Biomedical subjects

F Blanchard-Fields

Publications and source records attributed to F Blanchard-Fields.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Beyond a stereotyped view of older adults' traditional family values.

Structural equation models for predictors of traditional family values regarding relationships were examined in 2 samples: undergraduate students and adults ranging widely in age (23-86 years). Predictor variables included verbal ability, need for cognition, need for closure, intolerance for ambiguity, religiosity, and gender orientation. The models accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in traditional family values (64% for students, 63% for adults). Findings provide little support for common stereotypes regarding age and gender differences in traditionalism. Instead, 3 individual-differences variables predicted traditional family values: need for closure, religiosity, and verbal ability. Outcomes argue for the need to identify multiple mechanisms by which personal characteristics such as need for closure and religiosity influence traditionalism in social belief systems and argue against reliance on status variables such as age and gender as explanatory variables for these beliefs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Unwanted thought: age differences in the correction of social judgements.

This study use a false information paradigm to study age differences in the correction of social judgments. Younger and older adults read 2 criminal reports, with true information printed in black and false information in red. Following the reports, all participants were asked to recommend prison terms among other ratings. Age differences in baseline measures were also assessed by corresponding control groups who read only true information. Compared with younger adults under full attention, older adults under full attention and younger adults under divided attention were reliably influenced by the nature of the false statements (either extenuating or exacerbating the severity of the crimes). When contrasted with their relevant control groups, older adults under full attention and younger adults under divided attention failed to correct their social judgments. This study lends support to a processing resource explanation for age differences in the correction process for social judgments.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: influence of domain specificity and cognitive appraisal.

Differences in problem-solving strategies for situations varying in three domains, consumer, home management, and conflict with friends, were examined among younger, middle-aged, and older adults. In addition, this study examined the influence of perceived ability to resolve the problem, controllability, and causal attributions on strategy selection. In the 2 instrumental domains, older adults were more problem focused in their approach than adolescents and younger adults, whereas adolescents and younger adults selected more passive-dependent strategies. In the more interpersonal domain, conflict with friends, older adults tended to select avoidant-denial strategies more so than younger adults. Finally, across domains, the greater the perceived ability to resolve a problem the less the avoidant-denial strategy was selected. The importance of distinguishing between social and instrumental problem solving and of examining the cognitive appraisal of a problem situation are discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1997

Age differences in stages of attributional processing.

This study introduces an attributional processing approach to study age differences in dispositional attributions. Dispositional attributions made in the context of relationship vignettes were examined among younger and older adults in 2 conditions (immediate and delayed rating conditions). By using a direct assessment of a 2-step process for making dispositional attributions, it was inferred that a spontaneous adjustment stage occurred following an initial characterization stage as a function of age group and content of vignettes. Older adults made lower dispositional ratings if they were given more time to think about the situations than if asked to make an immediate judgment. By contrast, younger adults made higher dispositional ratings if they were given more time to make the judgments. Qualitative analyses of schemas elicited by a subsample of participants for each vignette suggested a relationship between dispositional attributional ratings and content-evoked schemas.

Achievement↗

PubMed1995

Age differences in problem-solving style: the role of emotional salience.

Qualitative differences in problem-solving style for situations varying in emotional salience were examined among adolescents, young, middle-aged, and older adults. Participants wrote essays on how each of 15 problem situations should be resolved. There were minimal age differences for problem-focused strategies, with all age groups using this strategy the most. Age differences for problem-solving strategy were highly dependent on the degree to which the situation was emotionally salient. All individuals were more likely to use an avoidant-denial strategy in low emotionally salient situations and passive-dependent and cognitive-analysis strategies in high emotionally salient situations. However, older adults used both passive-dependent and avoidant-denial strategies more than younger age groups. Problem-focused strategies were used least in high emotionally salient situations. Implications of findings are discussed from an adult developmental perspective.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Age differences in causal attributions from an adult developmental perspective.

Causal attributions for events varying on level of informational ambiguity, outcome valence (positive, negative), and situation (relationship, achievement) were examined among young, middle-aged, and older adults. Participants rated the degree to which a cause of an event was a function of the primary character, situation, or a combination of both (interactive attributions). All adults made interactive attributions for ambiguous events, dispositional attributions with increasing involvement of the primary character, and situational attributions with less involvement of the primary character. Older adults made more interactive attributions in relationship situations and more dispositional attributions in negative situations. For achievement situations, younger adults made more interactive attributions for ambiguous events.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Being in control: a note on differences between caregiving and noncaregiving spouses.

Twenty-seven spouse caregivers of dementia patients and 33 noncaregiving (healthy) spouses, aged 54 to 90, described a stressful situation with their spouses and completed measures of perceived control and subjective well-being. Both groups were similar in their perceived lack of control over the spouse's behavior but differed in how control influenced positive affect. Perceived control over the spouse was negatively related to positive affect for the healthy couples but for caregivers it was positively related.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

The relation between locus of control and coping in two contexts: age as a moderator variable.

We examined the relation between locus of control and coping as moderated by age and context. A total of 96 adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults were administered Lazarus's Ways of Coping questionnaire, a situation-specific controllability measure, a defensive coping questionnaire, and Levenson's Internality, Powerfulness of Others, and Chance global locus of control scales for challenging and threatening contexts. Age moderated the relation between locus of control and coping. Internality was positively related to escape-avoidance, hostile reaction, and self-blame for younger individuals and negatively related for older adults. A belief in powerfulness of others was positively related to planful problem-solving and self-controlling in older adults and negatively related for younger individuals. Finally, a belief in chance was positively related to distancing and self-controlling for older adults and negatively related for younger individuals. The implication that dimensions of control vary with age is discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1988

Coping strategies from the perspective of two developmental markers: age and social reasoning.

In this study, we examined coping from a developmental perspective, including its relation to age and social cognitive maturity. The 60 participants, who ranged from adolescents to mature adults, were given Lazarus' Ways of Coping Scale. This consists of both an emotion-focused and problem-focused coping score and two measures of social reasoning performance. Social reasoning was the best predictor of emotion-focused coping, above and beyond years of education and age. None of the developmental variables predicted problem-focused coping. Analyses examining the effect of perceived controllability of the stressful situation on coping demonstrated that it differentially mediated choice of coping strategy across age groups. Whereas older participants endorsed more problem-focused strategies in perceived controllable situations and emotion-focused strategies in perceived uncontrollable situations, adolescents endorsed emotion-focused and defensive coping styles, irrespective of perceived controllability. Implications for the study of development of coping styles in affectively salient contexts is discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1987

Age differences in the relation between controllability and coping.

This study was conducted to examine the relation between generalized and domain-specific locus of control and coping strategies as moderated by age differences. Adolescents through older adults were given measures of controllability and coping for both relationship and achievement contexts. For domain-specific measures only, older adults perceived the cause of stressors in both contexts as less controllable than did all other participants. However, no age difference was found in controllability of the outcome. Domain-specific measures were better predictors of coping than generalized measures of locus of control. Domain-specific attribution measures were most predictive of the coping mechanism self-blame, and this relation was moderated by age and context. Controllability of outcome predicted the use of self-blame among adolescents and, to a lesser degree, among younger adults; internal locus of causality of the stressful event predicted self-blame among older adults.

Achievement↗

PubMed1987

A cross-sectional comparison of adaptive coping in adulthood.

The present study is a cross-sectional comparison of coping behaviors in adulthood. Ninety-six adolescents, young adults, middle adults, and older adults were administered Lazarus' Ways of Coping questionnaire and a defensive coping scale. Patterns of coping and perceived effectiveness of coping strategies were examined in both threatening and challenging contexts. Results indicated that patterns of coping varied across age groups, with adolescents and younger adults endorsing more defensive mechanisms, such as escape-avoidance, hostile reaction, and self blame. Instrumental strategies were used more in challenging situations, whereas palliative strategies were endorsed in threatening situations across all age groups. Patterns of perceived effectiveness were similar to those for use, but correlations of use with perceived effectiveness varied between age groups. Findings supported the hypothesis that adaptive coping processes characterize later adulthood. Implications for future research in the area of development and coping are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1986

Reasoning on social dilemmas varying in emotional saliency: an adult developmental perspective.

The purpose of this study was to provide age-comparative evidence of social cognitive reasoning in adulthood, as mediated by the emotional saliency of tasks tapping postformal reasoning. Specifically, the tasks focused on the ability to resolve discrepant accounts of the same event sequence. It was assumed that less mature thinking may be more evident in reasoning contexts in which emotional factors play a major role. A postformal coding scheme was used to assess levels of reasoning in an interpersonal context. Tasks were administered to 60 subjects--adolescents and young and middle-aged adults. Measures of formal operations, ego level, and verbal ability were also administered. An interaction was found between age and degree of emotional saliency of the task for reasoning level. Specifically, adolescents performed less well on tasks higher in degree of emotional saliency. In addition, developmental differences in postformal reasoning as a function of age and ego level were found.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Factorial invariance issues in the study of adult personality: an example using Levenson's locus of control scale.

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine factorial invariance across young, middle-aged, and elderly age groups, using Levenson's multidimensional locus of control (LoC) scale, which measures beliefs in Internal Control (I), Control by Powerful Others (P), and Chinese (C). Data were obtained from 563 individuals ranging in age from 25 years to 75 years of age who resided in Southeastern Louisiana. Results indicated that Levenson's 3-factor conceptualization of control was not a valid representation of the samples' responses. A model that specified the elimination of 17 unreliable items and the formation of both an internal and an external control factor that was based on the seven remaining I and P items provided an adequate fit to the data for the three age groups, though when additional constraints were specified, factorial invariance was not demonstrated. The 7-item I and P factor model generated a pattern of relationships with other measures which was similar to the pattern found if all items of the I and P scales were used.

Adult↗