Control judgements across the lifespan

Given the inconsistent findings in the literature, we examined age-cohort d ifferences in various personal control judgements over the Lifespan (N = 16 23; ages 14-85). For three distinct life domains (personal, social, and soc ietal), participants rated their amount of personal control, the goal impor tance, the degree of control striving, and, in comparison with same-aged pe ers, their relative control in each domain. Within this broad lifespan rang e, the developmental trends showed, as expected, different trajectories dep ending upon the type of control dimension and the nature of the Life domain . The differential nature of these age-cohort trends have important implica tions for understanding the inconsistent findings reported in the literatur e, namely, that depending on the nature of the Life domain, the type of con trol dimension, and the age range tested, the trajectories can either incre ase, decrease, or remain stable. These trends are discussed with reference to various metatheoretical perspectives on lifespan development and control -related judgements.