JCLL Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development
Age-related differences in fine motor control are characterized by general slowing and higher variability. Little is known about the early stages of the deterioration of fine motor control. The main research question of my dissertation was how age and expertise influence fine motor control during the middle-aged lifespan with particular attention to possible effects of task characteristics, i.e. uni- or bimanual tasks, required various target profiles, speeds, and force levels.
Three series of experiments have been conducted using uni- and bimanual tasks in different age groups (young, early middle-aged, and late middle-aged adults) and practice levels (novices and experts) collecting kinetic (force control and coordination) and neurophysiological (EEG) data.
Performance deteriorated with increasing age. Age-related differences were higher in bi- than in unimanual tasks and in tasks requiring comparably high force production per time. Reduced attention allocation with increasing age was a decisive factor - deficits occurred during innervating both hands at the same time, integrating different coordination patterns of both hands, and integrating visual feedback. Additionally, middle-aged compared to younger adults initiated corrective movements more slowly. Experts outperformed novices in all tasks. This indicates positive plasticity. Fine motor control of experts was more efficient on a behavioral as well as a neurophysiological level.
Age affects fine motor control already in middle-aged adults. The amount of remarkable age-related loss depends on task characteristics. Extensive and dexterous use of hands leads to maintenance or even improvement of fine motor control. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of age- and expertise-related differences in fine motor control and they provide useful starting points to future research on bimanual coordination, learning, and neurophysiological correlates over the lifespan.
With age, one's tactile perception declines. But tactile expertise and short-term tactile learning can induce cortical plasticity and improve tactile perception. Thus, tactile learning might contribute to the maintenance of tactile perception. Open questions were how age and expertise influence tactile perception and learning in middle-aged adults and how the respective electrophysiological correlates are shaped by age, expertise, and learning.
We investigated tactile discrimination and event-related potentials as markers of somatosensory and cognitive processing. Participants were of different age groups [young (18-25 years), early middle-aged (35-45 years), and late middle-aged adults (55-65 years)] and expertise levels [non-experts (service employees) and experts (precision mechanics)]. Learning was induced by repetitive tactile stimulation.
Late middle-aged performed worse than young and early middle-aged adults. Somatosensory excitability increased and processing speed reduced with age. P300 topography suggested attempted compensation and reduced availability of attentional resources in late middle-aged non-experts. Experts outperformed non-experts, revealed greater somatosensory excitability, and needed less attentional resources, as compared to non-experts. This suggested that comparable electrophysiological changes induced by age and expertise have different underlying mechanisms.
Experts improved more than non-experts from the intervention, indicating meta-plasticity. Lower baseline performance was associated with higher learning. Intervention-related changes in P300 indicated that younger adults processed tactile stimuli faster, while older adults became better able to cognitively evaluate the stimuli. Experts established more specific brain activation, with a strong parietal-to-frontal gradient, pointing to more automated processing.
Results further the understanding of tactile perception in middle-aged adults and opened up new research questions.
This thesis focuses on the links between organizations' HR systems and the developmental dynamics of aging workforces and their consequences for behavioral and attitudinal work outcomes, which precede organizational performance. Building on tenets and central findings of lifespan developmental psychology, a research model is conceptually developed, that integrates age-contingent individual-level processes as mediators between HR systems and organizational outcomes. According propositions are derived that address essential facets of the framework for the age-related alignment of HR practices.
Next, two distinct bundles, i.e. growth and maintenance-enhancing HR practices, are conceptually developed. Combining macro and micro perspectives of strategic human resource management and applied psychology, we draw on social exchange theory and emotion regulation processes to hypothesize (a) a main effect of growth-enhancing practices on affective organizational commitment, (b) main effects of both bundles of HR practices on in-role behavior, and (c) moderating effects of age and maintenance-enhancing practices on work outcomes such that increasing employees' age attenuates the HR practices' positive impact. The results of a multilevel study comprising 600 employees and their direct supervisors of 59 business units provide evidence for the hypothesized main effects on affective commitment and the interaction between age and maintenance-enhancing practices on work outcomes.
Furthermore, this thesis examines the role of employees' future time perspective for the association between HR systems and work-related attitudes. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory and emotion regulation processes, indirect effects of bundles of HR practices on job satisfaction and organizational commitment through future time perspective were hypothesized and empirically tested. The results of a multilevel study comprising 1,540 employees of 75 business units provide evidence for (a) direct effects of HR practices on workforce's future time perspective and (b) indirect effects demonstrating the mediation of bundles of HR practices on job satisfaction and organizational commitment through future time perspective.
The results, theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.
The goals of this study were to develop a conception of self-related wisdom as one form of maturity, to develop and validate an instrument for measuring it and to examine age effects in self-related wisdom. Existing conceptions of personal maturity were examined for overlapping aspects and the extracted characteristics were integrated with the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm. The resulting concept of self-related wisdom is defined by 5 criteria, 2 basic-criteria: self-knowledge and growth- and self-regulation; and 3 meta-criteria: interrelating the self, self-relativism and tolerance of ambiguity. In a structured interview 161 adults, 83 between 20-40, 78 between 60-80, were asked to think aloud about the question "how are you as a friend?".10 raters (2 per criterion) rated the protocols according to the criteria of self-related wisdom on a Likert-scale. The results showed satisfactory interraterreliability. Indicators of maturity predicted self-related wisdom significantly better than indicators of adaptivity. Life events and fluid intelligence showed an inverted u-shaped relationship with self-related wisdom, crystalline intelligence was linearly positively related to it. Self-transcendent values were positively associated with self-related wisdom, whereas self-centered values were not. Concerning mean-level differences older adults performed lower in the metacriteria, which was partly due to their lower fluid intelligence and openness for experience. In the basic criteria older adults showed a tendency to perform better than younger adults. The correlational patterns confirmed the hypotheses and the construct validity of the new measure. The age differences are interpreted as resulting from a complex interplay of developmental tasks, age-related deficits causing a change of goals, and cohort effects like different upbringing and societal developments. It is discussed whether older adults tend to be experts in leading an adaptive life, rather than in self-related wisdom.
In dieser Dissertation wird argumentiert, dass intergenerationelle Beziehungen außerhalb der Familie zur positiven Entwicklung im hohen Alter und in der Adoleszenz beitragen können. Ausgehend von Eriksons Entwicklungstheorie (Erikson, 1963) wird die Annahme hergeleitet, dass die Beziehung zwischen älteren Menschen und Jugendlichen eine günstige motivationale Basis hat, weil sich die Entwicklungsaufgaben des Alters (Generativität) und der Adoleszenz (Identität) gegenseitig ergänzen. Angenommen wird, dass die Realisation dieser motivationalen Passung in einer konkreten Interaktionssituation typische Defizite des Alters (fluide Intelligenz und kognitiv-affektive Komplexität) und der Adoleszenz (soziale Orientierung) kompensiert. Diese Annahme wurde in einem experimentellen Laborsetting an einer Stichprobe von 90 jugendlichen (14-15 Jahre) und 90 älteren Frauen (70-74 Jahre) untersucht. In allen drei Bedingungen bearbeiteten ad hoc Dyaden unterschiedlicher Alterszusammensetzung zunächst bestimmte vorgegebene Aufgaben, die sich systematisch danach unterschieden, inwieweit sie die motivationale Passung förderten. Die Interaktionspartner wurden unmittelbar nach dieser Interaktion getrennt voneinander in den abhängigen Variablen untersucht. Hypothesenkonform zeigten die älteren Teilnehmerinnen in der die motivationale Passung fördernden Experimentalbedingung ein höheres Ausmaß an kognitiver Leistungsfähigkeit und kognitiv-affektiver Komplexität als die älteren Teilnehmerinnen in den beiden Kontrollgruppen, welche die motivationale Passung nicht unterstützten bzw. ihr zuwider liefen. Außerdem zeigten die jugendlichen Teilnehmerinnen unter der Experimentalbedingung häufiger prosoziales Verhalten als jugendliche Teilnehmerinnen unter den beiden Kontrollbedingungen. Die Ergebnisse deuten insgesamt auf das psychologische Potential der Beziehung zwischen älteren Menschen und Jugendlichen hin.
It was the primary goal of this work to develop and validate an indirect and efficient instrument of personality growth that could overcome the typical difficulties of current alternative measures, that is, the problem of social desirability commonly associated with self-report, or costly and time-intensive evaluation procedures. As a theoretical background, literature on the self-concept as well as on personality growth was reviewed. Five self-concept facets were identified as theoretically meaningful indicators of personality growth, namely complexity, integration, affect balance, self-esteem, and value orientation. A modified version self-complexity questionnaire by Linville (1985, 1987) and a part of the Schwartz Value Survey (1992) were used to assess these. Because it was assumed that only a certain combination of the five self-concept facets represented an appropriate operationalization of personality growth, a profile prototype of personality growth was formulated along the lines of the five facets. The similarity of an individual's self-concept profile with this prototype in turn was assumed to reflect his/her level of personality growth or self-concept maturity (SCM). 167 adults completed the instrument as well as various other measures. 78 of the participants were older adults (aged 60-80 years) and 89 younger adults (aged 20-40 years). SCM revealed a high convergent validity with other well-established variables of personality growth and considerable discriminant validity with measures of adjustment. Self- and life reflection was a further significant predictor of SCM, while life events only significantly contributed to SCM when accompanied by a high degree of self- and life reflection. SCM was uncorrelated with chronological age and - against the hypotheses - also with intelligence. Reasons for minor deviations of findings from expectations, as well as possible improvements of the instrument and limitations of the study are discussed.
Sustainable development has been enriched by notions and views presented by related scientific and political discourses as well as by other actors' implicit views on sustainable development. This plethora of opinions is due to highly diverse parts of society participating in the discourse. The assumption is made that due to its abstractness, the sustainable development concept can overcome strong barriers between social systems like science, economy, politics or education. This leads to a secondary communication problem: once absorbed by the social subsystems, the abstract meaning of sustainable development is adapted to and diluted by the system's specific language. With adaptation, the communication barrier between the systems arises again, due to the different meanings that they attribute to the adjusted versions of sustainable development. This thesis therefore sets out to present a first empirical study on the meaning of sustainable development. In a theoretical discussion, a distinction is made between a denotative and connotative meaning. Scientist, politicians and economists usually discuss the denotation, in other words, the literal meaning of sustainable development. Sustainable development's connotation is, however, important for sustainable development education in general and, even more importantly, in the mass media with its focus on entertainment and on inducing moods and emotions. In this thesis, a content analysis method is used to assess the denotation of sustainable development for the economic and political system. The data obtained support the assumption that sustainable development has different meanings for different actors and systems. Furthermore, a large online survey was conducted by means of the semantic differential technique to determine the connotation of sustainable development. It revealed several interesting results, one of which was that the connotation differs with the degree of familiarity with the concept.
The demographic change in many western industrialized societies' populations points to one of the most negative future scenarios in business management: The increasing average age mirrored in the workforce and labor pool. In an industry that relies on physical work performance as an important input factor, such as automobile mass production, this will lead to a workforce that is limited in terms of employability and is thus more expensive, since organizations have to cover absenteeism and/or the loss of value creation on production lines. Empirical evidence demonstrates that increased costs, a lack of flexibility, as well as increased global demands in terms of productivity have resulted in a potential threat to sustainable competitiveness. The successful management of an aging workforce is an evolving field of research that has to date provided little on which advanced studies could be built. This dissertation therefore aims to approach the topic of aging workforce management in the automobile industry in an exploratory manner, clarifying fundamental concepts that have been neglected by managerial sciences, but that are, in fact, elementary and crucial for the development of sound research in future. To achieve this aim, this dissertation presents the cumulated results of three articles, that 1. identify the status quo of the aging workforce management from a management science perspective in theory and practice, 2. provide answers regarding how the aging workforce challenge as a topic and the elements that constitute its management can be defined, and 3. evaluate the effectiveness of applied aging workforce measures in practice.
Embedded in the general conceptual agenda of lifespan developmental psychology and its emphasis on the potential of individual development into old age, the central objective of the present study was to investigate whether participation in a volunteer training program can promote personality development in older age. The program "Erfahrungswissen für Initiativen" was developed by the German Federal Ministry of Family, Seniors, Women and Youth. The aim of the volunteer training program (VTP) was to encourage volunteers to develop a new role identity in the context of civic engagement by developing and initiating their own personal volunteering project. To investigate the impact of the VTP on personality development, participants of the VTP and an active control group of volunteers were assessed three times, before the VTP (T1), after the VTP (T2) and one year later as a follow-up assessment (T3). In addition, a second control group consisting of inactive, non-volunteers were recruited to validate the comparability of the active control group. The results showed that participation in the VTP increased personality adjustment by increasing life satisfaction and by decreasing negative affect and neuroticism from T1 to T2. Even though life satisfaction decreased again, negative affect and neuroticism remained decreased from T2 to T3. In accordance with the proposition that for personality growth to occur it takes a very special combination of personal and contextual factors, only participants of the VTP with high internal control beliefs increased in "personal growth" and "openness to experience" from T1 to T2. From T2 to T3 levels on "personal growth" remained elevated, while "openness to experience" increased even further. Taken together, the study presents an initial piece of evidence that by giving elderly the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way in society personality development is possible, even in older age.
Over the past decades population aging put retirement policies at the center of political debate and academic research. Women are at a higher risk of poverty in retirement across advanced societies and therefore a key target group for social policy. Yet, retirement research has largely concentrated on how employment histories determine labor market exit of men. In a comparison of West Germany and the United Kingdom this thesis addresses how gender inequality in old age emerges over the life course and which role institutions play in this process. Two main arguments are put forward. To advance our understanding of gender inequality in retirement it is necessary to (1) develop alternative retirement measures beyond labor force exit, and (2) include family events over the life course as predictors of retirement outcomes. Based on the conceptual foundation of differential life course sociology alternative measures of retirement are proposed and empirically explored with recent advances in sequence analysis. Divorce and child care periods are included as determinants of retirement outcomes in event history analysis. Based on household panel data, results from both methodological approaches underline the power of pension institutions in shaping retirement processes and pension consequences of family events. The thesis concludes that changing family arrangements call for a shift in the design of pension systems to compensate not only full employment histories of male breadwinners, but diversified work life histories of men and women.
