Symbolic Processing of Youth and Elders

Jepson, Kathryn L.; Labouvie‐Vief, Gisela

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9151-7_8

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…For example, individuals can express their deepened understanding of emotions in a way that is more global-integrative and less systematic-analytical. Such a shift of processing of information from a mode that is detailed and textdependent to one that is more interpretive and subjective was shown in a series of studies (for review, see Jepson and Labouvie-Vief, 1992) in which individuals were asked to summarize narratives. For example, in one study young, middle-aged, and old adults were asked to respond to a series of fable like stories.…”

Section: Crystallization and Adult Emotional Developmentmentioning

confidence: 92%

Cognition and equilibrium regulation in development and aging

Labouvie‐Vief

2009

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience

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Purpose: Changes in emotion-cognition relationships in later life comprise a pattern of both vulnerabilities and strengths. To integrate this pattern of diversity, I propose a neo-Piagetian extension of the concepts of equilibrium and disequilibrium processes to the relationship beyond cognition to encompass emotional activation and arousal, and beyond youth to the full life span. Content: Beginning with a simple, Cannon-type equilibrium based on the response to increasing deviation from ideal end states of correcting through tension reduction, a more complex model is outlined that additionally uses tension amplification aimed at enlargement of the range over which stability is maintained, i.e., permits processes of developmental progression. Parallel to cognitive development, emotional development is described as the emergence of more complex cognitive-affective structures out of original automatic, biologically based ones. In that process, tension thresholds are raised, and the functional range over which equilibrium can be maintained is widened, as higher-order representations become part of the regulatory network. These progressive movements provide well automated emotion regulation whose effectiveness increases well into middle and late life. Conclusions: In contrast to development, aging is ultimately characterized by a lowering of tension thresholds similar to developmental regression. However, as in the purely intellectual realm, that process is offset by the previous automatization and crystallization of cognitive-affective schemas becomes evident only as a result of increasing constraints on fluid capacities, as in advancing age and/or high load of cognitive effort and/or emotional activation.

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Section: Crystallization and Adult Emotional Developmentmentioning

confidence: 92%

Cognition and equilibrium regulation in development and aging

Labouvie‐Vief

2009

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience

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“…The shift from a more text-dependent mode to one that is more interpretive and subjective was shown in a series of studies (for review, see Jepson & Labouvie-Vief, 1992 ) about individuals' rendition and interpretation of narratives. For example, in one study adults in their twenties and their seventies were told to provide either a detailed recall or a summary of a fable about a crane who put its neck down a wolf's throat to dislodge a bone stuck there, but who, when asking for the promised reward, was told to be glad to get away with its life.…”

Section: Symbolic Processing Is At Its Height In Later Lifementioning

confidence: 95%

“…For example, one adult response proposed that "a lot of times things that appear to be situations outside of ourselves are really things that we need to be conquering inside. But we have to have the outside confrontation to fi nd out what we are and what we're made of" (Jepson & Labouvie-Vief, 1992 , p. 130)-a statement emphasizing a rich inner orientation towards psychological motivations and with wisdom about life.…”

Section: Advantages and Disadvantages Of Increasing Automaticity And mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…To demonstrate this outer-to-inner shift, Labouvie-Vief and collaborators designed a series of studies in which individuals were presented with texts that invited not merely text-dependent reproduction, but rather individuals' personal rendition and interpretation of the narratives (Jepson & Labouvie-Vief, 1992 ). Young, middle-aged, and older adults were presented with fable-like stories and asked to "summarize" them.…”

Section: Advantages and Disadvantages Of Increasing Automaticity And mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotion–Cognition Relations in Aging

Labouvie‐Vief

2015

Integrating Emotions and Cognition Throughout the Lifespan

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In contrast to the stages of development we so far surveyed, aging is a period of life that also brings vulnerabilities and decrements, both physical, cognitive, and emotional. The chapter shows that in the domain of cognitive functions and the brain structures that support them, aging is associated with certain losses that can make cognitiveemotional integration more diffi cult, especially in situations that are complex and diffi cult; in such situations, individuals cannot always rely on the store of their skills acquired in the past, but are required to develop novel ones. In such situations, tension thresholds no longer increase as in periods of development, but are characterized by a lowering. As a result, tension thresholds are lowered and hence reached more quickly, especially if tasks pose complex and stressful demands. By contrast, in well-mastered and well-automated tasks and provided good health, aging also often presents itself as a period in which individuals can reap from the accumulation of their rich experience, such as professional, artistic, or musical expertise, as well as social skills involving knowledge accumulated about life and people. In contrast to literature dealing with losses in cognitive-emotional integration, in such areas of expertise elders can maintain, profi t from, and sometimes excel at, the use of rich world knowledge that supports creativity and wisdom. These developments are illustrated with research examples as well as real-life samples of the thinking and emotions of elders. The Why, How, and When of Aging and Its OptimizationAging is a universal process of living organisms, and death at the end of one's life is an inevitability. It is not diffi cult to understand that often, aging is surrounded with fearful and negative connotations. Yet whereas growing older results in eventual death, aging itself is not a fi xed phenomenon; in fact, it has dramatically changed over the course of historical time. Indeed, in the book on "The Future of 118 Aging (2007)" 1 we have witnessed a "vitalization" of aging (Gruss, 2007 ) in the sense that elders of today are in better health and more vital than was true at earlier. For example, a contemporary 70-year-old is likely to have maintained much higher levels of mental and physical fi tness that was true some 30 years ago and, in fact, may resemble more a contemporary 60-year-old than an aged individual (Baltes, 2007 ).Why do we humans age? This question has occupied individuals for centuries. Gruss ( 2007 ) points out that aging is not restricted to old age, but in fact begins at the moment of conception that initiates in its turn a chain of transformations. However, these transformations are not optimized for maximal longevity of individuals, but rather, for reproductive success. That these transformations are greatly controlled by genetic mechanisms is evident from the fi nding that different species have widely varying life spans-for example, about 3 years in mice, 60-70 in elephants, and 150 years in giant turtles (Gruss, 2007 ). Ne...

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“…A significant amount of literature tells us that development throughout adulthood involves qualitative reorganizations in style of thought, such as the shift from formal to postformal thinking (Baltes & Smith, 1990;Blanchard-Fields, 1989;DittmanKohli & Baltes, 1990;Jepson & Labouvie-Vief, 1992;Labouvie-Vief & Hakim-Larson, 1989). A common theme found in this literature is that older adults think in terms of the pragmatics of life, which involve personally meaningful or symbolically meaningful events, situations, and contexts, especially when dealing with socioemotional material.…”

Section: E Gregory and J E Waggonermentioning

confidence: 97%

Factors that influence metaphor comprehension skills in adulthood

Gregory

Waggoner

1996

Experimental Aging Research

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We investigated differences between older and younger adults in interpreting metaphors describing emotions (e.g., "Joe was crashing thunder," meaning that he was angry). Subjects selected emotional interpretations and explained the basis of their selection for 12 metaphors. Twenty-four older and 24 younger adults read metaphors that described emotions. The group performed identically when selecting interpretations, but older adults were more likely to make up stories about the person named in the metaphor to explain the metaphor than were younger adults, who focused on attributes of the metaphoric terms. These findings suggest that observed adult age differences in metaphor comprehension reflect methodological factors and may reflect cognitive style differences.

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Symbolic Processing of Youth and Elders

Cited by 9 publications

References 21 publications

Cognition and equilibrium regulation in development and aging

Cognition and equilibrium regulation in development and aging

Emotion–Cognition Relations in Aging

Factors that influence metaphor comprehension skills in adulthood

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