Abstract
Worldwide efforts to promote healthy aging have increased in recent years, given the longer life expectancies. The current volume was organized in order to discuss how personality science may be employed in these efforts. In this introduction, we discuss the previous efforts to link personality constructs to the promotion of healthy aging. In so doing, we set the stage for the remaining chapters that target specific topics along this front.
The importance of promoting healthy aging has never been clearer. Individuals are living longer lives than ever before, which places greater importance on identifying factors that promote health maintenance and improve quality of life. Though the final endpoint may be the same for all, individuals differ greatly in the extent to which they enact healthy lifestyle behaviors across the lifespan, and in their likelihood for experiencing negative health risks. In recent decades, efforts to identify why some individuals experience more or less positive aging trajectories have pointed to the value of considering personality science. Though the notion that individuals’ personality dispositions are valuable for predicting health outcomes is not new (for a review of the classic work on trait anger and hostility, see Siegman, 1994), what has changed in recent years is (a) our definitions, taxonomies, and understanding of personality dispositions, (b) the knowledge base regarding why and for whom personality characteristics lead to healthier aging outcomes, and (c) the methodological and analytic approaches taken for studies in this field.
The current volume reflects an effort to present new findings, developments, and techniques in order to continue progress for research on personality traits and healthy aging. The focus is less on absolute coverage of any one domain of research or methodological expertise, and instead is intended to provide a smattering of new ideas and theoretical insights from some of the researchers at the forefront of the field. It is difficult to situate the included chapters within broad domains, given that each chapter touches upon both advances in measurement and advances in theory. First, authors will discuss their ongoing efforts to move beyond the personality taxonomies and self-report methods that may have unduly handicapped the precision with which we can predict healthy aging outcomes. Building from this background, researchers from both within and outside psychology present new methods and analytic techniques to add to the researchers’ toolbox. Second, across entries, the authors will consider explanatory frameworks that expand upon existing models in order to further our understanding of when, for whom, and why personality constructs predict aging trajectories. Prior to these chapters, though, we first provide a brief overview of the existing knowledge and frameworks on personality and healthy aging and, in so doing, alert the reader to areas of need that will be addressed in the current volume.
Hill, Patrick L