Publications Based on SOEP Data: SOEPlit

Rising Wage Inequality in Germany

Wage Convergence and Inequality after Unification: (East) Germany in Transition

Exit, Voice, and Suffering: Do Couples Adapt to Changing Employment Patterns?

Perceived Personal Control Buffers Terminal Decline in Well-Being

Recent research has repeatedly demonstrated that well-being typically evinces precipitous deterioration close to the end of life. However, the determinants of individual differences in these terminal declines are not well understood. In this study, we examine the role of perceived personal control as a potential buffer against steep terminal declines in well-being. We applied single- and multiphase ...

Terminal Decline in Well-Being: The Role of Social Orientation

Well-being development at the end of life is often characterized by steep deteriorations, but individual differences in these terminal declines are substantial and not yet well understood. This study moved beyond the typical consideration of health predictors and explored the role of social orientation and engagement. To do so, we made use of social variables at the behavioral level (self-ratings of ...

Secular Changes in Late-Life Cognition and Well-Being: Towards a Long Bright Future with a Short Brisk Ending?

How socio-cultural contexts shape individual functioning is of prime interest for psychological inquiry. Secular increases favoring later-born cohorts in fluid intelligence measures are widely documented for young adults. In the current study, we quantify such trends in old age using data from highly comparable participants living in a narrowly defined geographical area and examine whether these trends ...

Terminal Change Across Facets of Affective Experience and Domain Satisfaction: Commonalities, Differences, and Bittersweet Emotions at the End of Life

General well-being is known to deteriorate sharply at the end of life. However, it is an open question how rates of terminal change differ across affective and evaluative facets of well-being and if individual difference correlates operate in facet-specific ways. We examined how discrete affective states (happy, angry, fearful, sad) and satisfaction with key life domains (health, leisure, family) change ...

Inquiry Into Terminal Decline: Five Objectives for Future Study

Notions of terminal decline propose that late-life change is primarily driven by processes closely tied to pathology and mortality rather than chronological age. We use the rationales of longitudinal research as outlined by Baltes and Nesselroade (Baltes, P., & Nesselroade, J. [1979]. History and rationale of longitudinal research. In J. R. Nesselroade & P. Baltes (Eds.), Longitudinal research ...

Life Satisfaction Shows Terminal Decline in Old Age: Longitudinal Evidence From the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)

Between-Person Disparities in the Progression of Late-Life Well-Being (Chapter 10)

Throughout adulthood and old age, levels of well-being appear to remain relatively stable. In this chapter, we argue that focusing on a phase of life during which this positive picture does not necessarily prevail promises to help us better understand between-person disparities in the progression of late-life well-being. In a first step, we review empirical evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel ...