A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless, The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/55/1/5.pdf

Positive psychology: An introduction.

Statistical procedures for missing data have vastly improved, yet misconception and unsound practice still abound. The authors frame the missing-data problem, review methods, offer advice, and raise issues that remain unresolved. They clear up common misunderstandings regarding the missing at random (MAR) concept. They summarize the evidence against older procedures and, with few exceptions, discourage their use. They present, in both technical and practical language, 2 general approaches that come highly recommended: maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian multiple imputation (MI). Newer developments are discussed, including some for dealing with missing data that are not MAR. Although not yet in the mainstream, these procedures may eventually extend the ML and MI methods that currently represent the state of the art.

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Missing data: Our view of the state of the art.

Reigning measures of psychological well-being have little theoretical grounding, despite an extensive literature on the contours of positive functioning. Aspects of well-being derived from this literature (i.e., self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth) were operationalized. Three hundred and twenty-one men and women, divided among young, middle-aged, and older adults, rated themselves on these measures along with six instruments prominent in earlier studies (i.e., affect balance, life satisfaction, self-esteem, morale, locus of control, depression). Results revealed that positive relations with others, autonomy, purpose in life, and personal growth were not strongly tied to prior assessment indexes, thereby supporting the claim that key aspects of positive functioning have not been represented in the empirical arena. Furthermore, age profiles revealed a more differentiated pattern of well-being than is evident in prior research.

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Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being.

Several issues relating to goodness of fit in structural equations are examined. The convergence and differentiation criteria, as applied by Bagozzi, are shown not to stand up under mathematical or...

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Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error: Algebra and Statistics:

A broader approach to research in hu- j man development is proposed that focuses on the pro- \ gressive accommodation, throughout the life span, between the growing human organism and the changing environments in which it actually lives and grows. \ The latter include not only the immediate settings containing the developing person but also the larger social contexts, both formal and informal, in which these settings are embedded. In terms of method, the approach emphasizes the use of rigorousj^d^igned exp_erjments, both naturalistic and contrived, beginning in the early stages of the research process. The chang- ing relation between person and environment is con- ceived in systems terms. These systems properties are set forth in a series of propositions, each illus- trated by concrete research examples.

Toward an experimental ecology of human development.

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, we review research on the nature of psychological aging in terms of seven propositions. Second, we present a psychological model for the study of successful aging that, we contend, is consistent with the propositional framework. The approach advanced is based on the premise that successful, individual development (including aging) is a process involving three components: selection, optimization, and compensation. How these components of adaption are realized depends on the specific personal and societal circumstances individuals face and produce as they age. Introduction Two scientific concepts have had a major impact on our thinking about successful aging: interindividual variability and intraindividual plasticity (M. Baltes & P. Baltes, 1982; P. Baltes & M. Baltes, 1980; P. Baltes & Schaie, 1976). Reflection on the theoretical and policy-related implications of both concepts has suggested to us that there is much opportunity for the continual optimization of human development (see also Brim & Kagan, 1980; Labouvie-Vief, 1981; Lerner, 1984). Over the years, we have begun to believe that systematic age-related shifts in the extent of variability and plasticity are cornerstones for a developmental theory of human adaptation. Initial evidence for this perspective is available in our first attempt to formulate an agenda for successful aging (P. Baltes & M. Baltes, 1980). After reviewing research on variability and plasticity, we laid the groundwork for a prototheory of successful aging as an adaptive process involving the components of selection, optimization, and compensation.

Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation.

Life-span developmental psychology involves the study of constancy and change in behavior throughout the life course. One aspect of life-span research has been the advancement of a more general, metatheoretical view on the nature of development. The family of theoretical perspectives associated with this metatheoretical view of life-span developmental psychology includes the recognition of multidirectionality in ontogenetic change, consideration of both age-connected and disconnected developmental factors, a focus on the dynamic and continuous interplay between growth (gain) and decline (loss), emphasis on historical embeddedness and other structural contextual factors, and the study of the range of plasticity in development. Application of the family of perspectives associated with life-span developmental psychology is illustrated for the domain of intellectual development. Two recently emerging perspectives of the family of beliefs are given particular attention. The first proposition is methodological and suggests that plasticity can best be studied with a research strategy called testing-the-limits. The second proposition is theoretical and proffers that any developmental change includes the joint occurrence of gain (growth) and loss (decline) in adaptive capacity. To assess the pattern of positive (gains) and negative (losses) consequences resulting from development, it is necessary to know the criterion demands posed by the individual and the environment during the lifelong process of adaptation. The study of life-span development is not a homogeneous field. It comes in two major interrelated modes. The first mode is the extension of developmental studies across the life course without a major effort at the construction of metatheory that emanates from life-span work. The second mode includes the endeavor to explore whether life-span research has specific implications for the general nature of developmental theory. The second approach represents the topic of this article. Specifically, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, after a brief introduction to the field of life-span developmental psychology, some "prototypical" features of the life-span approach in developmental psychology are presented. Second, these features are illustrated by work in one domain: intellectual development. Although the focus of this paper is on life-span developmental psychology and its theoretical thrust, it is important to recognize at the outset that similar perspectives on developmental theory have been advanced in other quarters of developmental scholarship as well (Hetherington & Baltes, in press; Scan; 1986). There is, however, a major difference in the "gestalt" in which the features of the theoretical perspective of life-span psychology are organized.

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Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology : On the dynamics between growth and decline

Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline [Chinese translation]

Foreword Preface 1. Psychological perspectives on successful aging: the model of selective optimization with compensation 2. Medical perspectives upon successful aging 3. Successful aging in a post-retired society 4. The optimization of cognitive functioning in old age: predictions based on cohort-sequential and longitudinal data 5. The optimization of episodic remembering in old age 6. Peak performance and age: an examination of peak performance in sports 7. Personal control over development and quality of life perspectives in adulthood 8. Successful mastery of bereavement and widowhood: a life-course perspective 9. The Bonn longitudinal study of aging: coping, life adjustment, and life satisfaction 10. Risk and protective factors in the transition to young adulthood 11. Avoiding negative life outcomes: evidence from a forty-five year study 12. Developing behavioural genetics and successful aging Name index Subject index.

Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences

Contents: M.M. Seltzer, C.D. Ryff, Parenting Across the Life Span: The Normative and Nonnormative Cases. M.M. Baltes, S.B. Silverberg, The Dynamics Between Dependency and Autonomy: Illustrations Across the Life Span. E.A. Skinner, J.G. Wellborn, Coping During Childhood and Adolescence: A Motivational Perspective. D.F. Alwin, Aging, Personality, and Social Change: The Stability of Individual Differences Over the Adult Life Span. A. Assmann, Wholesome Knowledge: Concepts of Wisdom in a Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective. A. von Eye, K. Kreppner, H. WeBels, Log-Linear Modeling of Categorical Data in Developmental Research. R.M. Lerner, J.R. Miller, J.H. Knott, K.E. Corey, T.S. Bynum, L.C. Hoopfer, M.H. McKinney, L.A. Abrams, R.C. Hula, P.A. Terry, Integrating Scholarship and Outreach in Human Developmental Research, Policy and Service: A Developmental Contextual Perspective.

Paul B. Baltes

Papers

Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation.

Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology : On the dynamics between growth and decline

Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline [Chinese translation]

Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences

Life-Span Development and Behavior