1. Overview Lecture 13 Successful Aging
1. Successful Aging: Theoretical Perspectives
2. Age and Creativity
Simonton Model
Last Works

2. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging
Focus of Successful Aging theories and research
Factors that contribute to survival
Enhanced spirit and joy in life
“Mental health”

3. High physical and cognitive functioning Maintain engagement with life
Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging
MacArthur Foundation Study of Successful Aging
Absence of disease
High physical and cognitive functioning
Maintain engagement with life

4. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging
Social Indicator Model of Well-Being
Age
Gender
Marital status
Income
account
for
Well-Being
Older adults should have lower well-being

5. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging
Paradox of Well-Being
Older adults are lower on social indicators
(e.g., income, health, education, marital status)
They have high levels of well-being
BUT
Successful aging is the norm

6. Percent who rate selves as happy
Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging
Percent who rate selves as happy
Mroczek & Kolarz 1998

7. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging: Subjective Well-Being
Definition and Measurement
Subjective well-being
Overall sense of happiness
Life satisfaction
Cognitive evaluation of one’s life circumstances
MIDUS study of midlife
2700+ participants
25-74 years, average= 46
Factors contributing to subjective well-being

8. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging: Subjective Well-Being
Findings of MIDUS Study
Women: positive affect highest in oldest groups
Men: higher positive affect scores in later life only for introverted (extroverted were higher throughout)
Older groups of married men had lower scores than younger married men

9. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging: Subjective Well-Being
Set Point Perspective
Well-being reflects personality traits
Biologically determined temperament sets boundaries for levels of well-being

10. Theoretical Perspectives on Successful Aging: Subjective Well-Being
Possible Ways to Achieve High Well-Being
Adaptation or habituation
Feeling of making progress toward goals
Coping strategies
Social comparison
Life story as reflection of identity processes

11. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Early Studies
Analysis of significant contributions
Peak productivity between 30-35
Peak varies by discipline
Lehman

12. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Lehman’s Findings for Three Disciplines
26-30
55-60
Chemistry
Chief Ministers
40-44
“Best Books”

13. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Lehman’s Conclusions
Earlier peaks in sciences and fields depending on imagination and physical ability
Later peaks in fields that rely on experience and diplomacy

14. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Early Studies
NUMBER (not quality) of creative works
Only people who lived to at least 80
Steep decline after peak age in arts
Decline after peak age in sciences
However, steady rate of production through late 60s
Dennis

15. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Findings from Dennis (1966)

16. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Summary Early Studies
Lehman
Rapid increase in creative output
Peak in 30s or early 40s
Steady decline thereafter
Dennis
Creative productivity unlikely to component of
successful aging.
But there are many well-known “older thinkers”

17. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Problems With Counts of Productivity by Age
highly creative artists die before becoming “old” (e.g., Mozart)
Compositional fallacy- average productivity rates do not describe productivity of individuals in that group

18. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Simonton’s Model of Age and Creative Production a
Production of new ideas for new products
Ideation
Number of works in unlimited lifespan p m
Creative
Potential
Creative
Products e
Calculated on basis of CAREER AGE
Elaboration
Transforming ideas into products

19. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Model for Poetry and Pure Mathematics
Career age

20. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Typology of Career Trajectories
Variations by career onset and creative potential
Use formula to predict first, best, and last works
Low
High
Early
Earliest “Last Work”

21. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Typology of Career Trajectories
First
Best
Last
CREATIVE POTENTIAL
CAREER ONSET
Low
High
Late
Latest “Last Work”

22. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Relation of Quantity to Quality
Equal Odds Rule
Positive relationship between quality and quantity
Highly productive older individuals have high probability of creating a masterwork

23. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Conclusions from Simonton’s Research
Emphasis on career age not actual age
Productivity in later life higher among those who begin later
However, high creative potential leads to high rate of productivity early and later in career
Longer span for highly creative between first and last works
Model allows for possibility of highly creative older people

24. Productivity and Creativity:
The Relationship Between Age and Creativity
Characteristics of Last Works
Eliminates fine details
Presents essence of work’s meaning
More subjective, less objective
Artists
“Old age style”
Musicians
Shorter main themes
Simpler melodies
“Swan Song”
Integration and synthesis
Studies of aging
Research on aging
Scientists
Stimulated by:
Proximity to death
Desire to leave legacy
Reaction to age-related changes

25. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”
Robert Browning