Engaging in cognitive and social activities is related to higher cognitive function in older adults (Hertzog,Kramer, Wilson,&Lindenberger, 2008). However, some older adults engage in activities that help maintaincognitive functioning, and some do not. The present research was aimed at discovering the motivations thatunderlie older adult engagement in activities. Thirty-three older adults aged 60-87 years provided informationabout the activities in which they participated and their motivations to engage in these activities. Resultsindicated that people were generally motivated by factors in the Material World (Forbes, 2011), such as motivationfor achievement. Moreover, contrary to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1993), olderadults were least motivated by factors within the Social World, such as motivation for nurturance. Lastly, itappears possible to predict motivation for activities based on the characteristics of the activity using MultilevelModeling. Further research could formulate a taxonomy of older adult activities and motivations to bestencourage challenging activities at older ages.
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