The present study examined time-related change in felt age, physical age, and satisfaction with aging in old age and covariates of this change. Using 6-year-longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (age range = 70-104 years), we found that individuals' felt age remained on average about 13 years below their actual age over time, whereas they reported a decreasing discrepancy between physical and actual age and a decrease in aging satisfaction over time. After we controlled for level differences, a differential pattern of individual differences in change appeared for the three dimensions: Age contributed to a greater decline in aging satisfaction but an increase in the discrepancy of felt age. A higher number of illnesses at baseline attenuated change in felt age discrepancy. Future research on change of self-perceptions of aging will provide insight into mechanisms of resilience of the aging self in later life.

Satisfaction with one's own aging and feeling young are indicators of positive well-being in late life. Using 16-year longitudinal data from participants of the Berlin Aging Study (P. B. Baltes & K. U. Mayer, 1999; N = 439; 70- to 100-year-olds), the authors examined whether and how these self-perceptions of aging change with age and how such changes relate to distance from death. Extending previous studies, they found that it is not only higher aging satisfaction and younger subjective age but also more favorable change patterns (e.g., less decline in aging satisfaction) that are uniquely associated with lower mortality hazards. These effects are robust after controls for objective measures such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, diagnosis of dementia, or number of illnesses. As individuals approach death, they become less satisfied with their aging and report feeling older. For aging satisfaction, mortality-related decline is much steeper than age-related decline, whereas change in subjective age is best characterized as an age-related process. The authors discuss how self-perceptions of aging are embedded in mechanisms underlying pathways of dying late in life.

The notion of the heterogeneity of aging goes along with the awareness that every person experiences aging differently. Over the past years, scholars have emphasized that the assessment of these subjective experiences of aging contributes to our understanding of a range of psychological and physiological processes and outcomes among older adults. One construct frequently used in this context is subjective age, that is, how old or young a person feels. Subjective age has been shown to be an important correlate as well as a predictor of markers of successful aging such as well-being, health, and longevity. However, less is known about the antecedents of subjective age and the mechanisms underlying the relationship between feeling younger and positive developmental outcomes. This article briefly summarizes and critically evaluates the empirical evidence on this topic and makes suggestions on how to address and potentially overcome currently existing theoretical, methodological, and psychometric challenges. Based on the discussion of these challenges, the paper provides directions for future research by outlining underexplored topics such as intraindividual variability and determinants of subjective age, the match between objective age indicators and subjective age, and how subjective age maps on behavior and functioning.

This study is among the first to induce a younger subjective age. It supports the notion that redirecting older adults' attention to downward social comparison with same-aged peers is a promising strategy to maintain a sense of feeling younger. In addition, our results provide an initial positive answer to the question of whether feeling younger translates into better physical functioning.

Taken together, although we find some support for contrast effects, most of our results can be interpreted in terms of assimilation effects, suggesting that individuals integrate stereotypical information into their self-evaluations of age(ing) when confronted with stereotypes.