Optimism for the Future in Younger and Older Adults
Optimism for the Future in Younger and Older Adults
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DOI：
10.1093/geronb/gbx171
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发表时间：
2019-05-01
影响因子：
6.2
通讯作者：
Mather, Mara
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Durbin, Kelly A.;Barber, Sarah J.;Mather, Mara
目标：研究表明，老年人对自己的未来不如年轻人那么乐观；然而，先前研究的局限性在于，年轻人和老年人预测的是不同的年龄和人生阶段。为了解决这个问题，我们调查了当人们预测到完全相同的年龄时，未来乐观情绪是否存在年龄差异。我们还测试了预测自己的未来与预测他人的未来时的乐观情绪是否有所不同。方法：参与者是从 Amazon Mechanical Turk 招募的 285 名年轻人和 292 名老年人。参与者完成写作和文字评分任务，想象自己 15 年后的未来、自己 85 岁时的未来或普通人 85 岁时的未来。结果：年轻人比老年人对自己 15 年后的未来更加乐观。相比之下，两个年龄组对自己 85 岁时的未来同样持乐观态度，并预期自己在 85 岁时的未来比其他人更积极。讨论：与之前的研究相反，年轻人和老年人在预测完全相同的年龄时对未来的预测具有可比性。这些发现强调，在考察未来乐观情绪的年龄差异时，需要考虑年龄和人生阶段。
Objectives: Research has suggested that older adults are less optimistic about their future than younger adults; however, a limitation of prior studies is that younger and older adults were forecasting to different ages and stages of life. To address this, we investigated whether there are age differences in future optimism when people project to the exact same age. We also tested whether optimism differs when projecting one's own future versus another person's future.Method: Participants were 285 younger and 292 older adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed writing and word-rating tasks in which they imagined their own future in 15 years, their own future at age 85, or the average person's future at age 85.Results: Younger adults were more optimistic than older adults about their own future in 15 years. In contrast, both age groups were similarly optimistic about their future at age 85 and expected it to be more positive than others' future at age 85.Discussion: Contrary to previous research, younger and older adults had comparable future forecasts when projecting to the exact same age. These findings emphasize the need to consider age and stage of life when examining age differences in future optimism.