Berner Hanley University Scholar
Associate Professor of Developmental and Family Studies
(PhD, MA, University of Michigan)

Research Interests

Relationships between adults and parents, families in adulthood, ambivalent relationships, emotional development, adult development and aging.

Contact Information

Fowler House, Room 223
Purdue University
1200 W. State Street
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2055

Phone: (765) 496-6378
Fax: (765) 494-0503

E-mail: karenf@purdue.edu

Web site: www.cfs.purdue.edu/cdfs/Adult_Development

Biography
Recent Publications
Education
Courses Recently Taught
Honors
External Grants
Professional Service

Biography

I grew up in the Midwest, but my education and professional appointments have taken me around the world. After high school, I lived in Switzerland for a year as a foreign exchange student where I developed a passion for chocolate. I attended college in Boston at Harvard University and then spent a year in Kenya . After that, I settled into 5 years of a PhD program at the University of Michigan where I learned all the words to the UM fight song (hail to the victors!). I then managed to make it all the way to the other side of the country, the San Francisco Bay Area, where I spent a year as a post doctoral fellow at Stanford Medical School. My first teaching appointment was as an assistant professor at University of San Francisco. After that, I spent 8 years in the mountainous regions of Pennsylvania on the faculty at Pennsylvania State University. I moved to Purdue University in 2003.

My research focuses on social relationships, emotions, and aging. I examine emotions adults of different ages experience in their relationships and the behaviors they use to communicate their feelings. I am particularly interested in relationships between adults and their parents. My research has been funded by the Brookdale Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute on Aging and the MacArthur Network on Transitions to Adulthood are currently funding a study I am conducting examining middle aged adults, their young adult children, and their aging parents.

I received the Margret Baltes Award for Early Career Achievement in Social and Behavioral Gerontology and the Springer Award for Early Career Achievement from the American Psychological Association. I have been elected fellows of the Association for Psychological Science and the Gerontological Society of America. I currently serve on the editorial boards of the Journal of Marriage and Family, International Journal for Aging and Human Development, and Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Science.

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Recent Publications

Cichy, K.E.*, Lefkowitz, E.S., & Fingerman, K.L. (in press). Generational differences in gender attitudes between parents and grown offspring. Sex Roles.

Birditt, K.S., Fingerman, K.L., Kamp Dush, C.M., & Lefkowitz, E.S. (in press). Development of a filial maturity scale. Journal of Adult Development.

Fingerman, K.L., Hay, E.L., Kamp Dush, C.M., Cichy, K.E., & Hosterman, S. (in press). Parents' and offspring's perceptions of change and continuity when parents experience the transition to old age. Advances in Life Course Research.

Hay, E.L.*, Fingerman, K.L., & Lefkowitz, E.S. (in press). The experience of worry in parent-adult child relationships. Personal Relationships.

Fingerman, K.L., & Pitzer, L.M. (2007). Socialization in old age. In P.D. Hastings & J.E. Grusec (Eds.), Handbook of Socialization (pp. 232-255). New York: Guilford Press.

Cichy, K.E.*, Fingerman, K.L., & Lefkowitz, E.S. (2007). Causes of interpersonal tensions across adulthood. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 64, 171-193.

Moorman, S.M., Booth, A., Fingerman, K.L. (2006). Women’s romantic relationships after widowhood. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 1281-1304.

Fingerman, K.L., Chen, P.C.*, Hay, E.L.*, Cichy, K.E.*, & Lefkowitz, E.S. (2006). Ambivalent reactions in the parent and offspring relationship. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 61B, 152-160.

Fingerman, K.L., & Dolbin-MacNab, M. (2006). Lessons from the baby boomers and their parents: How a cohort shapes an understanding of intergenerational ties. To appear in S. Willis & S. K. Whitbourne (Eds.), The baby boomers at midlife: Contemporary perspectives on middle age(pp. 237-259). Mahwah, N.J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Fingerman, K.L., & Baker, B. (2006). Socio-emotional aspects of aging. To appear in J. Wilmouth & K. Ferraro (Eds.), Perspectives in Gerontology (3rd Edition) (pp.183-202). New York: Springer.

Birditt, K.S., Fingerman, K.L., & Almeida, D. (2005). Age and gender differences in reported reactions to interpersonal tensions: A daily diary study. Psychology & Aging, 20, 330-340.

Birditt, K.S., & Fingerman, K.L. (2005). Do we get better at picking our battles? Age differences in descriptions of behavioral reactions to interpersonal tensions. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 60B, P121-P128.

Hay, E.L., & Fingerman, K.L. (2005). Perceptions of social control across adulthood. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 60, 53-75.

Cichy, K.E., & Fingerman, K.L. (2005). Families around the world and through the Life course. [Invited book review Intergenerational relations across time and place.]. Contemporary Gerontology, 11, 173-174.

Fingerman, K.L. (2004). The role of offspring and children-in-law in grandparents' relationships with grandchildren. Journal of Family Issues, 25, 1026-1049.

Fingerman, K.L., Hay, E.L., & Birditt, K.S. (2004). The best of ties, the worst of ties: Close, problematic, and ambivalent relationships across the lifespan. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 792-808.

Fingerman, K.L., & Hay, E.L. (2004). Intergenerational ambivalence in the context of the larger social network. In K. Luescher & K. Pillemer (Eds.), Intergenerational ambivalence. Amsterdam: Elsevier/JAI Press.

Fingerman, K.L., & Lang, F. (2004). Coming together: A lifespan perspective on personal relationships. In F. Lang & K.L. Fingerman (Eds.), Growing together: Personal relationships across the lifespan (pp. 1-23). New York Cambridge University Press.

Fingerman, K.L. (2004). The consequential stranger: Peripheral relationships across the lifespan. In F. Lang & K.L. Fingerman (Eds.), Growing together: Personal relationships across the lifespan (pp.183-209). New York Cambridge University Press.

Lang, F., & Fingerman, K.L. (Eds.). (2004). Growing together: Personal relationships across the life span. New York: Cambridge University Press

Fingerman, K.L., Nussbaum, J., & Birditt, K.S. (2004). Keeping all five balls in the air: Juggling family communication at midlife. In A.L. Vangelisti (Ed.), Handbook of family communication (pp. 135-152). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lefkowitz, E.S., & Fingerman, K.L. (2003). Positive and negative emotional feelings and behaviors in mother-daughter ties in late life. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 607-617.

Birditt, K.S., & Fingerman, K.L. (2003). Age and gender differences in adults' emotional reactions to interpersonal tensions. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 58B, P237-P245.

Fingerman, K.L., & Birditt, K.S. (2003). Do age differences in close and problematic family networks reflect the pool of available relatives? Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 58, P80-P87.

Fingerman, K.L., & Hay, E.L. (2002). Searching under the streetlight?: Age biases in the personal and family relationships literature. Personal Relationships, 9, 415-433.

Fingerman, K.L. (2001). Aging mothers and their adult daughters: A study in mixed emotions. New York: Springer Publishers.

Fingerman, K.L. (2001). The paradox of a distant closeness: Intimacy in parent/child ties. Generations, 25, 26-33.

Fingerman K.L. (2000). "We had a nice little chat": Age and generational differences in mothers' and daughters' descriptions of enjoyable visits. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55, P95-P106.

Fingerman, K.L., & Bermann, E. (2000). Applications of family systems theory to the study of adulthood. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 51, 5-29.

Fingerman, K.L., & Griffiths, P.C. (1999). Season's greetings: Adults' social contact at the holiday season. Psychology and Aging, 14, 192-205.

Fingerman, K.L. (1998). The good, the bad, and the worrisome: Complexities in grandparents' relationships with individual grandchildren. Family Relations, 47, 403-414

Fingerman, K.L. (1998). Tight lips: Aging mothers' and their adult daughters' responses to interpersonal tensions in their relationship. Personal Relationships, 5, 121-138.

Fingerman, K.L. (1996). Sources of tension in the aging mother and adult daughter relationship. Psychology and Aging, 11, 591-606.

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Education

• Ph.D., 1993, Psychology University of Michigan.
• MmS., 1990, Arts Psychology, University of Michigan.
• B.A.,1987, Psychology Harvard/Radcliffe College.

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Courses Recently Taught

CDFS 649: Multidisciplinary Gerontology
UHP 199: Aging in the Twenty-first century
CDFS 312: Adult Development and Aging

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Honors

2006 Star Gerontologist Award, Center on Aging and the Life Course, Purdue University.

2003-present Berner Hanley University Scholar, Purdue University.

2005 Harshman Visiting Lecturer, Guelph, Canada.

2005 Elected Fellow, American Psychological Society.

2002 Elected Fellow, Gerontological Society of America.

2000-2002 Brookdale National Fellow, Brookdale Foundation.

1999 Margret Baltes Award for Early Career Achievement in Social and Behavioral Gerontology, Gerontological Society of America.

1998 Springer Award for Early Career Achievement in Research on Adult Development and Aging, American Psychological Association.

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External Grants

2006-2010 National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Principal Investigator, "The Psychology of Intergenerational Transfers," R01AG027769, $1,532,990.

2007-2008 MacArthur Network on Transitions to Adulthood. "Supplement to the Psychology of Intergenerational Transfers to Enhance Study of Young Adult Offspring" (Frank Furstenberg, Network Director), $71,454.

2001-2006 National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Principal Investigator, "Problems Between Parents and Offspring in Adulthood," R01 AG17916, $1,286,694.

2001-2003 National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Training Faculty (Steven Zarit, Principal Investigator), "Interdisciplinary Training Grant in Gerontology". $1,596,310.

2000-2002 Brookdale Foundation. Principal Investigator, "Family Relationships and Sensory Impairments in Late Life," $105,000.

1997-1999 National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. Principal Investigator, "Adults' Reasoning About Problems in Social Relationships," R03AG14484A, $66,597.

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Professional Service

2006-2009 Member-at-Large, American Psychological Association Division 20, Adult Development & Aging.
2006-2008 Chair, Distinguished Mentor Committee, Gerontological Society of America.
2007-2008 Elections committee, Division 20, Adult Development & Aging, American Psychological Association.
2003-2005 Member-at-Large, Behavioral & Social Sciences, Gerontological Society of America.
2003 Chair, Distinguished Mentor Committee, Gerontological Society of America.
2003-2005 Member, student awards committee, American Psychological Association.
2003 Member, nominating committee, Gerontological Society of America
2000-2002 Co-chair, Education Committee, Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging), American Psychological Association.
1999 Chair, Theory Construction and Research Methodology Workshop, pre-conference workshop on Intergenerational Obligation, National Council on Family Relations annual conference, Irvine, California.

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