Little research has examined changes in personal identity over different periods of adult development. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to target these changes through the characterization of the main dimensions in self-defining memories (SDMs; thematic content, specificity, integrative meaning, tension, contamination/redemption,…

Many well-established developmental theories concentrate on strategies of regulation and try to explain how individuals compensate for possible losses in old age. In public debates, and in laypeople's perception of aging, however, activity and productivity seem to be central concepts associated with successful aging. The present research focuses…

In this longitudinal Canadian study, we investigated the relationship between the developmental trajectories of community involvement and generative concern measured at ages 23, 26, and 32. Participants completed a questionnaire on youth involvement, the Youth Involvement Inventory (YII), and the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) at all 3 ages. A…

Social approach and social avoidance goals (i.e., approach of positive and avoidance of negative outcomes in social situations) are important predictors of the feeling of being socially integrated or isolated. However, little is known about the development of these goals across adulthood. In a large diary study with N = 744 young (18-39 years),…

Updating information in working memory (WM) is a critical executive function responsible both for continuously replacing outdated information with new relevant data and to suppress or inhibit content that is no longer relevant according to task demands. The goal of the present research is twofold: First, we aimed to study updating development in…

The objective of the study was to gain data on the prevalence, types and perceived outcomes of crisis episodes in three age decades of adult life: 20-29, 30-39 and 40-49. A further aim was to explore the relationship between crisis occurrence and empathy. A retrospective-autobiographical survey instrument and an empathy questionnaire were…

A study with n = 55 younger (18-33 years, M = 23.67) and n = 58 older (61-85 years, M = 71.44) adults investigated age-related differences in social approach and avoidance motivation and their consequences for the experience of social interactions. Results confirmed the hypothesis that a predominant habitual approach motivation in younger adults…

Research on memory of public events consistently reveals generational effects, where individuals remember best the events from their "critical years" of adolescence and early adulthood--a phenomenon attributed to privileged encoding or retrieval of memories due to primacy of experience. Prior research, however, has not decoupled the…

This paper examines a timely topic in international youth studies--the transition to (middle-class) marriage--in a developing country, Indonesia. While early marriage in Indonesia is still common in rural areas and marriage itself remains almost universal, these trends are moving into reverse for urban, tertiary-educated middle-class young people.…

Examines the effects of adult age on response interference with organized recall with adults 20-80 years old. Results are discussed in terms of several explanations of response interference both with discrete recall of single items and with organized recall. (Author/ED)

Compared young (aged 18-25) and other adults on characteristics of suicide, examining unbearable psychological pain, interpersonal relations, rejection-aggression, inability to adjust, indirect expressions, identification-egression, ego, and cognitive constriction. Found that young adults' suicides did differ psychologically in a number of…

Although research in episodic recall memory, comparing younger and older adults, favors the younger adults, findings in semantic memory research are less consistent. To examine age differences in semantic and episodic memory recall, 72 young adults (mean age, 20.8) and 72 older adults (mean age 71) completed three memory tests under varied…

Presented series of biographical passages to young and older adults to examine how semantic memory store of previously acquired knowledge affects ability to retain textual information. Older adults had difficulty in delayed, but not in immediate, recognition condition. Suggests that as older adults' episodic memory deteriorated, they could not…

Recent studies of contextual attributes thought to be automatic have reported deficits among the elderly, raising the question of whether automatic memory processing does require some effortful attention and if so, whether such effort is needed during encoding, storage, or retrieval. This study used a secondary task methodology to examine these…

Two-hundred seventy women, divided into three age groups and three income levels, were asked to evaluate the importance of five family-related developmental tasks, as defined by Robert Havighurst. Results affirm that younger women facing decisions about marriage, family, and home consider these tasks significantly less important than do older…