Goals and everyday problem solving: examining the link between age-related goals and problem-solving strategy use |
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Authors: | Hoppmann Christiane A Coats Abby Heckman Blanchard-Fields Fredda |
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Affiliation: | Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Psychology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. ch295@mail.gatech.edu |
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Abstract: | Qualitative interviews on family and financial problems from 332 adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults, demonstrated that developmentally relevant goals predicted problem-solving strategy use over and above problem domain. Four focal goals concerned autonomy, generativity, maintaining good relationships with others, and changing another person. We examined both self- and other-focused problem-solving strategies. Autonomy goals were associated with self-focused instrumental problem solving and generative goals were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in family and financial problems. Goals of changing another person were related to other-focused instrumental problem solving in the family domain only. The match between goals and strategies, an indicator of problem-solving adaptiveness, showed that young individuals displayed the greatest match between autonomy goals and self-focused problem solving, whereas older adults showed a greater match between generative goals and other-focused problem solving. Findings speak to the importance of considering goals in investigations of age-related differences in everyday problem solving. |
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