The Terman Study of the Gifted presents a unique opportunity to study the implications of achievement for life satisfaction in adulthood and aging. This article uses a life-span developmental perspective to summarize research concerning the lifetime achievement of the Terman sample, their appraisals of living up to their intellectual abilities,…

This study investigated perceived strategies and activities for successful later aging. Participants were 242 members of the Terman Study of the Gifted who responded to an open-ended question concerning how they make the most of their aging years. Data were collected in 1996 and 1999, when the participants were average ages of 84 and 86.…

This study employed hierarchical linear modeling to document the time course of happiness across 20 years from average ages of 66 to 86 among 717 members of the Terman Study of the Gifted. In addition, the study examined the role of positive expectancies about aging, assessed at an average age of 61, in enhancing happiness in aging. The results…

Examined the relationship between early adult life goals and feelings of success and satisfaction in aging for 144 gifted adults. Results showed significant sex differences with men reporting greater goal attainment. Women with occupational goals at age 30 reported lower feelings of goal attainment at age 70. (JAC)

This study examined (a) the role of avoidance coping in prospectively generating both chronic and acute life stressors and (b) the stress-generating role of avoidance coping as a prospective link to future depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,211 late-middle-aged individuals (500 women and 711 men) assessed 3 times over a 10-year period. As…

This study investigated adulthood predictors of health-promoting behavior in later aging. The participants were 162 members of the Terman Study of the Gifted (Terman et al., 1925), who responded in 1999 at an average age of 86 to a mailout questionnaire which included questions concerning their positive health behavior. Adulthood variables were…

A study was conducted to examine the role of positive and negative life circumstances and individual coping factors in the psychological adjustment of older individuals. Interviews were conducted with 32 men and 32 women between the ages of 65 and 75 who were retired from mid-level or managerial jobs at the University of Texas. Most of the…

Examines the relation of being labeled as intellectually gifted to a mid-life appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities and to psychological well-being at age 80. Learning at a younger age of membership in a study of intellectual giftedness was related to less likelihood of believing that one has lived up to one's intellectual abilities at…

This research investigated stability and change in the self-appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities from midlife to later aging. The subjects were 185 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted, who had been asked to rate themselves with respect to living up to their abilities in 1960 (at an average age of 48) and in 1996 (at an…