Perceived Controllability of Expected Psychological Change Across Adulthood and Old Age

This cross-sectional study focuses on adults' beliefs about the controllability of developmental change in adulthood and old age. Young (n = 33; age range 20-36 years), middle-aged (n = 35; age range 40-55 years), and older (n = 32; age range 60-85 years) adults rated an extensive list of psychological attributes in terms of the degree of expected developmental increase across the adult life span (ages 20-90), the perceived controllability of these changes, their desirability, and their expected age-related timing. The findings indicate a substantial degree of similarity in young, middle-aged, and old adults' overall beliefs about controllability. The three adult age groups agreed in perceiving developmental changes in adulthood as fairly controllable, and with regard to their relative controllability (rank ordering of change-sensitive attributes). Changes expected to occur later in life were consensually perceived to be less desirable, and less desirable changes were perceived as less controllable. However, there were clear age-related differences involving both the age timing of expected changes and the age of respondents. A comparison between the three subject age groups revealed twofold differences: First, the relationship between desirability and perceived controllability was found to increase with subjects' age; second, Q-technique factor analysis showed that large subgroups of the young and the middle-aged adults, but not the old adults, tended to perceive psychological attributes associated with late onset decline as relatively lower in controllability.