The interest in effective human resource management has increased dramatically as mean age of the workforce has been growing in the developed western countries. A part of this workforce is constituted for by knowledge intensive workers, in which the motivation dif-fers from other groups of workers. Moreover, existing literature on lifespan development research on motivation fails to differentiate sufficiently between types of worker groups; in a like manner literature on motivation of knowledge intensive workers has neglected to in-clude age differences. This results in a shortage of research of how motivation of knowledge intensive workers differs in regards to their age. The purpose of this thesis is to describe how the intrinsic motivational factors autonomy, variety in tasks, learning new things, receiving positive feedback, and the feeling of accom-plishment and value creation influence knowledge intensive workers differently in regards to their age. The thesis’ research method was qualitative and the primary empirical data was collected through a case study in which interviews with IT consultants of two different age groups were conducted. The findings revealed that differences between the age groups are present. The most ap-parent differences lie in preference for autonomy, learning new things and receiving posi-tive feedback. Variety in tasks and the feeling of accomplishment and creating value also displayed age related discrepancies between the groups.

Despite a growing population of single older adults, past research and theory on romantic relationship formation has primarily focused on younger adults. Online dating has become an increasingly prevalent context for both older and younger adults to form romantic relationships. Nonetheless, adults of different ages may have different motivations for seeking dating partners. Using a framework of agency and communion to synthesize disparate literatures on personal goals, evolutionary motivations, and socioemotional motivations across the lifespan, the current research focuses on age differences in self-presentations in 4000 online dating profiles sampled from two popular online dating websites. Themes in these profiles were identified using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth & Francis, 2007). Regression analyses revealed significant associations between age and word use. Older adults were more likely to use first person plural pronouns (e.g. we, us, our), reflecting a focus on connectedness as well as words associated with health and positive emotion. Younger adults were more likely to emphasize the self, using more first person pronouns and were more likely to use words associated with work and achievement. Results suggest younger adults focus on enhancing the “self” when seeking romantic partnership. Consistent with theories of adult development, older adults are more positive in their profiles and appear to focus more on the “self” as embedded in relationships. / text

Interpersonal Emotion Regulation (IER) in adulthood has been the area of attention in a growing number of studies over the last decade. Despite the normality of emotion regulation in social situations, focus has mainly been on pathology. Motivated by the lack of salutogenic perspectives, this cross-sectional study aims to shed light on associations between IER strategies and Quality of Life (QOL). Also, to explore age-related aspects, a developmental angle was taken. A non-clinical sample (N=73) residing in Sweden was recruited and responded to the self-assessments Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ) and WHOQOL-BREF. The respondents were divided into two age groups, younger (NY=35) and older (NO=38) adults. Furthermore, participants were divided into groups based on whether or not they were temporarily experiencing special circumstances affecting life quality. Multiple bivariate correlation analysis was performed on IER factors and QOL domains for the whole group and also for the two group conditions. All IER strategies represented in IERQ were positively associated with all domains of QOL in all conditions, although only some of them were significant correlations. The results indicated that Soothing and Social Modeling can be effective IER strategies in terms of psychological well-being. In the age condition, this was only valid for the younger adults. In addition, the findings supported Soothing as an effective strategy for those experiencing special circumstances. Hence, different correlational patterns emerged related to the specific conditions examined, giving support for context-dependency of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation.

Life-stories offer an approach to understanding personality processes within a larger, developmental context. This study examines the role that one area of a person’s larger context (namely romantic relationships) plays in that person’s life-story. Specifically, the study examines whether this role changes over the lifespan. Nineteen students from a consortium of colleges in southern California, and an equal number of older adults living in a nearby retirement community, were interviewed about their romantic relationship history. The interview was semi-structured and asked participants about past and current relationships, and their most meaningful relationship overall. The interviews were coded for the themes of agency, redemption, and contamination, reported self-growth, and an additional variable called unprompted discussion of sexuality that was added based on a series of unexpected occurrences during the interviews. The results showed significant differences in both agency and unprompted discussion of sexuality between the romantic relationship narratives of young and older adults. However, no significant differences were found between the age groups on any of the other three variables, or between the sexes on any of the five variables. The results not only help us to better understand the ways in which our stories about our romantic relationships change across the lifespan, but also suggest significant differences between how younger and older adults think about love and sex.

Prospective memory refers to the ability to remember to carry out delayed intentions, more precisely, to remember to initiate and execute an intended action at some point in the future. The development and progression of prospective memory across the lifespan is still heavily under debate. Only few studies have so far investigated prospective memory development in childhood, revealing an inconsistent pattern. In adulthood, studies in the laboratory and naturalistic studies showed paradoxical results with age deficits in the laboratory and age benefits in naturalistic tasks. Up to now, no conceptual model has been suggested to guide research on prospective memory development across the lifespan. Thus, the present work examined the effect of central factors from the multiprocess framework (McDaniel & Einstein, 2000) on the development of prospective memory in four different age-groups: pre-schoolers, school-age children, young and old adults. The first study explored the role of task motivation in age differences in prospective memory performance across the pre-school age-range. No main effect of age or motivation in prospective memory performance was found, yet a significant interaction, indicating that for younger children motivation or task importance may help allocating the available resources to the task elements of interest. Evidence from the second study indicated that 9-10 year old school children outperform 6-7 year old school children on a measure of prospective memory, and that retrieval-based factors (ongoing task absorption, cue salience, cue focality) systematically influenced performance. Of particular importance for possible developmental mechanisms was the finding of an age x cue focality interaction, suggesting that age effects may be modulated by cue focality. The third study examined the effect of task setting in a laboratory procedure and the effect of motivation in a naturalistic procedure on prospective memory performance in young and older adults. Results from the laboratory prospective memory procedure revealed significant age-related decline for irregular tasks but not for regular and focal tasks. In addition, in the naturalistic procedure, the age benefit was eliminated when young adults were motivated by incentives. Results from the present work indicated that already pre-school age children were able to remember to perform intended actions and this ability increased across school-age. In adulthood, the results revealed a decline with age on a pure performance level. Yet, older adults may be able to compensate for basic cognitive impairments if task conditions reduce the need for controlled attention. Furthermore, the present work suggest, that factors of the multiprocess framework may indeed affect age-differences in prospective memory performance throughout the lifespan, as cue focality and task importance were related to prospective memory development in children and adults. Thus, the multiprocess approach might serve as foundation for a lifespan theory of the development of prospective memory.

This dissertation focuses on the family experiences of Chinese Canadian young adults raised in immigrant families. Drawing on contextual and transactional theories of development and parenting, this dissertation investigates Chinese young adults’ experiences and interpretations of parental monitoring and their links to youth well-being and family functioning. There is a relative lack of knowledge about the nature and interpretations of Chinese immigrant parenting in young adulthood and a lack of consensus regarding the conceptualization of parental monitoring both in adolescence and in young adulthood in mainstream and immigrant populations. This research achieved several objectives in a series of three papers. In Paper 1, I uncovered the range of Chinese Canadian young adults’ perceived parental monitoring behaviours and motivations for such behaviours in a qualitative study using freelisting methodology. In Paper 2, I sought to understand the construct of monitoring in this demographic by creating a multidimensional measure of parental monitoring of Chinese Canadian young adults. In Paper 3, I explored how young adults’ unmet expectations for parental monitoring related to well-being using polynomial regressions and response surface analyses. This research addressed several gaps in the literature by extending the study of parental monitoring to young adulthood, adding to the scant literature on parenting of Chinese immigrant young adults, distinguishing between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting, and moving toward a more complete conceptualization of parental monitoring. / Graduate / 2022-07-14

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Indigenous youth are overrepresented within homelessness and form approximately 20 percent of the total youth homeless population in Canada that uses emergency shelters. While extensive studies have been conducted and new practices have been put in place in an effort to reduce the number of individuals experiencing homelessness, the number of Indigenous youth journeying into homelessness continues to increase. This suggests that the solutions implemented to date have inadequately addressed the needs of Indigenous youth and the situations integral to their worlds. The purpose of this research was to explore Indigenous youths’ experiences of homelessness that promote positive identity development. It used a community-based Indigenous methodology. Building on research by Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics with the stories of Indigenous homeless youth, this research was centered at the intersection of Indigenous youth homelessness and their engagement in behaviours affected by past and present events that impact their processes of identity development. With its strengths-based lens, it deepens understandings of how Indigenous homeless youth create prosocial outcomes that bolster their self-esteem and encourage positive identity development that will support them in young adulthood and stages beyond. Indigenous youth prosocial outcomes must include holistic health outcomes that encompass spiritual, physical, mental and emotional well-being. Ultimately, this research challenges existing conversations held in society regarding Indigenous youths’ behaviours exhibited in homelessness and contributes to Indigenous resurgence, equitable colonial-Indigenous relationships, and reconciliation consistent with the goals put forth in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s recommendations. / Graduate / 2023-08-30

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O processo de envelhecimento com bem-estar é um processo de aprendizagem contínua que busca diariamente sentido e renovação existencial. Este estudo objetivou apresentar a perspectiva teórica da psicologia do desenvolvimento no curso de vida, lifespan, que vê o desenvolvimento como processo que se estende por toda a vida, em diálogo com idosos moradores em bairros de periferia de Porto Alegre. Este modelo apóia uma visão diluída da idade cronológica e não está ligado a etapas normativas, sendo determinado por aspectos biológicos, socioculturais, históricos e pessoais. Segundo ele, o desenvolvimento humano ocorre em ritmo e velocidade diferentes para cada idoso. Envelhecer satisfatoriamente neste modelo prevê a utilização de três processos: a seleção, a otimização e a compensação. Estas são estratégias de escolha de metas e de ações para concretizá-las que impulsionam o idoso em suas capacidades de resistência, de plasticidade, de flexibilidade, estratégias de gerenciamento para uma vida com bem-estar. Assim, este estudo utilizou a pesquisa qualitativa e o referencial fenomenológico quando entrevistou 30 idosos, entre 62 e 82 anos, que se reúnem em grupos de convivência ou são atendidas em Unidades Básicas de Assistência à Saúde da Associação Hospitalar Moinhos de Vento. Todos são moradores das vilas Morro da Cruz e Ilha da Pintada. A maioria são mulheres, 68% residem junto a familiares, dividindo pequenas moradias, 44% ou são analfabetos ou têm dificuldade de leitura. O número de filhos é elevado entre os idosos de menor escolaridade: até 14 filhos. Na autopercepção de seu envelhecimento, a maioria entende que mudou para uma situação melhor, mais alegre, menos cansativa, apesar de quase a totalidade relatar uma ou mais patologias e co-morbidades. O estudo levantou o uso das estratégias SOC: seleção, otimização e compensação no cotidiano dos idosos, revelando a importância das escolhas para a maioria dos idosos, apesar das muitas restrições causadas pela depauperação que vivem em termos socioeconômicos e culturais. Quando podem escolher e otimizar alguma ação significativa de socialização, de trabalho ou de aprendizagem, demonstram mais alegria e satisfação de vida. Quando necessitam compensar algo, eles são verdadeiros mestres, pois a situação de carência sempre esteve presente em seu meio. Compreender a velhice como um constante recomeçar, proporcionando espaços com maiores possibilidades de concretização de escolhas na idade avançada, é conceder cidadania aos idosos. / The getting old process with wellness is a continous learning process with daily search for life sense and existencial renovation. This dissertation discusses the perspective of the so-called lifespan development theory, which understands human development as a process that takes place throughout life. It does so by establishing a dialog with elderly people who live in two neighborhoods located in the outskirts of Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The lifespan development model advocates a diluted view of chronological age and is not coupled with normative stages. It is determined by biological, sociocultural, historical and personal aspects. According to this model, human development occurs at a different speed and rhythm for each elderly person. Growing old in a satisfactory manner implies the use of three processes: selection, optimization and compensation. These are strategies for choosing goals and actions designed to achieve them that stimulate the elderly in their capacity for resistance, plasticity and flexibility. They are management strategies for a life with well-being. The author made use of qualitative research and the phenomenological approach when interviewing 30 senior citizens between 62 and 82 years of age who get together to socialize in groups or receive health care services at stations maintained by the Moinhos de Vento Hospital Association. They all live in the neighborhoods called Morro da Cruz and Ilha Pintada. Most of them are women, 68% live with family members, sharing small houses, 44% are illiterate or can hardly read. The number of children is high among the elderly with less education: up to 14 children. According to their own perception of their aging process, most of them think that they are in a better situation now. They feel happier and less tired, although almost all of them report one or more pathologies and comorbidities. The study examined the use of selection, optimization and compensation strategies by the elderly in their daily lives, showing the importance of the choices made by most of them, in spite of the constraints imposed on them by the poverty they experience in socioeconomic and cultural terms. When they are able to choose and optimize some meaningful action related to socializing, working or learning, they show more happiness and satisfaction with their lives. They are masters at compensating because their situation of deprivation is part and parcel of their life experience. Understanding aging as a constant new beginning that opens up possibilities of making choices in old age is a contribution toward turning the elderly into citizens.

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