Handbook of the Psychology of Aging

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE SERIES
Each volume in the HANDBOOKS OF AGING Series represents one of the three main influences on aging: the Handbook of the Biology of Aging, Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, and Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences. Each of the Handbooks presents critical comprehensive reviews of research knowledge, theories, concepts, and issues by the foremost scholars in the field. Chapters are selected to portray discrete units of research study, long-standing areas of research, and new developments.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VOLUME
The Handbook of the Psychology of Aging has become the definitive reference source for information on the psychology of adult development and aging. This new edition reviews recent developments in research on such topics as social and biological influences on behavior, cognitive functions in the aging individual, and motivational and personality changes with age. The Handbook features a strong emphasis on systematic explanation and covers important theoretical and methodological issues that form the basis for research on adult development and aging.

New topics include:
1 Structural and functional changes in the aging brain
1 Social cognition and aging
1 Religion, spirituality, and aging
1 Posture, gait, and falls
1 Everyday problem solving
1 Aging, job performance, and career development

James E. Birren is currently Associate Director of the Center on Aging at the University of California, Los Angeles, and serves as an adjunct professor in medicine, psychiatry, and biobehavioral sciences. He is also professor emeritus of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Birren's previous postions include service as Chief of the section on aging of the National Institute of Mental Health, founding Executive Director and Dean of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center of USC, founding Director of the Anna and Harry Borun Center for Gerontological Research at UCLA, and President of the Gerontological Society of America, the Western Gerontological Society, and the Division on Adult Development and Aging of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Birren's many awards include the Brookdale Foundation Award for Gerontological Research, the Sandoz prize for Gerontological Research, and the award for outstanding contribution to gerontology by the Canadian Association of Gerontology. Author of over 250 scholarly publications, Dr. Birren has research interests including how speed of behavior changes with age, the causes and consequences of slowed information processing in the older nervous system, the effect of age on decision-making processes, and the role of expertise in skilled occupations. He has served as a delegate to several White House Conferences on Aging and continues to have a strong interest in developing national priorities for research and education related to issues of aging.

K. Warner Schaie is the Evan Pugh Professor of Human Development and Psychology and Director of the Gerontology Center at the Pennsylvania State University. He also holds an appointment as Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of Washington. A fellow of the Gerontological Society and the American Psychological Association, Professor Schaie has served as president of the APA Division of Adult Development and Aging and as editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. Author of over 250 scholarly publications on the psychology of aging, Dr. Schaie has interests including the life course of adult intelligence, its antecedents and modifiability, and methodological issues in the developmental sciences. Dr. Schaie has received the Kleemeier Award for Distinguished Research Contributions from the Gerontological Society of America and the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the American Psychological Association.