Adult Development and Aging

Adult Development and Aging presents a view of the adult years that is topical in nature rather than chronological, given the tremendous variability among adults and older persons. Embedding what we know about adulthood and aging in a cultural context, the chapters are arranged to first lay the groundwork for thinking about adult development, and then deal with basic psychobiological processes, followed by topics that are distinctly psychological. The later chapters are predominantly psychosocial and/or clinical in their orientation. This chapter organization reinforces the text s dual emphasis on basic and applied research. As each chapter deals with a somewhat different aspect of adult development, it reinforces the notion that changes in each area of our lives are interwoven with changes in other areas. Throughout the text the emphasis is upon the fact that adult lives are quite dynamic. Additionally, the text stresses individual differences in the aging process: how one person s life plays itself out in all its complexity will likely be different from that of others-each travels his or her own unique path.