Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2026
This introductory chapter presents the paradoxical status of ageing today: most people wish to live long, yet nobody really wants to get old… Ageing still appears as a scary, unknown country. The present book, concluding almost ten years of research on ageing, aspires to bring a fresh look on what becoming older may entail. It has a double aim. First, as a basic goal, it proposes a new theory of psychological development in older age. Second, it highlights the importance of the environments in which people age, and the role of well-thought-out policies to support development with age; it has thus a more applied goal. This introductory chapter then presents the outline of the volume.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.