Laura Carstensen

Laura L. Carstensen is an American psychologist and gerontologist whose research focuses on emotional development and aging. She is best known for developing socioemotional selectivity theory, which explains how people’s goals and social priorities shift as they perceive time as more limited, often emphasizing emotionally meaningful relationships. Carstensen is a professor at Stanford University and the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, where she has helped shape interdisciplinary research on lifespan development, health, and well-being. Her work has influenced scientific and public understanding of aging, highlighting strengths that can accompany later life as well as the conditions that support them.