Riediger Michaela, Voelkle Manuel C, Schaefer Sabine, Lindenberger Ulman
Max Planck Research Group Affect Across the LifeSpan, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
Psychol Aging. 2014 Sep;29(3):503-20. doi: 10.1037/a0036228.
This study examined how children (9 years), adolescents (13 to 15 years), younger adults (21 to 26 years), and older adults (70 to 76 years) chart age gradients of cognitive and social functioning from childhood to old age. Participants (N = 156) rated typical performance levels in different life phases for 10 aspects of cognitive and social functioning. Compared with older participants, children expected lower performance levels and higher temporal stability, particularly during adulthood and into old age, and showed lower interindividual consensus in their ratings. Individuals in all 4 age groups recognized that fluid cognitive abilities reach their developmental peak earlier in life and decline more steeply thereafter than crystallized cognitive abilities. Older adults and, to a lesser extent, children evaluated their own current functioning as being better than that of their typical age peers. Furthermore, older adults charted typical cognitive development in middle and earlier late adulthood more positively than the participants in the other 3 age groups, which possibly reflects a partial externalization of their own positive self-views and a self-enhancing bias. Comparisons with life span gradients of cognitive performance (McArdle, Ferrer-Caja, Hamagami, & Woodcock, 2002) suggest that the ratings of adolescents and younger adults were in better agreement with empirically observed average performance trajectories than the ratings of children and older adults. We conclude that beliefs about normative cognitive and social aspects of life span development emerge in late middle childhood, solidify into culturally shared scripts by mid-adolescence, and remain subject to further change into old age.
本研究考察了儿童（9岁）、青少年（13至15岁）、年轻成年人（21至26岁）和老年人（70至76岁）如何描绘从童年到老年认知和社会功能的年龄梯度。参与者（N = 156）对认知和社会功能10个方面在不同生命阶段的典型表现水平进行了评分。与年长参与者相比，儿童预期的表现水平较低且时间稳定性较高，尤其是在成年期和老年期，并且他们评分的个体间一致性较低。所有4个年龄组的个体都认识到，流体认知能力在生命早期达到发展高峰，此后比晶体认知能力下降得更陡峭。老年人以及在较小程度上儿童，评估自己当前的功能比同年龄的同龄人更好。此外，与其他3个年龄组的参与者相比，老年人对中年和成年后期早期的典型认知发展描绘得更积极，这可能反映了他们自身积极自我认知的部分外化和自我增强偏差。与认知表现的寿命梯度进行比较（McArdle、Ferrer-Caja、Hamagami和Woodcock，2002）表明，青少年和年轻成年人的评分比儿童和老年人的评分与实证观察到的平均表现轨迹更一致。我们得出结论，关于寿命发展的规范性认知和社会方面的信念在童年中期后期出现，到青春期中期固化为文化共享的脚本，并在老年期仍会进一步变化。
