Self-Regulation and Aging: Substrates and Health Consequences

简介（由申请人提供）：Suzanne C. Segerstrom是一名独立研究者（博士，1997），她在人格、自我调节和生理学方面建立了一个富有成效的研究项目。该申请提议通过免除她的教学、服务和管理职责来保护高水平的研究工作（80%）。这种支持将有助于扩大她在老年人自我调节、生理学、幸福感和健康之间的相互作用方面的研究项目。该应用程序有三个重点：(i)预测执行认知功能和心率变异性与自我调节成功共变，（ii）预测跨领域的自我调节成功（例如，控制重复思考，获得社会或地位资源）与心理和身体健康相关，以及（iii）社会资源将对健康产生不成比例的影响随着年龄的增长，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老龄化、纵向设计和分析方面的教学和经验培训，以及负责任的研究行为；与认知、神经心理学、免疫学、神经学和方法论领域的老龄研究人员合作；并带头开展特别项目和会议。研究活动将包括分析执行功能和自我调节之间的关系，在她现有的R01资助的纵向研究中，对社区居住的老年人（N= 150）进行了纵向研究，在R01样本中对自我调节和健康进行了研究，对年轻和老年妇女进行了横断面研究，重点是免疫衰老（N=76），对中年人（N= 96）进行了纵向随访研究，开始于1994年。以及对肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者和护理人员的纵向研究（N = 266）。未来的研究方向是研究目标选择和优化在促进老年疼痛妇女心理和生理健康方面的作用，自我调节在社会情绪选择中的作用，以及老年人执行认知功能和心率变异性对这种关系的贡献。肯塔基大学和心理学系为这项工作的发展提供了丰富的环境。预计K02的支持将使Segerstrom博士在认知、生理学和衰老方面获得额外的专业知识；生产和传播自我调节、衰老和健康方面的前沿研究；扩大她的资助组合，继续这方面的研究；并训练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.