Cognitive Ageing and Psychological Growth

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present paper argues that some apparent deficits found in cognitive ageing may result from models that focus on youth-centered, formal-logical standards of thinking. An alternative model of adult development is proposed which explains these apparent deficits in terms of progressive reorganizations where decline in performance may be a consequence of the growth of more complex and highly differentiated skills. More specifically, the contextualization of formal logic or the reintegration of logic and affect found in older adult thinking is seen to represent a mature level of cognitive differentiation characterized by an autonomous, socially-oriented, and dialectical mode of reasoning. This theoretical perspective is substantiated by a review of the literature evidencing this kind of progression. Future research implications are discussed.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 102 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.