Alexandra M Freund

University of Zurich | UZH · Psychologisches Institut

Goals constitute an important construct in developmental psychology. They represent a central way in which individuals shape their development. Here, we present two studies on age-related differences in one important goal dimension, goal focus, that is, the relative salience of the means and ends of goal pursuit. Extant studies on age-related diffe...

Taking a dynamic perspective on goals and their representation over the course of goal pursuit, we explore shifts in goal orientation, particularly when encountering setbacks during goal pursuit. In general, goals can be oriented toward achieving gains, maintaining a current state, and avoiding a loss (i.e., goal orientation; Freund & Ebner, 2005 )...

Objectives This research addresses how younger and older adults' decisions and evaluations of gains and losses are affected by the way in which monetary incentives are provided. We compared two common incentive schemes in decision making: pay one (only a single decision is incentivized) and pay all (incentives across all decisions are accumulated)....

Pursuing multiple goals with limited time often leads to goal conflicts that can be resolved by prioritizing some goal pursuits over others. This research examines proximal outcomes of two approaches to goal prioritization: Goal shelving (temporarily withdrawing from a goal) and goal disengagement (permanently withdrawing from a goal). We conducted...

Pursuing multiple goals with limited time often leads to goal conflicts that can be resolved by prioritizing some goal pursuits over others. This research examines proximal outcomes of two approaches to goal prioritization: Goal shelving (temporarily withdrawing from a goal) and goal disengagement (permanently withdrawing from a goal). We conducted...

Do adults of different ages differ in their focus on positive, negative, or neutral information when making decisions? Some research suggests an increasing preference for attending to and remembering positive over negative information with advancing age (i.e., an age-related positivity effect). However, these prior studies have largely neglected th...

The importance of taking a lifespan approach to describe and understand human development has long been acknowledged (e.g., Baltes, 1987). Nevertheless, theoretical or empirical research that actually encompasses the entire lifespan, that is, from early childhood to old age, is rare. This is not surprising given the challenges such an approach enta...

Goals are an intensely studied concept in various research areas within psychology. They can be defined as cognitive representations of means-ends relations. The relative focus on the means or the ends (i.e., goal focus) can vary between persons and over time. Taking a lifespan perspective, we use the existing developmental, social-cognitive, and m...

[Accepted manuscript] Objectives The current experiment tested the causal effect of goal orientation on subjective satisfaction with performance on a cognitive task. Methods A sample of N = 231 young, middle-aged, and older adults (21 - 79 years) completed a dot-memory task in one of three goal-orientation conditions aiming for improvement, maint...

Motivational and emotional changes across adulthood have a profound impact on cognition. In this registered report, we conducted an experimental investigation of motivational influence on remembering intentions after a delay (prospective memory; PM) in younger, middle-aged, and older adults, using gain- and loss-framing manipulations. The present s...

This article discusses ways in which aging individuals respond to physical, social, and environmental changes and constraints by modifying their goals. We review aging-related trends, which we derive from several theoretical approaches, including goal systems theory, the motivational theory of life-span development and its action-phase model, and t...

Healthy aging is in part dependent upon people’s willingness and ability to mobilize the effort necessary to support behaviors that promote health and well-being. People may have the best information relating to health along with the best intentions to stay healthy (e.g., health-related goals), but positive outcomes will ultimately be dependent upo...

To mitigate uncertainty in their goal pursuits, people use backup plans, i.e., alternative means that are developed to potentially replace “Plan A.” Several studies have demonstrated that backup plans can introduce unexpected costs into goal pursuits that decrease a person’s motivation to continue using their “Plan A,” and reduce their chances for...

This study investigated age differences in appetitive and aversive associative learning using a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm. Appetitive and aversive associative learning is the process by which an initially neutral cue is systematically paired with an aversive or appetitive outcome, eventually itself prompting aversive or appetitive responses....

Building on the seminal definition of “healthy aging” by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015; 2020), we present a model of motivation and healthy aging that is aimed at identifying the central psychological constructs and processes for understanding what older persons value, and how they can attain and maintain these valued aspects of their li...

Objectives Perceptions of time are shaped by sociohistorical factors. Specifically, economic growth and modernization often engender a sense of acceleration. Research has primarily focused on one time perception dimension (perceived time pressure) in one subpopulation (working-age adults), but it is not clear whether historical changes extend to ot...

Age differences in monetary decisions may emerge because younger and older adults perceive the value of outcomes differently. Yet, age‐differential effects of monetary rewards on decisions are not well understood. Most laboratory studies on aging and decision making have used scenarios in which rewards were merely hypothetical (decisions did not ha...

We introduce a distinct type of choice that has yet to be addressed by self-control research: Choosing between activities that offer both delayed and immediate rewards. We describe when and why such mixed-reward choices pose challenges to self-control, and suggest that self-control in mixed-reward choices may be supported (rather than undermined) b...

Prior research has established the importance of social relations and social embeddedness for motivation in healthy aging. Thus, social orientation appears to be essential for understanding healthy aging. This article focuses particularly on age-related changes in goals concerning social orientation, such as increased prioritization of emotional go...

Objectives: Without pharmaceutical measures available, endorsement of protective behaviours, such as hygiene behaviours, social distancing, and adherence to recommended behaviours in case of symptoms is of key importance to curb the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Based on an extended version of the protection motivation theory, this study examined the...

Three studies tested the role of prioritization in solving conflict between multiple goals in different age groups. Study 1 ( N = 185 young, middle-aged, older adults) stressed the importance to solve two competing tasks equally well within a short time. Older adults prioritized more than younger adults. However, contrary to our expectations, prior...

Lifespan theory suggests a shift from a primary orientation towards attaining gains in young adulthood to preventing losses in older adulthood. The current research tested if this motivational shift is reflected in behavioural and emotional responses to risks in non‐monetary gains and losses. Study 1 established in a sample of N = 168 younger (18–3...

Prosociality (i.e., voluntary thoughts and actions intended to benefit somebody else) is arguably essential for positive social relationships. The present research investigated under what conditions a prosocial focus has positive effects on the subjective well-being of a prosocial person. We addressed this question in an intervention study of daily...

Objectives: Changes in motivational orientation across adulthood affect cognitive processes. The purpose of this research was to investigate if and how motivational incentives (gains or losses) affect prospective memory for intended actions in younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Method: The consequences of memory hits and misses and the fram...

Objective Recovery from strains accumulated over longer periods of time is essential for health and well-being. Most people take vacations to ensure that they achieve a state of recovery that will allow them to prevent a state of enduring exhaustion. Extending a recent motivational model of recovery, we examined recovery processes during a vacation...

Empirical evidence suggests that self-reported prosociality and donations increase with age. The majority of this research was conducted using monetary donations as outcome measures. However, on average older adults hold a significant advantage in financial and material assets compared to younger adults, effectively lowering the subjective cost of...

The central argument of this article is that historical changes in longevity in Western societies, globalization, and the weakening of social expectations regarding the timing of developmental goals lead to a compression of the time for pursuing highly demanding developmental goals related to work and family in late young and middle adulthood. The...

Older adults contribute—through charitable donations or volunteering—more to the common good than younger adults, an age difference that has profound society-level implications. Yet the reasons for this difference are not well understood. Evidence suggests that a purely altruistic concern for the common good is a major motivation for prosocial beha...

Two studies investigated subjective conceptualizations of energy for goal pursuit across adulthood. Study 1 (N = 276, 20-92 years of age) explored age-related differences in the (a) endorsement of a limited versus nonlimited account of energy for goal pursuit, (b) amount of energy available for physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally demand...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Objectives: Goal orientation tends to shift from predominantly striving for gains to maintenance and loss avoidance across adulthood. A dominant hypothesis states that age-related increases in losses drive the motivational shift. The present study tests this hypothesis and an alternative, namely that perceived accumulation of resources/assets and d...

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

This 8‐week longitudinal experience sampling study with N = 346 participants (n = 242 completers) of a high‐intensity interval training program explored how goal focus (i.e., a focus on the process vs. outcome of goal pursuit) is related to procrastination and successful goal pursuit. Specifically, the study investigated the association between goa...

Tasks of increasing difficulty require increasing levels of cognitive engagement from participants. The costs associated with cognitive engagement rise with age in response to normative cognitive decline. Additionally, previous studies have shown an interaction between age and task difficulty, with age differences in effort expenditure increasing a...

Tasks of increasing difficulty require increasing levels of cognitive engagement from participants. The costs associated with cognitive engagement rise with age in response to normative cognitive decline. Additionally, previous studies have shown an interaction between age and task difficulty, with age differences in effort expenditure increasing a...

The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation, Second Edition, addresses key advances made in the field since the previous edition, offering the latest insights from the top theorists and researchers of human motivation. The volume includes chapters on social learning theory, control theory, self-determination theory, terror management theory, and regula...

Two studies investigated the role of dispositional social approach and avoidance motives (i.e., what people generally desire and fear in social relationships) for the decision to participate in a speed-dating event. In a sample of N = 205 college students (Study 1), approach motives were positively and avoidance motives negatively associated with t...

How do we know when an activity has exhausted us or helped us recover? In this paper, we present a motivational approach to exhaustion and recovery that takes into account the multidimensional nature of the constructs. The account details three psychological processes that may – individually and in interaction – underlie exhaustion and recovery. Sp...

As life-span developmental psychologists, our research programs focus on the description, explanation, and optimization of human behavior and development (e.g., Baltes, Reese, & Nesselroade, 1977; Lerner, 2012). Traditionally, this work adopts an action-theoretical accounting of the basic processes for human development (Brandtstädter & Lerner, 199...

Previous studies have shown that participation in leisure time physical activity is related to better mental well-being and subjective health. However, the associations between different types of leisure time physical activities and different dimensions of mental well-being have rarely been studied. In addition, longitudinal research, analyzing pos...

There is a robust evidence that social approach goals (i.e. approach of positive social outcomes) have positive consequences and social avoidance goals (i.e. avoidance of negative social outcomes) have negative consequences for subjective well‐being in young adulthood. Little is known about individual differences in social goals in later life. The...

Older people use more drugs than any other age group. The prescription strategy constitutes a major challenge. Polypharmacy, inappropriate prescribing and drug-related problems in older people are important problem of public health as a link exists with significant morbidity and mortality and with a large waste of health resources. The main target...

Most people associate old age with such attributes as “forgetful,” “unattractive,” “ill,” or “lonely” (Kite et al., 2005). At first glance, then, aging primarily implies losses. In fact, the ratio of expected developmental gains (i.e., perceived desirable changes) and losses (i.e., perceived undesirable changes) in a wide range of personality, soci...

The Cambridge Handbook of Successful Aging - edited by Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros January 2019

People who are cheerful have better social relationships. This might be the case because happy faces communicate an invitation to interact. Thus, happy faces might have a strong motivational effect on others. We tested this hypothesis in a set of four studies. Study 1 (N = 94) showed that approach reactions to happy faces are faster than other reac...

Background and objectives: Proxy decision-making may be flawed by inaccurate perceptions of risk. This may be particularly true when older adults are the targets of the decisions, given the pervasive negative stereotypes about older adults. Methods: In study 1, individuals aged 18- to 87 years (as target persons) as well as one of their close so...

The literature documents a motivational shift in goal orientation such that younger adults focus more on striving for gains than maintenance of functioning or avoidance of losses. With increasing age, adults become more maintenance-oriented and, in old adulthood, more loss-avoidance oriented. This motivational shift might be due to the increasing t...

Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk-averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and gain-loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk taking. The current study extends the investigation of age differences in risk preference by including analyses on the effect...

Participation in leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in midlife is linked to both current well-being and many future benefits in older age. However, longitudinal analyses of the causal links between LTPA and well-being are lacking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal associations between LTPA and subjective well-being...

People's perceptions of benefits and risks play a key role in their acceptance or rejection of medical interventions, yet these perceptions may be poorly calibrated. This online study with N = 373 adults aged 19-76 years focused on unrealistic optimism in the health domain. Participants indicated how likely they were to experience benefits and risk...

Auf der Grundlage ethologischer Theorien zur optimalen Nahrungssuche (optimal foraging theory) schlagen wir eine Metrik vor, die es erlaubt, die Güte eines Zielsystems mit wechselseitigen positiven und negativen Zielbeziehungen zu bestimmen. Theorien zur optimalen Nahrungssuche berücksichtigen den kalorischen Wert, die Auffindenswahrscheinlichkeit...

Procrastination is a highly common self-regulation failure that has been studied mainly in the educational context, but has been largely neglected in life-span psychology. Adopting a life-span motivational perspective, we focus on adult development and maintain that, historically seen, adults nowadays have to take on a more important and active rol...

This 14-week longitudinal study with weekly real-time reports investigated if goal focus (i.e., a focus on the process vs. the outcome of goal pursuit) is associated with students’ ( N = 105) perceptions of the activities in which they were engaged while procrastinating ( alternative activities ). We compared perceptions of the alternative activiti...

Responsiveness to others (i.e., our understanding, validation, and support of important aspects of others) significantly contributes to positive social relationships. In the present research, we found evidence that responsiveness has motivational origins. In two experiments, participants who were approaching positive social outcomes had a higher le...

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), mid...

Background: Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk-averse compared toBackground: Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk-averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and the influence of gain-loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk taking. Obj...

Goals are considered by some theories as essential for subjective well-being (i.e., telic theories, see Diener, 1984). In fact, achieving goals is beneficial for subjective well-being. However, just holding goals does not bring about goal achievement. Therefore, this chapter highlights the importance of goal pursuit (autotelic theories) in addition...

Goals and motives are subject to human development. Generally, personal goals reflect age-graded developmental tasks, expectations about what constitutes an “on time” development, as well as the availability of resources (e.g., cognitive and physical abilities, remaining life time) across adulthood. As a consequence, older adults pursue goals to pr...

The importance of goals for understanding behavior and performance over time and across situations, for a sense of purpose and psychological well-being, has been acknowledged in the areas of motivation and lifespan development for more than a quarter-century (Baltes & Baltes, 1990). More recently, the field of motivated cognition has pointed to the...

The question “Am I famous yet?” directs our attention to the outcome of the journey of being a psychological scientist. There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to achieve the highest possible outcomes when pursuing a goal. However, for a researcher, fame is an outcome that is very vague, abstract, distal, and unlikely to be attained. Focusin...

Human aging is accompanied by a decrease in social activity and a narrowing in social networks. Studies in nonhuman primates may provide valuable comparative insights in which way aging impacts social life, in the absence of cultural conventions and an awareness of a limited lifetime. For female Barbary macaques at “La Forêt des Singes” in Rocamado...

Establishing new social relationships is important for mastering developmental transitions in young adulthood. In a 2-year longitudinal study with four measurement occasions (T1: n = 245, T2: n = 96, T3: n = 103, T4: n = 85), we investigated the role of social motives in college students' mastery of the transition of moving out of the parental home...

Based on optimal foraging theory, we propose a metric that allows evaluating the goodness of goal systems, that is, systems comprising multiple goals with facilitative and conflicting interrelations. This optimal foraging theory takes into account expectancy and value, as well as opportunity costs, of foraging. Applying this approach to goal system...

This research is a first test of the backup plan paradox. We hypothesized that investing in a backup plan may facilitate the conditions that it was developed to address: Plan A’s insufficiency. Five studies provide initial, primarily correlative support for the undermining effect of investing in a backup plan. Study 1 (N = 160) demonstrated that th...

This issue addresses the topic of ecological validity in research in human development across the life span. Although recent developments in study design, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques have greatly advanced researchers’ ability to collect large amounts of data on large groups of individuals in natural settings, it is importa...

Purpose: In most of the studies on boundary management, integration/segmentation (or related con-structs) are assessed as general and aggregate self-evaluations. In contrast, the current study assesses the integration and segmentation of work, family, and leisure in an everyday setting using a measurement burst design, allowing to describe boundary...

. This study investigates whether two specific strategies of emotional labor (surface and deep acting) shown during client interactions are associated with work-related intrusions on thoughts outside of work. N = 157 bank employees provided reports of emotional labor and of work-related rumination at home on five consecutive workdays. Converging wi...

Three studies examined the self-enhancement function of autobiographical memory (measured with subjective temporal distance of memories). Participants recalled a memory of an attained and a failed goal and rated the subjective distance between each memory and the present. Study 1 showed that young adults with higher self-esteem felt closer to memor...

Processing the motivational relevance of a visual scene and reacting accordingly is crucial for survival. Previous work suggests the emotional content of naturalistic scenes affects response speed, such that unpleasant content slows responses whereas pleasant content accelerates responses. It is unclear whether these effects reflect motor-cognitive...

How do middle-age adults in the “rush hour of life” manage the demands of pursuing multiple goals in different life domains? A 20-day measurement burst study (N = 89 employed adults, Mage = 42) investigated the occurrence and consequences of integration and incongruity of work, family, and leisure in the everyday lives of middle-age adults. Results...

Across adulthood, people face increasingly more risky medical problems and decisions. However, little is known about changes in medical risk taking across adulthood. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study investigated age-related differences in medical risk taking with N = 317 adults aged 20-77 years using newly developed scenarios to assess...

The current study investigated the use of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) in association with momentary goal conflict and facilitation in middle adulthood. In contrast to previous studies on SOC that focused on the habitual use of the SOC-strategies, the current study investigated the momentary SOC-use in the everyday lives of adult...

As humans age, they become more selective regarding their personal goals [1] and social partners [2]. Whereas the selectivity in goals has been attributed to losses in resources (e.g., physical strength) [3], the increasing focus on emotionally meaningful partners is, according to socioemotional selectivity theory, driven by the awareness of one's...

Two studies tested the hypotheses (1) that focusing on the process of goal pursuit is associated with lower levels of procrastination and (2) that this relationship is moderated by fear of failure and task aversiveness. Study 1 used a between-subjects design with hypothetical scenarios (N = 92). Study 2 used a 5-week longitudinal within-subject des...

Going beyond the relation of work and family, the present three-wave longitudinal study spanning one year assessed different forms of conflict and facilitation between leisure and the life domains work and family and their relation to subjective well-being. A sample of N = 277 employed men and women reported their perceived conflict and facilitatio...

Beliefs about aging influence how we interpret and respond to changes within and around us. Essentialist beliefs about aging are defined as views that link chronological age with inherent and immutable properties underlying aging-related changes. These beliefs may influence the experience of aging-related changes and shape people’s outlook of the f...

This article introduces the concept of backup plans as a motivational construct, defined as alternative means to an end that are intentionally developed but not initially (or ever) used. We posit that backup plans change the way a person pursues a goal, as well as the likelihood of achieving it, even if they are never used. In some cases, backup pl...

Self-regulation refers to the extent to which people influence, modify, or control their own behavior (including thoughts and feelings) according to goals or standards. Goals are a key concept in models of self-regulation as they direct and guide cognition and behavior over time and across situations and thereby help to organize and structure perce...

Across the entire lifespan, development entails resource gains and losses in all life domains. Consequently, Paul and Margret Baltes conceptualized successful aging as a lifelong process of maximizing gains and minimizing losses through the interplay of three processes: selection, optimization, and compensation. Selection involves the delineation o...