Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Age differences in stages of attributional processing

Y Chen1, F Blanchard-Fields

  • 1School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0170, USA.

Psychology and Aging
|January 7, 1998
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Thinking with your head and your heart: age differences in everyday problem-solving strategy preferences.

Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition·2014
Same author

Inferencing and television: A developmental study.

Journal of youth and adolescence·2013
Same author

The influence of divorce on coping in adolescence.

Journal of youth and adolescence·2013
Same author

Beyond a stereotyped view of older adults' traditional family values.

Psychology and aging·2001
Same author

Unwanted thought: age differences in the correction of social judgements.

Psychology and aging·2000
Same author

Everyday problem solving across the adult life span: influence of domain specificity and cognitive appraisal.

Psychology and aging·1998
Same journal

Semantic and episodic contributions of long-term memory to working memory in young and older adults.

Psychology and aging·2026
Same journal

Older adults exhibit multisensory-specific cognitive control effects.

Psychology and aging·2026
Same journal

Autobiographical memory and metacognition in aging: A preserved ability to monitor memory retrieval.

Psychology and aging·2026
Same journal

Self-perceptions of aging and volunteering in later life: Examining longitudinal bidirectional associations in the German Ageing Survey (DEAS).

Psychology and aging·2026
Same journal

Age-related changes in eye movements during pictorial recall in older adults.

Psychology and aging·2026
Same journal

Gait matters in spatial orientation: Age-related differences in real-world wayfinding and cognitive mapping.

Psychology and aging·2026
See all related articles

Older adults show lower dispositional attributions with more thinking time, while younger adults show higher attributions. This age-related difference in dispositional attribution processing emerges with increased cognitive effort.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Dispositional attributions are crucial for social understanding.
  • Age differences in cognitive processing may influence attributional styles.
  • Previous research has not fully explored age-related changes in attributional processing stages.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce and validate an attributional processing approach for studying age differences in dispositional attributions.
  • To examine how younger and older adults make dispositional attributions in relationship vignettes under immediate and delayed conditions.
  • To investigate the role of spontaneous adjustment following initial characterization in dispositional attribution.

Main Methods:

  • Participants: Younger and older adults.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Procedure: Assessed dispositional attributions using a 2-step process in immediate and delayed rating conditions for relationship vignettes.
  • Analysis: Direct assessment of attributional stages and qualitative analysis of content-evoked schemas.

    • Main Results:

    • A 2-step attributional process (characterization and spontaneous adjustment) was identified, influenced by age and vignette content.
    • Older adults lowered dispositional ratings with more thinking time (delayed condition), unlike younger adults who increased them.
    • Qualitative schema analysis revealed a link between attributional ratings and vignette-evoked schemas.

    Conclusions:

    • Age significantly moderates the spontaneous adjustment stage of dispositional attribution.
    • Cognitive processing time differentially impacts attributional judgments in younger and older adults.
    • Schemas play a role in shaping dispositional attributions, with age-related variations.