Laboratory on Life-Span Development and Motivation

Heckhausen Lab

Research Agenda

My research addresses motivational processes involved in development across the life span. In particular, my colleagues, students and I study the way in which individuals at different points in the life span try to control their own development. My research targets important transitions in the life course, such as the transition associated with the "biological clock" in midlife, the transition from school to work, from school to college, and from junior college to 4-year college, as well as changes associated with illness, disability, and rehabilitation throughout adulthood and old age. I am intrigued by the ability of people at all ages during the life span to adapt to and make the most of these changes. In this context, I investigate individual differences that lead some to loss and despair and others along adaptive paths to successful development and aging. This research interest includes the early development of individual differences in motives and goals, as well as early precursors of self-regulatory strategies when engaging with and disengaging from goals.

Our current empirical focus is on the transition from school to work and from school to college under different societal conditions in the United States and Germany and in different social, cultural, and ethnic groups. We also study academic motivation, control striving, thriving and failing, the effectiveness of motivation and control-related interventions in college students, and the role of affect in goal engagement and disengagement. Several collaborative research projects address motivation and control behavior in chronically ill and/or disabled adults and the role of individual agency in upward and downward social mobility, particularly under conditions of globalization in different countries.

CAMPUS MAPS : Today@UCI August 29, 2008
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Laboratory on Life-Span Development and Motivation Research Agenda Who is Jutta Heckhausen? People in the Laboratory Collaborations Ongoing Research Projects Recent Publications and Conference Presentations	Home Laboratory on Life-Span Development and Motivation Heckhausen Lab Research Agenda My research addresses motivational processes involved in development across the life span. In particular, my colleagues, students and I study the way in which individuals at different points in the life span try to control their own development. My research targets important transitions in the life course, such as the transition associated with the "biological clock" in midlife, the transition from school to work, from school to college, and from junior college to 4-year college, as well as changes associated with illness, disability, and rehabilitation throughout adulthood and old age. I am intrigued by the ability of people at all ages during the life span to adapt to and make the most of these changes. In this context, I investigate individual differences that lead some to loss and despair and others along adaptive paths to successful development and aging. This research interest includes the early development of individual differences in motives and goals, as well as early precursors of self-regulatory strategies when engaging with and disengaging from goals. Our current empirical focus is on the transition from school to work and from school to college under different societal conditions in the United States and Germany and in different social, cultural, and ethnic groups. We also study academic motivation, control striving, thriving and failing, the effectiveness of motivation and control-related interventions in college students, and the role of affect in goal engagement and disengagement. Several collaborative research projects address motivation and control behavior in chronically ill and/or disabled adults and the role of individual agency in upward and downward social mobility, particularly under conditions of globalization in different countries.
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