Chronicling the evolution of David Gutmann's cross-cultural, empirical studies on which his developmental theories of aging are based, this volume reveals how descriptions of the developmental sequences (as they show themselves in older men and women) lead to identification of the psychological forces that drive these processes across the years. This book of new and previously published work first reports on the research that buttressed this more hopeful view of aging as a period of growth and then sets forth the broad, unifying ideas that came out of the empirical work. This is a text for gerontologists, for all students of human development, and for all thoughtful readers who are concerned with the great themes of the human life-cycle - including their own.