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

描述（由申请人提供）：老年带来许多挑战。其中有三点对独立和幸福特别重要：应对认知能力下降，维持足够的财政资源，以及保持身体功能和健康。这三个方面对个人功能至关重要，不能应对这些挑战将给社会带来严重负担。鉴于美国人口老龄化，确定老年人这些生活结果的风险和保护因素（如人格特征）是必要的。这个项目的首要目标是在一个具有全国代表性的老年人样本中调查人格在预测相应的生活结果中的作用。现有的研究通常使用非代表性的样本和/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。动态的纵向方法可以解决更复杂和有趣的问题。建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（五大人格特征）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（具体目标1）、家庭收入、财富和支出（具体目标2）、个人的身体健康、身体功能和心理健康（具体目标3）。这些分析将评估三种类型的问题：(1)人格是否能预测这些结果的水平和变化？(2)相关动态结果是如何相互影响的？（例如，配偶一方的认知能力能否预测另一方的认知能力随时间的变化？）(3)人格如何调节动态结果的相互影响？（例如，更内向的人，他们可能没有广泛的社会网络，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，申请人需要有进行成人研究和纵向寿命数据建模的经验。该研究的发起人杰克·麦卡德尔（Jack McArdle）博士是年龄敏感型纵向数据建模方法方面的权威，是健康与退休研究（Health and Retirement Study）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展的高级课程、座谈会和讲习班。由于健康心理学的复杂性，Howard Friedman博士（共同发起人）——一位人格、健康心理学和寿命研究方面的专家——将指导一篇关于人格和健康的文献综述，并在人格和健康项目上进行合作。总的来说，麦卡德尔博士和弗里德曼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人提供了必要的资源，以实现以下长期目标：(1)发展成人老龄化和发展方面的专业知识，(2)学习和发展尖端的方法方法来模拟寿命数据，以及(3)准备作为一名独立的首席研究员，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.