The Effects Of Intraindividual Variability In Perceived Control On Cognitive Function And Health Conditions And Its Mechanism Among The Elderly

With the accelerated process of aging in China, the aging population has become the focus of social concern, and the aging related research has been paid more and more attention. As the most important two fields of aging, cognitive functions and health conditions are in close relationship with the elderly, and they can affect kinds of aspects of their lives. Perceived control is an important part of aging research. It deeply exerts an influence on the life of the elderly. Intraindividual variability(IIV) in perceived control is also known as the stability of perceived control, refer to within-person variability in a construct(e.g., performance) across multiple occasions and is considered separate from systematic or random errors of measurement. People can be compared with his own performance, and intraindividual variability is the degree of fluctuation in certain performance across different time or different situations. One’s objective feelings can be changed as while as the external environment situation changes.Intraindividual variability in perceived control can be understood as the degree of the fluctuations. The greater fluctuated one have, the more unstable the perceived control will be. It is based on the situation, reflecting immediately. Intraindividual variability in perceived control is also a kind of intraindividual differences and trait.Most of the existing studies concentrate on the general perceived control, and pay little attention to the specific perceived control or control in some certain area.Moreover, most researches focus on the level of perceived control, and ignoring the characteristics that perceived control will fluctuate within people across time and occasions. Due to the limited researches on specific perceived control and intraindividual variability, the present research detect the influence of intraindividualvariability in perceived control among the old individuals on their cognition functions and health conditions in the areas of cognition and health, which will help to improve our understanding of the relationship between perceived control and aging from the perspective of micro level.The study used short-term repeated measurement to explore intraindividual variability in perceived control in specific situations in order to compensate for the single measurement of perceived control level. Meanwhile, the present study offered a fresh sight of predicting the cognitive ability and health level for the elderly, and developed the scope of the perceived control and aging study.The present research takes two experiments to explore the relationship between the intraindividual variability in perceived control and cognitive functions and also health conditions among the elderly. In the first experiment, we used four cognitive tasks to detect the level of perceived control, and each of the cognitive task had been made three different difficulty settings. Then we calculated the standard deviation based on the level value as intraindividual variability value. In the first experiment we found that:(1) Intraindividual variability of the elderly in picture recognition is the lowest, and the second and the third is number comparison and working memory. Intraindividual variability in inductive reasoning is the highest.(2) There is no significant gender difference in intraindividual variability of cognitive perceived control among the elderly. Intraindividual variability in perceived control of inductive reasoning, number comparison, working memory and general cognitive condition are significant different in age. Intraindividual variability in perceived control of picture recognition is significant different in education level.(3) Intraindividual variability in cognitive perceived control among the elderly is negatively correlated to cognitive performance. The elderly with lower intraindividual variability have better cognitive function. Compared to the level of perceived control,the predictive power of intraindividual variability in cognitive perceived control is higher.(4) Lower intraindividual variability in perceived control has a protective effect on the cognitive function of the elderly, which can compensate for the negative effects of lower level of perceived control in the area of cognition.(5) Anxiety and motivation have multiple mediating effects between intraindividual variability in cognitive perceived control and cognitive functions among the elderly.In the second experiment, we used imagining inducing questionnaire to ask the participants to describe their current situation and imagine how they would be 20 years ago and 20 years later. After filling done each imagining questionnaire, ask them to stay imagining status and complete health perceived control questionnaire. We obtained three perceived control levels for each participate and then we could calculate intraindividual variability value. In the second experiment we found that:(1) To intraindividual variability of health perceived control of the elderly, there is no significant difference in gender, age and education level, but there is significant difference in self-rated health level. Intraindividual variability in health perceived control is positively correlated to the number of chronic diseases.(2) Intraindividual variability in health perceived control of the elderly is negatively correlated to health conditions. The elderly with lower intraindividual variability have better health conditions. Compared to the level of perceived control, the predictive power of intraindividual variability in health perceived control is higher.(3) Lower intraindividual variability in perceived control of the elderly has a protective effect on health conditions, which can compensate for the negative effects of lower level of perceived control in the area of health.(4) Health promoting behaviors partly mediate the relationship between intraindividual variability in health perceived control and health conditions among the elderly.