Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Profil
Forschungsthemen16
Alltagsbewältigung hochaltriger Ehepaare: Intrapersonelle und zwischenmenschliche Anpassungsdynamiken
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 04/2016 - 12/2019 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Altersunterschiede in der Kontextsensitivität emotionsregulatorischer Strategien
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 08/2021 - 04/2026 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Changes in Psychological Health Across Adulthood and Old Age
Quelle ↗Zeitraum: 08/2012 - 09/2012 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Dynamics of Daily-Life Adaptation in the Corona Crisis Among Older Adults (CorAge)
Quelle ↗Förderer: Andere inländische Stiftungen Zeitraum: 03/2021 - 08/2022 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Dynamics of Daily-Life Adaptation in the Corona Crisis Amongst Older Adults
Quelle ↗Förderer: Volkswagen Stiftung Zeitraum: 03/2021 - 07/2023 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Emotionale Reaktivität und Emotionsregulation im hohen Alter
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 06/2017 - 05/2021 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Kontextuelle Faktoren, die terminale Funktionsverluste regulieren: Das Ende des Lebens als natürliches Experiment
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 09/2013 - 12/2017 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Kurz- und langfristige Entwicklungsdynamiken und deren Bedingungsfaktoren: Selbstwertveränderung im Erwachsenenalter
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 01/2017 - 09/2019 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf, Dr. Jenny Wagner
Physical Activities of Older Adults:Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Analysis (PAOLInA)
Quelle ↗Zeitraum: 03/2016 - 04/2018 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Programm des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs
Quelle ↗Förderer: DAAD Zeitraum: 01/2025 - 12/2026 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
project coordinator BASE-II
Quelle ↗Zeitraum: 01/2016 - 12/2016 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Psychosocial Risk and Resilience Mechanisms
Quelle ↗Förderer: Öffentliche Förderorganisationen anderer Länder Zeitraum: 09/2022 - 04/2027 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Social Cohesion and Civil Society. Interaction Dynamics in Times of Disruption
Quelle ↗Förderer: Berlin University Alliance (BUA) Zeitraum: 10/2020 - 12/2025 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Jule Specht, Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf, Prof. Dr. Hanna Schwander, Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess, Prof. Dr. sc. nat. Verena Hafner
Variabilität innerhalb und zwischen situativen Kontexten in vier Funktionsbereichen - Längsschnittliche Prädiktoren und Korrelate im Alter
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 04/2025 - 03/2027 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Veränderung von Affektdynamiken im Alltag sehr alter Erwachsener: Die Rolle von Vulnerabilitäten, aber auch Stärken
Quelle ↗Förderer: DFG Sachbeihilfe Zeitraum: 09/2025 - 09/2028 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Verbund GendAge: Geschlechts-sensitive Vorbeugung kardiovaskulärer und metabolischer Krankheiten bei älteren Erwachsenen in Deutschland, Teilprojekt 2 (GendAge HU)
Quelle ↗Förderer: Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt Zeitraum: 07/2017 - 10/2021 Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
Mögliche Industrie-Partner10
Stand: 26.4.2026, 19:48:44 (Top-K=20, Min-Cosine=0.4)
- 148 Treffer58.3%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other StrategiesP58.3%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other Strategies
- 148 Treffer58.3%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other StrategiesP58.3%
- Climate-smart rewilding: ecological restoration for climate change mitigation, adaptation and biodiversity support in EuropeP45.2%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other Strategies
- 149 Treffer58.3%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other StrategiesP58.3%
- Validating C. Elegans Healthspan Model for Better Understanding Factors Causing Health and Disease, to Develop Evidence Based Prevention, Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Other Strategies
- 90 Treffer57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im ErwachsenenalterT57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im Erwachsenenalter
- 90 Treffer57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im ErwachsenenalterT57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im Erwachsenenalter
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im ErwachsenenalterT57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im Erwachsenenalter
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im ErwachsenenalterT57.5%
- Modellierung und Transfer von Inhalts- und Qualitätskriterien für die Programmplanung in der finanziellen Bildung im Erwachsenenalter
NVIDIA GmbH
PT19 Treffer56.6%- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)P56.6%
- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)
- 26 Treffer56.6%
- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)P56.6%
- EU: Bottom-Up Generation of atomicalLy Precise syntheTIc 2D MATerials for High Performance in Energy and Electronic Applications – A Multi-Site Innovative Training Action (ULTIMATE)P46.5%
- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)
- 20 Treffer56.6%
- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)P56.6%
- EU: Simulation in Multiscale Physical and Biological Systems (STIMULATE)
Publikationen25
Top 25 nach Zitationen — Quelle: OpenAlex (BAAI/bge-m3 embedded für Matching).
Regional Brain Changes in Aging Healthy Adults: General Trends, Individual Differences and Modifiers
2005Cerebral Cortex · 2911 Zitationen · DOI
Brain aging research relies mostly on cross-sectional studies, which infer true changes from age differences. We present longitudinal measures of five-year change in the regional brain volumes in healthy adults. Average and individual differences in volume changes and the effects of age, sex and hypertension were assessed with latent difference score modeling. The caudate, the cerebellum, the hippocampus and the association cortices shrunk substantially. There was minimal change in the entorhinal and none in the primary visual cortex. Longitudinal measures of shrinkage exceeded cross-sectional estimates. All regions except the inferior parietal lobule showed individual differences in change. Shrinkage of the cerebellum decreased from young to middle adulthood, and increased from middle adulthood to old age. Shrinkage of the hippocampus, the entorhinal cortices, the inferior temporal cortex and the prefrontal white matter increased with age. Moreover, shrinkage in the hippocampus and the cerebellum accelerated with age. In the hippocampus, both linear and quadratic trends in incremental age-related shrinkage were limited to the hypertensive participants. Individual differences in shrinkage correlated across some regions, suggesting common causes. No sex differences in age trends except for the caudate were observed. We found no evidence of neuroprotective effects of larger brain size or educational attainment.
Psychology and Aging · 416 Zitationen · DOI
The study of intraindividual variability is the study of fluctuations, oscillations, adaptations, and "noise" in behavioral outcomes that manifest on microtime scales. This article provides a descriptive frame for the combined study of intraindividual variability and aging/development. At the conceptual level, we show that the study of intraindividual variability provides access to dynamic characteristics-construct-level descriptions of individuals' capacities for change (e.g., lability)--and to dynamic processes--the systematic changes that individuals exhibit in response to endogenous and exogenous influences (e.g., regulation). At the methodological level, we review how quantifications of net intraindividual variability and models of time-structured intraindividual variability are used to measure and describe dynamic characteristics and processes. At the research design level, we point to the benefits of measurement-burst study designs, wherein data are obtained across multiple time scales, for the study of development.
American Psychologist · 359 Zitationen · DOI
Development is a cumulative, lifelong process, but strikingly little is known about development in midlife. As a consequence, many misconceptions exist about the nature of midlife and the developmental milestones and challenges faced by middle-aged adults. We first review dominant views and empirical research that has debunked false narratives. Next, we discuss major opportunities and challenges of midlife. This includes the unique constellation of roles and life transitions that are distinct from earlier and later life phases as well as shifting trends in mental and physical health and in family composition. We additionally highlight the importance of (historical shifts in) intergenerational dynamics of middle-aged adults with their aging parents, adult children, and grandchildren; financial vulnerabilities that emerge and often accrue from economic failures and labor market volatility; the shrinking social and health care safety net; and the rising costs of raising children. In doing so, we discuss issues of diversity and note similarities and differences in midlife experiences across race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. We consider midlife as a pivotal period that includes a focus on balancing gains and losses, linking earlier and later life periods, and bridging generations. Finally, we propose possibilities for promoting reversibility and resilience with interventions and policy changes. The suggested agenda for future research promises to reconceptualize midlife as a key period of life, with a concerted effort to focus on the diversity of midlife experiences in order to meet the unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the 2020s and beyond. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Psychology and Aging · 351 Zitationen · DOI
Satisfaction with one's own aging and feeling young are indicators of positive well-being in late life. Using 16-year longitudinal data from participants of the Berlin Aging Study (P. B. Baltes & K. U. Mayer, 1999; N = 439; 70- to 100-year-olds), the authors examined whether and how these self-perceptions of aging change with age and how such changes relate to distance from death. Extending previous studies, they found that it is not only higher aging satisfaction and younger subjective age but also more favorable change patterns (e.g., less decline in aging satisfaction) that are uniquely associated with lower mortality hazards. These effects are robust after controls for objective measures such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, diagnosis of dementia, or number of illnesses. As individuals approach death, they become less satisfied with their aging and report feeling older. For aging satisfaction, mortality-related decline is much steeper than age-related decline, whereas change in subjective age is best characterized as an age-related process. The authors discuss how self-perceptions of aging are embedded in mechanisms underlying pathways of dying late in life.
Journal of Research in Personality · 263 Zitationen · DOI
Psychology and Aging · 259 Zitationen · DOI
Throughout adulthood and old age, levels of well-being appear to remain relatively stable. However, evidence is emerging that late in life well-being declines considerably. Using long-term longitudinal data of deceased participants in national samples from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we examined how long this period lasts. In all 3 nations and across the adult age range, well-being was relatively stable over age but declined rapidly with impending death. Articulating notions of terminal decline associated with impending death, we identified prototypical transition points in each study between 3 and 5 years prior to death, after which normative rates of decline steepened by a factor of 3 or more. The findings suggest that mortality-related mechanisms drive late-life changes in well-being and highlight the need for further refinement of psychological concepts about how and when late-life declines in psychosocial functioning prototypically begin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
Developmental Psychology · 209 Zitationen · DOI
Longitudinal data spanning 22 years, obtained from deceased participants of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP; N = 1,637; 70- to 100-year-olds), were used to examine if and how life satisfaction exhibits terminal decline at the end of life. Changes in life satisfaction were more strongly associated with distance to death than with distance from birth (chronological age). Multiphase growth models were used to identify a transition point about 4 years prior to death where the prototypical rate of decline in life satisfaction tripled from -0.64 to -1.94 T-score units per year. Further individual-level analyses suggest that individuals dying at older ages spend more years in the terminal periods of life satisfaction decline than individuals dying at earlier ages. Overall, the evidence suggests that late-life changes in aspects of well-being are driven by mortality-related mechanisms and characterized by terminal decline.
Developmental Psychology · 203 Zitationen · DOI
Adolescence and young adulthood are characterized by substantial sociodemographic, family, social, and personality changes that may influence loneliness. Although loneliness is a public health challenge, we know little about how loneliness develops during these periods. Our study addresses this lacuna by using 4-wave longitudinal data from 3,116 Norwegians aged 13 to 31 years, making use of questionnaire (key facets and correlates of loneliness) and register linkage information (midlife outcomes). Analyses revealed that when asking directly about feeling lonely and for emotional facets, loneliness increased from early adolescence to age mid-20s, whereas social facets of loneliness declined gradually and plateaued when people had reached their mid-20s. Several predictors operated consistently across loneliness facets, whereas others operated in facet-specific ways. To illustrate, perceiving one's parents as caring, having close friends, not leaving the parental home before age 18, and reporting more agency were each associated with less loneliness across assessment modes. In contrast, when asked directly, women reported more loneliness than men at all ages, whereas men reported more social loneliness. Finally, adolescents and young adults who reported feeling lonely and/or increased in loneliness were consistently at higher risk for disability and lower income in midlife, whereas other important midlife outcomes including education, labor market inclusion, and prescriptions of antidepressants exhibited facet-specific associations. Our study is the first to provide a comprehensive picture of loneliness development throughout the second and third decade of life and highlights the multidimensionality and multidirectionality of loneliness trajectories and correlates across adolescence and early adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Psychology and Aging · 198 Zitationen · DOI
Using 12-year longitudinal data from deceased participants of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 414; age 70-103 years, at first occasion; M = 87 years, SD = 8.13), the authors examined whether and how old and very old individuals exhibit terminal decline in reported life satisfaction at the end of life. Relative to age-related decline, mortality-related decline (i.e., distance-to-death) accounted for more variance in interindividual differences in life satisfaction change and revealed steeper average rates of decline, by a factor of 2. By applying change-point growth models, the authors identified a point, about 4 years before death, at which decline showed a two-fold increase in steepness relative to the preterminal phase. For the oldest old (85+ years), a threefold increase was observed. Established mortality predictors, including sex, comorbidities, dementia, and cognition, accounted for only small portions of interindividual differences in mortality-related change in life satisfaction. The authors conclude that late-life changes in subjective well-being are related to mechanisms predicting death and suggest routes for further inquiry.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 169 Zitationen · DOI
Research has long demonstrated that loneliness is a key risk factor for poor health. However, less is known about the development and predictors of loneliness across later adulthood. We examined these questions using two-wave data obtained 5 years apart in the population-based Norwegian NorLAG study (<i>N</i> = 5,555; age 40-80 years; 51% women). We considered direct measures of loneliness (asking directly about feeling lonely) and indirect measures (avoiding the term loneliness) and linked them to self-report data on personality and contact with friends, and to register data on socioeconomic (education, income, unemployment), physical health (sick leave, lifetime history of disability), and social factors (children, marriage/cohabitation, lifetime history of divorce and widowhood). Results indicated that levels of loneliness increased steadily for women, whereas men's levels followed a U-shaped curve, with highest loneliness at ages 40 and 80. At age 40, loneliness declined between the two data waves, but with increasing age the decrease abated and turned into increases when loneliness was measured indirectly. Disability, no spouse/cohabiting partner, widowhood, and little contact with friends were each associated with more loneliness. Similarly, people high in emotional stability and extraversion reported less loneliness and experienced steeper loneliness declines on one or both loneliness measures. We take our results to illustrate the utility of combining self-report and register data and conclude that the development of loneliness across the second half of life is associated with both individual difference characteristics and aspects of social embedding. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying our findings and consider practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Gerontology · 158 Zitationen · DOI
Our review suggests that differentiation of PA by domains is important for identifying and understanding which individual characteristics are associated with PA levels and how. Pinpointing what reliably distinguishes older adults who are active from those who are not is essential for designing effective interventions to promote PA in later life.
European Journal of Personality · 155 Zitationen · DOI
This study assessed change in self-reported Big Five personality traits. We conducted a coordinated integrative data analysis using data from 16 longitudinal samples, comprising a total sample of over 60 000 participants. We coordinated models across multiple datasets and fit identical multi-level growth models to assess and compare the extent of trait change over time. Quadratic change was assessed in a subset of samples with four or more measurement occasions. Across studies, the linear trajectory models revealed declines in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness. Non-linear models suggested late-life increases in neuroticism. Meta-analytic summaries indicated that the fixed effects of personality change are somewhat heterogeneous and that the variability in trait change is partially explained by sample age, country of origin, and personality measurement method. We also found mixed evidence for predictors of change, specifically for sex and baseline age. This study demonstrates the importance of coordinated conceptual replications for accelerating the accumulation of robust and reliable findings in the lifespan developmental psychological sciences.
Developmental Psychology · 149 Zitationen · DOI
Life span researchers have long been interested in how and why fundamental aspects of human ontogeny differ between cohorts of people who have lived through different historical epochs. When examined at the same age, later born cohorts are often cognitively and physically fitter than earlier born cohorts. Less is known, however, about cohort differences in the rate of cognitive aging and if, at the very end of life, pervasive mortality-related processes overshadow and minimize cohort differences. We used data on 5 primary mental abilities from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (Schaie, 2005) to compare both age-related and mortality-related changes between earlier born cohorts (1886-1913) and later born cohorts (1914-1948). Our models covary for several individual and cohort differences in central indicators of life expectancy, education, health, and gender. Age-related growth models corroborate and extend earlier findings by documenting level differences at age 70 of up to 0.50 SD and less steep rates of cognitive aging on all abilities between 50 and 80 years of age favoring the later born cohort. In contrast, mortality-related models provide limited support for positive cohort differences. The later born cohort showed steeper mortality-related declines. We discuss possible reasons why often reported positive secular trends in age-related processes may not generalize to the vulnerable segment of the population that is close to death and suggest routes for further inquiry.
Measurement Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives · 145 Zitationen · DOI
Ideally, the unit of analysis in psychology is the individual. However, many psychological methods do not cope well, either at the level of construct definition or at the level of measurement, with individuality in behavior. There is little leeway for constructs to be both idiosyncratically tailored to the individual, and still identified as having the same core meaning between individuals. Generally accepted ways to aggregate data in the course of empirically studying relationships simply ignore idiosyncrasy–but do so at some as yet undetermined costs. We identify, and illustrate with empirical data, the main features of an individually-oriented approach to general construct definition and measurement that seem to challenge the established concepts and norms of "good" measurement practice in behavioral research yet, at the same time, can be reconciled with them.
Psychology and Aging · 142 Zitationen · DOI
Perceived control plays an important role in shaping development throughout adulthood and old age. Using data from the adult lifespan sample of the national German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP; N > 10,000, covering 25 years of measurement), we explored long-term antecedents, correlates, and outcomes of perceived control and examined if associations differ with age. Targeting correlates and antecedents of control, findings indicated that higher concurrent levels of social participation, life satisfaction, and self-rated health as well as more positive changes in social participation over the preceding 11 years were each predictive of between-person differences in perceived control. Targeting health outcomes of control, survival analyses revealed that perceived control predicted 14-year hazard ratio for disability (n = 996 became disabled) and mortality (n = 1,382 died). The effect for mortality, but not for disability, was independent of sociodemographic and psychosocial factors. Overall, we found very limited support for age-differential associations. Our results provide further impetus to thoroughly examine processes involved in antecedent-consequent relations among perceived control, facets of social life, well-being, and health.
Gerontology · 140 Zitationen · DOI
We review findings on spousal interrelations in old age in such key domains as cognition, well-being, and health. Therein, we demonstrate that spousal interrelations may extend developmental options but may also make an individual vulnerable to the experience of loss. We address theoretical questions concerning possible underlying mechanisms, e.g. individual and spousal goal-related processes. Furthermore, we draw attention to important methodological challenges such as identifying processes that operate along different time scales and employing adequate data analytic tools. We propose that aging research may benefit from an examination of interrelations in developmental pathways of multiple co-developing individuals such as spouses and point to the need to disentangle individual from relationship-specific effects.
Stability of Sex Differences in Cognition in Advanced Old Age: The Role of Education and Attrition
2006The Journals of Gerontology Series B · 128 Zitationen · DOI
We examined whether patterns of sex differences on tasks of perceptual speed, episodic memory, verbal fluency, and verbal knowledge are maintained during advanced old age. Using incomplete 13-year longitudinal data from participants in the Berlin Aging Study screened for dementia (N = 368; M = 83 years; range 70-100 years at baseline assessment), we estimated sex-specific age trajectories of cognitive change and explored the contributing role of education and attrition. We found that women and men declined virtually in parallel, with no evidence of differential change. After we controlled for age cohort-related differences in education, women outperformed men on tasks in the four cognitive domains. Findings also provide initial evidence that sex differences might be masked by differential patterns of sample attrition.
Emotion · 127 Zitationen · DOI
The number of intensive longitudinal studies that investigate affective experiences at the within-person rather than the between-person level is rapidly increasing. This paradigmatic shift comes with new challenges, such as questions revolving around how to measure within-person affect variation or more fundamental questions about the reliability and validity of constructs at the within-person level. We provide a review of substantive research published in Emotion since 2005, which revealed that to date no consensus has been established on measurement instruments for assessing within-person affective experiences. Our review also showed that researchers who are interested in within-person affect variation sometimes rely on measurement instruments that were established at the between-person level, which we think should be reconsidered. Finally, reliability estimates of state variation have been developed but are not comprehensively reported in studies on within-person affect variation. The purpose of this article is therefore to alert the reader to these issues and to highlight relevant criteria for selecting items and measurement instruments when studying within-person affect variation in intensive longitudinal studies. We recommend establishing common standards for measuring within-person affect variation and drawing from a common pool of instruments, which would allow direct comparison of results across studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 122 Zitationen · DOI
Empirical evidence over the past 20 years has documented that key aspects of personality traits change during adulthood. However, it is essentially an open question whether and how traits change at the very end of life and what role health, cognitive performance, perceived control, and social factors play in those changes. To examine these questions, we applied growth models to 13-year longitudinal data obtained from now-deceased participants in the Berlin Aging Study (N = 463; age at baseline M = 85.9 years, SD = 8.4; 51% men). Results revealed that neuroticism, on average, increases (about 0.3 SD in the last 10 years) and that this increase becomes even steeper at the end of life. In contrast, extraversion and openness decline rather steadily at the end of life (about -0.5 SD in the last 10 years). Additionally, poor health manifested as a risk factor for declines in extraversion and openness late in life but not neuroticism. Similar to earlier phases of life, better cognitive performance related to more openness. More loneliness was associated with higher neuroticism, whereas more social activity was associated with higher levels of extraversion and openness. Intriguing additional insights indicated that more personal control was associated with higher levels of extraversion and openness, whereas the feeling that one's life is controlled by others was associated with higher neuroticism but also with higher openness closer to death. We discuss potential pathways by which health, cognitive performance, control, and social inclusion resources and risk factors affect personality development late in life. (PsycINFO Database Record
Editorial
2016Gerontology · 119 Zitationen · DOI
Human aging is characterized by large differences between and within older adults. Numerous factors are known to contribute to these differences, including genetic and immunological, somatic and medical, cognitive and behavioral, psychosocial and experiential, as well as socioeconomic and geospatial conditions. Continuing and expanding the scientific objectives of the Berlin Aging Study, the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) seeks to comprehensively describe phenomena associated with aging and old age and to better understand the multiple different underlying factors and their interactions. To this end, BASE-II was established as a multi-institutional project combining and integrating interdisciplinary perspectives ranging from molecular genetics and immunology, geriatric medicine and psychology, to sociology and economics. In this Special Issue, we have compiled seven empirical analyses that feature examples of interdisciplinary insights that BASE-II provides by linking data across multiple levels of analyses at which human functioning and development occur in old age. Here, we provide an overview of the study, note commonalities between BASE-II and earlier studies, and highlight some of its unique qualities.
Developmental Psychology · 118 Zitationen · DOI
Mortality-related processes are known to modulate late-life change in cognitive abilities, but it is an open question whether and how precipitous declines with impending death generalize to other domains of functioning. We investigated this notion by using 13-year longitudinal data from now-deceased participants in the Berlin Aging Study (N = 439; 70-103 years at first occasion; M = 87 years). Using time metrics of chronological age and time-to-death, we compared changes in key indicators of cognitive, sensory, physical, health, social, and self-related domains. Across variables and domains, mortality models revealed steeper average rates of change than age models. However, some domain indicators were more prone to mortality-related change than others. Examining between-person differences, we found that sociodemographic characteristics (surviving to an older age at death, being a woman, lower socioeconomic status) and proxies of pathologies (comorbidities, disability, and suspected dementia) related to lower levels of late-life functioning. In contrast, little evidence was found for correlates of differential change. Our results illustrate both the pervasive nature of progressive processes leading toward death and their domain specificity. Inquiries with more closely spaced multidomain measurements are needed to identify invariant and variable aspects of the end-of-life "cascade."
Research in Human Development · 116 Zitationen · DOI
Human development is characterized by the complex interplay of processes that manifest at multiple levels of analysis and time-scales. We introduce the Intraindividual Study of Affect, Health and Interpersonal Behavior (iSAHIB) as a model for how multiple time-scale study designs facilitate more precise articulation of developmental theory. Combining age heterogeneity, longitudinal panel, daily diary, and experience sampling protocols, the study made use of smartphone and web-based technologies to obtain intensive longitudinal data from 150 persons age 18-89 years as they completed three 21-day measurement bursts (<i>t</i> = 426 bursts, <i>t</i> = 8,557 days) wherein they provided reports on their social interactions (<i>t</i> = 64,112) as they went about their daily lives. We illustrate how multiple time-scales of data can be used to articulate bioecological models of development and the interplay among more 'distal' processes that manifest at 'slower' time-scales (e.g., age-related differences and burst-to-burst changes in mental health) and more 'proximal' processes that manifest at 'faster' time-scales (e.g., changes in context that progress in accordance with the weekly calendar and family influence processes).
Developmental Review · 113 Zitationen · DOI
Developmental Psychology · 110 Zitationen · DOI
This study examined competing hypotheses about dynamic cross-domain associations between perceptual speed and well-being in advanced old age. We applied the bivariate dual change score model (J. J. McArdle & F. Hamagami, 2001) to 13-year incomplete longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (P. B. Baltes & K. U. Mayer, 1999; N=516, 70-103 years at T1, M=85 years). Reports of well-being were found to influence subsequent decline in perceptual speed (time lags of 2 years). No evidence was found for a directed effect in the other direction. None of the potential covariates examined (initial health constraints, personality, and social participation) accounted for these differential lead-lag associations. Our results suggest that well-being is not only a consequence of but also a source for successful aging. The discussion focuses on conceptual implications and methodological considerations.
Scientific Reports · 108 Zitationen · DOI
Ample evidence indicates that loneliness in old age is associated with poor bodily and mental health. However, little is known about structural cerebral correlates of loneliness in healthy older adults. We examined such correlates in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subsample of 319 older adults aged 61 to 82 years drawn from the Berlin Aging Study II. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and structural equation modeling (SEM), latent hierarchical regression analyses were performed to examine associations of (i) loneliness, (ii) a range of covariates, and (iii) loneliness by covariate interactions with latent brain volume estimates of brain structures known to be involved in processing, expressing, and regulating emotions. Results from whole-brain VBM analyses showed that individuals with higher loneliness scores tended to have smaller gray matter volumes in three clusters comprising (i) the left amygdala/anterior hippocampus, (ii) the left posterior parahippocampus and (iii) the left cerebellum. Significant associations and interactions between loneliness and latent factors for the amygdala and the hippocampus were confirmed with a region-of-interest (ROI)-based approach. These findings suggest that individual differences in loneliness among older adults are correlated with individual differences in the volumes of brain regions that are central to cognitive processing and emotional regulation, also after correcting for confounders such as social network size. We discuss possible mechanisms underlying these associations and their implications.
Kooperationen6
Bestätigte Forscher↔Partner-Paare aus HU-FIS — Gold-Standard-Positive für das Matching.
Verbund GendAge: Geschlechts-sensitive Vorbeugung kardiovaskulärer und metabolischer Krankheiten bei älteren Erwachsenen in Deutschland, Teilprojekt 2 (GendAge HU)
university
Kurz- und langfristige Entwicklungsdynamiken und deren Bedingungsfaktoren: Selbstwertveränderung im Erwachsenenalter
other
Emotionale Reaktivität und Emotionsregulation im hohen Alter
university
Kurz- und langfristige Entwicklungsdynamiken und deren Bedingungsfaktoren: Selbstwertveränderung im Erwachsenenalter
university
Emotionale Reaktivität und Emotionsregulation im hohen Alter
university
Programm des Projektbezogenen Personenaustauschs
university
Stammdaten
Identität, Organisation und Kontakt aus HU-FIS.
- Name
- Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf
- Titel
- Prof. Dr.
- Fakultät
- Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät
- Institut
- Institut für Psychologie
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- 26.4.2026, 01:05:09