In the August issue of the American Psychologist, there is an article
which discusses aging from the viewpoint of control. While the authors,
Richard Schulz and Jutta Heckhausen, do not refer to Bill Powers, the
concept of control is central to their ideas. Here is the abstract:
To lay the foundation for our model, we first describe existing
conceptions of successful aging, underlying assumptions of development,
and criteria for success. The model presented extends the discourse on
this topic in three directions: (a) It frames the discussion of
successful aging in the broader context of life course development; (b)
it accounts for both normative and nonnormative(i.e., exceptional)
success; and (c) it integrates motivational processes into a theory of
successful aging. Successful aging is equated with the development and
maintenance of primary control throught the life course, which is
achieved through control-related processes that optimize selection and
failure compensation functions. Selection processes regulate the choice
of action goals so that diversity is maintained and positive and
negative trade-offs between performance domains and life stages are
taken into account. Compensation mechanisms serve to maintain,
enhance, and remediate competencies and motivational resources after
failure experiences. Both compensation and selection processes are
motivated by desires for primary control and can be characterized in
terms of primary and secondayr contorl processes.
The American Psychologist can be obtained from any Psychologist who is a
member of the American Psychological Association, comes with the dues.
It is very likely that most public libraries would have them.