Dialectics of Decision Making in Older Adults

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Abstract
The dialectics of decision making were studied for a cohort of 109 older adults who described a decision-making response to a major change in their lives in the past year. Analysis of the responses revealed that (1) decisions usually involved conflicts among several developmental dimensions; (2) many of the conflicts were resolved by synthesis of the conflicting dimensions; (3) the nature and the complexity of the conflict were not related to the type of dialectical analysis described, and (4) there was a trend toward patterns of Piagetian logical abilities scores and psychosocial variables differing for (a) respondents describing syntheses, (b) respondents describing no conflict among several developmental dimensions and (c) respondents who could not resolve their dimensional conflict. Based on these findings, Piagetian and dialectical analyses appear to have some similar underlying elements.

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