Individuals as producers of their own life span development are discussed with regard
to the major challenges, opportunities, and constraints encountered over the life
course. Major challenges of life span development and human behaviour include the
need to be selective in choosing life course paths, and the failure proneness of
human behaviour. Management mechanisms directed at these challenges can be
identified on the societal and the individual level. Socio-structural regulations of
life course selectivity and failure are viewed as constraining but also supporting
individual life course management. Individual life course management is
conceptualised in terms of the model of optimisation by selection and compensation,
which is elaborated by applying the life span model of primary and secondary control
developed by Heckhausen and Schulz. The integrated model conceptualises optimisation
as a higher-order process regulating selection and compensation, so that the
long-term potential for primary control is promoted. Primary and secondary control
strategies are identified for both selection and compensation, thus yielding four
types of life-management strategies. Finally, it is argued that selection and
compensation are not adaptive in and of themselves and may become dysfunctional when
impairing the long-term potential for primary control.
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