Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, Professor of Psychology, Director, Stanford Center on Longevity

Laura L. Carstensen is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University where she is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Her research on the theoretical and empirical study of motivational, cognitive, and emotional aspects of aging has been funded continuously by the National Institute on Aging for more than 30 years. Carstensen is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served on the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society and was a commissioner on the Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity.  Carstensen’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kleemeier Award, The Richard Kalish Award for Innovative Research and distinguished mentor awards from both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Psychological Association. She is the author of A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity.  Carstensen received her B.S. from the University of Rochester and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University. She holds honorary doctorates from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the University of Rochester.

Executive Assistant:
Joleen Castro
[email protected]

Phone: 650-725-0347

Dept. of Psychology
Building 420, Main Quad 1
Stanford, California 94305-2130

Publications:

A Long Bright Future
Laura L. Carstensen

Socioemotional selectivity theory: The role of perceived endings in human motivation.
Laura L. Carstensen, The Gerontologist (2021)

Leveraging Meaningful Goals to Incentivize Healthful Behaviors in Younger and Older People.
Raposo, S., Hogan, C.L., Barnes, J.T., Chemudupati, & Carstensen, L.L, Psychology and Aging (2021)

Beyond Stereotypes: Using Socioemotional Selectivity Theory to Improve Messaging to Older Adults.
Carstensen, L. L., & Hershfield, H. E., Current Directions in Psychological Science. (2021)

Effectively Reducing Race Differences In Old Age Demands a Life Course Approach.
Miller, j., Horwitz, I., Johfre, S., Jonas, A., Roche, M., Sierra Huertas, D., Streeter, J. Wang, C., Deevy, M., & Carstensen, L.L., AARP.org (May, 2021)

A life-course model for healthier ageing: lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1, 9-10.
Jowell, A., Carstensen, L.L., & Barry, M., Lancet: Healthy Longevity (2020).