This article summarizes results from studies of the organization and development of cognitive abilities in adults aged 20 to 60 years old. Theories of intelligence stipulating a hierarchy of intellectual functions, with fluid and crystallized intelligence at the top, are supported. Six conclusions on age differences are offered. (Author/RD)

The Piagetian perspective of adult cognitive development and adult education could have implications for how work and formal reasoning can be related to adult education programs and policy. During adolescence and adulthood, many individuals enter the cognitive period of formal operations (the last of three stages in Piaget's conceptual framework…

Formulates a model for viewing the transitions and losses of the aging process as opportunities for growth and self-enhancement. Reviews major categories of social-psychological transition events. Summarizes social-psychological resources that aging individuals bring to these events and discusses three processes of adaptation to transition…

The developmental model of self-concept proposed by M. Lynch and M. Levy (1982) is extended through the entire adult life cycle. Self-concept is seen as a set of cognitive rules that have affective or cognitive consequences and that operate like the ego functions proposed by Freud. (SLD)

This second issue of a series on theory, innovation, and practice in andragogy analyzes some of the instructional variables in adult learning and discusses ways to influence the degree of learning through the application of instructional and behavioral technologies. It unites theory and practice, generating recommendations from the abstract…

Research indicates that little is understood about the impact of what has been called "the second half of life" on administrators in higher education, such as deans and department chairs. This study addresses this lack of knowledge by reviewing research on the second half of life phenomena, especially its possible impact on university/college…