This final chapter will briefly review the conclusions that can be drawn from the theory and empirical research presented in the previous chapters. Because of the nature of this research program, the theory is much larger in scope than the empirical studies reported. Therefore, the tasks and questions set for empirical research, which follow from the lifespan theory of control and its model of developmental regulation, are extensive. Some selected prospects for future research in each of the areas covered will be developed in the following section. Because of the wide scope of phenomena involved in developmental regulation across the life course, the discussion of research prospects needs to be selective and focused on areas of particular intellectual promise.

The great variability and relative dearth of biologically based determination in human behavior pose two basic challenges to human behavioral regulation: the management of selectivity and failure compensation (J. Heckhausen & Schulz 1995). The individual needs to choose certain action goals out of many alternatives and then focus the investment of resources for primary control on the goal selected. Moreover, the individual has to compensate for the frustration and threat to self-esteem that may result from regular failure experiences. In the context of ontogenetic change across the life course, both selectivity and failure compensation become even more pressing and more essential.