Striving for Gains and Preventing Losses

Abstract

The action-theoretical conceptualization of the model of Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC-Model; P. B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Freund & Baltes, 2000) proposes that by setting and pursuing goals individuals can actively influence the direction of development, the level of functioning, and the maintenance of functioning in the face of losses within physical, social, and psychological constraints. This model served as framework to investigate if the increasingly less positive ratio of developmental gains to losses in adulthood (P. B. Baltes, 1987) is reflected in age-related differences in goal orientation toward promoting gains, maintaining functions, and preventing losses. Three questions guided the studies: (1) Do young adults orient their goals toward growth, whereas older adults focus on maintenance and prevention of loss? (2) Are there age-related differences in the associations between goal orientation and well-being? (3) What is the role of expected resource demands in explaining age-related differences in goal orientation? Adopting a multi-method approach, four studies used independent samples, different types of measurement and different contexts. In Study 1, young (n = 49; M = 22 yrs.) and older participants (n = 41; M = 70 yrs.) rated each of six self-generated goals with respect to goal orientation. Young adults reported a primary orientation toward growth, whereas goal orientation toward maintenance and loss-prevention were more frequently reported in late adulthood. Loss- avoidance was negatively related to well-being in young but not older adults. In old age, orienting goals toward maintaining functions was positively associated with well-being. Study 2 used a more parsimonious conceptualization of goal orientation comprising only two dimensions and confirmed the general pattern of findings regarding age-group differences in goal orientation in a sample of 48 young (M = 21 yrs.) and 52 older adults (M = 72 yrs.). Studies 3a and 3b assessed goal orientation on the level of preference-choice behavior. Study 3a referred to the domain of cognitive functioning in a sample of 55 young (M = 22 yrs.) and 58 older adults (M = 71 yrs.). Study 3b examined goal orientation of selection behavior in physical functioning with 52 young (M = 24 yrs.) and 49 older adults (M = 69 yrs.). In both studies, participants chose between goals with different orientations. Goals were either directed toward growth or toward maintenance�prevention of loss, and were portrayed as demanding either equal or unequal amounts of resources. In both domains, young adults more frequently selected goals oriented toward growth than goals oriented toward maintenance�prevention of loss. Older adults, in contrast, selected goals oriented toward maintenance�prevention of loss just as frequently as growth-oriented goals in the domain of cognitive functioning, and more often selected goals oriented toward maintenance�prevention of loss in the physical domain. Both studies demonstrated that young and older adults had a strong orientation toward maintaining functions and counteracting losses when making explicit the higher resource demands of pursuing growth- as opposed to maintenance and loss-prevention-oriented goals. Taken together, there was converging evidence on age-related differences in goal orientation across samples and types of measurement. Shifting one�s goal orientation from early to late adulthood appears to constitute one mechanism to successfully adapt to the changing ratio of resource gains to losses across life.

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