ABSTRACT
As already intimated, we assume that accommodative processes override assimilative tendencies through deconstruing the positive meanings of the blocked goal and raising the availability of cognitive content that renders an initially aversive situation more acceptable. Using techniques of semantic priming, we have found experimental evidence for this effect. In one series of experiments that involved 120 participants in the age range from 56 to 80 years (Wentura, Rothermund, & Brandtstädter, 1995), subjects read descriptions of a stressful episode. The vignettes ended with a phrase that comprised threatening as well as uplifting elements (for example, “. . . caring for yourself is increasingly becoming a burden. Your children offer to move you into an apartment in their new house. Leaving your familiar surroundings is difficult for you, but you enjoy the prospect of being close to your children.”).
