News
March 2008
The Boston Globe
McCain's Senior Moment
Laura Carstensen, head of Stanford's Center on Longevity, offers the good news that as people age, their knowledge generally increases as does their ability to regulate emotions.
Click here to view a PDF (72 KB)
November 2007
Forbes Magazine
Rethinking Old Age
Laura Carstensen says we are unprepared for the aging boom. She's hoping to change that.
Click here to view a PDF (60 KB) May 2007
New York Times Magazine
The Older-and-Wiser Hypothesis
Laura Carstensen of Stanford University has produced a substantial body of research over the past two decades showing that the ability to focus on emotional control is tightly linked to a person’s sense of time and that older people in general seem to have a better feel for keeping their emotions in balance.
Click here to view a PDF (3.1 MB)
April 2007
Science Daily
Decision Making By The Growing Elderly Population Is Uncharted Territory
She noted a just-published study in the journal Psychology and Aging by Corinna E. Löckenhoff and Laura L. Carstensen of Stanford University that found that older people focus more on positive benefits than on negative risks in making health choices.
Click here to view a PDF (108 KB)
February 2007
Monitor on Psychology
Accentuating the positive
- why older people are happier
Information processing functioning steadily declines starting when people reach their 20s. But as people get older, they get better at regulating their emotional health, according to psychology professor Laura Carstensen, PhD, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity at Stanford University.
Click here to view a PDF (184 KB)
January 2007
Issues in Science and Technology (National Academy of Sciences)
Growing Old or Living Long: Take Your Pick
Research to understand the psychological and emotional processes of aging is essential to creating a society in which the elderly can thrive.
Click here to view a PDF (3 MB)
October 2006
Washington Post
Backpedaling on the Life Cycle
What if we turned the life cycle upside down? I am sitting in the office of Laura L. Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, and we're exploring ideas for a new chronological agenda that would be more appropriate for a life span of 80 years or more. What if . . .
Click here to view a PDF (168 KB)
August 2006
Wissenschaft & Debatte
Das vorausschauende Alter (The Anticipated Old Age)
Der Sinn für die verbleibende Zeit bis zum Tod prägt die Psyche – und verändert die Sicht auf moderne Gesellschaften
(The sense of remaining time until death shapes the psyche—and changes the view on modern societies)
Click here to view a German PDF (578 KB)
Click here for the English translation by Marianne Rocca (52 KB)
April 2006
Science & Spirit
Set Point Match
Studies of identical twins suggest the blueprint for joy is in our genes. Yet brain images show our happiness levels can change according to circumstance, activities, and patterns of thought. Is the pursuit of positive emotions a mixed-up game of nature and nurture?
Click here to view a PDF (3.3 MB)
March 2006
Washington Post
Taking a Fresh Look at Aging
What is the real image of aging? That was the question for the more than 3,000 attendees of the annual conference here of the National Council on the Aging and the American Society on Aging. Is aging a dark period of decline and ridicule? Is it uncharted territory of growth and opportunity?
Click here to view a PDF (104 KB)
January 2006
St. Petersburg Times
The Aging Brain Puts Accent on the Positive
Mention the aging brain and most people think of decline. Processing speed slows, short-term memory weakens, and the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and other brain problems climbs rapidly after 60. But in one way, the aging brain actually improves. Laura Carstensen, a psychologist at Stanford University in California, has detected what she calls a "positivity bias" among older people.
Click here to view a PDF (48 KB)
November 2005
New York Times
Wizened, Yes, but Not Always Wiser
Psychologists have found that people tend to think less clearly when feeling down or depressed. Here, too, age appears to offer some compensations. Dr. Laura Carstensen, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, has followed a group of almost 200 people of all ages for 10 years. They have aperiodically carried beepers for a week at a time, recording their emotions five times a day, each time the beeper goes off.
Click here to view a PDF (80 KB)
June 2005
Business Week
Live Long and Prosper. Seriously.
Ahhhh, retirement. It sounds enticing with its promise of freedom from the daily grind. But think carefully before trading employment for a poolside retreat.
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February 2005
Psychology Today
True Happiness
We search for happiness in eager anticipation and joyful memories, but we're better off paying attention to each moment as it passes.
Click here to view a PDF (256 KB)
January 2005
APS Observer
NIA Establishes Six New Roybal Centers
The National Institute on Aging, or NIA, part of the National Institutes of Health, recently announced the establishment of six new Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology. The centers - at the University of Indiana, Princeton University, Stanford University, the RAND corporation, and the Oregon Health and Sciences University - will join the four existing Roybal Centers to conduct research on patient management.
PDF (192 KB)
July/August 2004
Stanford Magazine
New Age Thinking
We're living longer than ever, and the population of elderly is about to double. But Stanford researchers say our approach to aging is stuck in a time warp.
Hi-quality PDF (11.4 MB)
Low-quality PDF (368 KB)
March 2004
Reader's Digest
10 Keys to True Happiness
Old age may not be so bad. In one study Carstensen gave pagers to 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and paged them five times a day for a week asking them to fill out an emotions questionairre each time. Old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but they reported negative emotions much less frequently.
Click here to read more.
December 22, 2003
The Boston Globe
New Research Affirms Seniors' Mental Abilities
It is one of the greatest fears of aging: losing the ability to think quickly, remember accurately, and reason clearly. Years of laboratory testing indicate that these skills decline beginning in young adulthood. But a growing body of research is challenging the depth of this deterioration and its impact, suggesting that most healthy seniors can work, drive, and live independently well into their golden years.
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August 27, 2003
Psychological Science on the web
Attentional Focus Becomes More Positive With Age
Growing old gracefully may very well be a fact of life. Research into developmental changes in attention and memory support a correlation between increasing age and better emotional well-being.
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July 2003
APA Monitor on Psychology, Science Watch
Older and untroubled
New research suggests that older people have fewer negative memories than younger people do.
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July 4, 2003
La Tercera (Santiago, Chile)
Ancianos recuerdan más las experiencias positivas y los jóvenes las negativas
Expertos señalan que esto puede deberse a que las opciones y valores de las personas se definen en gran medida reconociendo las cosas negativas de la vida. Los jóvenes se encuentran viviendo este proceso, mientras que los mayores ya lo superaron y enfocan su atención en lo positivo.
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July 3, 2003
The New York Times, Health and Fitness
Brighter Side Emerges With Age
Older people forget unpleasant images more quickly than positive ones, according to a study published yesterday.
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July 2, 2003
USA Today, Life section
The young are most often the grumpy ones, studies suggest
Elderly retain more pleasant memories.
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April 30, 2003
Stanford Report
Laura Carstensen named 2003 Guggenheim fellow
Laura L. Carstensen, professor of psychology, has been named a recipient of the 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced recently.
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February 28, 2003
Science, News Focus
The Wisdom of the Wizened
New data indicate that some of the mental declines that accompany aging aren't as bad as researchers once thought. And in many cognitive domains, the old have a lot to teach the young.
Click here to read more. |
