Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:53:10.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

27 - Grit and Successful Aging

from Part IV - Cognitive, Social, and Biological Factors across the Lifespan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

By
Emma Rhodes  and
Tania Giovannetti
Edited by
Ayanna K. Thomas  and
Angela Gutchess
Ayanna K. Thomas
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachusetts
Angela Gutchess
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Successful aging is a multidimensional construct that has been used by a variety of clinical and empirical disciplines to describe physical and psychological well-being among the elderly. While biomedical models of successful aging rely on fixed criteria related to health and disability status, psychological models emphasize dynamic processes that promote life satisfaction in the face of age-related declines. Psychological models have proposed individual traits that are associated with successful aging processes, including those related to coping with, adapting to, and compensating for age-related challenges (e.g., tenacious goal pursuit, flexibility, etc.). Grit is a noncognitive trait that may promote coping and compensation but has been relatively unexamined in relation to successful aging. The ability to adapt to age-related losses, such as physical disability and cognitive decline, may represent a previously unexplored facet of grit that is specific to older adults. Preserved cognitive functioning is an important component of successful aging that may be promoted by grit and the use of compensatory strategies. In the context of atypical cognitive decline, however, grit may fail to promote effective compensation and may instead result in the use of unsuccessful strategies or “costly perseverance.”

Keywords

coping processescompensatory strategiesflexible goal adjustmenttenacious goal pursuitgrit
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging
A Life Course Perspective
 , pp. 499 - 513
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abuhassàn, A., & Bates, T. C. (2015). Grit: Distinguishing effortful persistence from conscientiousness. Journal of Individual Differences, 36(4), 205–214. http://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000175Google Scholar
Bäckman, L., & Dixon, R. A. (1992). Psychological compensation: A theoretical framework. Psychological Bulletin, 112(2), 259–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.259Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B., & Baltes, M. M. (1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation. In Baltes, P. B. & Baltes, M. M. (Eds.), Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences (pp. 1–34). Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Boerner, K., Schulz, R., & Horowitz, A. (2004). Positive aspects of caregiving and adaptation to bereavement. Psychology and Aging, 19(4), 668–675. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.19.4.668Google Scholar
Brandtstädter, J., & Renner, G. (1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilative and accommodative strategies of coping. Psychology and Aging, 5(1), 58–67. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.5.1.58CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brandtstädter, J., & Rothermund, K. (2002). The life-course dynamics of goal pursuit and goal adjustment: A two-process framework. Developmental Review, 22(1), 117–150. https://doi.org/10.1006/drev.2001.0539CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castel, A. D., Murayama, K., Friedman, M. C., Mcgillivray, S., & Link, I. (2013). Selecting valuable information to remember: Age-related differences and similarities in self-regulated learning. Psychology and Aging, 28(1), 232–242. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0030678Google Scholar
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1995). Domains and facets: Hierarchical personality assessment using the revised NEO personality inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 64(1), 21–50. http://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6401_2Google Scholar
Cox, C. M. (1926). The early mental traits of three hundred geniuses (Genetic studies of genius, Vol. 2). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2016). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492–511. http://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000102Google Scholar
Dixon, R. A., & de Frias, C. M. (2007). Mild memory deficits differentially affect 6-year changes in compensatory strategy use. Psychology and Aging, 22(3), 632–638. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.22.3.632Google Scholar
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the short grit scale (Grit-S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166–174. http://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802634290Google Scholar
Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D., & Tsukayama, E. (2012). What no child left behind leaves behind: The roles of IQ and self-control in predicting standardized achievement test scores and report card grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 439–451. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0026280Google Scholar
Dunlosky, J., Cavallini, E., Roth, H., et al. (2007). Do self-monitoring interventions improve older adult learning? Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(1), 70–76. http://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/62.special_issue_1.70Google Scholar
Engel, L. I. (2014). What predicts first semester college performance? Cognitive ability, SAT, conscientiousness, and grit. Unpublished dissertation, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.Google Scholar
Eskreis-Winkler, L. (2015). Building grit. Dissertations available from ProQuest, AAI3722725. https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3722725Google Scholar
Eskreis-Winkler, L., Shulman, E. P., Beal, S. A., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). The grit effect: Predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 36. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00036Google Scholar
Farias, S., Schmitter-Edgecombe, M., Weakley, A., et al. (2018). Compensation strategies in older adults: Association with cognition and everyday function. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, 33(3), 184–191. http://doi.org/10.1177/1533317517753361Google Scholar
Galton, F. (1892). Hereditary genius. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, C. B., Derby, C., LeValley, A., et al. (2007). Education delays accelerated decline on a memory test in persons who develop dementia. Neurology, 69(17), 1657–1664. http://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000278163.82636.30Google Scholar
Havighurst, R. J. (1961). Successful aging. Gerontologist, 1(1), 8–13. http://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/16.2.134CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertzog, C., & Dunlosky, J. (2011). Metacognition in later adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(3), 167–173. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411409026CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heyl, V., Wahl, H. W., & Mollenkop, H. (2007). Affective well-being in old age: The role of tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment. European Psychologist, 12(2), 119–129. http://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.12.2.119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, C. L. (1928). Aptitude testing. Yonkers-on-Hudson, NY: World Book Company.Google Scholar
Jeste, D. V, Depp, C. A., & Vahia, I. V. (2010). Successful cognitive and emotional aging. World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 9(2), 78–84. http://doi.org/10.1097/01.nmd.0000369417.73882.daGoogle Scholar
John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). Big Five Inventory (BFI). In John, O. P., Robins, R. W., & Pervin, L. A. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research, 2nd ed. (pp. 102–138). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Kahana, E., & Kahana, B. (1996). Conceptual and empirical advances in understanding aging well through proactive adaptation. In Bengtson, V. L. (Ed.), Adulthood and aging: Research on continuities and discontinuities (pp. 18–40). New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kahana, E., Kelley-Moore, J., & Kahana, B. (2012). Proactive aging: A longitudinal study of stress, resources, agency, and well-being in late life. Aging and Mental Health, 16(4), 438–451. http://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2011.644519Google Scholar
Kautz, T., & Zanoni, W. (2015). Measuring and fostering non-cognitive skills in adolescents: Evidence from Chicago public schools and the Onegoal program. Working paper, Department of Economics, University of Chicago. https://issuelab.org/resource/measuring-and-fostering-non-cognitive-skills-in-adolescence-evidence-from-chicago-public-schools-and-the-onegoal-program.htmlGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y. J., & Lee, C. S. (2015). Effects of grit on the successful aging of the elderly in Korea. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(S7), 373–378. http://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2015/v8iS7/70421Google Scholar
Kleiman, E. M., Adams, L. M., Kashdan, T. B., & Riskind, J. H. (2013). Gratitude and grit indirectly reduce risk of suicidal ideations by enhancing meaning in life: Evidence for a mediated moderation model. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 539–546. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.007Google Scholar
Lang, F. R., Rieckmann, N., & Baltes, M. M. (2002). Adapting to aging losses: Do resources facilitate strategies of selection, compensation, and optimization in everyday functioning? Journal of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57(6), 501–509. http://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.6.P501Google Scholar
Lucas, G. M., Gratch, J., Cheng, L., & Marsella, S. (2015). When the going gets tough: Grit predicts costly perseverance. Journal of Research in Personality, 59, 15–22. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2015.08.004Google Scholar
Martinent, G., Bailly, N., Ferrand, C., et al. (2017). Longitudinal patterns of stability and change in tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment among older people over a 9-year period. BioMed Research International, 2017, 1–9. http://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8017541Google Scholar
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1), 81–90. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.81Google Scholar
Meriac, J. P., Slifka, J. S., & LaBat, L. R. (2015). Work ethic and grit: An examination of empirical redundancy. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 401–405. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.009Google Scholar
Metcalfe, J. (2002). Is study time allocated selectively to a region of proximal learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131(3), 349–363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.131.3.349Google Scholar
Murray, H. A., & Kluckhohn, C. (1953). Outline of a conception of personality. In Personality in Nature, Society, and Culture (pp. 3–52). New York: Knoff.Google Scholar
Ouwehand, C., de Ridder, D. T. D., & Bensing, J. M. (2007). A review of successful aging models: Proposing proactive coping as an important additional strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 27(8), 873–884. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.11.003CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, D. C., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. (2009). The adaptive brain: Aging and neurocognitive scaffolding. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 173–196. http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093656Google Scholar
Prigatano, G. P. (1999). Motivation and awareness in cognitive neurorehabilitation. In Stuss, D. T., Winocur, G., & Robertson, I. H. (Eds.), Cognitive Neurorehabilitation (pp. 240–251). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reed, J., Pritschet, B. L., & Cutton, D. M. (2013). Grit, conscientiousness, and the transtheoretical model of change for exercise behavior. Journal of Health Psychology, 18(5), 612–619. http://doi.org/10.1177/1359105312451866CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhodes, E., Devlin, K. N., Steinberg, L., & Giovannetti, T. (2017). Grit in adolescence is protective of late-life cognition: Non-cognitive factors and cognitive reserve. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 24(3), 321–332. http://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2016.1210079CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhodes, E., & Giovannetti, T. (2017). Grit and successful aging in older adults. Presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, New Orleans, LA, February. http://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2016.1210079Google Scholar
Rhodes, E., Mechanic-Hamilton, D., & Giovannetti, T. (2019). Grit and cognitive functioning in health aging and MCI. Presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, New York, February. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617719000663Google Scholar
Robertson-Kraft, C., & Duckworth, A. (2013). True grit: Trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals predicts effectiveness and retention among novice teachers. Teachers College Record, 116(3), 1–27. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2011.08.021Google Scholar
Rothermund, K., & Brandtstädter, J. (2003). Coping with deficits and losses in later life: From compensatory action to accommodation. Psychology and Aging, 18(4), 896–905. http://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.18.4.896Google Scholar
Rowe, J., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 433–440. http://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2010.215250Google Scholar
Schmitz, U., Saile, H., & Nilges, P. (1996). Coping with chronic pain: Flexible goal adjustment as an interactive buffer against pain-related distress. Pain, 67(1), 41–51. http://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3959(96)03108-9Google Scholar
Silvia, P. J., Eddington, K. M., Beaty, R. E., Nusbaum, E. C., & Kwapil, T. R. (2013). Gritty people try harder: Grit and effort-related cardiac autonomic activity during an active coping challenge. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 88(2), 200–205. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2013.04.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Souchay, C., & Isingrini, M. (2004). Age related differences in metacognitive control: Role of executive functioning. Brain and Cognition, 56(1), 89–99. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2004.06.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stern, Y. (2002). What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8(3), 448–460. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617702813248Google Scholar
Strawbridge, W. J., Wallhagen, M. I., & Cohen, R. D. (2002). Successful aging and well-being: Self-rated compared with Rowe and Kahn. Gerontologist, 42(6), 727–733. http://doi.org/10.1093/geront/42.6.727Google Scholar
Terman, L., & Oden, M. (1947). The gifted child grows up: Twenty-five years’ follow up of a superior group. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, A. M., & Stern, Y. (2011). Cognitive reserve in aging. Current Alzheimer Research, 8(4), 354–360. http://doi.org/10.2174/1567211212225912050Google Scholar
Tupes, E. C., & Christal, R. E. (1992). Recurrent personality factors based on trait ratings. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 225–251. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00973.xGoogle Scholar
Twenge, J. M., Zhang, L., & Im, C. (2004). It’s beyond my control: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of increasing externality in locus of control, 1960–2002. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(3), 308–319. http://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0803_5Google Scholar
Urry, H. L., & Gross, J. J. (2010). Emotion regulation in older age. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(6), 352–357. http://doi.org/10.1177/0963721410388395Google Scholar
Wilson, R. S., Schneider, J. A., Arnold, S. E., Bienias, J. L., & Bennett, D. A. (2007). Conscientiousness and the incidence of Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64(10), 1204–1212. http://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.64.10.1204Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×