Determinants of Adaptive Behavior among Older Persons: Self-Efficacy,Importance,and Personal Dispositions as Directive Mechanisms

Abstract

Successful aging calls for effective adaptation, which in turn implies flexible use of coping strategies to optimize personal functioning and well-being. The present paper studied adaptive choice behavior of older, independently living persons faced with complications in their houses. The goal was to gain insight into the concrete coping process and its outcome—in terms of the choice of assimilative vs. accommodative strategies—and in the role of three determinants on this process. The determinants were perceived self-efficacy, importance of the problem, and personal dispositions (flexibility and tenacity). A sample of 199 independently-living older persons participated in an experiment that was based on a scenario and questionnaire method, with problems stemming from the domain of independent living. Results mainly underlie the crucial role of perceived self-efficacy and are discussed in view of the concept of successful aging.

References

Aarts

, & Dijksterhuis

(2000). The automatic activation of goal-directed behaviour: The case of travel habit. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20, 75–82.

Baltes

M. M.

, & Lang

F. R.

(1997). Everyday functioning and successful aging: The impact of resources. Psychology and Aging, 12, 433–443.

Baltes

P. B.

, & Baltes

M. M.

(1990). Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bandura

(1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bandura

(1992). Exercise of personal agency through the self-efficacy mechanism. In Schwarzer

(Ed.), Self-efficacy: Thought control of action (pp. 3–38). Washington: Hemisphere.

Brandtstädter

(1992) Personal control over development: Some developmental implications of self-efficacy. In Schwarzer

(Ed.), Self-efficacy; Thought control of action (pp. 127–145). Washington: Hemisphere.

Brandtstädter

, & Renner

(1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilation and accommodation strategies of coping. Psychology and Aging, 5, 58–67.

Brandtstädter

Wentura

, & Greve

(1993). Adaptive resources of the aging self: Outlines of an emergent perspective. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 16, 323–349.

Cornelius

S. W.

, & Caspi

(1987). Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age. Psychology and Aging, 2, 144–153.

10.

Dawes

R. M.

(1996). The purpose of experiments: Ecological validity versus comparing hypotheses. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19, 20.

11.

Denney

N. W.

, & Pearce

K. A.

(1989). A developmental study of practical problem solving in adults. Psychology and Aging, 4, 438–442.

12.

Filion

Wister

, & Coblentz

E. J.

(1992). Subjective dimensions of environmental adaptation among the elderly. Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 10, 3–32.

13.

Fozard

J. L.

Metter

E. J.

Brant

L. J.

Pearson

J. D.

, & Baker

G. T.

III. (1992). Physiology of aging. In Bouma

& Graafmans

J. A. M.

, Gerontechnology, Studies in health technology series, Volume 3 (pp. 141–167). Amsterdam: IOS.

14.

Fry

P. S.

(1989). Preconceptions of vulnerability and controls in old age: A critical reconstruction. In Fry

P. S.

(Ed.), Advances in psychology: No. 57. Psychological perspectives of helplessness and control in the elderly (pp. 1–39). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.

15.

Lawton

M. P.

(1987). Methods in environmental research with older people. In Bechtel

R. B.

Marans

R. W.

, & Michelson

(Eds.), Methods in environmental and behavioral research (pp. 337–360). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc.

16.

Lazarus

R. S.

, & Folkman

(1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.

17.

Pushkar

Arbuckle

Conway

Chaikelson

, & Maag

(1997). Everyday activity parameters and competence in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 12, 600–609.

18.

Skinner

E. A.

(1996). A guide to constructs of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 549–570.

19.

Slangen-de Kort

Y. A. W.

(1999). A tale of two adaptations: Coping processes of older persons in the domain of independent living. Dissertation, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

20.

Slangen-de Kort

Y. A. W.

Midden

C. J. H.

, & van Wagenberg

A. F.

(1998). Predictors of the adaptive problem solving of older persons in their homes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18, 187–197.

21.

Wister

A. V.

(1989). Environmental adaptation by persons in their later life. Research on Aging, 11, 267–291.