This article had four goals. First, the authors identified a set of general challenges and questions that a life-span theory of development should address. Second, they presented a comprehensive account of their Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development. They integrated the model of optimization in primary and secondary control and the…

The predictive validity of several theoretical factors drawn from control, social learning, and differential association theories for explaining adolescent sexual behavior was studied with 1,478 adolescents. The single factor of differential association with peers accounted for most of the respective variances on frequency of sexual intercourse…

In the study of students' achievement behavior, it has been argued that learning goals that emphasize self-improvement rather than outperforming others are more desirable. This study examined how students' learning goal orientations were related to their theories of intelligence (e.g., whether intelligence is inborn). The subjects were 400 Chinese…