Understandingthisshiftisessentialtounderstandingold
age.Avarietyoftheorieshaveattemptedtoexplainwhy
theshiftoccurs.Somehavearguedthatitreflectswisdom
gainedfromlongexperienceinlife.Otherssuggestitis
thecognitiveresultofchangesinthetissueoftheaging
brain.Stillothersarguethatthebehaviorchangeisforced
upontheelderlyanddoesnotactuallyreflectwhatthey
wantintheirheartofhearts.Theynarrowinbecausethe
constrictions of physical and cognitive declineprevent
themfrompursuingthegoalstheyoncehadorbecause
theworldstopsthemfornootherreasonthantheyare
old.Ratherthanfightit,theyadapt—or,toputitmore
sadly, they give in.
Few researchers in recent decades have done more
creativeorimportantworksorting theseargumentsout
thantheStanfordpsychologistLauraCarstensen.Inone
ofhermostinfluentialstudies,sheandherteamtracked
theemotionalexperiencesofnearlytwohundredpeople
overyears oftheirlives.Thesubjectsspanneda broad
range of backgrounds and ages. (They were from
eighteentoninety-fouryearsoldwhentheyenteredthe
study.)Atthebeginningofthestudyandtheneveryfive
years,thesubjectsweregivena beepertocarryaround
twenty-four hours a day for one week. They were
randomlypagedthirty-fivetimesoverthecourseofthat
week andasked tochoose froma listalltheemotions
they were experiencing at that exact moment.
IfMaslow’shierarchywasright,thenthenarrowingof
liferunsagainstpeople’sgreatestsourcesoffulfillment
andyouwouldexpectpeopletogrowunhappierasthey
age. But Carstensen’s research found exactly the