Stabilisation of health as the centre point of a health psychology of ageing

Abstract

Current health psychological theories and research mainly cover improvement of health, recovery from illness or maintenance of health. With this theoretical manuscript, we argue that in ageing societies in which chronic illness and multimorbidity become the norm rather than the exception, this focus of health psychology is no longer sufficient. Instead, in line with a recent conceptualisation of health as “the ability to adapt and to self-manage”, we suggest that the centre point of a health psychology of ageing needs to be the stabilisation of health. Current theories of lifespan development, such as the model of selection, optimisation and compensation, the motivational theory of life span development, the two-process model of assimilative and accommodative coping and the recently introduced functional quality of life model are described with regard to their assumptions and related research focussing on stabilisation. All of these models explicitly comprise stabilisation as an important process of successful, healthy ageing. So far, however, the empirical research examining these models does not take stabilisation into account. Implications for research methods and practise of health stabilisation are discussed.

Keywords:

• stabilisation
• ageing
• health

Notes

1. Although using this alternative definition of health as a basis throughout this article, we would like to emphasise that in line with Frenk and Gomez-Dantes (2014), we see the redefinition of health as a continuous endeavour and do not claim that the definition of Huber and colleagues (2011) is the final and true definition. However, we are convinced that at this moment, this definition is fruitful to reconceptualise our thinking of health in an ageing society by addressing the main points of critique of the WHO definition.

2. We are aware that there are more theories of lifespan regulation than the ones focused on here. This paper’s objective was not to provide a comprehensive review of existing models in lifespan research, but to consider current theories with a focus on stabilisation process and to give examples of research relating to such process.

Additional information

Funding

Parts of the preparation of this manuscript were supported by SNSF grant NFP 67 [406740_139363] and by the University Research Priority Program “Dynamics of Healthy Ageing” of the University of Zurich.