SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

The talk provides a hopefully not too selective bird’s eye perspective on research revolving around the role of historical change for adult development and aging. Walking in the footsteps of Baltes and Smith, Gerstorf will first summarize the scientifically good news that over the past decades age and aging have become younger in a number of different areas of people’s behaviors and experiences. In a second step, he will shed light onto the not-so-good news that such historical advances are often not maintained into very old age and the end of life. In a third step, Gerstorf attempts to reconcile the seemingly disparate picture by putting forth a conceptual perspective that views the good news and the not-so-good news as two sides of one and the same coin. In a final step, Gerstorf will briefly review historical trends that may become relevant in the forthcoming decades, including the role of physical health and trends in midlife. Here, he will use loneliness as a sample case to study national differences and the contributing role of nation-level policy factors such as investments into family benefits and income inequality.