TY - JOUR
T1 - Utilizing principles of life-span developmental psychology to study the complexities of resilience across the adult life span
AU - Infurna, Frank J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Life-span developmental psychology includes a broad array of principles that have wide application to studying adult development and aging. Three principles have guided my past, current, and future research: (a) development being a cumulative, lifelong process with no one period taking precedence; (b) multiple processes influence development (e.g., age-, pathology-, nonnormative, and mortality-related processes); and (c) development is multidirectional and multidimensional. This paper elaborates on how these principles have guided my research studying resilience to adversity across the adult life span and how my research aligns with guiding elements of resilience across definitions and literatures. I also discuss my current and future research of applying these principles to studying resilience in midlife, which emphasizes how the defining features of midlife lend themselves to examining resilience, midlife continues to not be well understood, midlife health foreshadows health in old age, and the experience of midlife will evolve in the context of an increasingly diverse society. The last section elaborates on additional directions for future research, such as the promise of intensive longitudinal research designs that incorporate qualitative approaches and examining historical changes in midlife health and well-being. In conclusion, a life-span developmental psychology framework has wide application for elucidating the nature of resilience across the adult life span through the integration of its principles with existing paradigms and research designs that blend contemporary methods with mixed methodology.
AB - Life-span developmental psychology includes a broad array of principles that have wide application to studying adult development and aging. Three principles have guided my past, current, and future research: (a) development being a cumulative, lifelong process with no one period taking precedence; (b) multiple processes influence development (e.g., age-, pathology-, nonnormative, and mortality-related processes); and (c) development is multidirectional and multidimensional. This paper elaborates on how these principles have guided my research studying resilience to adversity across the adult life span and how my research aligns with guiding elements of resilience across definitions and literatures. I also discuss my current and future research of applying these principles to studying resilience in midlife, which emphasizes how the defining features of midlife lend themselves to examining resilience, midlife continues to not be well understood, midlife health foreshadows health in old age, and the experience of midlife will evolve in the context of an increasingly diverse society. The last section elaborates on additional directions for future research, such as the promise of intensive longitudinal research designs that incorporate qualitative approaches and examining historical changes in midlife health and well-being. In conclusion, a life-span developmental psychology framework has wide application for elucidating the nature of resilience across the adult life span through the integration of its principles with existing paradigms and research designs that blend contemporary methods with mixed methodology.
KW - Adult life span
KW - Multidirectional and multidimensional
KW - Opportunities and challenges of midlife
KW - Resilience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114117520&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85114117520&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/geront/gnab086
DO - 10.1093/geront/gnab086
M3 - Article
C2 - 34387342
AN - SCOPUS:85114117520
SN - 0016-9013
VL - 61
SP - 807
EP - 818
JO - Gerontologist
JF - Gerontologist
IS - 6
ER -