Adult Development, Control, and Adaptive Functioning

Abstract

This article examines variations in control over the adult life course and their relation to adaptive functioning. First, normative adult physical declines and the age‐graded structure of western societies are described, in order to identify biological and societal constraints on exercising primary control. The central theme of this article is that primary control first increases as humans develop from infancy through middle age and then decreases in old age. In order to minimize losses in and maintain the potential for primary control, individuals increasingly rely on cognitively based secondary control processes during middle and old age. Finally, the article reviews the diverse literatures bearing on control processes throughout the adult life course.

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