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Cited by 1,486Aging and Gerontology ResearchPsychology of Development and EducationBehavioral Health and Interventions

A motivational theory of life-span development.

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Heckhausen, Jutta, Wrosch, Carsten, Schulz, Richard·2010·Psychological Review
DOI 10.1037/a0017668PMC PMC2820305
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Abstract

This article had four goals. First, the authors identified a set of general challenges and questions that a life-span theory of development should address. Second, they presented a comprehensive account of their Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. They integrated the model of optimization in primary and secondary control and the action-phase model of developmental regulation with their original life-span theory of control to present a comprehensive theory of development. Third, they reviewed the relevant empirical literature testing key propositions of the Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. Finally, because the conceptual reach of their theory goes far beyond the current empirical base, they pointed out areas that deserve further and more focused empirical inquiry.

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  • Individual strategies and resources for coping with care needs involve the ability to maintain autonomy and well-being (e.g., through secondary control, goal selection) in a situation of disability and care needs.

    “Proposition 4: Individual strategies and resources for coping with care needs involve the ability to maintain autonomy and well-being (e.g., through secondary control, goal selection) in a situation of disability and care needs.”

    From Toward a More Comprehensive Concept of Successful Aging: Disability and Care Needs: Table 1. (2016) · cites this paper as Heckhausen et al., 2010

  • Affect is a resource in primary control striving, motivating investment of time and effort.

    “Heckhausen et al. (2010) illuminated the role of affect as a resource in primary control striving.”

    From Transformative privacy calculus: Conceptualizing the personalization‐privacy paradox on social media (2024) · cites this paper as Heckhausen et al., 2010

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Authors
Heckhausen, J., Wrosch, C., & Schulz, R.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • Concordia University (CA)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
ORCID
Venue
Psychological Review
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2010
Volume
117
Issue
1
Pages
32-60
ISSN
  • 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1471
DOI
10.1037/a0017668
PMC
PMC2820305
OpenAlex
W1981018100
Cited by
1,486
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 68 · 2025: 104 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 102 · 2021: 108 · 2020: 89 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 103 · 2017: 102 · 2016: 105 · 2015: 125 · 2014: 73 · 2013: 94 · 2012: 85
FWCI
95.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Nursing Research (NR08272; NR09573)
  • National Institute on Aging (AG15321; AG026010)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH071944)
  • National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (MD000207)
  • National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL076852; HL076858)
  • National Science Foundation (EEEC-0540856)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Psychology of Development and Education
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
Keywords
lifespan development, motivation theories, developmental regulation, primary control, secondary control, optimization, development theory
MeSH terms
Attitude, Goals, Humans, Human Development, Motivation, Psychological Theory

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

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