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Recent evidence suggests that older adults experience momentary states of spending time alone (i.e., solitude) less negatively than younger adults. The current research explores the role of autonomy as an explanation mechanism of these age differences. Previous research demonstrated that solitude can be experienced positively when it is characterized by autonomy (i.e., the own wish or decision to be alone). As older adults are relatively more autonomous in their daily lives, they might experience solitude less negatively (in terms of subjective well-being, social integration, self-esteem, and valence) than younger adults. We tested this hypothesis in three studies. In two experience-sampling studies (Study 1: N  = 129, 59.7% women, age 19-88 years; Study 2: N  = 115, 66.4% women, age 18-85 years), older age and higher autonomy were associated with more positive experience of everyday solitude moments. Although autonomy did not differ between younger and older adults, perceived (lack of) autonomy partly played a more important role for the experience of solitude moments in younger adults compared to older adults. Finally, Study 3 ( N  = 323, 52% women, age 19-79 years) showed that the relationship between recalled solitude moments of high versus low autonomy and solitude experience is fully explained by feelings of autonomy. Overall, our results demonstrate that older people do not experience more autonomy in situations of solitude than younger adults, but that they partly better cope with low-autonomy solitude. However, people of all ages seem to benefit more from high-autonomy moments of solitude., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Expectancies of cancer patients regarding their physical activity before they took part in a behavior change intervention were compared with their experiences during the intervention period. A total of 66 cancer patients completed either a randomly assigned 4-week physical activity or a stress-management counseling intervention. On average, participants had positive expectancies toward physical activity. Outcome expectancies predicted outcomes (e.g. physical activity) at a 10-week follow-up. Outcome realization (discrepancy between expectancies and experiences) further increased explained variance in self-efficacy and physical activity enjoyment. In conclusion, not only initial outcome expectancies but also their realizations seem to be important for subsequent behavior and cognitions.