Social and behavioral scientists have long been interested in cumulative, life course processes. This chapter reviews prototypical questions and methods from the life span approach in psychology as well as the life course approach in sociology. Their relevance for understanding the unfolding lives of those who suffer from skin disorders is then considered. Key themes extracted from these approa...

Chronological life span is defined by how long a cell can survive in a non-dividing state. In yeast, it is measured by viability after entry into stationary phase. To date, some factors affecting chronological life span have been identified; however, the molecular details of how these factors regulate chronological life span have not yet been elucidated clearly. Because life span is a complicat...

Faces convey information that is of great importance for humans as social beings. The ability to process information from faces undergoes significant changes across the life-span (e.g., Germine et al., 2011), and shows considerable individual differences (e.g., Wilhelm et al., 2010). Average developmental trends and changes of individual differences in face perception across the life-span arise...

This comparative study (i.e., three age groups, three measures) explores the distribution of retrospective and prospective autobiographical memory data across the lifespan, in particular the bump pattern of disproportionally higher recall of memories from the ages 10 to 30, as generally observed in older age groups, in conjunction with the well-known recency effect. The memory data patterns of ...

The potential for sexual conflict to influence the evolution of life span and aging has been recognized for more than a decade, and recent work also suggests that variation in life span and aging can influence sexually antagonistic coevolution. However, empirical exploration of these ideas is only beginning. Here, we provide an overview of the ideas and evidence linking inter- and intralocus se...

Mitochondria have been associated with aging in many experimental systems through the damaging action of reactive oxygen species. There is more, however, to the connection between mitochondria and Saccharomyces cerevisiae longevity and aging. Induction of the retrograde response, a pathway signaling mitochondrial dysfunction, results in the extension of life span and postponement of the manifes...

This study provides a comprehensive picture of age differences in self-esteem from age 9 to 90 years using cross-sectional data collected from 326,641 individuals over the Internet. Self-esteem levels were high in childhood, dropped during adolescence, rose gradually throughout adulthood, and declined sharply in old age. This trajectory generally held across gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic...

The life-span of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can be extended by at least six different mechanisms, including calorie restriction, reduced Ins/IGF-1 signaling, germline ablation, food sensing amphid ablation, mitochondrial deficiency, and decreased temperature. Reduced Ins/IGF-1 signaling and calorie restriction can also increase the life-span of flies and mice. The Brevia "Healthy anima...

Aging is characterized by widespread degenerative changes in tissue morphology and function and an increase in the incidence of human diseases such as cancer, stroke, and Alzheimer disease. Findings from recent genetic studies suggest that molecular mechanisms that influence life span are evolutionarily conserved, and interventions that extend the life span of model organisms such as worms and ...