ABSTRACT
The aging process is naturally and inevitably associated with change, both physical and psychological. As life situations and mental capabilities transform, it is logical that older adults’ motivations towards social and cognitive goals may shift as well. Of note for a volume on motivation-cognition links across the life span, the primary motivational theory in the socioemotional aging literature-socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 2006; Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999)—hypothesizes age-related differences in emotional goals, cognitive processes that may underlie those goals, and emotional outcomes that may come from pursuing those goals. In this chapter, we fi rst consider this motivational theory of age-related changes in motivation, cognition and emotion, as well as evidence for the various components of it. We then consider alternative motivational and other accounts, and present directions for future research that could critically test the accounts against each other.
