Life Management & Motivation

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Managing multiple goals across adulthood

At all ages, people pursue multiple personal goals. This is a daunting task regardless of age, as goal-relevant resources such as time, social support, and money are always limited. However, the availability of resources changes across adulthood with a decrease in gains and an increase in losses (Mustafic & Freund, 2012). One way in which older adults manage to pursue multiple goals is to focus on goals that are particularly important to them (Riediger & Freund, 2016). At the same time, healthy aging also involves maintaining a goal system that comprises goals in different life domains. Therefore, it seems crucial that younger and middle-aged adults do not give up goals even when faced with goal conflicts due to resource limitations. This project investigates processes that address the tension between selectivity and maintaining heterogeneity in goal systems across adulthood.

Project status: ongoing
Contact: Prof. Dr. Alexandra M. Freund and Zita Mayer

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Altruism across adulthood

There is substantial empirical evidence that aging is associated with an increase in prosociality. However, to date little is known about the antecedents and consequences of this increase in prosociality. On the basis of a theoretical model of value-based decision making (Mayr & Freund, 2020), this project aims to investigate different antecedent factors that might contribute to higher prosociality in older adulthood, and the relation of prosocial behavior with indicators of healthy aging. Moreover, the project investigates differences in prosociality across different domains (e.g., monetary giving, volunteering).

Project status: ongoing
Contact: Prof. Dr. Alexandra M. Freund

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Aging and motivational orientation towards gains, maintenance and loss avoidance

This project investigates age differences in decisions involving potential gains and losses. Taking the perspective of motivated cognition, this project investigates how the motivational shift in goal orientation from gains towards losses across adulthood affects decisions that concern gains and losses in different age groups.

Project status: ongoing
Contact: Dr. Sebastian S.Horn and Prof. Dr. Alexandra M. Freund

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Exhaustion and recovery across adulthood

This project examines age-related differences in exhaustion and recovery in different life domains. The project employs a multi-method approach, combining lab-based micro-longitudinal experiments and field-based experience sampling studies, focusing on interindividual variability in intraindividual change over time.

Project status: ongoing
Contact: Dr. Brian B. Cardini , MSc Victoria Schüttgruber and Prof. Dr. Alexandra M. Freund