When I'm 64 (2006) / Chapter Skim
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4 Socioemotional Influences on Decision Making: The Challenge of Choice
4 Socioemotional Influences on Decision Making: The Challenge of Choice
Pages 54-67
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From page 54... ...
4 Socioemotional Influences on Decision Making: The Challenge of Choice T he publication of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose in 1980 (Friedman and Fried man, 1980) represented a high-water mark in positive public attitudes toward choice.
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From page 55... ...
To the extent that they use such services, but are less savvy than younger people with new technologies, these choices are likely to pose special challenges for older adults. In addition, many older adults are compromised in the cognitive domains necessary to process new information and make decisions based on that information.
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From page 56... ...
However, very little empirical research has explicitly examined changes in decision-making processes and competencies as a function of age, gender, or level of physical or cognitive ability. Most of the limited research that has been done focuses on the ways in which cognitive decline impairs decision processes (e.g., Finucane et al., 2002; Peters, Finucane, MacGregor, and Slovic, 2000; Slovic, Finucane, Peters, and MacGregor, 2002)
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From page 57... ...
. One study has shown that older adults' accumulated experience in social interactions enhances their ability to discriminate lies in situations of deception (Bond, Thompson, and Malloy, 2005)
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From page 58... ...
Some of the most exciting new directions in decision research and in social psychology involve new types of measures (see paper by the committee on "Measuring Psychological Mechanisms"; also Schwarz, Krosnick et al., Hartel and Buckner, all in this volume)
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From page 59... ...
In fact, there is a large literature on metacognitive functioning in older adults; it is a valuable basis for research on its implications for changes in decision making with age. LONG-RANGE PLANNING AND DECISION MAKING Long-term planning and decision making is an area of research in which there has been a great deal of convergence in findings from psychologists -- including social psychologists -- and economists.
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From page 60... ...
Normative models of intertemporal choice (decisions between outcomes occurring at different points in time) assume that there are strong individual differences -- that someone who is impulsive in one domain of behavior will also tend to be impulsive in other domains.
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From page 61... ...
The interpersonal context may be especially important for older people, but the effects of such age-dependent changes remain poorly understood. The smaller social networks of older people may reduce access to potential advisers and advocates, especially for elderly people who are geographically isolated from family members.
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From page 62... ...
62 WHEN I'M 64 with physical limitations and have smaller pools of financial resources, reliance on families to provide care in later life is prevalent. Understanding the effects of family cohesion among these groups will become increasingly important as more and more families become responsible for care.
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From page 63... ...
. Social psychologists are puzzled by the fact that people do not seem to readily learn from experience that they are equipped with powerful transformational abilities that facilitate recovery from an initial emotional state.
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From page 64... ...
64 WHEN I'M 64 invests in stocks in one's 30s, and the market crashes, you still have several decades to make up your losses prior to retiring. Losing one's "nest egg" in one's later years is likely to be far more consequential.
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From page 65... ...
SOCIOEMOTIONAL INFLUENCES ON DECISION MAKING 65 regret. Their research shows that, at least in younger adults, when looking back on the recent past there is a general tendency to regret acts of commission (things one wishes one hadn't done)
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From page 66... ...
The existing literature on decision making and aging is small, and most of it focuses on the ways that cognitive decline may degrade decision competence. Moreover, as in the broader field of decision research, the conceptual approach adapted in most research is one in which decisions are viewed as "rational" processes that entail the weighing of pros and cons about different options and the selection of the option with the most advantages.
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From page 67... ...
Research on social and emotional aspects of decision making and on the intersection of emotional and cognitive processes is particularly promising because the marriage of these areas is likely to yield considerable progress in a relatively short period of time.
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