Journal article review: Motivational Reserve
Motivational reserve: Lifetime motivational abilities
contribute to cognitive and emotional health in old age. Psychology
and Aging -reviewed by Dr Alison Laver-Fawcett, Deputy Director of
RCOMH and Senior Lecturer at York St John University
Simon Forstmeir and Andreas Maercker from the Department of
Psychology at the University of Zurich have investigated the
effects of lifetime motivational abilities on cognitive and
emotional health in old age. The authors developed a Motivational
Reserve model, incorporating motivational and cognitive abilities,
which they have studied as a predictor of cognitive impairment and
Alzheimer’s disease. Their model hypothesises the relationships
between motivational reserve, cognitive reserve, stress levels, age
and cognitive status. In the paper they provide an interesting
review of the research literature related to both motivational
abilities and cognitive abilities as predictors of later cognitive
functioning and explore the evidence related to the exercising of
cognitive abilities as a buffer against cognitive decline in old
age. They also review evidence related to how motivational
abilities reduce the risk of depression and anxiety, which are in
turn reported as being associated with an increased risk of
subsequent dementia.
Two key Motivational Reserve variables are identified as ‘goal
orientation’ and ‘action planning’ and the four sub-processes of MR
are described as: decision regulation; activation regulation,
motivation regulation; and self-efficacy. Forstmeir and Maercker
explored MR in an occupational context. They used the term
‘occupational’ in a narrow sense related to people’s work
occupations and asserted that an occupational context is the area
of a person’s life where motivational abilities ‘play a crucial
role in reaching one’s goals, to a greater extent than in other
areas’ (p888).
Their study involved a sample of 147 community-dwelling people
(without dementia) recruited from the greater Zurich area. Subjects
were aged between 60 – 94 years and the sample was stratified for
age group, sex and education. Subjects were given a range of
standardised measures to examine motivation (volition,
self-efficacy, activation regulation), well-being (satisfaction
with life), mental health (positive and negative affect,
self-esteem and depression) and cognition. The researchers also
cross- referenced subjects’ main occupation to the Occupational
Information Network (O*Net) to estimate each person’s midlife
motivational and cognitive abilities. [N.B., O*Net is the official
occupational classification system used by the United States
Department of Labor].
In this study, Forstmeir and Maercker report that
O*Net-estimated motivational abilities predicted cognitive status,
psychological well-being and odds of mild-cognitive impairment when
age, sex, education and cognitive ability were controlled. However,
O*Net cognitive abilities were not found to be significant
predictors. A major limitation of this study is the
cross-sectional design and the authors identify the need for
longitudinal studies to fully test their model and examine the
hypotheses that motivational and cognitive abilities can be
identified through a person’s main occupation, are associated with
motivational reserve and cognitive reserve, and may predict
cognitive and emotional health in later life.
If you would like to read this article the full reference
is:
Forstmeier S, Maercker (2008) Motivational reserve: Lifetime
motivational abilities contribute to cognitive and emotional health
in old age. Psychology and Aging, 23, 4, 886-899