The possibilities and the boundaries of regulating one’s own development in adulthood

Abstract

On the basis of an overview of recent publications devoted to motivation and the regulation of development in adulthood the article begins by looking at the motivational foundations of self-determining actions as well as at external coercion regarding the regulation of one’s own development. Among biological constrain the meaning of the maturation process and ageing are emphasized while among social constrains developmental tasks and age norms are emphasized. The article draws attention to the foundations of developmental regulations pointing to selection, compensation and optimization and discusses developmental goals as the medium through which developmental regulation has an effect on developmental outcomes. At the end the article underlines the possibilities and the limitations of the mechanism and the strategies of the self-regulation of the development of adults (for example, different types of control and comparison) and expresses a demand for conceiving of such a methodology of research which will respect the dynamic, processual relationship of mechanisms and the strategies of regulating development as well as their outcome.