Intellectual development in adulthood

Journal ArticleAs for writing, I still write - at age 72. My experience is that I have to strive harder, tire sooner and come apart at the seams more completely than was the case when I was younger. The aging mind has a bagful of nasty tricks, one of which is to tuck names and words away in crannies where they arc not immediately available and where I can't always find them (E. B. White in Taylor, 1984, p. 113)

Perspectives for viewing intellectual development throughout the life course

Journal ArticleWhat has one voice and is four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed? The task of characterizing intellectual development throughout the life course can be likened to the situation that faced the Thebans as they tried to solve this riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus gave the correct answer to this riddle: man, as man is four-footed as a baby, crawling on all limbs, is two-footed during the vast majority of the life-span, and in old age occasionally uses a cane as a third foot. Theorists and researchers of intellectual development, however, have largely addressed the riddle of intellectual development by segregating the life-span into two major periods, those of child development and adult development. This book brings together theorists who focus on these different portions of the life-span in an attempt to illustrate how work on intellectual development can benefit from issues and problems that arise from an examination of how intelligence is formed, is maintained, declines, and improves throughout the course of life. The hope is that by the viewing of intellectual development as occurring in the same organism through time, a deeper look at the consistencies and inconsistencies in the descriptions and explanations of intellectual development will be possible

Commentary: lessons from a life-span perspective to adolescent decision making

Journal ArticleThe chapters in Part II address important aspects of adolescent decision making that have received little attention in the literature to date. Decision making is examined as adolescents make decisions regarding their afterschool activities (Gauvain & Perez, chap. 7), make decisions utilizing democratic versus authority-based justifications (Helwig, chap. 6), make judgments regarding the frequency with which peers in general engage in deviant behaviors (Jacobs & Johnston, chap. 5), and utilize regret to avoid making bad decisions (Amsel, Bowden, Cottrell, & Sullivan, chap. 4)

Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings

Journal ArticleObjective: To examine the association between hostile personality traits and coronary artery disease (CAD) and the role of aspects of hostility, method of assessment, and age as influences on its magnitude, as prior studies of hostility and coronary artery calcification (CAC) have produced conflicting findings. Methods: Participants included 300 married couples (mean age = 54.4 years) free from diagnosed CAD. Participants completed four measures of hostility-self-reports and spouse ratings of angry hostility (i.e., tendency to experience anger) and antagonism (i.e., argumentative, mistrusting, and cold interpersonal behavior). Results: In hierarchical random regression models accounting for dependency between husbands' and wives' observations, analyses of log-transformed Agatston scores indicated that self-reports of angry hostility and antagonism were not related to CAC. However, spouse ratings of both anger and antagonism were significantly associated with CAC severity. Interactions with age indicated that these associations occurred only among older participants. Control of behavioral and biomedical risk factors did not eliminate these effects. Antagonism but not anger was an independent predictor of CAC when considered simultaneously. Conclusions: Hostility is associated with concurrent asymptomatic CAD as assessed through CAC, but this effect is likely to be underestimated when hostility is assessed through self-reports rather than ratings by others and in samples with lower prevalence and severity of CAC. Key words: hostility, anger, antagonism, agreeableness, coronary artery calcification, coronary artery disease

An interpersonal analysis of subjective social status and psychosocial risk

Journal ArticleSubjective social status (SSS) predicts health independently of traditional measures of socio-economic status (SES; Adler et al., 2008; Cohen et al., 2008). Although interpersonal variables are known to be related to both SES and health (Gallo, Smith, & Cox, 2006) and might contribute to their association, little research has examined the association of interpersonal variables with SSS. The present study of 300 middle-aged and older married couples found that individuals who rated themselves high on measures of SSS tended to display a warm and dominant interpersonal style. Further analyses revealed that partner reported warmth and dominance partially mediated the association of SSS with both marital satisfaction and depressive symptoms after controlling neuroticism. Results suggest that interpersonal theory provides a useful framework for the study of SSS and health, and that interpersonal processes may account for a significant portion of the relationship between SSS and health-relevant psychosocial risk factors

Individual differences in script reports: implications for language assessment

Journal ArticleWhen individuals are asked to describe routine events, their descriptions often exhibit characteristics of script reports (Schank & Abelson, 1977). A script has been defined as a set of expectations individuals have about routine events that is organized in a temporal-causal sequence of acts or single actions (Fivush, 1984; Nelson, Fivush, Hudson, & Lucariello, 1983). Individuals use the organization of scripts to describe routine events and to aid in their memory of specific instances of events (Bower, Black & Turner, 1979). The organization of scripts has also been found to enhance children's use and comprehension of language (Constable, 1986; Furman & Walden, 1989; Lucariello, Kyratzis, & Engel, 1986)

Role of problem interpretations in understanding the development of everyday problem solving

Journal ArticleImagine the following conversation between an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old. The two are fighting over how best to solve a problem that the 14-year-old experienced while working on a project at school. The problem involved completing the project so that it would be competitive for the class prize. The project partner no longer wishes to work with the 14-year-old as the partner thought the student was too bossy. The 11-year-old indicates that buckling down and doing the things that are needed to finish the project and win the prize is the best course of action. The 14-year-old, however, states that the best way to solve the problem is to talk with the project partner and convince the partner that you will be less bossy

Why Collaborate with Close Others When Choosing a College Major?

In spite of increasing research interest in relational aspects of making important life decisions, our knowledge on why, how, and to what effect close others are involved in decision making still is limited. We determined whom our 65 participants (students between 18 and 27 years; 54% women), in general, would like to collaborate with when making life choices that will shape their future identities. We further investigated under which conditions consulting with this generally preferred advisor (PA) was related to satisfaction with a specific real-life choice, namely, choosing a college major. This one-year prospective longitudinal study included repeated assessments as students chose a major, including monthly reports on the persons that had been involved in choosing a major. These were followed by qualitative and quantitative assessments of evaluations of one’s PA as collaborator. Our findings revealed that involvement of one’s PA during major choice was related to greater indecision regarding one’s choice, but not to the PA’s perceived quality. Involvement of the PA further was related to greater choice satisfaction only when the PA was perceived as highly familiar with the student, experienced in collaborating with him or her, and helpful in optimizing decisions. Our findings suggest that close others can be an important resource for making satisfactory life choices that could also be drawn upon in professional counseling contexts

Developmental approach to psychosocial risk factors and successful aging

Journal ArticleSuccessful aging has been characterized as maintaining physical health (avoiding disease), sustaining good cognitive function, and having active engagement with other people and productive activities (Rowe 8c Kahn, 1998). Although these three factors are known to be interrelated, the field has largely examined physical health outcomes as primary and separate from cognitive outcomes, with active social engagement as a predictor of physical health and occasionally cognitive functioning. In this chapter we take a more transactional perspective to these factors of successful aging, understanding how they interact throughout the lifespan to create developmental trajectories of varying levels of success

Potential Uses and Inherent Challenges of Using Genome-Scale Sequencing to Augment Current Newborn Screening

Since newborn screening (NBS) began in the 1960s, technological advances have enabled its expansion to include an increasing number of disorders. Recent developments now make it possible to sequence an infant’s genome relatively quickly and economically. Clinical application of whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing is expanding at a rapid pace but presents many challenges. Its utility in NBS has yet to be demonstrated and its application in the pediatric population requires examination, not only for potential clinical benefits, but also for the unique ethical challenges it presents