In the Riediger et al. article entitled Seeking Pleasure and Seeking Pain: Differences in Prohedonic and Contra-Hedonic Motivation From Adolescence to Old Age, three main claims are proposed. First, they operationally define contra-hedonic feelings as “wanting either to maintain or enhance negative affect or to dampen positive affect” and claim that this is more frequent in adolescents. Contrastingly, in their second claim they state people older in age are more likely to show prohedonic motivations, which they define as “wanting to either maintain, but not enhance positive affect or to dampen negative affect”. Their last claim is that they expect prohedonic feelings to be more strongly related to the person’s affect at a given time than contra-hedonic feelings.
To support their claims, they erroneously (explained later) state that adolescence is characterized by a state of turmoil and negative emotionality, which may lead to contra-hedonic motivations. They also corroborate this assertion with the notion that adolescents are inclined to experience these contra-hedonic feelings in order to seek personal autonomy from authority figures and to test their identities. Furthermore, older adults’ are motivated towards prohedonic beliefs due to “the shrinking horizon of time” and their acceptance of the finitude of life. The final claim is bolstered by the idea that contra-hedonic motivations are more likely to serve utilitarian functions than hedonic functions.
There are many examples in the media that bolster the idea that adolescence is an age plagued by turmoil and rebellion. For example, the movie Empire Records is the quintessential stereotype of teenage rebellion in action. The protagonists actively engage in rebellious activities that end up in negative consequences. No matter how many times their actions fail, they always revert to the same behaviors, thus creating a temporary identity sprung out of failure and emotionality. A second great example of the extreme emotionality of adolescence was provided in class by the quote by Anna Freud stating that “to be normal during the adolescent period is by itself abnormal”, which was later proven false by many studies. These studies make it known that adolescents show good psychological adjustment and that positive emotionality is stabilized by the 9th-12th grades.
On a more comical note, the view that older aged people are more likely to experience prohedonic motivation due to the finitude of life is portrayed in the movie The Bucket List featuring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The movie follows two terminally ill men, who are conscious of the time restrictions of their lives, as they complete their wish list of acts before they die. The movie progresses from a sense of depression to the quick acknowledgement that before they die they must have the time of their lives. This correlates to the idea that Riediger et al. propose that older aged people have more of a proclivity towards prohedonic feelings because of an awareness that they might die soon.
Discussion questions.
Riediger et al. state in the discussion section of their article that “longitudinal investigations are necessary to determine whether the age-related differences observed in this study correspond to intraindividual changes as people grow older, and to explore the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of interindividual differences in these changes”. What results do you think that these longitudinal studies will yield? Are old aged people who believe in God and therefore an afterlife more likely to have prohedonic or contra-hedonic motivations compared to Atheists who believe in no life after death?
The Riediger et al. article came out in 2009, most likely after the two studies discussed in class repudiated the claim by Anna Freud that “to be normal during the adolescent period is by itself abnormal”. In light of such a contradiction, what effects do you think that knowledge of these results would have had on the authors before they had begun such study? Would they have attributed contrahedonic feelings to other characteristics of adolescence? If so, which?
- Guillermo Wippold (gmw399)
In the Riedger, Schmiedek, Wagner, and Lindenberg experiment the participants used are only citizens of Germany. What if they expanded their research into different countries? Would the results vary due to cultural values/norms?
ReplyDeleteThe article also mentions expanding research into various age groups. What if we also took a closer look at adolescents and their extracurricular activities?(If any) Would this affect the contrahedonic/prehedonic motivations? Would it reaffirm the results or disagree with them?
-Jessica Lopez
In response to the original post, I believe that a longitudinal study will probably show the same results, because as articles after this have shown, these findings are not true. I also believe that religion might not even be a factor in how they experience life. I think it might help them as they reach the finality of life, but I do not think it would affect their general affect and which emotions they would want to enhance or not. Which leads me to another question, would their life expectancy play a role in how their feelings that they want to. If someone wasn’t expected to live beyond adolescence would they continue this “turmoil?” Or would they try and experience life to the fullest and be happy? An example of this, would in the movie “A Walk to Remember” where the main character had terminal cancer and was super sweet and nice to everyone because there wasn’t a point in being mean or sad or upset.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jessica’s post, about extra-curricular activities, I think that those activities would not matter, essentially because, it has been shown that adolescents begin to even out their emotions from ninth to 12th grade. However, would it matter what their family life was like? Would someone who comes from a dysfunctional home have the same feelings of turmoil? On the other hand, would it matter in what kind of home they grew up?
-Meredith Lohn-Wiley