play an important role in the interpreta tion of events, organization of new information, goal setting, and motivation to act in specific ways. However, relatively little empirical evidence exists on possi ble age differences in the elaboration, consistency, and consequences of knowl edge structures or on the ways in which these knowledge structures influence thought and action: 1. How do knowledge structures change as a function of development and changing environments in adulthood and aging? Are some types of social knowledge more likely to change than others? Do individuals' beliefs in a just world and needs for consistency change with aging? 2. How do individual differences in knowledge and beliefs facilitate adapta tion in old age? How do age-related differences influence the interpretation of events, the motivation to engage in specific behaviors, cognitive perfor mance, health-related behaviors, medical decisions, etc.? 3. How do older adults mentally represent social problems (e.g., in terms of causal attributions, problem interpretation, and importance)? What effect do such representations have on everyday problem solving? Although most people discuss concerns with other people prior to making decisions and resolving problems, a meager amount of research examines decision mak ing as a social process in the middle and later years. In what way do per ceptions of problems, self-schemas, and defense mechanisms influence social communication and in what way are such perceptions influenced by social communication? 4. How do stereotypic beliefs about aging and the elderly influence concep tions of self and others? Do individuals' stereotypes change with their own aging, and if they do, with what effects? 5. How are self-efficacy beliefs developed and maintained? How are they accessed and modified? What are the mechanisms by which self-efficacy, ^These were originally published in Social Cognition and Aging, NIH Guide to Grants and Con tracts, 26 (19), 1997. XX FOREWORD once activated, influences behavior? (cf. Sense of Control Throughout the Life Course, NIH Guide to Grants and Contracts, 18 (13), 1989). CONTEXTUAL AND FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL COGNITION Multiple layers of social context—from the immediate environment of the individual to the larger sociocultural context—influence development. So that the individual can be understood in context, both the properties of context and the nature of the individual's representations of those properties need to be consid ered. For example, how do sociocultural and sociocontextual influences on self- representations and knowledge structures influence memory, decision making, cognition, problem solving, and coping? 1. How does the social environment influence cognitive processing in old age? How do interactions with social partners enhance memory (e.g., col laborative memory)? How do individuals access and use information under particular kinds of situational or environmental demands? 2. Do causal attributions of social interactions change with age? Are these attributions predictive of changes in social behavior? Are there age differ ences in person perception? 3. Given that cultural transmission of sociocultural information to younger adults has been espoused as a prototypic cognitive task for older adults, how do social cognitive processes operate in the context of group processes, dyadic interactions, etc.? How do mismatches in social knowl edge affect communication among older adults and health professionals, caregivers, financial advisers, etc.? 4. As people grow older, how is social knowledge influenced by particular social roles and situations such as gender, birth cohort, culture, socioeco nomic status, ethnicity, etc.? THE INTERFACE BETWEEN COGNITION AND EMOTION Emotional states importantly influence cognitive performance, and cognitive appraisals influence emotional experience. Although complex models illuminat ing these issues are beginning to emerge in the social sciences, application to research in gerontology is infrequent: 1. Is the relationship between mood and memory altered with age? Does the relationship between arousal and performance vary across the adult life span? 2. What societal beliefs about emotion influence emotional experience in old age? To what extent do current cohorts of older adults anticipate negative experience in emotional arenas? What is the impact of beliefs about emo tion on social attitudes and behaviors? FOREWORD XXI 3. There is some evidence that information processing becomes increasingly "emotional" with age. If so, how do such changes improve or impede social reasoning about, for example, medical decision making or advice giving? 4. What qualitative and/or adaptive changes take place in emotional develop ment and regulation? In contrast to the cognitive representation of emo tions, what is the phenomenological experience of emotion (i.e., the current level of functioning of emotional experience) of the older adult? THE INTERFACE BETWEEN COGNITION AND MOTIVATION Important reciprocal relations exist between motivation and cognition. On the one hand, various motivational factors may bias the cognitive process, affecting its extent, depth, and directionality. On the other hand, goals (i.e., fundamental motivational constructs) have an important cognitive component. They are formed, activated, and applied in the same way as are other cognitive structures. These issues could be relevant to the aging process in various ways: 1. Does the lowering of energy resources presumably occurring during aging affect the individual's nondirectional cognitive motivations? For instance, is aging positively correlated with a rising need for cognitive closure? Is it negatively correlated with a need for cognition? If these were true, (a) aging could be characterized by a variety of cognitive and social phenomena associated with the workings of these motivations (e.g., stereotyping, insuf ficient adjustment of initial opinions in light of new information, a prefer ence for similarly minded others), and (b) these effects could be counter vailed by appropriate situational conditions instilling in place opposing motivational forces (e.g., a desire for accuracy, accountability, the fear of invalidity). 2. Does aging affect the configuration of the individual's directional motiva tions? For instance, do achievement or social dominance and power moti vations decline—while affiliation motivation, fear of death, and health con cerns increase—with aging? What effects might these have on various information-processing biases, such as attribution of (positive or negative) achievement versus health-related outcomes internally or externally? 3. How does the goal-setting process differ, if at all, as people age? Are older people's goals more short term and hence perhaps more specific and con crete than goals set earlier in the life course? Are means to those specific, concrete goals fewer in number than means to more general or abstract goals? As a result, are lives of older people more highly routinized than those of younger individuals? To what extent are the characteristics of goals adopted in old age mediated by their meta-cognitions about, for example, the amount of time left for goal accomplishment? XXII FOREWORD HOW NORMAL CHANGES IN BASIC COGNITIVE SKILLS AFFECT SOCIAL COGNITION Many models of social cognition emphasize the importance of basic informa tion-processing skills in the construction of representations about social events. For example, the formation of impressions of others depends on the activation of appropriate categorical knowledge, the ability to attend to relevant aspects of behavior, the efficiency with which attributes are encoded, and the integration of specific aspects of behavioral information into a coherent representation. Since the nature of representations in memory has a major impact on the types of deci sions and judgments people make in reference to specific others or social events, an important issue concerns the extent to which normal (nonpathological) aging- related changes in basic cognitive skills influence the representation of social information and its subsequent use: 1. How is information about specific events represented in memory? Do changes in processing skills influence the type of information represented in memory and, subsequently, the types of decisions and judgments that are made about the event? 2. Are there changes in the ability to access and/or use specific types of social information? 3. Do changes in memory skills have an impact on the ability to acquire new or alter existing social knowledge? THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL PROCESSES ON EVERYDAY ADAPTATION Although basic cognitive processes involved in memory and reasoning have been well illuminated, the determinants of complex cognitive functioning are not well understood. Indeed, predictions based on performance measures are often surprisingly discrepant with the level of adaptive functioning older people display in everyday life. Typically, such measures underestimate performance levels. Because most real-world tasks are complex, there is a need to better understand the ways that motivation, emotion, beliefs, and past experience interact with basic cognitive processes to facilitate adaptive functioning. 1. How do older adults adapt to cognitive and health-related changes with age without showing deteriorated performance in everyday functioning? Simi larly, how do people maintain a sense of well-being when age is associated with numerous threats to the self? 2. How are age-related changes in motivation related to social preferences and social goals? What is the role of social motivation in social network com position? Are there motivated changes in qualitative aspects of social rela tionships? How are age-related changes in motivation related to qualitative differences in processing social information (e.g., interpretation of a prob lem situation)? FOREWORD XXIII 3. In terms of everyday problem solving, how do older adults represent and incorporate knowledge about emotions? Are emotions of self and others over- or underrepresented relative to those of other age groups? 4. What misconceptions do older adults possess regarding specific diseases, the impact of their behavior on health, and medication use? What methods aid in the restructuring of beliefs to encourage adaptive health practices? CONCLUSION Clearly, many questions and issues can be better understood from the applica tion of social cognitive approaches to the study of aging. This book and other recent publications (e.g., Blanchard-Fields & Abeles, 1996) demonstrate this amply. For example, researchers in the field of aging and the life course are embracing social cognition as means of adding affect, human fallibility, and social interaction to research on cognitive changes and stabilities as people age. Even though this is to the benefit of research on aging, unfortunately the flow of influence is still almost entirely from mainstream social psychologists to life-span researchers. One sign of hope is that some prominent mainstream social psychol ogists (e.g., Tory Higgins, Arie Kruglanski, and Abraham Tesser) have expressed interest in aging questions and contributed eagerly and substantially to the NIA's workshops and program announcements. Only time will tell whether efforts such as this book will influence the assumptions, theories, methods, and areas of inter est of the social psychological mainstream. Ronald P. Abeles Behavioral and Social Research Program National Institute on Aging and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Office of the Director National Institutes of Health REFERENCES Abeles, R. P. (Ed.)- (1987). Life-span perspectives and social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Baltes, P. B. (Ed.). (1978). Life-span development and behavior. New York: Academic Press. Baltes, P. B., & Schaie, K. W. (Eds.). (1973). Life-span developmental psychology: Personality and socialization. New York: Academic Press. Blanchard-Fields, P., & Abeles, R. P. (1996). Social cognition and aging. In J. Birren & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of aging (10th ed., pp. 150-161). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Blank, T. O. (1982). A social psychology of developing adults. New York: Wiley. XXIV FOREWORD Brim, O. G., Jr., & Kagan, J. (Eds.). (1980). Constancy and change in human development Cam bridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Carstensen, L. L. (1995). Evidence for a life-span theory of socioemotional selectivity. Current Direc tions in Psychological Science, 4, 151-156. Gergen, K. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 309-320. Gergen, K. J., & Gergen, M. M. (Eds.). (1984). Historical social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Goulet, L. R., & Baltes, P. B. (Eds.). (1970). Life-span developmental psychology: Research and the ory. New York: Academic Press. Riley, M. W., Johnson, M., & Foner, A. (Eds.). (1972). Aging and society. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Rodin, J., & Langer, E. (1977). Long-term effects of a control-relevant intervention. Journal of Per sonality and Social Psychology, 35, 897-902. Sears, D. O. (1981). Life-stage effects on attitude change, especially among the elderly. In S. B. Kiesler, J. N. Morgan, & V. K. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Aging: Social change (pp. 183-204). New York: Academic Press. Sears, D. O. (1987). ImpHcations of the life-span approach for research on attitudes and social cogni tion. In R. P. Abeles (Ed.), Life-span perspectives and social psychology (pp. 17-60). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. S0rensen, A. B., Weinert, F. E., & Sherrod, L. R. (Eds.). (1986). Human development and the life course: Multidisciplinary perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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