This chapter presents past promising streams of studies aiming to describe and understand ageing. First, environmental gerontology approached ageing in relationship to the supportive or constraining role of the environment, and especially, of modalities of housing. Grounded in Lewin’s work, initiated by Powell Lawton in the 1970s, it disappeared at the turn of the millennium. In developmental psychology, a series of authors, such as Charlotte Büher, Robert Havighurst, Erik Erikson and others initiated comprehensive approaches to ageing as part of the course of life. Eventually, these were also replaced by more cognitive and normative approaches, and were mostly absorbed into lifespan psychology.