Self-Regulation and Aging: Substrates and Health Consequences

描述(由申请人提供)：Suzanne C.Segerstrom是一名独立研究员(博士，1997)，她在人格、自我调节和生理学方面建立了富有成效的研究计划。该应用程序建议通过将她从教学、服务和行政责任中解脱出来，保护高水平的研究工作(80%)。这种支持将促进她在老年人的自我调节、生理学、幸福感和健康之间相互作用的研究计划的扩大。该应用程序有三个焦点：(I)执行认知功能和心率变异性被预测为与自我调节成功相关，(Ii)跨领域的自我调节成功(例如，控制重复思维、获得社交或地位资源)被预测与心理和身体健康相关，(Iii)社会资源将随着年龄的增长对健康产生不成比例的影响，正如社会情绪选择性理论所预测的那样。该奖项下的职业发展活动将包括在老龄化、纵向设计和分析以及负责任的研究指导和经验方面的培训；与专门的老龄研究人员在认知、神经心理学、免疫学、神经学和方法论方面的合作；以及带头开展特别项目和会议。研究活动将包括分析她现有的R01资助的执行功能和自我调节之间的关系，对社区居住的老年人进行的纵向研究(N=150)，以及R01样本中关于自我调节和健康的研究，以免疫衰老为重点的对年轻和老年女性的横断面研究(N=76)，1994年开始的一项针对中年人的纵向跟踪研究(N=96)，以及对肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者和照顾者的纵向研究(N=266)。拟议中的研究阐明了未来的方向，考察了目标选择和优化在促进老年女性疼痛的心理和生理健康方面的作用，自我调节在社会情绪选择性中的作用，以及执行认知功能和心率变异性对老年人这种关系的贡献。肯塔基大学和心理学系为这项工作的开展提供了丰富的环境。预计K02的支持将使赛格斯特罗姆博士获得认知、生理学和衰老方面的更多专业知识；产生和传播自我调节、衰老和健康方面的尖端研究；扩大她的拨款组合，以继续这一研究；并培训博士生进行这项研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Suzanne C. Segerstrom is an independent investigator (PhD, 1997) who has established a productive research program in personality, self-regulation, and physiology. The application proposes to protect a high level of research effort (80%) by releasing her from teaching, service, and administrative responsibilities. This support will facilitate an expansion of her research program in the interactions among self-regulation, physiology, well-being, and health in older adults. The application has three foci: (i) executive cognitive function and heart rate variability are predicted to covary with self-regulatory success, (ii) self-regulatory success across domains (e.g., control of repetitive thought, acquisition of social or status resources) is predicted to correlate with mental and physical health, and (iii) social resources will have disproportionate effects on health with increasing age, as predicted by socioemotional selectivity theory. Career development activities under the award will include didactic and experiential training in aging, longitudinal design and analysis, and the responsible conduct of research; collaborations with dedicated aging researchers in cognition, neuropsychology, immunology, neurology, and methodology; and spearheading special projects and meetings. Research activities will include analysis of the relationship between executive function and self- regulation in her existing R01-funded, longitudinal research with community-dwelling older adults (N = 150) and studies of self-regulation and health in the R01 sample, a cross-sectional study of younger and older women focusing on immunosenescence (N=76), a longitudinal follow-up in a study of middle-aged adults (N = 96) that began in 1994, and a longitudinal study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients and caregivers (N = 266). Proposed studies illustrating future directions examine the role of goal selection and optimization in promoting psychological and physiological well-being in older women with pain and the role of self-regulation in socioemotional selectivity and the contributions of executive cognitive function and heart rate variability to this relationship in older adults. The University of Kentucky and the Department of Psychology provide a rich environment for the development of this work. It is expected that K02 support would allow Dr. Segerstrom to acquire additional expertise in cognition, physiology, and aging; produce and disseminate cutting-edge research in self-regulation, aging, and health; expand her grant portfolio to continue this line of research; and train PhD students in the conduct of this research.