Research

My lines of research focus on lifespan development in:

(1) Temporal Self

My current research focus on the age differences in temporal self-continuity, i.e., the psychological connectedness between our current self and a distant past/ future self. Our latest project examined the robustness of such age-related structural differences in self-continuity by involving multiple datasets collected across age groups, time, and countries.

Our next step is to develop an advanced modeling approach by applying economic discounting models to self-continuity.

(2) Social Self

I’m also interested in the extended self in social relations. One example is social discounting, i.e., people offer benefits to others according to the perceived social distance. We are currently conducting a cross-cultural survey on age-related differences in social discounting.

(3) Decision-Making

A deeper understanding of our temporally and socially extended selves can ultimately help us to improve real-life decisions, such as investments and generativity, especially for older adults.