Co-Investigators: Professors Jutta Heckhausen and Jacob Shane (CUNY, Brooklyn)

The life domain of work is central to most people’s lives. In different parts of society and with different career paths, the prospects for developing one’s career across the adult life course vary a lot. Some people’s careers reach their peak early, in their twenties, whereas others have the opportunity to strive for further promotions and enrichments of their work life. What are the consequences of these differences in opportunity and how do people deal with them? How do individuals differ in their capacity to optimize what they get out of the given opportunities and to come to terms with the limitations of their career as they move through adulthood?