Perceived Control Over Aging-Related Declines Adaptive Beliefs and Behaviors

The belief that people are in control of desired outcomes, including those associated with aging, is a hallmark of American culture. Nevertheless, older adults are less likely than the young to believe there are things that can be done to control aging-related declines in areas such as memory. Within age groups, individual differences in control beliefs are related to cognitive performance, health, and well-being. Mechanisms linking perceived control and positive outcomes include adaptive behaviors such as strategy use and physical activity. There is some evidence that control beliefs can be modified in later life, as illustrated in an intervention for fear of falling. Further work is needed to examine the antecedents of perceived control in later life and the implications of control beliefs in other aging-related domains. KEYWORDS—control beliefs; sense of control; aging; memory; physical health More so than citizens of any other country, Americans believe that they are in control of outcomes in their lives. A 2002 Pew Center poll of 38,000 people in 44 countries presented a typical control-belief item: ‘‘Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control’’ (Leland, 2004). In the United States, about 65% disagreed with the statement, as did 60% in Canada. In other countries, disagreement ranged from about 10% (Bangladesh) to 50% (Japan). A majority of Americans believe they have control over many aspects of life, and aging is one such aspect. A survey conducted by Parade magazine and Research America (2006) asked, ‘‘Do you think there is anything you can do to stay healthy as you grow older, or do you think the way you age is basically outside your control?’’ The results revealed that 84% of Americans believe there are things they can do to control the aging process. The $40 billion-a-year anti-aging industry, which offers products and treatments designed to prevent, slow, reverse, or compensate for aging-related changes in the face, body, and mind, depends on this prevalent belief that there are things we can do to take control of aging-related changes. Control over the aging process is heralded not only in popular culture but also in professional journals and books such as Successful Aging by Rowe and Kahn (1998). A key message conveyed is that although aging is influenced to some degree by genetic factors, there is a large component that is determined by lifestyle choices and behavioral factors—that is, the nature of aging is to some extent under one’s own control. AGE DIFFERENCES IN CONTROL BELIEFS Although there is a widespread belief that we can control aspects of aging, there is also strong evidence, based on both crosssectional and longitudinal studies, that the sense of control decreases, on average, with age (Krause & Shaw, 2003; Lachman & Firth, 2004; Mirowsky, 1995). In the 1995 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we administered an item similar to the one in the Pew Center Poll to a national probability sample of 4,242 Americans, aged 25 to 75 (Lachman & Firth, 2004). Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement, ‘‘What happens in my life is often beyond my control.’’ Overall, we found results similar to the Pew results in that 70% disagreed with this statement. We also examined demographic factors (age, sex, education, income, religion, race, marital status) in relation to agreement or disagreement with this control item, and we found the largest variations by age. Almost 80% of the young (ages 25–39) said they are in control (i.e., disagreed with the statement), whereas it was 71% for the middle aged (40–59), and only 62% for the older adults (60–75). These age-group differences were not due to group variations in education, income, or Address correspondence to Margie E. Lachman, Department of Psychology, MS062, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454-9110; e-mail: lachman@ brandeis.edu. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 282 Volume 15—Number 6 Copyright r 2006 Association for Psychological Science health, although control beliefs were also related to socioeconomic status and health (Lachman & Firth, 2004). Those who score higher in sense of control strongly believe there are things they can do to bring about desired outcomes. The primary focus of our research program is on perceptions of control especially in relation to declines associated with aging, including beliefs about prevention, remediation, and compensation. These expectancies for control, or lack thereof, have implications for affect and action whether or not they are veridical (Thompson, 1999). Older adults seem to maintain their overall sense of mastery (beliefs about one’s ability or self-efficacy), perhaps because they adjust the salient domains or the standards that they use to define their competence. With aging, we see mainly a loss of control associated with an increasing acknowledgment of the constraints and limitations due to uncontrollable factors or to reduced contingency between actions and outcomes (Lachman & Firth, 2004). CONTROL AND WELL-BEING IN LATER LIFE Although a majority in the United States may believe that the decrements associated with aging are preventable or modifiable, there are many, especially in later life, who believe declines are largely inevitable or irreversible. There is a great deal of evidence that such individual differences in control beliefs are associated with key aging outcomes (Rowe & Kahn, 1998). It is consistently found that a high sense of control is associated with being happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise. In the MIDUS sample, those with a higher sense of control had greater life satisfaction and a more optimistic view of adulthood; they reported that things were going well and expected them to either stay that way or even to get better in the future (see Lachman & Firth, 2004). We also have found that those with higher control are less depressed and have better self-rated health, fewer chronic conditions, and less-severe functional limitations. Control beliefs moderate the well-known relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. Those with lower incomes typically have a lower sense of control and poorer health. This likely reflects, at least in part, the reality of conditions tied to economic circumstances. Differences by countries in control beliefs such as those found in the Pew Center study cited above may mirror economic circumstances and public health conditions, or religious and cultural ideologies. In the United States, we found that although, on average, lower-income groups reported less control, there were individual differences within groups and the distribution of control beliefs overlapped across SES groups. Those with lower incomes who managed to develop and maintain a high sense of control had health similar to that of the higher-income groups (Lachman & Weaver, 1998). Thus, control beliefs buffer the negative health consequences of lower SES. In the cognitive domain, the sense of control is tied to better memory and greater intellectual functioning, especially among older adults. Although much of the work has been cross-sectional and correlational, there is longitudinal evidence that those who have higher control beliefs improve more on cognitive tests with practice and also are less likely to show aging-related declines in cognitive functioning over time (Caplan & Schooler, 2003). HOW ARE CONTROL BELIEFS ADAPTIVE? Although relationships between control beliefs and positive outcomes such as good memory, health, and well-being are fairly well established, there is little work examining the processes linking control beliefs with outcomes in these domains. To guide our work, we have used a conceptual model of the role of adaptive beliefs (e.g., control) and behaviors (e.g., strategy use, physical activity) in relation to aging-related changes, derived from cognitive-behavioral theory (Bandura, 1997). This model (see Fig. 1) shows a multidirectional process in which control beliefs are influenced by prior performance outcomes and beliefs about control also have an influence on subsequent performance and outcomes through their impact on behavior, motivation, and affect. For example, older adults who experience memory lapses or declines in physical strength may respond with a lowered sense of control in these domains, especially if these changes are attributed to uncontrollable factors. Such beliefs in low control can be detrimental if they are associated with distress, anxiety, inactivity, and giving up without expending the effort or using the strategies needed to support optimal outcomes. We have examined possible affective, behavioral, motivational, and physiological mechanisms, including anxiety, effort, compensatory strategies, and physical activity, that link control beliefs and outcomes. In the health domain, for example, we found that those who have a higher sense of control are more likely to exercise regularly and also to have better health (Lachman & Firth, 2004). We also have investigated mechanisms linking control beliefs to memory, a domain that typically shows age-related declines. In a study of 335 adults aged 20 to 85, we asked participants to recall a list of 30 categorizable words such as types of fruit and flowers (Lachman & Andreoletti, 2006). We found that control beliefs were positively related to effective strategy use and to recall performance for middle-aged and older adults, but not for young adults. These age differences in the pattern of correlations for beliefs with effective strategy use and memory are shown in Figure 2. Moreover, the relationship between control beliefs and recall was mediated by strategy use for the middle aged and partially mediated for older adults. Those who had a higher sense of control were more likely to use an effective strategy, in this case categorizing the words, and they in turn had better recall. Although the directional relationship can not be confirmed given Volume 15—Number 6 283 Margie E. Lachman