Adult age group differences in story recall style.

The story recall style of younger (mean age = 18.67 years) and older adults (mean age = 65.96) was examined in this study. Following presentation of a narrative in either fable or non-fable form, participants produced written responses under one of four recall conditions: total recall, summary, gist, or gist plus moral. Analysis of the response protocols revealed quantitative and qualitative differences associated with age in the non-fable but not the fable condition. In response to the non-fable, older adults exhibited a style that was more integrative or interpretive than that of the younger adults, whose protocols were highly text-based and literal. Overall, the fable condition produced more text-based responses than did the non-fable condition. In addition, instructions at recall influenced responding. Response patterns could be shifted toward a more text-based style under total recall instructions, while more interpretive responses were obtained under the gist plus moral condition.

Age, ego level, and the life-span development of coping and defense processes.

Developmental variation in coping and defense strategy use was examined in a sample of 100 male and female participants ranging in age from 10 to 77 years. Each participant was administered Loevinger's ego development task, the Ways of Coping measure, and the Defense Mechanism Inventory. In addition, a brief narrative of a stressful experience was assessed for the developmental level of the response and for its content. The results suggest that, in addition to age, the developmental measures of ego level and source of stress predict the use of particular coping and defense strategies. In keeping with other research, sex differences in coping and defense strategies were also found. These findings are discussed in light of the need for tasks that are able to assess both developmental and individual differences in the maturity of coping and defense strategy use.

Maternal regulation and adolescent autonomy: Mother-daughter resolution of story conflicts.

To examine how maternal regulation and daughters' striving for autonomy are reflected in dyadic communication, 32 eighth- and twelfth-grade daughters and their mothers were audiotaped as they discussed two stories with unresolved mother-daughter conflict themes (daughter's pregnancy, mother's financial problem). The tapes were analyzed for the quality of the conversational statements made while resolving the story conflicts. Results indicated that mothers regulated conversation through questions while daughters were more conceding. This pattern was less marked in older dyads. Five dyadic interaction styles were identified and examined in relation to grade level of the daughters. The results are discussed in light of issues of regulation and autonomy during adolescence and adulthood.