Age as a Predictor of Faculty Productivity

Abstract

Researchers interested in faculty role performance have used a range of conceptual approaches to study productivity and career development. The often inconsistent and conflicting conclusions regarding the cause(s) of behavioral change over time or age group differences have resulted in a growing appreciation of the multiple dimensions of human aging. Increasingly one reads about the need for interdisciplinary approaches to research in this area. Psychologists and sociologists who have been trying to create integrative approaches have detailed many conceptual and measurement problems that are part and parcel of this task. Looft [26, p. 29], writing about the problem within psychology, states behavior and development can be viewed from a number of different perspectives. . . the paradigmatic umbrella under which the psychologist operates defines for him [in orig.] which questions are meaningful to explore. Further, it advocates to him the most appropriate methods for studying these questions, and it suggests the best form for interpreting the data he gathers. Dannefer [14] discusses the difficulties encountered by researchers who try to bridge the theoretical domains of sociology and psychology. Highlighting core assumptions inherent to these disciplines, he warns that attempts at interdisciplinary integration or cross-disciplinary action must begin by confronting the issue of paradigm difference. The failure to do so can result in a surrender of socially produced age-related patterns to the domain of 'normal