title: Aging in culture.
abstract: This article reviews the empirical studies that test socioemotional aging across cultures. The review focuses on comparisons between Western (mostly North Americans and Germans) and Eastern cultures (mostly Chinese) in areas including age-related personality, social relationships, and cognition. Based on the review, I argue that aging is a meaning-making process. Individuals from each cultural context internalize cultural values with age. These internalized cultural values become goals that guide adult development. When individuals from different cultures each pursue their own goals with age, cultural differences in socioemotional aging occur.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Room 328 Sino Building, Chung Chi College, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong. hhlfung@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Helene H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Fung
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010551:Personality; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*