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.
The aging population poses major social, economic, and public health challenges failure to address these issues could place a crippling burden on society. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of personality in predicting age-related trajectories of several important life outcomes-cognitive ability, financial resources, and health-in a nationally-representative sample of older adults. Identifying risk and protective factors (e.g., personality traits) for consequential life outcomes is imperative because such knowledge can inform public policy as well as efforts in prevention and intervention.
