Need for closure and cognitive structuring among younger and older adults

• Authors: Małgorzata Kossowska , Katarzyna Jaśko , Yoram Bar-Tal
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper reported two correlational studies. The aim of the Study 1 was to examine the hypothesis that age moderates the relationship between need for closure (NFC) and cognitive structuring. Results of the study revealed that aging with increased need for closure was associated with better recognition of irrelevant information than schema-relevant items, in testing hypotheses about the target person. These findings are interpreted as demonstrating the age-associated failure of cognitive abilities (i.e., low efficacy at fulfilling the need for closure), reducing tendency to behave according to the level of epistemic motivation. The results of Study 2 demonstrated that older participants are characterized by higher NFC but by lower EFNC than young participants. These results are consistent with the conclusion that the negative relationships between NFC and cognitive structuring demonstrated by the older participants in Study 1 can be attributed to their lower level of EFNC.

Keywords

EN

aging; need for closure; social information processing; cognitive structuring; efficacy at fulfilling the need for closure

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 40-49

Contributors

author

Małgorzata Kossowska

• Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Mickiewicza 3, 31-120 Krakow, Poland

author

Katarzyna Jaśko

author

Yoram Bar-Tal

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10059-012-0005-6