BASE-Publications:
Abstracts
Gerstorf, D., Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (2006). A systemic-wholistic
approach to differential aging: Longitudinal findings from the
Wholistic perspectives on differential change focus on multiple-indicator
information at a person level. They supplement the modeling of average
trajectories at a variable level. The authors extended cross-sectional work in
the Berlin Aging Study (J. Smith & P. B. Baltes, 1997 )
to 6-year longitudinal cluster analyses (n = 132). At baseline, 3 subgroups
were identified with distinct within-person psychological profiles across
cognitive, personality, and social integration constructs. Over time, highly
similar subgroup profiles were found, and about two thirds of the participants
could be classified as remaining in the same subgroups. Baseline subgroups
differed in level and slope of change and in 2 outcomes, well-being and mortality.
Independent of subgroup membership, subgroup-to-subgroup change was associated
with greater decline and predicted poststudy mortality. These findings
demonstrate the usefulness of a wholistic approach for long-term prediction of
outcomes and within-person systemic variability.