Feeling loved and integrated or lonely and rejected in everyday life: The role of age and social motivation.

Abstract

Social approach and social avoidance goals (i.e., approach of positive and avoidance of negative outcomes in social situations) are important predictors of the feeling of being socially integrated or isolated. However, little is known about the development of these goals across adulthood. In a large diary study with N = 744 young (18-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years), and older adults (60-83 years), we tested the hypothesis that the adaptiveness of social goals changes across adulthood: Social approach goals were hypothesized to be adaptive during young adulthood when adult social relationships are to be established. In contrast, social avoidance goals were hypothesized to become more adaptive with age as people are increasingly motivated to avoid interpersonal tension. Our findings support these hypotheses: Social approach goals were positively and social avoidance goals negatively associated with younger but not with middle-aged and older adults' daily social well-being. These results were robust across different situations (positive, negative) and different types of relationships (close, peripheral). The study highlights the changing role of social approach and avoidance goals for daily social well-being across adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Individual Differences in Habitual Social Goals and Daily Well–Being: The Role of Age and Relationship Closeness

“…As positive social relationships do not just happen but have to be actively approached (Gable, ), young adults need to set and pursue social approach goals in order to master their developmental tasks. In support of this hypothesis, young (but not middle‐aged and older) adults who reported high levels of social approach goals in their daily social encounters also reported high levels of social integration and low levels of loneliness (Nikitin & Freund, ).…”

“…Applying this perspective, it can be argued that the shifts in developmental tasks and challenges described previously might affect social approach and avoidance goals (Nikitin et al, ; Nikitin & Freund, ). Young adults focus primarily on finding a partner, establishing a family, and developing friendships and work‐related networks (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, ; Nurmi, ).…”

Group decision-making is optimal in adolescence

“…See Supporting Information for details on the age of each participant and additional analyses of individual and joint performance using age as a continuous variable. While the age range was wider in the younger age group (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) compared to the older age group (14)(15)(16)(17), only three participants in the younger age group were below the age of 10 (Figure S1). Significant positive developmental gradients were found for individual performance (accuracy, sensitivity and reaction time, see Figure S2).…”

“…Disagreements with peers over uncertain information play a central role in adolescents' everyday life 8 . In addition, integrating and weighing social information is an important developmental task in adolescence, especially in the context of conflict resolution 9,10 .…”

Who Cares? Effects of Social Approach and Avoidance Motivation on Responsiveness to Others

“…However, we statistically controlled for self-reported relationship closeness. Nikitin & Freund, 2018). A power analysis for a linear multiple regression with two predictors and two covariates, using an a-error probability of 0.05, a power (1-b error probability) of 0.8, and a sample size of N = 744, revealed that Study 3 was sufficiently powered to find an effect size of d = 0.02.…”