Control Judgements across the Lifespan

Abstract

Given the inconsistent findings in the literature, we examined age-cohort differences in various personal control judgements over the lifespan ( N = 1623; ages 14-85). For three distinct life domains (personal, social, and societal), participants rated their amount of personal control, the goal importance, the degree of control striving, and, in comparison with same-aged peers, their relative control in each domain. Within this broad lifespan range, the developmental trends showed, as expected, different trajectories depending upon the type of control dimension and the nature of the life domain. The differential nature of these age-cohort trends have important implications for understanding the inconsistent findings reported in the literature, namely, that depending on the nature of the life domain, the type of control dimension, and the age range tested, the trajectories can either increase, decrease, or remain stable. These trends are discussed with reference to various metatheoretical perspectives on lifespan development and control-related judgements.