Midlife Women’s Physical Activity Goals: Sociocultural Influences and Effects on Behavioral Regulation

A better understanding of midlife women’s exercise goals could offer insight into the psychosocial facilitators and barriers to their participation. A random sample of US working women (40–60 years) was taken, and resulted in 262 participants. Cluster analysis identified participants’ most important physical activity goal. A five goal cluster solution was identified: (1) sense of well-being; (2) weight loss; (3) health benefits; (4) stress reduction; and (5) weight maintenance/toning. The goal cluster solution was validated and suggested relevant sociocultural influences and potential effects on behavioral regulation (p?<?.05). Data showed that weight- and health-related goals have sociocultural influences and are associated with more extrinsic and less intrinsic behavioral regulation compared to stress reduction and sense of well-being goals.     

TEMPEST in a gallimaufry: applying multilevel systems theory to person-in-context research

Terminological ambiguity and inattention to personal and contextual multilevel systems undermine personality, self, and identity theories. Hierarchical and heterarchical systems theories are used to describe contents and processes existing within and across three interrelated multilevel systems: levels of organization, representation, and integration. Materially nested levels of organization are used to distinguish persons from contexts and personal from social identity. Functionally nested levels of representation are used to distinguish personal identity from the sense of identity and symbolic (belief) from iconic (schema) systems. Levels of integration are hypothesized to unfold separately but interdependently across levels of representation. Multilevel system configurations clarify alternative conceptualizations of traits and contextualized identity. Methodological implications for measurement and analysis (e.g., integrating variable- and pattern-centered methods) are briefly described.     

The adaptation dynamics of chronic functional impairment: what we can learn from older adults with vision loss

This study used vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration to learn about adaptation processes related to chronic functional impairment, focusing on Horowitz and Reinhardt's (1998) concept of Adaptation to Age-related Vision Loss (AVL) as the outcome. We hypothesized that impacts of visual acuity on AVL are mediated by perceived functional vision losses and functional abilities, and tested for "adaptive" weakening of this impact with ongoing loss. Longitudinal data covering a one-year interval from samples with age-related macular degeneration gathered in New York (N = 361) and Heidelberg (Germany, N = 90) were used. We analyzed the hypothesized causal structure by modeling latent change scores, and checked if those with low, medium, and high levels of vision loss at baseline differ in the relations between one-year change scores. Results confirmed that impacts of vision loss on AVL are mediated by decline in functional ability. However, under the most severe levels of vision loss at baseline, functional decline showed only a minor impact on AVL change not explained by a lack of further decline in vision. Findings confirm the effectiveness of adaptation in terms of reduced reactivity to functional losses across increasing level of chronic impairment. Thus, adaptation, weakening the impact of chronic functional impairment on psychological outcomes over time with disease progression, deserves consideration in the study of psychological consequences of chronic physical health conditions in old age.     

Parental Emotion Socialization in Clinically Depressed Adolescents: Enhancing and Dampening Positive Affect

This study compared parental socialization of adolescent positive affect in families of depressed and healthy adolescents. Participants were 107 adolescents (42 boys) aged 14 – 18 years and their parents. Half of the participants met criteria for major depressive disorder and the others were demographically matched adolescents without emotional or behavioral disorders. Results based on multi-source questionnaire and interview data indicated that mothers and fathers of depressed adolescents were less accepting of adolescents’ positive affect and more likely to use strategies that dampen adolescents’ positive affect than were parents of healthy adolescents. Additionally, fathers of depressed adolescents exhibited fewer responses likely to enhance the adolescents’ positive affect than were fathers of healthy adolescents. These findings build on those of previous work in examining parental responses to adolescent emotions, focusing on positive emotions and including both mothers and fathers.     

Awareness of aging: Theoretical considerations on an emerging concept

Humans are able to reflect on and interpret their own aging. Thus, as individuals grow older, calendar age may become increasingly a subjective variable. This theoretical paper proposes the concept of Awareness of Aging (AoA) as a superordinate construct that can serve an integrative function in developmental research on subjective aging. It is argued that the AoA construct can incorporate the theoretical components of other existing concepts by acknowledging that judgments of subjective aging tend to be made on an awareness continuum ranging from pre-conscious/implicit to conscious/explicit. We also argue that processes of AoA are inherently self-related processes and that AoA is a particular aspect of self-awareness that results in specific aging-related self-knowledge. Over time, aging individuals incorporate this self-knowledge into their self-concept and personal identity. We provide theoretical evidence showing that although all major theories of adult development and aging draw on phenomena related to AoA, the explicit incorporation of aging-related awareness processes has been missing. We also provide an overarching framework to illustrate in a heuristic way how AoA in combination and interaction with other influences affects developmental outcomes. Finally, we argue that attention to AoA-related processes has a number of societal and applied implications and thereby addresses issues of applied developmental psychology.     

Body Consciousness Across the Adult Years: Variations with Actual and Subjective Age

Age-related trends and predictors were explored with respect to three dimensions of adults’ body consciousness. Consistent with the notion that aging adults’ perceptions of their bodies are multidimensional and multidirectional, adults reported being more concerned about their external physical appearance (public body consciousness), more aware of their internal body sensations (private body consciousness), and more positive in their self-evaluations of their bodies (body competence). Moreover, consistent with the claim that such attitudes are multi-determined, the present research found that aging adults’ personal anxiety about aging and their subjective age identities were significant predictors of variations in their body consciousness. Moreover, the predictive value of these psychological variables rivaled the predictive value of chronological age.