Motivation and well-being across the lifespan: A cross-sectional examination

Cornwell, James F. M.; Nakkawita, Emily; Franks, Becca; Higgins, E. Tory

doi:10.1080/17439760.2022.2093787

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Similarly, SST proposes that older adults are more likely to perceive their future time as limited with few remaining opportunities, and therefore prioritize goals that maximize present affective outcomes, such as experiencing positive emotional states and meaningfulness compared to goals that maximize future outcomes (e.g., acquiring new knowledge). In line with these theories, the aforementioned meta-analysis by Kooij et al (2011), that has been cited almost 1000 times, and more recent empirical studies (Cornwell et al, 2022;Inceoglu et al, 2012;Kooij et al, 2014) found support for a negative relationship between workers' age and growth-related motives.…”

Section: The Relationship Between Age and Work-related Learningmentioning

confidence: 74%

Growth Motives and Learning Behaviors Among Older Workers: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment

van Woerkom,

Kooij,

Kanfer

2023

Human Resource Development Review

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Research findings indicate an age-related decline in worker’s growth and learning. In this paper, we investigate to what extent these results may be affected by measures (e.g., growth need strength scale) that are influenced by educational approaches to workplace learning, framing learning as intentional processes of knowledge acquisition guided by educators. Based on Human Resource Development (HRD) and non-HRD literature, we propose that these measures may not fully capture learning processes of older workers who seemingly prefer learning outside of formal educational contexts (e.g., spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning). We examine measures of growth motives and learning behaviors and conclude that these are strongly influenced by an educational perspective, encouraging inaccurate conclusions regarding older workers’ learning interest and activity. We provide suggestions for the development of new measures inspired by a noneducational perspective on work-related learning, for instance by tapping into spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning.

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Section: The Relationship Between Age and Work-related Learningmentioning

confidence: 74%

Growth Motives and Learning Behaviors Among Older Workers: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment

van Woerkom,

Kooij,

Kanfer

2023

Human Resource Development Review

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“…Given that older people also tend to report higher trait levels of most character strengths (Heintz & Ruch, 2022), one possible explanation is that over the life course, people are somewhat successful in changing their character in the desired direction, and therefore, trait levels increase, and the motivation for further change decreases. Cornwell and colleagues (2022) also reported a negative relationship between age and growth motives but also showed that those people who did not follow this trend (i.e., those who maintained their growth motives) reported lower levels of well-being. The authors conclude that a weaker desire for change can also be adaptive, indicating that the intended goals have been achieved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Which positive personality traits do people want to change?

Gander,

Wagner

2023

Eur J Pers

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Most people want to change some of their personality traits, typically those they and others perceive as lacking. However, past research focused on student samples and higher-order traits and has not fully explored the attributes of traits that predict change goals. As a replication and extension of previous findings, two studies examined (1) whether people want to change their character strengths and how character strengths change goals relate to (2) character strength levels, (3) age, and (4) well-being. Further, we examined which (5) attributes of character strengths, such as their association with morality or well-being, predict change goals. Participants (Study 1: N = 2,792 German-speaking adults, 79.2% women, median = 46 years; Study 2: N = 6,787 English-speaking adults, 67.0% women, median = 32 years) completed measures of character strengths, character strengths change goals, and well-being. A subsample ( n = 1,739) provided informant ratings. Results showed that participants wanted to increase all 24 character strengths. Most change goals showed negligible associations with participants’ well-being and age. Except for spirituality, participants—especially the less happy—wanted to change those character strengths they lacked. The character strengths’ relationship with well-being, but not their moral value, predicted the goals to change them.

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Motivation and well-being across the lifespan: A cross-sectional examination

Cited by 2 publications

References 25 publications

Growth Motives and Learning Behaviors Among Older Workers: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment

Growth Motives and Learning Behaviors Among Older Workers: Toward a More Comprehensive Assessment

Which positive personality traits do people want to change?

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