title: Perceived self-efficacy and everyday problem solving among young and older adults.
abstract: This research tested the hypothesis that age differences in both self-efficacy perceptions and problem-solving performance would vary as a function of the ecological relevance of problems to young and older adults. The authors developed novel everyday problem-solving stimuli that were ecologically representative of problems commonly confronted by young adults (young-adult problems), older adults (older adult problems), or both (common problems). Performance on an abstract problem solving task lacking in ecological representativeness (the Tower of Hanoi problem) also was examined. Although young persons had higher self-efficacy beliefs and performance levels on the Tower of Hanoi task problem and the young-adult problems, this pattern reversed in the domain of older adult problems, where the self-efficacy beliefs and performance of older persons exceeded those of the young.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy. daniele.artistico@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Artistico
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cervone
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pezzuti
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011340:Problem Solving; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis