Personality and health, subjective well-being, and longevity.
Personality traits can be employed to guide understanding of trajectories to health and longevity, but long-term longitudinal study and multifaceted assessment of healthy aging are crucial. Following up on the life span study initiated by Lewis Terman, we assessed 4 validated factors of personality in young adulthood in 1940, constructed a multifactor measure of participants' healthy aging in 1986, and collected death certificates through 2007 (to determine longevity) on a sample of 1,312 Terman participants (732 men). Neuroticism predicted worse physical health and subjective well-being in old age and, for women, higher mortality risk, but for men, neuroticism predicted decreased mortality risk. For both sexes, extraversion predicted old-age social competence, whereas conscientiousness predicted men's old-age productivity. Differential patterns of association between personality traits and healthy aging components are informative about individual personality characteristics and long-term health outcomes.
Friedman
Howard S
HS
Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA. Howard.Friedman@ucr.edu
Kern
Margaret L
ML
Reynolds
Chandra A
CA
D000367:Age Factors; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors