Reflecting on self-relevant experiences: adult age differences.
A broad array of research findings suggest that older adults, as compared with younger adults, have a more positive sense of self and possibly a clearer and more consistent sense of self. Further, older adults report lower motivation to construct or maintain a sense of self. In the present study, we examined whether such differences in self-views were reflected in features of older and younger adults' narratives and narrating practices around recent, self-relevant events. Narratives about self-discrepant and self-confirming events were elicited from a sample of younger (18-37 years of age; n = 115) and older (58-90 years of age; n = 62) adults and were compared for indicators of engagement in self-construction, meanings, and emotionality. Older adults' narratives contained significantly fewer self-focused pronouns, less present tense, and less emotional language, and they were significantly less likely to articulate and resolve challenges to their self-concepts. These findings, as well as others, are consistent with the idea that older adults are less engaged in self-construction in narrating everyday events, perhaps especially for self-discrepant events.
Rice
Cora
C
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 390 South 1530 East BEH-S 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Pasupathi
Monisha
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult