The Aging Survey is a representative panel survey carried out in cooperation with the German Centre for Gerontology in Berlin. The Aging Survey is characterised in particular by the fact that it takes into account lifestyles and life contexts of older people from both a sociological and psychological perspective. On the one hand, it deals with the contents and structures of self and life conception, on the other hand with the conditions of the objective social situation and the thus resulting objective needs, the mobilisable resources as well as the concrete patterns of activity and participation