Heterogeneity and Differential Development Across the Lifespan: Conceptual and Methodological Promises and Challenges

拟议研究的核心是关于生命发展过程中的社区和差异的概念。为了阐明这些观念在老年时的各个方面，我计划进行四个相互关联的项目：(1)学习和应用统计建模的最新进展，以检查功能领域内部和跨领域的动态关系，而不是静态关系；(2)通过利用其他时间维度（如死亡距离）的效用，增加对年龄相关过程的考虑；(3)使用多领域的系统整体视角来补充单一领域的功能导向研究。(4)考虑短期个体变异作为长期持续变化的补充。我希望在两年的博士后阶段与教授们合作研究这些项目。mccardle, Salthouse，和Nesselroade（美国弗吉尼亚大学），他们是衰老研究领域备受认可的专家。根据DFG提供的资金，这些项目的前景是提供一个独特的背景，以更好地了解老年发展的多样性及其潜在机制，并使我能够大大扩展我的实质性专业知识和方法技能。

Central to the proposed research are notions about communalities and differences in lifespan developmental processes. To shed light on facets of these notions in old age, I plan to pursue four inter-related projects: (1) learn and apply recent advances in statistical modeling to examine dynamic rather than static relations within and across domains of functioning, (2) add to the consideration of age-related processes by exploiting the utility of alternative time dimensions such as distance to death, (3) use a systemic-wholistic perspective on multiple domains to supplement functionoriented research in single domains, and (4) consider short-term intraindividual variability as a complement to long-term enduring change. I would like to work on these projects over a two-year post-doc phase collaborating together with Profs. McArdle, Salthouse, and Nesselroade (University of Virginia, USA) who are highly acknowledged experts in the field of aging research. Depending upon funding through the DFG, the prospect is that the projects provide a unique context to better understand the diversity of development in old age and its underlying mechanisms as well as for me to expand my substantive expertise and methodological skills considerably.