Professor Carstensen Speaks on Longevity

By Emma O’Hanlon, Teacher

When psychologist Laura Carstensen, PhD, watches children at play, she sees future senior citizens. At winter quarter’s staff development day in February, she encouraged teachers to see children from her perspective, at least for a little while.

Carstensen, chair of Stanford’s psychology department, spoke about her research on aging and the planned Stanford Center on Longevity, which she will direct. She focused on how her research affects young children’s lives, our educational and cultural surroundings, and on how it will shape the future of our society.

Carstensen began her talk with a history of Bing Nursery School’ relationship with Stanford’s psychology department, highlighting Bing as the “jewel of the Psychology Department” and identifying much of the research done at Bing as responsible for making Stanford’s psychology program number one in the country for over 40 years. Carstensen noted that famous Bing studies like Albert Bandura’s “Bobo Doll Studies,” John Flavell’s research on the theory of mind, Mark Lepper’s work on intrinsic motivation, and Walter Michel’s “Marshmallow Studies,” have brought Stanford and Bing national attention, resulting in cultural change and impacting political and educational policy.

Carstensen’s research at Stanford has focused on the aging process, the emotional and social changes that accompany aging, and aging’s impact on goal setting, emotional experience and emotion regulation. Carstensen, a clinical psychologist, identifies the fields of aging and clinical psychology as complementary, in that old age has been popularly held as a period of “incompetence, loneliness, and depression” and, at one time, was considered a psychological disorder. However, Carstensen’s research has found that emotional well-being actually improves with age, that older people are less lonely than college students and that older adults are in better mental health than younger adults, creating what Carstensen calls the “paradox of aging”—that as life comes to an end people get happier. This finding jibes with the socioemotional selectivity theory, developed by Carstensen, which maintains that as individuals age they become more selective in their relationships, increasing the number of those that are emotionally satisfying and excluding those that are not meaningful. Carstensen also noted that increased happiness in old age has been linked to a decrease in future-oriented goals and expectations for life, reducing stress and pressure on individuals.

Carstensen not only spoke on her body of research on aging, but also commented on recent changes in our population, stressing that in less than a century, life expectancy, defined as the average length of life, has increased over 30 years. Today 12 to 13 percent of our population is over 65 years of age, in comparison to less than 5 percent in 1900, due in large part to the decrease in the infant mortality rate and an increased opportunity for young people to grow old.

Carstensen remarked on the exponential growth of populations in developing countries in comparison to the replacement-level population growth in developed countries and the possible impact of the disparity on political power, the world economy and global resources. The changes in life expectancy and world population demographics and their impact on life expectancy, economics and politics intensify the need for change in society and social institutions. Carstensen foresees that health issues related to aging, like Alzheimer’s Disease, will become public health problems and that current programs, like Social Security and Medicare, must change to serve the aging population.

The problems associated with adding 30 years to average life expectancy and the changing age distribution worldwide inspired Carstensen to pursue issues that address the resulting political, economical, social and cultural issues. To further this research, she has launched the effort to establish the Stanford Center on Longevity. The center will aim to improve individual’s well-being by changing current models and policies regarding the issues of aging, and making scientific breakthroughs that improve quality of life at all ages. She seeks to bring together researchers from multiple fields to change the way we approach aging and the cultural conversation surrounding aging. The Stanford Center on Longevity already includes faculty from all of the Schools.

Carstensen concluded by discussing how her work pertains to children. She stressed that one of the most important things that needs to be addressed is to change the way we think about longevity and finding ways to help children lead healthier and better lives. Carstensen highlighted our role as teachers and parents in socializing children and shaping their ideas about aging. She also made the point that parents’ attitudes toward the elderly serve as models to their children and become powerful influences on behavior and culture. Carstensen finally discussed with teachers ways in which children’s lives might differ from our own. For example, our children may live through a time in which retirement is delayed in which people enter the workforce in a more graduated way and take a greater amount of time off in the middle of their lives with their families, rather than at the end.

Carstensen’s goal is an ambitious one, but a worthy one—to improve the quality of life for all and to make a better, more appropriate world for all of us to age in. At Bing, where we often focus on the details of growing up, on children’s individual interactions and on the social, cognitive, physical and emotional aspects of a child’s development, Carstensen challenged teachers to consider a bigger picture of the world our children will one day enter independently and the cultural forces that will shape their lives. They will likely be a force for many years. The question for Carstensen is how do we raise citizens who will impact society for decades.