This paper compares older adults in their sixties, eighties, and 100s on personality, experience of life events, and coping. A secondary goal was to test a structural model of adaptation. Participants (165) filled out a personality inventory, life-event lists, and coping and mental health measures. Results revealed differences in personality: centenarians scored higher on dominance, suspiciousness, and imagination. While centenarians scored lower on active behavioral coping than other age groups, they used cognitive strategies when coping with health and family events. Results from the structural equation model indicated that extroversion and anxiety predicted morale and mental health.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CohenL. H., Life Events and Psychological Functioning, Sage, Beverly Hills, 1988.
2.
ThoitsP. A., Dimensions of Life Events that Influence Psychological Distress: An Evaluation and Synthesis of the Literature, in Psychosocial Stress: Trends in Theory and Research, KaplanH. B. (ed.), Academic Press, New York, 1983.
3.
WhitbourneS. K., The Psychological Construction of the Life-Span, in Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (2nd Edition), BirrenJ. E. and SchaieK. W. (eds.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1985.
4.
ConleyJ. J., Longitudinal Consistency of Adult Personality: Self-Reported Psychological Characteristics across 45 Years, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, pp. 1325–1333, 1984.
5.
CostaP. T. and McCraeR. R., Personality in Adulthood: A Six-Year Longitudinal Study of Self-Reports and Spouse Ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, pp. 258–265, 1988.
6.
SieglerI. C.GeorgeL. K., and OkunM., Cross-Sequential Analysis of Adult Personality, Developmental Psychology, 15, pp. 350–351, 1979.
7.
DouglasK. and ArenbergD., Age Changes, Cohort Differences, and Cultural Change on the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, Journal of Gerontology, 33, pp. 737–747, 1978.
8.
SchaieK. W. and ParhamI. A., Stability of Adult Personality Traits: Fact or Fable?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, pp. 146–158, 1976.
9.
WoodruffD. E. and BirrenJ. E., Age Changes and Cohort Differences in Personality, Developmental Psychology, 6, pp. 252–259, 1972.
10.
AldwinC.Workman-DanielsK.SpiroA.IIILevensonM., and BosseR., Suspiciousness and Mortality: Findings from the Normative Aging Study, Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Minneapolis, November, 1989.
11.
BarefootJ. C.SieglerI. C.NowlinJ. B.PetersonB. L.HaneyT. L., and WillimsR. B., Suspiciousness, Health, and Mortality: A Follow-up Study of 500 Older Adults, Psychosomatic Medicine, 49, pp. 40–47, 1987.
12.
MonroeS. M. and PetermanA. M., Life Stress and Psychopathology, in Life Events and Psychological Functioning, CohenL. H. (ed.), Sage, Newbury Park, California, pp. 31–63, 1988.
13.
TaylorS. E., Health Psychology: The Science and the Field, American Psychologist, 45, pp. 40–50, 1990.
14.
GeorgeL. K., The Impact of Personality and Social Status Factors upon Levels of Activity and Psychological Well-Being, Journal of Gerontology, 33, pp. 840–847, 1978.
15.
ThomaeH., Alternstile und Altersschicksale, Huber, Bern, 1983.
16.
MartinP. and SymerM. A., The Experience of Micro and Macroevents: A Life-Span Analysis, Research on Aging, 12, pp. 294–310, 1990.
17.
MartinP., Life Patterns and Age Styles in Older Adults, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 32, pp. 289–302, 1991.
18.
OlbrichE., Coping and Development in the Later Years: A Process-Oriented Approach to Personality and Development, in Life-span and Change in a Gerontological Perspective, MunnichsJ. M. A.MussenP.OlbrichE., and ColemanP. G. (eds.), Academic Press, New York, 1985.
19.
McCraeR. R., Age Differences and Changes in the Use of Coping Mechanisms, Journal of Gerontology, 44, pp. 161–169, 1989.
20.
VaillantG., Adaptation to Life, Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1977.
21.
FeltonB. J. and RevensonT., Age Differences in Coping with Chronic Illness, Psychology and Aging, 2, pp. 164–170, 1987.
22.
FolkmanS.LazarusR. S.PimleyS., and NovacekJ., Age Differences in Stress and Coping Processes, Psychology and Aging, 2, pp. 171–184, 1987.
23.
ChovanM. J. and ChovanW., Stressful Events and Coping Responses among Older Adults in Two Sociocultural Groups, Journal of Psychology, 119, pp. 253–260, 1985.
24.
PoonL. W.ClaytonG. M.MartinP.JohnsonM. A.CourtenayB. C.SweaneyA. L.MerriamS. B.PlessB. S., and ThielmanS. B., The Georgia Centenarian Study, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 34:1, 1–17, 1992.
25.
HultschD. F. and PlemonsJ. K., Life Events and Life-Span Development, in Life-Span Development and Behavior, Volume 2, BaltesP. B. (ed.), Academic Press, New York, 1979.
26.
LehrU., Social-Psychological Correlates of Longevity, Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 3, pp. 102–147, 1982.
27.
CattellR. B.EberH. W., and TatsuokaM. M., Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), Institute for Personality and Ability Testing, Champaign, Illinois, 1970.
28.
DohrenwendB. S.AskenasyA. R.KrasnoffL., and DohrenwendB. P., Exemplification of a Method for Scaling Life Events: The PERI Life Events Scale, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, pp. 205–229, 1978.
29.
AmsterL. and KraussH., The Relationship between Life Crises and Mental Deterioration in Old Age, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 5, pp. 51–55, 1974.
30.
MoosR. H.CronkiteR. C.BillingsA. G., and FinneyJ. W., Health and Daily Living Manual, Social Ecology Laboratory, Stanford University Medical Centers, 1985.
31.
LawtonM. P., The Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale: A revision, Journal of Gerontology, 30, pp. 85–89, 1975.
32.
YesavageJ.BrinkT.RoseT.LumO.HuandO.AdeyV., and LeirerV., Development and Validation of a Geriatric Depression Screening Scale: A Preliminary Report, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, pp. 37–49, 1983.
33.
BradburnN. M., The Structure of Psychological Weil-Being, Aldine, Chicago, 1969.
34.
VennI. D., The Sandoz Clinical Assessment Geriatric (SCAG) Scale, Gerontology, 29, pp. 185–198, 1983.
35.
FillenbaumG. G., Multidimensional Functional Assessment of Older Adults: The Duke Older Americans Resources and Services Procedures, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1988.
36.
LohmöllerJ. B., Latent Variable Path Modeling with Partial Least Squares, Physica, Heidelberg, 1989.
37.
FalkR. F., A Primer for Soft Modeling, Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley, California, 1988.
38.
WoldH., Model Construction and Evaluation when Theoretical Knowledge Is Scarce, in Evaluation of Econometric Models, KmentaJ. and RamseyJ. G. (eds.), Academic Press, New York, pp. 47–74, 1980.
39.
FeifelH. and StrackS., Old Is Old Is Old, Psychology and Aging, 2, pp. 409–412, 1987.
40.
KrugS. E., Interpreting 16 PF Profile Patterns, Institute for Personality and Ability Testing, Champaign, Illinois, 1981.
41.
SchaieK. W., Methodological Issues in Aging Research: An Introduction, in Methodological Issues in Aging Research, SchaieK. W.CampbellR. T.MeredithW., and RawlingsS. C. (eds.), Springer, New York, pp. 1–11, 1988.
