Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Tables and Figures
- Introduction
- 1 Selectivity and Failure Compensation as Fundamental Requirements of Human Behavior and Development
- 2 The Life Course as a Context of Action
- 3 Primary and Secondary Control across the Life Span
- 4 A Model of Developmental Regulation across the Life Span
- 5 Developmental Goals as Organizers of Developmental Regulation
- 6 Developmental Regulation in Different Life-Course Ecologies
- 7 Social Comparisons as Prototypical Strategies in Developmental Regulation
- 8 Conclusions and Prospects for Future Research
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
4 - A Model of Developmental Regulation across the Life Span
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- List of Tables and Figures
- Introduction
- 1 Selectivity and Failure Compensation as Fundamental Requirements of Human Behavior and Development
- 2 The Life Course as a Context of Action
- 3 Primary and Secondary Control across the Life Span
- 4 A Model of Developmental Regulation across the Life Span
- 5 Developmental Goals as Organizers of Developmental Regulation
- 6 Developmental Regulation in Different Life-Course Ecologies
- 7 Social Comparisons as Prototypical Strategies in Developmental Regulation
- 8 Conclusions and Prospects for Future Research
- References
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
In Chapter 2 the biological, sociostructural, and age-normative constraints to the individual's developmental regulation were discussed. This chapter focuses on the role played by the individual in regulating life-span development in the context of these constraints and presents a theoretical model. As argued in Chapter 2, constraints to developmental options are not merely restrictions, but serve as a scaffold to keep the developmental options manageable and help the individual to focus on crucial developmental challenges at any given point in the life course.
Selection, Compensation, and Optimization
As we have seen, the fundamental requirements of developmental regulation across the life span are the management of selectivity and the compensation of failure (Chapter 1). P. Baltes and M. Baltes (M. Baltes 1987; P. Baltes 1987, 1991, 1993; P. Baltes & M. Baltes 1990; P. Baltes, Dittmann-Kohli, & Dixon 1984; Marsiske, Lang, P. Baltes, & M. Baltes 1995) have proposed a metamodel of “selective optimization with compensation” (SOC), which is most relevant here because it involves the aspects of selection and compensation. In the P. Baltes and M. Baltes model, life-span development is conceptualized as a process of continuous selection in the investment of motivational and cognitive resources. This selection process helps the individual to deal with agingrelated decline in the ratio between developmental gains and losses and decreasing reserve capacity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Developmental Regulation in AdulthoodAge-Normative and Sociostructural Constraints as Adaptive Challenges, pp. 85 - 101Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998