Lifespan Lab

Director

Margie Lachman

Margie Lachman
PhD, Pennsylvania State University
781-736-3300
lachman@brandeis.edu

Links


Profile

Margie E. Lachman, PhD, is Minnie and Harold L. Fierman Professor of Psychology and Director of the Lifespan Development Lab at Brandeis University and the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 20 and the Gerontological Society of America. Lachman's research is in the area of lifespan development with a focus on midlife and later life. She was editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2000-2003), and edited two volumes on midlife development. She was co-director of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) funded pre and postdoctoral training program, Cognitive Aging in a Social Context (1990-2015).

With funding from NIA, her current work is aimed at identifying psychosocial (e.g., sense of control) and behavioral (e.g., physical exercise) factors that can protect against, minimize, or compensate for declines in cognition (e.g., memory) and health. She is conducting studies to examine long-term predictors of psychological and physical health, laboratory-based experiments to identify psychological and physiological processes involved in aging-related changes, especially in memory, and intervention studies to enhance performance and promote adaptive functioning.

Lachman has published numerous chapters and journal articles on these topics. Lachman was a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (1990-98) and is currently collaborating on a 20-year longitudinal follow-up of the original MacArthur midlife sample, with the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS). She has conducted intervention studies designed to enhance the sense of control over memory and physical exercise (e.g., Strong for Life), and one of the programs designed to increase control over falls (A Matter of Balance) has been widely adopted internationally and won the Archstone Award for Excellence in Program Innovation from the American Public Health Association.

Lachman has served as an advisor to organizations such as the AARP and the Boston Museum of Science for the traveling exhibit on the Secrets of Aging. She has presented her research on the CBS evening news and the NBC Today show. She received the Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, Division on Adult Development and Aging in 2003 and the Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award in Behavioral and Social Sciences from the Gerontological Society of America in 2015. In 2021, she received the Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award from the Gerontological Society of America Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Awards and Honors

  • Dean's Mentoring Award, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Brandeis University (2023)
  • Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award, Gerontological Society of America (2021)
  • Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Gerontological Society of America (2015)
  • Bronfman Philanthropies Brandeis-Israel Collaborative Research Grant (2014-15)
  • Residential Fellowship (2009-10), Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (2009-10)
  • American Psychological Association, Division 20-Adult Development and Aging, Distinguished Research Achievement Award (2003)
  • Editor, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (2000-03)
  • Archstone Foundation Award for Excellence in Program Innovation, American Public Health Association (1998)
  • Fellow, American Psychological Association, Division on Adult Development and Aging (1994)
  • Fellow, Gerontological Society of America (1992)
  • Member, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (1989-2000)

Recent Publications

2024

  • Tetzner, J., Drewelies, J., Duezel, S., Demuth, I., Wagner, G. G., Lachman, M., Lindenberger,U., Ram, N., & Gerstorf, D. (2024,In press).  Stability and Change of Optimism and Pessimism in Late–Midlife and Old Age across three Independent Studies. Psychology and Aging.
  • Finley, A., Angus, D., Knight, E. van Reekum, C., Lachman, M., Davidson, R. J., & Schaefer, S. (2024, in press).  Resting EEG Periodic and Aperiodic Components Predict Cognitive Decline  Over 10 Years" Journal of Neuroscience.
  • Infurna, F., Dey, N.,  Avilés, T., Grimm, K. J., Lachman, M.E., & Gerstorf, D. (2024, in press). Loneliness in Midlife: Historical Increases and Elevated Levels in the United StatesCompared with Europe. American Psychologist.
  • Lin, X. Y. & Lachman, M. E.  (2024, in press). Social Media Use and Daily Well-Being: The Role  of  Quantity and Quality of Social Support. Research on Aging.

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2004

  • Andreoletti, C., & Lachman, M.E. (2004). Susceptibility and resilience to memory aging stereotypes: Education matters more than age. Experimental Aging Research, 30, 129-148.  doi: 10.1080/03610730490274167

  • Blatt-Eisengart, I., & Lachman, M.E. (2004). Attributions for memory performance in adulthood: Age differences and mediation effects. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 11, 68-79. doi: 10.1076/anec.11.1.68.29364

  • Lachman, M.E. (2004). Development in midlife. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 305-331. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141521

  • Lachman, M.E., & Prenda, K.M. (2004). The adaptive value of feeling in control during midlife. In O. G. Brim, C. D. Ryff, & R. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we?: A national study of well-being at midlife (pp. 320-349). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Markus, H., Plaut, V., & Lachman, M.E. (2004). Place matters: The cultural patterning of well-being in America. In O.G. Brim, C.D. Ryff, & R. Kessler (Eds.), How healthy are we?: A national study of well-being at midlife, (pp. 614-650). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

2002

  • Bertrand, R. & Lachman, M.E. (2002). Personality development in adulthood and old age. In R.M. Lerner, M.A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental Psychology, NY: Wiley.

  • Plaut, V.C., Markus, H.R., & Lachman, M.E. (2002). Place matters: Consensual features and regional variation in American well-being and self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 160-184. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.83.1.160

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