Collaborative everyday problem solving among same-gender friends in early and later adulthood.

Abstract

To investigate potential age-related differences in performance gains (compensation, optimization) and losses (failure to actualize potential) of collaboration with a familiar partner, we compared pairs of older (N= 75; 69% women) and younger (N = 75; 52% women) age homogeneous same-gender friends who interacted or worked alone to generate strategies for solving interpersonal and instrumental problems. Two indexes of strategy fluency (total and unique number of strategies) and two indexes of strategy type (content of strategy repertoires, strategy selected as most effective by older and younger adults) were examined. Strategies generated by interacting pairs were compared to nominal pair scores. Nominal pair scores indexed dyadic potential and were created by pooling the performance of two individuals who worked alone. Age differences in strategy fluency and type were largely similar to prior research based on individual problem solvers. Interacting pairs produced fewer strategies than nominal pairs but there were no differences in strategy type. For interpersonal problems, older adults were relatively more likely to actualize their dyadic potential. Keywordscollaborative cognition; nominal pairs; everyday problem solving; friends; aging Early research on "collaborative cognition" or "interactive minds" suggested older adults benefit more from working with a partner than do younger adults (Dixon, 1992;Staudinger & Baltes, 1996) Subsequent research addressed whether collaboration serves a compensatory function by allowing older adults to offset age-related cognitive declines (Dixon & Gould, 1998;Strough & Margrett, 2002). Some investigations of compensatory collaboration compared spouses to strangers. Older heterosexual spouses usually (but not always) outperform strangers on memory tasks (Johannson, Andersson, & Rönnberg, 2000; cf., Gould, Osborn, Krein, & Mortenson, 2002). Other investigations of compensatory collaboration compared memory performance in younger spouses to older spouses (e.g., Dixon & Gould, 1998). The focus on spouses and memory performance limits the generalizability of research on collaborative cognition. A spouse may not be available due to divorce, death, marital discord or because the person never married. Research with young adults indicates collaboration between friends on memory tasks can be beneficial (Andersson & Rönnberg, 1996, 1997.Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to JoNell Strough, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506−6040. Email may be sent to JoNell.Strough@mail.wvu.edu.. Jennifer Flinn is now at Frostburg State University, Department of Psychology. Kelly Schuller is now at the College of Charleston, Department of Psychology. Publisher's Disclaimer:The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Associa...

Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: solution diversity and efficacy

“…As mentioned earlier, older adults display passive dependent strategies at times during a conflict when action may worsen the negativity experienced by both interaction partners, whereas young adults are willing to be confrontational. For instance, when working with a friend to generate as many solutions as possible to hypothetical interpersonal problems, older adults were more likely than young adults to recommend help seeking and careful planning, whereas young adults were more likely to recommend verbally aggressive self‐assertion 76 . In other words, when collaborating with a friend, older adults are more likely than young adults to agree that interpersonally destructive strategies are not the best way to resolve conflict.…”

“…For instance, when working with a friend to generate as many solutions as possible to hypothetical interpersonal problems, older adults were more likely than young adults to recommend help seeking and careful planning, whereas young adults were more likely to recommend verbally aggressive self-assertion. 76 In other words, when collaborating with a friend, older adults are more likely than young adults to agree that interpersonally destructive strategies are not the best way to resolve conflict. This may reflect a shared recognition in the importance of reducing the potential for making the problem worse.…”

Age differences in younger and older adults' experience of interpersonal problems

“…The current study utilized archival cross-sectional data consisting of two age groups -younger and older adults (Strough, McFall, Flinn, & Schuller, 2008) women, 33% married, 44% widowed, 12% divorced, 1% never married) was used for the current study. Younger adult participants were recruited from student body at West Virginia University.…”

“…Older adult participants were recruited from West Virginia and Pennsylvania through phone invitations, senior centers, and community groups. The original study (Strough et al, 2008) from which the data for the current study originated investigated dyadic collaboration, and so all participants were required to bring one same-sex friend who they had known for at least 6 months with them to the data collection session. Half of these pairs of friends collaborated (worked together) when completing the problem-solving tasks in the study, while the other half of the pairs of friends were separated, and worked alone while completing the problem-solving tasks.…”

“…Participants completed an "Experience with Everyday Problems" questionnaire which included a subset of everyday problem vignettes taken from the Everyday Problem Solving Inventory (EPSI; Cornelius & Caspi, 1987). Vignettes were selected on the basis that they described scenarios that both younger and older adults would have some experience with (Strough et al, 2008). Each vignette used in the present study described an interpersonal problem that participants may have experienced with any social partner, not necessarily the friend that participants had brought to the data collection session.…”