Within the life-span developmental literature there has been a recent interest in determining how individuals are both the active producers and the products of their own development. Possible selves represent our developmental goals and serve as the motivational aspect of the self-system. They are the volitional component of self that emerge and change in an effort to selectively optimize development across the life- span. Possible selves offer one avenue for examining how individuals intentionally structure their development. Yet, the theoretical explanation for how developmental processes across the life-span become embodied in possible selves has not been clearly articulated. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to apply two theories of intentional development to possible selves. Specifically, this study will examine the influences of assimilative and accommodative processes and primary selective control and secondary compensatory control processes on the emergence and maintenance of possible selves in young, middle-aged, and older adults. There are several specific aims for the present study. First, to determine the influences of the developmental processes on possible selves in young, middle-aged, and older adults. Second, to determine how the patterns of influence among developmental processes and possible selves influence psychosocial outcomes such as life stress, well-being, and life satisfaction. Third, to determine how developmental, personality, and sociocultural influences may moderate the linkages among developmental processes and possible selves. A broad, long-term objective is to develop in the current cross-sectional pilot project a model of adaptation in sense of self across adulthood that can be empirically tested in a longitudinal project (to be submitted subsequently as an R01 proposal). Participants in the current study will be 192 young, 192 middle-aged, and 192 older adults from a diverse array of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Recruitment will take place at a local University as well as community centers, senior centers, religious organizations, healthcare related educational programs in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. The proposed structural model will be sequentially tested on two independent samples of at least 192 subjects per sample, with each sample stratified equally by each by age and gender within each of the three age groups. The first sample of at least 192 subjects will be used to test and trim the proposed model to obtain the best fit Data on the second sample of at least 192 subjects (likewise stratified by gender and age), will then be employed to test the model that results from the analysis (and trimming) on the first sample. The influences of different hypothesized moderator variables will be examined, and variations of the model will be tested to explicitly examine the stated aims of the project. By identifying a model of the influences of developmental processes on possible selves we hope to illuminate pathways to optimal development and point to ways individuals can cope better and become more resilient as they face developmental challenges across the life- span.
| Frazier, Leslie D; Barreto, Michelle L; Newman, Frederick L (2012) Self-regulation and eudaimonic well-being across adulthood. Exp Aging Res 38:394-410 |
| Frazier, Leslie D; Newman, Frederick L; Jaccard, James (2007) Psychosocial outcomes in later life: a multivariate model. Psychol Aging 22:676-89 |
