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Getting Older and Getting Happier with Work: An Information-Processing Explanation

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  • Joseph Luchman
  • Seth Kaplan
  • Reeshad Dalal

Abstract

Job attitudes and subjective well-being (SWB) have important relationships with one another. Moreover, job attitudes and, to an extent, SWB are related to chronological age. Owing to a “graying” workforce in industrialized countries, uncovering how age influences job attitudes is increasingly important. The present work explores the effects of cognitive-aging research on the item response process during attitude measurement. Research finds that older individuals attend selectively to positive affective experiences and weigh affective experiences more heavily during judgment than younger individuals. Based on cognitive-aging research, we propose an item-response process and hypothesize that chronological age results in a specific form of measurement non-equivalence. Our hypothesis is tested on 2 different samples of university employees, across 3 different job attitudes rooted in emotional experiences. Results indicate age-related measurement non-equivalence across all 3 attitudes such that older employees report more positive job attitudes than younger employees even when controlling for the latent attitude construct. Our findings suggest caution in interpreting of age-satisfaction correlations, focusing greater attention on understanding item response processes of older versus younger individuals and increased attention to job-related emotional experience for older employees. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Luchman & Seth Kaplan & Reeshad Dalal, 2012. "Getting Older and Getting Happier with Work: An Information-Processing Explanation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(3), pages 535-552, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:108:y:2012:i:3:p:535-552
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-011-9892-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chaonan Chen, 2001. "Aging and Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 57-79, April.
    2. Hui-Chuan Hsu, 2010. "Trajectory of Life Satisfaction and its Relationship with Subjective Economic Status and Successful Aging," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 455-468, December.
    3. Fredda Blanchard-Fields & Renee Stein & Tonya L. Watson, 2004. "Age Differences in Emotion-Regulation Strategies in Handling Everyday Problems," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 59(6), pages 261-269.
    4. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J. & Warr, Peter B., 1994. "Is job satisfaction u-shaped in age ?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9407, CEPREMAP.
    5. Brief, Arthur P. & Butcher, Ann Houston & Roberson, Loriann, 1995. "Cookies, Disposition, and Job Attitudes: The Effects of Positive Mood-Inducing Events and Negative Affectivity on Job Satisfaction in a Field Experiment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 55-62, April.
    6. Gerben Westerhof & Freya Dittmann-Kohli & Toine Thissen, 2001. "Beyond Life Satisfaction: Lay Conceptions of Well-Being among Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 179-203, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Heike Heidemeier & Anja Göritz, 2013. "Individual Differences in How Work and Nonwork Life Domains Contribute to Life Satisfaction: Using Factor Mixture Modeling for Classification," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1765-1788, December.
    2. Hatem Mohammed Rouhoma Salah & Nasser Habtoor, 2015. "Libyan Managers’s Perspective on the Intention to Retain Older Employees in the Corporate Sectors in Libya," International Journal of Management Sciences, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 6(6), pages 282-290.
    3. repec:cup:judgdm:v:8:y:2013:i:4:p:448-469 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Nicole M. Giacopelli & Kaila M. Simpson & Reeshad S. Dalal & Kristen L. Randolph & Samantha J. Holland, 2013. "Maximizing as a predictor of job satisfaction and performance: A tale of three scales," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 8(4), pages 448-469, July.

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