Who's Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise? Personality and Life Outcomes in Older Adults

描述(申请人提供)：老年带来了无数的挑战。有三点对独立和幸福尤其重要：应对认知衰退，保持足够的经济资源，以及保持身体机能和健康。这三点对个人的运作都至关重要，如果不能应对这些挑战，就会给社会带来严重的负担。鉴于美国人口老龄化，确定老年人这些生活结局的风险和保护因素(例如，人格特征)是当务之急。这项提议的项目的首要目标是在具有全国代表性的老年人样本中调查个性在预测相应生活结果方面的作用。现有的研究一般使用不具代表性的样本和/或倾向于关注单个时间点的结果，这限制了我们对生活结果如何随时间变化的理解。[动态、纵向的方法可以解决更复杂、更有趣的问题。拟议的调查将使用一个具有全国代表性的大型数据集来检查人格(五大人格特质)及其与三个关键结果的动态轨迹的关系：丈夫和妻子的认知能力(特定目标1)~家庭收入、财富和支出(特定目标2)~以及个人的身体健康、身体功能和精神健康(特定目标3)。]这些分析将评估三类问题：(1)个性预测这些结果的水平和变化吗？(2)相关的动态结果如何相互影响？(例如，一方的认知能力是否预示着另一方的认知能力随着时间的推移而发生变化？)(3)个性如何缓和动态结果对彼此的影响？(例如，更内向的人，他们可能没有广泛的社交网络，更容易受到配偶认知能力变化的影响？)为了发展寿命研究方面的专业知识，申请者需要有与成年人进行研究并对纵向寿命数据进行建模的经验。发起人杰克·麦卡德尔博士是对年龄敏感的纵向数据建模方法方面的权威，也是健康与退休研究的联席主任，也是成人认知能力方面的专家。戴维斯老年学学院将提供合作研究的机会，以及关于成人老龄化和发育的高级课程、座谈会和研讨会。由于健康心理学的复杂性，霍华德·弗里德曼博士(共同发起人)--人格、健康心理学和寿命研究的专家--将指导人格与健康的文献综述，并在人格与健康项目上进行合作。总体而言，McArdle博士和Friedman博士的专业知识以及戴维斯老年学学院提供的机会为申请者提供了必要的资源，以实现以下长期目标：(1)发展成人衰老和发育方面的专业知识，(2)学习和开发尖端方法来模拟寿命数据，(3)准备担任独立的首席研究员，研究个性如何决定生活结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Old age brings numerous challenges. Three in particular are especially important for independence and well-being: dealing with cognitive decline, maintaining adequate financial resources, and preserving physical functioning and health. All three are crucial for individual functioning and failure to meet these challenges place a severe burden on society. Given the aging population in the United States, it is imperative to identify risk and protective factors (e.g., personality traits) for these life outcomes in older adlts. The overarching goal of the proposed project is to investigate the role of personality in predicting consequential life outcomes in a nationally-representative sample of older adults. Extant research generally uses non-representative samples and/or tends to focus on outcomes at a single time point, which limits our understanding of how life outcomes change over time. [A dynamic, longitudinal approach allows more complex and interesting questions to be addressed. The proposed investigation will use a large nationally-representative dataset to examine personality (the Big Five personality traits) and its relation to dynamic trajectories of three ses of key outcomes: husbands' and wives' cognitive ability (Specific Aim 1)~ household income, wealth, and spending (Specific Aim 2)~ and individuals' physical health, physical functioning, and mental health (Specific Aim 3).] These analyses will assess three types of questions: (1) Does personality predict the levels of, and changes in, these outcomes? (2) How do related dynamic outcomes affect each other? (e.g., does one spouse's cognitive ability predict changes in the other's over time?) (3) How might personality moderate the dynamic outcomes' effects on each other? (e.g., are more introverted individuals, who might not have extensive social networks, more susceptible to changes in their spouse's cognitive ability?). To develop expertise on lifespan research, the applicant requires experience conducting research with adults and modeling longitudinal lifespan data. The sponsor, Dr. Jack McArdle, is an authority on age-sensitive methods to model longitudinal data, co-director of the Health and Retirement Study, and an expert in adult cognitive ability. The Davis School of Gerontology would provide opportunities for collaborative research as well as advanced coursework, colloquia, and workshops on adult aging and development. Because of the intricacies in health psychology, Dr. Howard Friedman (Co-Sponsor)-an expert in personality, health psychology, and lifespan research-will direct a literature review of personality and health, and collaborate on the personality and health project. Collectively, Dr. McArdle's and Dr. Friedman's expertise along with the opportunities available through the Davis School of Gerontology provide the applicant with the necessary resources to accomplish the long-term goals of (1) developing expertise in adult aging and development, (2) learning and developing cutting-edge methodological approaches to model lifespan data, and (3) preparing to serve as an independent principal investigator examining how personality determines life outcomes.