Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T06:38:19.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Flexible and tenacious goal pursuit lead to improving well-being in an aging population: a ten-year cohort study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2012

Rebecca E. Kelly ,
Alex M. Wood  and
Warren Mansell
Rebecca E. Kelly*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
Alex M. Wood
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Warren Mansell
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Rebecca Kelly, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 3rd Floor, Addiction Sciences Building, 4 Windsor Walk, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF, UK. Phone: +44 (0) 7736 042 836. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Previous research has shown that tendencies to tenaciously pursue goals and flexibly adapt goals independently relate to well-being in adults in mid-to-late life, but research has not tested whether these tendencies interact. For example, tenacity may only predict well-being in combination with flexibility. This research tests whether these tendencies interact to predict changes in health-related outcomes.

Methods: A large cohort of people (n = 5,666), initially aged 55–56, completed measures of flexibility, tenacity, health-related outcomes (physical health, depression, hostility), as well as demographics. Participants provided follow-up data on all measures ten years later. Moderation analysis was used to test whether flexibility and tenacity interacted to predict changes in the health-related outcomes over the period.

Results: The interaction between tenacity and flexibility significantly predicted changes in depression, hostility, and physical ill-health symptoms over ten years, such that highly flexible and tenacious individuals experienced the largest decreases in symptoms of depression, hostility, and physical ill-health.

Conclusions: The interaction between flexibility and tenacity predicts greater well-being, such that one is most protective when an individual also scores highly on the other. The combination of flexibility and tenacity in the pursuit of personal goals may mean individuals can enjoy gains associated with goal pursuit without the detrimental effects of persevering in blocked goals.

Keywords

goal pursuitdepressionhostilityill-healthinteraction
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 16 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2012

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

Aiken, L. S. and West, S. G. (1991). Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Beekman, A. T. F., Deeg, , Limbeek, D. J. H., van, J., Braam, , Vries, A. W., De, M. Z. and Tilburg, , van, W.. (1997). Criterion validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D): results from a community-based sample of older adults in the Netherlands. Psychological Medicine, 27, 231–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohart, A. C. (2000). The client is the most important common factor: clients’ self-healing capacities and psychotherapy. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 10, 127–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouerner, K. (2003). Adaptation to disability among middle-aged and older adults: the role of assimilative and accommodative coping. Journals of Gerontology, 59, 35–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandtstadter, J. and 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, 58–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brandtstadter, J. and Rothermund, K. (2002). The life-course dynamics of goal pursuit and goal adjustment: a two-process framework. Developmental Review, 22, 117–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandtstadter, J., Wentura, D. and Greve, W. (1993). Adaptive resources of the aging self: outlines of an emergent perspective. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 16, 323–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, C. S. and Scheier, M. F. (1990). Origins and functions of positive and negative affect: a control-process view. Psychological Review, 97, 19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, R. A. (1996). Striving and feeling: personal goals and subjective well-being. In Gollwitzer, P. M. and Bargh, J. A. (eds.), The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behaviour (pp. 313–337). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Gould, R. L. (1989). Therapeutic Learning Program [Computer software]. Santa Monica, CA: Interactive Health Systems.Google Scholar
Hauser, R. M. and Sewell, W. H. (principal investigators). Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) [graduates, siblings, and spouses]: 1957–2005, Version 12.26. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison, WLS. Available at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/wlsresearch/documentation/; last accessed 17 August 2012.Google Scholar
Heckhausen, J. and Schulz, R. (1995). A life-span theory of control. Psychological Review, 102, 284–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heckhausen, J., Wrosch, C. and Fleeson, W. (2001). Developmental regulation before and after passing a developmental deadline: the sample case of “biological clock” for child-bearing. Psychology and Aging, 16, 400–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, M.. (Chair) (1995). Computer psychotherapy: the direction of the future? Symposium presented at the Western Psychological Association Convention, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Joseph, S. and Wood, A. M. (2010). Assessment of positive functioning in clinical psychology: theoretical and practical issues. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 830–838.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karoly, P. (1993). Goal systems: an organizing framework for clinical assessment and treatment planning. Psychological Assessment, 5, 273–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. E., Mansell, W. and Wood, A. M. (2011). Goal conflict and ambivalence interact to predict depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 531–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelly, R. E., Wood, A. M., Shearman, K., Phillips, S. and Mansell, W. (2012). Encouraging acceptance of ambivalence using the expressive writing paradigm. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory Research and Practice, 85, 220–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawton, M. P., Moss, M. S., Winter, L. and Hoffman, C. (2002). Motivation in later life: personal projects and well-being. Psychology and Aging, 17, 539–547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lerner, R. M., Freedheim, D. K. and Weiner, I. B. (2003). Handbook of Psychology: Developmental Psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc.Google Scholar
McDowell, I. and Kristjansson, E. (1996). Depression. In McDowell, I. and Newell, C. (eds.), Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires (pp. 329–393). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mecocci, P., Cherubini, A., Mariani, E., Ruggiero, C. and Senin, U. (2004). Depression in the elderly: new concepts and therapeutic approaches. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 16, 176–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nesse, R. M. (2000). Is depression an adaptation? Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 14–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryff, C. D. and Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719–727.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santor, D. A., Gregus, M. and Welch, A. (2006). Eight decades of measurement in depression. Measurement, 4, 135–155.Google Scholar
Segerstrom, S. C. and Solberg-Nes, L. (2006). When goals conflict but people prosper: the case of dispositional optimism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 675–693.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serpell, L., Waller, G., Fearon, P. and Meyer, C. (2009). The roles of persistence and perseveration in psychopathology. Behaviour Therapy, 40, 260–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spielberger, C. D. (1988). Manual for the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.Google Scholar
Wood, A. M. and Joseph, S. (2010). The absence of positive psychological (eudemonic) well-being as a risk factor for depression: a ten year cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 122, 213–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, A. M. and Tarrier, N. (2010). Positive clinical psychology: a new vision and strategy for integrated research and practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 819–829.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wrosch, C. and Heckhausen, J. (1999). Control processes before and after passing a developmental deadline: activation and deactivation of intimate relationship goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 415–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrosch, C., Scheier, M. F., Miller, G. E., Schultz, R. and Carver, C. S. (2003). Adaptive self-regulation of unattainable goals: goal disengagement, goal reengagement, and subjective well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1494–1508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zapf, D., Dormann, C. and Frese, M. (1996). Longitudinal studies in organizational stress research: a review of the literature with reference to methodological issues. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 145–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed