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Successful ageing and development: the contribution of generativity in older age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2011

FELICIANO VILLAR
FELICIANO VILLAR*
Affiliation:
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Spain.
*
Address for correspondence: Feliciano Villar, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron 171, Barcelona 08035, Spain. E-mail: fvillar@ub.edu
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Abstract

This paper examines the contributions that generativity in older age may make to the concept of successful ageing. To this end, two perspectives on successful ageing are described: successful ageing as a set of clinical criteria, and successful ageing as the application of adaptive processes aimed at achieving efficient functioning. After showing the limitations of the first perspective, particularly from a developmental point of view, the paper argues that the adaptive version of successful ageing helps to put ageing into a developmental frame, but needs to be complemented by identifying specific content and goals that guide these adaptive processes and establish new feasible gains for older people. Generativity in older age could play that role and provides a conceptual framework that enriches the concept of successful ageing, both by emphasising the social context in which people age and by highlighting a personal growth component.

Keywords

successful ageingdevelopmentgenerativity in older agelife-span theories
Type
Forum Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 7 , October 2012 , pp. 1087 - 1105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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