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Adaptive Resources of the Aging Self, Assimilative and Accommodative Modes of Coping

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Adaptation to disability and loss; Benefit finding; Flexibility; Goal adjustment; Goal pursuit; Resilience; Sources of meaning; Tenacity

Definition

Resilience and well-being across the life-span hinge on the balanced interplay between two adaptive processes: On activities through which individuals try to achieve goals and maintain a desired course of personal development (assimilative activities), as well as on the adjustment of personal goals to changing action resources (accommodative processes). The concepts of assimilative persistence (or tenacious goal pursuit) and accommodative flexibility (or flexible goal adjustment) refer to individual differences in these two modes of coping.

A person’s life course is generally a mixture of intended action outcomes and unintended events, of gains and losses; the balance of these factors varies on historical as well as in individual-ontogenetic dimensions of time. Given this general fact about personal development, notions of positive...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, 54296, Trier, Germany

    Jochen Brandtstädter

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  1. Jochen Brandtstädter
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Correspondence to Jochen Brandtstädter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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Brandtstädter, J. (2017). Adaptive Resources of the Aging Self, Assimilative and Accommodative Modes of Coping. In: Pachana, N.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-082-7_129

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