title: Aging well and the environment: toward an integrative model and research agenda for the future.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The effects of the physical-spatial-technical environment on aging well have been overlooked both conceptually and empirically. In the spirit of M. Powell Lawton's seminal work on aging and environment, this article attempts to rectify this situation by suggesting a new model of how older people interact with their environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Goals of the paper include (a) integration of the essential elements of the ecology and aging literature, particularly in regard to Lawton's research, (b) development of connections between traditional theories of ecology of aging and life span developmental models of aging well, (c) acknowledgment of the pronounced historical and cohort-related changes affecting the interactions of older people with their environment, and (d) discussion of the implications of this analysis for concepts and theories of aging well.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The model builds on a pair of concepts: environment as related to agency and belonging, founded in motivational psychology, and developmental science.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After describing the model's key components, we discuss its heuristic potential in four propositions for future gerontological research and identify implications of the model for future empirical research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Aging Research, Heidelberg University, Germany. h.w.wahl@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Hans-Werner
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwarsson
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oswald
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D004463:Ecology; D036262:Empirical Research; D004777:Environment; D005544:Forecasting; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012931:Social Environment