We have Julia Rohrer visiting us this week and giving a talk in our colloquium (title and abstract below). Julia is a fellow of the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course, affiliated with the Free University Berlin and the German Institute for Economic Research. Julia is also a contributor to The 100% CI blog.

Shifting Priorities: The impact of life domains on life satisfaction across the life course

A vast body of research has investigated the relationships between happiness and a wide range of potential predictors. In contrast, surprisingly few studies have addressed how these relationships might change across the life course. Yet various theoretical perspectives suggest that the importance of different life domains for well-being depends on age. In my talk, I will sketch a framework for the investigation of the moderating impact of age and present results based on multiple panel studies. Overall, results show that the weights assigned to different life domains change across the life course. The observed pattern mirrors developmental tasks and is further corroborated by respondents’ text reports of what they personally consider important.