title: Robustness of personality and affect relations under chronic conditions: the case of age-related vision and hearing impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Relations between personality and affect are generally regarded as robust. Extraversion is closely linked to positive affect (PA), but not to negative affect (NA), whereas neuroticism is closely linked to NA, but not to PA. We argue in this work that the stress experience associated with age-related vision and hearing impairment may alter this commonly found pattern as compared with sensory unimpaired (UI) older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from a sample of severely visually impaired (VI; N = 121), severely hearing impaired (HI; N = 116), and a control condition of sensory UI (grand age mean: 82 years; N = 150).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on a structural equation modeling approach, we found that the relationship between extraversion and PA was higher in the UI as compared with the sensory impaired groups. In contrast, the strong linkage between neuroticism and NA was not affected by sensory status. Furthermore, we observed a meaningful negative relation between extraversion and NA only in the VI group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings support the argument that the relationship between personality and affect deserves qualification when chronic vision and hearing impairment is present.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Aging Research, Institute of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany. h.w.wahl@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Hans-Werner
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Wahl
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Heyl
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Schilling
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007899:Leisure Activities; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data