The adaptation process of aging

Aging is characterized by decreasing resource gains and increasing resource losses in many life domains. However, most older adults successfully adapt to the shifting balance of resource gains and losses. In this chapter, we focus on motivational factors as a key for understanding the adaptation process in older adulthood. Based on an action-theoretical perspective that acknowledges individuals as producers of their development, the motivational approach focuses on the role of goals for successful aging. We discuss different motivational models of adaptation (the model of selection, optimization, and compensation, the theory of primary and secondary control, and the model of assimilative and accommodative coping) and summarize some of the empirical evidence for each model as illustrations of research in this area. We also address age-related changes in the cognitive representation of goals (i.e., gain and loss orientation, outcome and process focus) and their role for successful aging. In the second part of the chapter, we place the motivational changes into the context of the transition to retirement, leisure, and social relationships. Finally, we outline ideas on adaptation processes to newer socio-demographic developments such as the increasing life expectancy or the increasing proportion of older adults in the society.