Irina Catrinel Crăciun – författare

This book explores positive aging through the lens of precarity, aiming to ground positive aging theories in current social contexts. In recent years, research on aging has been branded by growing disagreements between supporters of the successful aging model and critical gerontologists who highlight the widening inequalities, disadvantages and precarity that characterize old age. This book comes to fill a gap in knowledge by offering an alternative view on positive aging, informed by precarity and its impact on projections concerning aging.

The first part of the book places aging in broader theoretical and empirical context, exploring the complex links between views on aging, successful aging theories, policy and social reality. The second part uses results from a qualitative research conducted in Germany to illustrate the dissonance between successful aging ideals and both negative and positive views on aging as well as aging preparation strategies inspired by precarity. Findings from this section provide a solid starting point for comparisons with countries that are both similar and different from Germany in terms of welfare regimes and aging policies. The final part of the book discusses the psychological implications of these findings within and beyond the German case study and outlines potential solutions for practice.

This book provides health psychologists, gerontologists, sociologists, social workers, health professionals as well as students and aging individuals themselves with better understanding of the meaning of aging in precarious times and builds confidence about aging well despite precarity.

This handbook integrates and discusses a growing evidence base concerning individual development across middle and late adulthood. The book includes a comprehensive analysis of what growth implies within midlife and older age and considers how different developmental areas are intertwined (i.e., physical, cognitive, social and emotional development as well as personality growth). As the gap between theory and practice still constitutes an issue in developmental research, the handbook also aims to provide illustrative examples of prevention and intervention from a positive psychology perspective. These were selected to represent a variety of topics, relevant for individual development where research informs practice, ranging from happiness, grandparenthood, love and sexuality to loneliness, depression, anxiety, suicide prevention and coping with death. This handbook is a must-have resource for students and researchers working in developmental psychology, health psychology, gerontology and, public health. It will also be of interest to practitioners such as counsellors, life coaches, psychotherapists, organizational psychologists, health professionals, social workers or public health planners.

Dieses Handbuch integriert und erörtert eine wachsende Evidenzbasis zur individuellen Entwicklung im mittleren und späten Erwachsenenalter. Das Buch enthält eine umfassende Analyse dessen, was Wachstum in der Lebensmitte und im höheren Alter bedeutet, und zeigt auf, wie verschiedene Entwicklungsbereiche miteinander verwoben sind (d. h. körperliche, kognitive, soziale und emotionale Entwicklung sowie Persönlichkeitsentwicklung). Da die Kluft zwischen Theorie und Praxis immer noch ein Problem in der Entwicklungsforschung darstellt, zielt das Handbuch auch darauf ab, anschauliche Beispiele für Prävention und Intervention aus der Perspektive der positiven Psychologie zu liefern. Diese wurden so ausgewählt, dass sie eine Vielzahl von Themen repräsentieren, die für die individuelle Entwicklung relevant sind und bei denen die Forschung die Praxis beeinflusst, von Glück, Großelternschaft, Liebe und Sexualität bis hin zu Einsamkeit, Depression, Angst, Suizidprävention und Bewältigung des Todes.

Dieses Handbuch ist ein unverzichtbares Hilfsmittel für Studenten und Forscher, die in den Bereichen Entwicklungspsychologie, Gesundheitspsychologie, Gerontologie und öffentliche Gesundheit arbeiten. Es ist auch für Praktiker wie Berater, Life Coaches, Psychotherapeuten, Organisationspsychologen, Gesundheitsfachleute, Sozialarbeiter und Planer im Bereich der öffentlichen Gesundheit von Interesse.