Self-serving appraisal as a cognitive coping strategy to deal with age-related limitations: An empirical study with elderly adults in a real-life stressful situation

Abstract

Elderly people are often confronted with stressful events that threaten psychological homeostasis. Nevertheless, the lack of a general age-related drop in life satisfaction remains intriguing. The objective of this study was to analyze the basic mechanisms of perceived control and self-protective processes. Eighty-four elderly adults who underwent a fitness-to-drive evaluation were asked how they appraised their performance in a driving simulation task and were classified as over-estimators versus people who estimated their performance correctly and people who didn’t overestimate their performance. Decreased physical resources were related to self-serving appraisal and less depressive feelings. The results are in line with theories on self-immunizing processes and provide support for the use of cognitive therapies in dealing with age-related limitations.

Acknowledgements

The authors owe special thanks to the Research Council of the Free University Brussels and the Belgian Road Safety Institute for funding this research project.