Susan Bluck is Director of the Life Story Lab and a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. Bluck is a lifespan developmental psychologist with an emphasis on adult development, aging, and the end of life. Her research examines the ways that individuals use memories of life’s experiences (i.e., autobiographical remembering, life stories) to serve adaptive psychosocial functions in their current life context. Her contributions to both theory and measurement development are highly cited. Bluck’s empirical work demonstrates memory’s adaptive psychosocial functions: maintaining self-continuity and developing intimacy and empathy in relationships. In her most recent work, funded by the National Cancer Institute, she collaborates with health professionals in palliative care to examine the last chapter of the life story – death-related events.
