Age differences in problem-solving style: The role of emotional salience.

Abstract

Qualitative differences in problem-solving style for situations varying in emotional salience were examined among adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults. Participants wrote essays on how each of 15 problem situations should be resolved. There were minimal age differences for problem-focused strategies, with all age groups using this strategy the most. Age differences for problem-solving strategy were highly dependent on the degree to which the situation was emotionally salient. All individuals were more likely to use an avoidant-denial strategy in low emotionally salient situations and passive-dependent and cognitive-analysis strategies in high emotionally salient situations. However, older adults used both passive-dependent and avoidant-denial strategies more than younger age groups. Problem-focused strategies were used least in high emotionally salient situations. Implications of findings are discussed from an adult developmental perspective.

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 — 213 citations exist upstream.

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