Completed BBCSS Project

Aging Frontiers in Social Psychology, Personality, and Adult Development Psychology

Publications: When I'm 64 (2006)

The National Academies’ has released the report, When I’m 64.  This report addresses the issue of “aging in America” and recommends areas of research opportunity based on recent findings from psychological science.  This research strongly suggests that with additional work a new understanding about the health and well-being of older people can be obtained.

By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64, nearly 22 percent of the population.  The range of late-life outcomes is already dramatic for older members of society.  The financially secure and well-educated have a very different experience than the  poor and uneducated.  Knowledge of individual and social behavior across one’s lifespan is key to understanding the diverse outcomes in old age.  It can also help to understand how society can develop the best policies to support longer, healthier lives and to benefit society. 

The National Academes’ Committee on Aging Frontiers in Social Psychology, Personality, and Adult Developmental Psychology  was asked by the National Institute on Aging to explore the research in these areas and identify research opportunities drawn on recent developments in the psychological and social sciences that are related to experimental work in social psychology, personality, and adult developmental psychology.  

In this report, the committee recommends that research support concentrate on social, personality and life-span psychology in four substantive areas:  (1) motivation and behavioral change;  (2) socioemotional influences on decision making; (3) the relationship between social engagement and cognition; and (4) the effects of stereotypes on self and others.

More psychological research can help clarify whether race, culture, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic class are associated with fundamental psychological processes represented in each of the committee’s recommended research areas.

The report also calls for investment in the behavioral and social sciences research infrastructure and calls for methods development in aging research, including interdisciplinary and multilevel approaches.  In addition, new funding mechanisms could encourage interdisciplinary research and build bridges to other branches of government, private foundations, and industry.