Aging in the Netherlands: state of the art and science.

The population of the Netherlands is aging, although it is still relatively young in comparison with the population of most other European countries. As Dutch society transitions from a welfare state to a society based more on individual responsibility, the increasingly well-educated and financially well-off elderly people wish to exert more control over their own lives. Research and education in the field of aging have grown rapidly over the past few decades, along with variety in research focus and methodology.

On the dynamics of active aging.

The conceptual basis of active aging is extended with a dynamic systems model, called Janus. The Janus model accounts for the life-course dynamics of simple and more complex growth and decline functions, on the strength of three principles. The first principle of transition states that the unitary lifespan trajectory of development and aging is the product of two complementary forces, growth and senescence, which are effective from conception until death.

Assessing competence: the European Survey on Aging Protocol (ESAP).

Objectives: The main goal of this research project was to translate and adapt the European Survey on Ageing Protocol (ESAP) to 7 European countries/cultures. This article presents preliminary results from the ESAP, the basic assessment instrument of EXCELSA (European Longitudinal Study of Aging).

Methods: 672 individuals aged 30-85, selected through quota sampling (by age, gender, education and living conditions), participated in this study, with 96 subjects from each of the 7 European countries.

Autobiographical memory from a life span perspective.

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.