The Psychology of Aging.

Abstract

Developmental psychology has investi-gated a multitude of developmentalphenomena in different phases of thelife span and in multiple domains offunctioning. However, the resultingknowledge about human development ingeneral and aging in particular continuesto be fragmented, with relatively littleconnection across disparate strands ofresearch and different research traditions(Baltes,Lindenberger,Staudinger,inpress;Magnusson, 1996). Informed by work ofothers (e.g., Baltes, 1997; Freund & Baltes,2000; Marsiske et al., 1995), a centralobjective of this chapter is to use theconceptual framework of selection, opti-mization, and compensation (SOC; Baltes& Baltes, 1990) as a tool for integratingresearch on adaptive resource allocationin life span development. In addition, wepropose that the SOC framework helpsopen up promising research directions,especially if attempts are made to studythe interplay of SOC mechanisms from adynamic systems perspective.In line with the scope of the SOCframework, the general approach takenin this chapter is inherently life spandevelopmental(e.g.,Baltes etal.,inpress).Our specific focus, however, is on lateradulthood and old age. We start byintroducing prominent contemporaryconceptual frameworks of developmentalregulation. In this context, we commenton the benefits and limitations of theresource metaphor for studying develop-mental regulation, given that resource-allocation mechanisms play a prominentrole in all considered frameworks. Thenwe describe the SOC framework in moredetail and conclude that this frameworkmayserveasaheuristictoolforarrivingata more integrated picture of human devel-opment and aging. We elaborate thisclaim in two major ways. First, we makeuse ofSOC to integrate evidence ofa greatvariety of different resource allocationprocesses. Here, we selectively reviewconceptual approaches and recent empiri-cal findings in two research domains:(a) motivational–volitional processes and(b) cognitive–sensorimotor functioning.