Data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal study (approx N = 27,000) of the US population over age 50 (http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu) and the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), a multidisciplinary longitudinal study of 516 men and women aged 70 to 100-plus (www.base-berlin.mpg.de) are used to investigate:
· profiles and trajectories of psychosocial vitality after age 50
· well-being after age 50
· psychosocial predictors of cognitive functioning
· health challenges to psychological vitality
· self perceptions and images of aging