The goals of this article are to integrate action regulation theory ART with the lifespan developmental perspective and to outline tenets of a new metatheory of work and aging. The action regulation across the adult lifespan ARAL theory explains how workers influence, and are influenced by, their environment across different time spans.
First, the basic concepts of ART are described, including the sequential and hierarchical structure of actions, complete tasks and actions, foci of action regulation, and the action-regulating mental model.
Second, principles of the lifespan developmental perspective are delineated, including development as a lifelong and multidirectional process, the joint occurrence of gains and losses, intraindividual plasticity, historical embeddedness, and contextualism.
Fourth, we develop further propositions to integrate ART with lifespan theories of motivation and socioemotional experience. Finally, we discuss implications for future research and practice based on ARAL theory.
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