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APA Handbook of Adult Development and Aging

APA Handbook of Adult Development and Aging

ISBN: 978-1-4338-4093-7
May 2026
814 pages
Item # 3840937

Hardcover
$199.00
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Overview

Part of the landmark APA Handbooks in Psychology® Series from APA

The study of adult development and aging is a rapidly growing field, as the older adult population continues to increase. This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of adult development and aging, including theory and methods, biological factors and health, personality and individual differences, cognition, mental health and clinical issues, variability and diversity in development, and social and contextual factors. 

Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art review of a different domain of adult development and aging and applies a lifespan developmental lens to the topic, addressing aspects of continuity and change in biopsychosocial processes across multiple aspects of adult development, with an emphasis on midlife and later adulthood. Distinguished scholars and researchers included in this handbook contribute a broad variety of perspectives, approaches, and methods, demonstrating the heterogeneity and diversity of adult development and aging. The volume provides foundational research and explication of theories as well as insight into current topics of growing importance within the field, such as alternative therapies including mindfulness and meditation; technology support for aging adults; the health of LGBTQ+ older adults; health inequities related to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other sociocultural factors; cultural variability in aging; and addressing ageism.

Table of contents

Editorial Board

About the Editors-in-Chief

About the Associate Editors

Contributors

A Note From the Publisher

Introduction

Part I. Theory and Methods

Chapter 1. Current Psychological Theories and Models of Aging
Susan T. Charles and Joseph A. Mikels

Chapter 2. Developmental Methodology: Macro Perspectives
Kevin J. Grimm and Matt L. Miller

Chapter 3. Understanding Development Over Micro-Timescales
Stacey B. Scott, Samantha S. Corley, and Kelly A. Romano

Chapter 4. Childhood Socioeconomic Antecedents of Adult Health and Aging in a Rapidly Changing World: Toward a Theoretically Rooted Actionable Knowledge
Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell and Colby Leonard

Chapter 5. Studying Adult Development and Aging the Long Way: 100 Years of U.S. Longitudinal Studies of Aging
Avron Spiro III and Robert J. Waldinger

Chapter 6. Open Science, Replication, and Reproducibility in Psychological Aging Research: The Case of Emotion Research
Derek M. Isaacowitz and Hannah E. Wolfe

Part II. Biological Factors and Health

Chapter 7. Biological Aging
Tara L. Gruenewald

Chapter 8. Health-Promoting Behaviors and Lifestyles in Adulthood
Nicholas A. Turiano, Damaris Aschwanden, and Sarah J. Miller

Chapter 9. Age-Related Changes to Sensation and Perception
Jennifer L. Campos, Karen Z. H. Li, Natalie A. Phillips, M. Kathleen Pichora-Fuller, and Walter Wittich

Chapter 10. Stress and Biological Aging
Agus Surachman, Elissa Hamlat, and Elissa Epel

Chapter 11. Genetics and Epigenetics in Adulthood and Aging
Chandra A. Reynolds

Part III. Personality and Individual Differences

Chapter 12. Personality Change and Development in Adulthood
Daniel K. Mroczek, Eileen K. Graham, Tomiko Yoneda, and Jing Luo

Chapter 13. Psychosocial Factors and Health: Toward a Psychosocial Prescription for Healthy Aging
Margie E. Lachman and Shevaun D. Neupert

Chapter 14. Subjective Views of Aging
Manfred Diehl

Chapter 15. Motivation and Goal Development Across the Adult Lifespan: Goal Engagement, Disengagement, and Adjustment
Jutta Heckhausen, Carsten Wrosch, Jacob Shane, and Richard Schulz

Chapter 16. Emotion Regulation Across Adulthood: From Me to Us?
Claudia M. Haase

Chapter 17. The Daily Stress of Adult Development
David M. Almeida, Jennifer Piazza, Jacquie Mogle, Kelly E. Cichy, and Robert S. Stawski

Part IV. Cognition

Chapter 18. Cognitive Changes in Adulthood and Aging
Christopher Hertzog

Chapter 19. Peering Into the Mind of the Perceiver: Age Differences in Social Cognitive Abilities
Anne C. Krendl and Lucas J. Hamilton

Chapter 20. Wisdom and Age: A Complex Association
Ute Kunzmann

Chapter 21. Multiple Facets of Brain Aging: Associations With Age-Related Cognitive Changes
Lars Nyberg and Nina Karalija

Chapter 22. Neurocognitive Disorders, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Related Disorders
Daniel A. Nation

Chapter 23. Cognitive Reserve and Resilience
Laura B. Zahodne and Kiana A. Scambray

Part V. Mental Health and Clinical Issues

Chapter 24. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Health in Adulthood and Aging
Robert F. Krueger, Colin D. Freilich, and Susan C. South

Chapter 25. Depression and Anxiety in Adulthood
Amy Fiske, Montgomery T. Owsiany, Amanda R. W. Steiner, and Julie Loebach Wetherell

Chapter 26. Deciphering Resilience: Frameworks for Study and Future Research
Frank J. Infurna and Nutifafa E. Y. Dey

Chapter 27. Clinical Geropsychology
Rebecca S. Allen, Shayne S.-H. Lin, Timothy K. Ly, and Michael R. Buxton

Chapter 28. Alternative Therapies, Mindfulness, and Meditation
Paul Verhaeghen, Grazia Mirabito, and Shelley N. Aikman

Part VI. Variability and Diversity in Development

Chapter 29. Why Historical Context Matters for Adult Development and Aging
Johanna Drewelies, Nilam Ram, and Denis Gerstorf

Chapter 30. Variability and Diversity in Adult Development: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Nicole Long Ki Fung, Hongmei Lin, Hanyu Zhang, and Helene H. Fung

Chapter 31. Racial and Ethnic Health Inequities in Middle-Aged and Older Adults
Adolfo G. Cuevas, Ruijia Chen, Danielle M. Krobath, Patrick J. Smith, Michael V. Stanton, Agus Surachman, and Haowei Wang

Chapter 32. Health and Well-Being in Queer Older Adults: Overcoming a Lifetime of Stigma
Toni L. Bisconti, Michael T. Vale, and Aimee Trunko

Part VII. Social and Contextual Factors

Chapter 33. Worker Aging and Retirement
Mo Wang, Zhefan Huang, Chengquan Huang, and Junhui Yang

Chapter 34. Close Ties, Weak Ties, and Social Integration Across Adulthood
Karen L. Fingerman, Nicole Richards, and Susan T. Charles

Chapter 35. A Cross-Cultural, Life Course Approach to Understanding Ageism
Liat Ayalon

Chapter 36. Family Caregiving: Theory, Research, and Practice
Steven H. Zarit and Allison R. Heid

Chapter 37. The Impact of Religion and Congregational Social Support on Well-Being and Mental Health in Adulthood and Later Life
Robert Joseph Taylor, Ann W. Nguyen, Meredith O. Hope, and Linda M. Chatters

Chapter 38. Loneliness: Age Differences in Measurement, Risk Factors, and Associations With Health
Louise C. Hawkley, Susanne Buecker, and Maike Luhmann

Chapter 39. Technology Support for Aging Adults
Sara J. Czaja and Walter R. Boot

Chapter 40. Aging in Context: A Synthesis of Accumulated Conceptualizations, Insights From Empirical Research, and Their Implications
Hans-Werner Wahl and Denis Gerstorf

Index

Contributor bios

Margie E. Lachman, PhD, the Minnie and Harold Fierman Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, is director of the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab and the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions. With funding from the National Institute on Aging, her current work focuses on identifying modifiable factors that can protect against, minimize, or compensate for declines in cognition and health. Dr. Lachman is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of APA. She received the Distinguished Research Achievement Award from APA Division 20 in 2003, the Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award in Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS) from the GSA in 2015, and the Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award from the GSA BSS in 2021.

Avron (Ron) Spiro III, PhD, is research professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health and of psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. He is a research health scientist at Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, where he serves as associate director of the Normative Aging Study at the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology and Research Information Center; study director at the Boston Cooperative Studies Coordinating Center; and codirector of the Stress, Health and Aging Research Program. Dr. Spiro is a fellow of Divisions 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods) and 20 (Adult Development and Aging) of APA, and of the Gerontological Society of America.

Susan T. Charles, PhD, is professor of psychological science and nursing science, and associate dean of academic programs in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California-Irvine. Her research examines social and socioemotional processes across the adult lifespan, and how they are related to cognitive, physical, and mental health, with a focus on theories of socioemotional aging. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Psychological Science, and her work has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 2 decades.

Shevaun D. Neupert, PhD, is professor in the Department of Psychology at North Carolina State University. Her work focuses on contextual and individual differences in processes that occur before, during, and after stressors, and the connection of these processes with health outcomes across the adult lifespan. She has received the postdoctoral research award from the APA Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging), and at NC State she has received the Outstanding Graduate Professor award, designation as a University Faculty Scholar, and induction into the Academy of Outstanding Teachers. She is a fellow of APA Division 20 and the Gerontological Society of America.