Jutta Heckhausen studied psychology at Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany. She wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on Mother-infant dyads in joint object-centered action at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, in 1985, and her post doctoral dissertation on developmental regulation in adulthood at the Free University of Berlin in 1996. She was a postdoctoral fellow, and then a research scientist, followed by senior scientist and head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. Since 2000, Dr Heckhausen has been a professor in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. From 1995 to 1996, Dr Heckhausen was a fellow at the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at Stanford, and in 1999 she was awarded the Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation. Her main research interests include motivation and development across the lifespan, goal engagement and disengagement, developmental regulation during major life-course transitions and health problems, and cultural universals and differences in striving for control. Heinz Heckhausen studied psychology at the University of Munster and wrote his doctoral dissertation on task motivation and achievement in 1954, followed by his post doctoral dissertation on achievement motivation, hope for success, and fear of failure in 1962. For ten years, he was a research scientist at the University of Munster and then became professor of psychology at Ruhr University, Bochum, and founded the Psychological Institute. From 1983 to 1988 he was the director of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich. He was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Wassenaar and from 1980 to 1982, Dr Heckhausen was president of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). In 1981, Dr. Heckhausen was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oslo. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr Heckhausen's research interests include achievement motivation, motivation and volition in the course of action, development of motivation, measurement of motives, and causal attribution of action outcomes.