Biomedical subjects

M Pasupathi

Publications and source records attributed to M Pasupathi.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

The social construction of the personal past and its implications for adult development.

This article examines conversational recounting about experiences as a potential mechanism by which people socially construct themselves and their worlds over the life span and the resulting implications for understanding adult development. Two principles governing conversational recounting of past events are proposed: coconstruction (the joint influences of speakers and contexts on conversational reconstructions of past events) and consistency (the influence of a conversational reconstruction on subsequent memory). Operating together, the principles provide an account for how autobiographical memory is socially constructed. In addition, the principles may illuminate how conversations about the past can influence the development of identity in adulthood.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Seeds of wisdom: adolescents' knowledge and judgment about difficult life problems.

The present study examined adolescents' wisdom-related knowledge and judgment with a heterogeneous sample of 146 adolescents (ages 14-20 years) and a comparison sample of 58 young adults (ages 21-37 years). Participants responded to difficult and ill-defined life dilemmas; expert raters evaluated these responses along 5 wisdom criteria. Our findings confirmed that in contrast to adulthood, adolescence is a major period for normative age-graded development in knowledge about difficult life problems. Adolescents performed at lower levels than young adults but also demonstrated substantial age increments in performance. As expected, adolescents' performance varied as a function of criterion and gender. These results hold implications for research on adolescent development and for the development of wisdom-related knowledge and judgment.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Emotional experience in everyday life across the adult life span.

Age differences in emotional experience over the adult life span were explored, focusing on the frequency, intensity, complexity, and consistency of emotional experience in everyday life. One hundred eighty-four people, age 18 to 94 years, participated in an experience-sampling procedure in which emotions were recorded across a 1-week period. Age was unrelated to frequency of positive emotional experience. A curvilinear relationship best characterized negative emotional experience. Negative emotions declined in frequency until approximately age 60, at which point the decline ceased. Individual factor analyses computed for each participant revealed that age was associated with more differentiated emotional experience. In addition, periods of highly positive emotional experience were more likely to endure among older people and periods of highly negative emotional experience were less stable. Findings are interpreted within the theoretical framework of socioemotional selectivity theory.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Age differences in response to conformity pressure for emotional and nonemotional material.

Most theories of social influence do not consider adult development. Theoretical and empirical work in life span developmental psychology, however, suggests that age may reduce susceptibility to social influence. The present study examined age differences in social conformity for 2 classes of stimuli: judgments of geometric shapes and emotional facial expressions. As predicted, older people, compared with their younger counterparts, displayed lower rates of social conformity, and this age difference was most evident when judging emotional facial expressions.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Emotion and aging: experience, expression, and control.

Age differences in emotional experience, expression, and control were investigated in 4 studies. A community sample of 127 African Americans and European Americans (ages 19-96 years) was used in Study 1; a community sample of 82 Chinese Americans and European Americans (ages 20-85 years) was used in Study 2; a community sample of 49 Norwegians drawn from 2 age groups (ages 20-35 years and 70+ years) was used in Study 3; and a sample of 1,080 American nuns (ages 24-101 years) was used in Study 4. Across studies, a consistent pattern of age differences emerged. Compared with younger participants, older participants reported fewer negative emotional experiences and greater emotional control. Findings regarding emotional expressivity were less consistent, but when there were age differences, older participants reported lesser expressivity. Results are interpreted in terms of increasingly competent emotion regulation across the life span.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Primary caregivers' descriptions of Alzheimer patients' personality traits: temporal stability and sensitivity to change.

Caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients provided characterizations of the patients' premorbid personality traits and current personality traits on two occasions nearly 1 year apart. Characterizations of pre-illness personality traits did not differ between the two assessments. Changes in personality over the year were found for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The findings support the reliability of observer's descriptions of premorbid personality using the NEO-PI and the sensitivity of the instrument to personality change in dementia.

Aged↗

PubMed1993

Concordance between observers in descriptions of personality change in Alzheimer's disease.

To evaluate observer bias and to estimate observer concordance for descriptions of personality changes in dementia, the authors examined the personality descriptions of dementia patients provided by 2 informants. Twenty-two patients with Alzheimer's disease were rated on the NEO-PI by each of 2 informants, the primary caregiver and another relative or friend. Each informant completed the NEO-PI to describe current behavior and premorbid behavior. Significant differences between premorbid and current descriptions were found for 4 of the 5 personality dimensions measured. There was substantial agreement between independent raters, as indicated by significant correlations between raters for 4 dimensions and the absence of significant differences between rater averages. These results suggest that both primary caregivers and others who know a patient well may serve as informants for studies of personality in dementia.

Aged↗