Technology has the ability to enhance and enrich the lives of older adults by facilitating better interpersonal relationships. However, few studies have directly examined associations between ...technology use for social reasons and physical and psychological health among older adults. The current study examines the benefits of technology use in 591 older adults from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (Mage = 68.18, SD = 10.75; 55.5% female). Social technology use was assessed through five technology-based behaviors (i.e., using e-mail, social networking sites, online video/phone calls, online chatting/instant messaging, using a smartphone). Attitudes toward the usability and benefits of technology use were also assessed. Older adults had generally positive attitudes toward technology. Higher social technology use was associated with better self-rated health, fewer chronic illnesses, higher subjective well-being, and fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, each of the links between social technology use and physical and psychological health was mediated by reduced loneliness. Close relationships are a large determinant of physical health and well-being, and technology has the potential to cultivate successful relationships among older adults.
Is the link between close relationships and health and well‐being static across the lifespan, or are the benefits most evident in older adulthood, when concerns about physical health are greater? In ...Study 1, a cross‐sectional survey of 271,053 adults, valuing friendships was related to better functioning, particularly among older adults, whereas valuing familial relationships exerted a static influence on health and well‐being across the lifespan. In Study 2, a longitudinal study of 7,481 older adults, only strain from friendships predicted more chronic illnesses over a 6‐year period; support from spouses, children, and friends predicted higher subjective well‐being over an 8‐year period.
Objective
Personality traits are characterized by both stability and change across the life span. Many of the mechanisms hypothesized to cause personality change (e.g., the timing of various social ...roles, physical health, and cultural values) differ considerably across culture. Moreover, personality consistency is valued highly in Western societies, but less so in non‐Western societies. Few studies have examined how personality changes differently across cultures.
Method
We employed a multilevel modeling approach to examine age‐related changes in Big Five personality traits in two large panel studies of Americans (n = 6,259; Mage = 46.85; 52.5% female) and Japanese (n = 1,021; Mage = 54.28; 50.9% female). Participants filled out personality measures twice, over either a 9‐year interval (for Americans) or a 4‐year period (for Japanese).
Results
Changes in Agreeableness and Openness to Experience did not systematically vary across cultures; changes in Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness did vary across cultures. Further, Japanese show significantly greater fluctuation in the level of all the traits tested over time than Americans.
Conclusions
The culture‐specific social, ecological, and life‐course factors that are associated with personality change are discussed.
Cultural practices socialize people to relate to others in different ways. One critical
way in which these interpersonal bonds are formed and maintained is via empathy, our
emotional reactivity ...toward others’ experiences. However, the extent to which individuals
from different cultures vary in their dispositional empathy, and the correlates of these
differences, are relatively unknown. Thus, the current study explored cultural variation
in empathy, and how this variation is related to psychological characteristics and
prosocial behavior across cultures. Evidence from an original sample of 104,365 adults
across 63 countries reveals that higher empathy countries also have higher levels of
collectivism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-esteem, emotionality, subjective
well-being, and prosocial behavior. These findings reveal that empathy is situated within
a broader nomological network of other psychological characteristics, emotional expression
and experiences, and prosocial behavior across cultures. The current study expands our
understanding about how psychological characteristics vary across cultures and how these
characteristics can manifest in broader national indicators of prosocial behavior.
Prior research has found that people's desires to change their personality traits predict corresponding subsequent trait growth over time. However, few studies have examined the processes through ...which people can volitionally change their personality traits. Thus, it remains unclear whether merely desiring change predicts trait growth or whether actively pursuing change is necessary. The present study was a 15-week intensive longitudinal design that tested whether engaging in trait-typical behaviors predicted trait change. Participants provided self-report ratings of their personality traits and were able to freely accept and complete weekly "challenges"-prewritten behavioral goals that would pull their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in line with their desired traits. Results indicated that merely accepting behavioral challenges did not predict trait changes. Rather, only actually completing challenges (i.e., performing trait-typical behaviors) predicted trait change over time. Thus, merely wanting to change does not appear to be sufficient to evoke trait growth; successfully changing one's personality traits may require actively and successfully implementing behaviors to change oneself.
Biased judgments about others can operate both within and outside of our conscious awareness. However, little attention has been paid to how implicit and explicit attitudes differ across the life ...span, particularly with respect to age bias. In the current study, we examined age differences in implicit and explicit attitudes towards older individuals.
Participants (N = 704,151) ranging from age 15 to 94 completed the Implicit Association Test and explicit self-report measures of bias against older adults. The associations between age bias and several demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, education) were also examined.
A preference for younger people was found among participants of all ages; however, implicit and explicit attitudes showed divergent associations with age. Implicit preference for younger people was highest among older adults; explicit preference for younger people was lowest among older adults.
Examining age differences in implicit and explicit attitudes sheds light into the development and complexities of aging perceptions in different age groups. The current study's findings are discussed in the context of applications to and implications of reducing prejudice toward older adults.
The stress that arises from workplace discrimination can have a large impact on an employee's work attitude, their work and life satisfaction, and oftentimes whether or not they stay in a job. ...Workplace discrimination can also have a considerable influence on employees' short- and long-term health. However, less is known about the factors that might mitigate or exacerbate the effects of discrimination on health. The current study focused not only on the links between workplace discrimination and health, and but also on the effects of potential moderators of the discrimination-health link (i.e., perceived control, Big Five personality traits, optimism, and coworker/supervisor support). People with high neuroticism, high extraversion and high agreeableness were more negatively affected by workplace discrimination than those low on neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness. Perceived control was found to be a protective factor, such that those high in perceived control had fewer chronic illnesses in the context of high levels of workplace discrimination.
Background
A surge of studies aims to identify environmental factors that explain individual differences, personality stability, and personality development. This special issue builds on this large ...interest and solicited articles on broad and narrow environmental factors of personality.
Objective
We provide an overview of the motivations behind the special issue, review each of the articles, and present data on researchers' perceptions of environmental factors contributing to personality expression and development.
Method
We review 16 special issue articles, thematically grouped into seven topics—culture and race, genes and environment, geography and habitat, major/minor life events, social relationships, socioeconomic status and economic inequality, and work. We also present data on researchers' (N = 223) responses and ratings of environmental influences on personality expression and development.
Results
In the open‐ended responses, the most important environmental influences were family, culture, peers, relationships, and trauma. Among the least important were weather, birth order, geography, climate, and shared environment. Nearly all the environmental influences featured in this special issue were considered at least somewhat important; however, there was considerable heterogeneity in how important researchers found each topic.
Conclusions
There is no perfect consensus among researchers as to which environmental factors contribute most to personality expression and development. We hope that there is a larger surge of studies on personality constructs beyond traits, that contextualize concepts within a cultural and historical framework and develop more stringent theories to hypothesize about the environmental influences on personality.
Many studies have found age-related declines in death-related anxiety. Why do death-related thoughts and anxiety decline across the lifespan when exposure to, and likelihood of, death increase over ...time? In Study 1, a cross-sectional survey of 2,363 adults, death-related thoughts declined across the lifespan. In Study 2, a longitudinal study of 9,815 adults followed over a 4-year period, death anxiety declined across the lifespan. Further, greater social support predicted lower levels of death anxiety over time, after controlling for self-rated health and chronic illnesses. Close relationships serve emotion regulation functions to decrease death anxiety and thoughts across the lifespan.
Despite constituting a large portion of society, single people—and their satisfaction with singlehood and life—are rarely examined in their own right. How happy are single people and does their ...happiness change over time? In 3,439 people followed over 10 years, we found that people reported being more satisfied than not, but both singlehood satisfaction and life satisfaction declined over time. Older adults, men, and highly educated people, and people with worse health reported lower singlehood satisfaction. Constrained random-intercept cross-lagged panel models suggested that singlehood and life satisfaction had lagged bidirectional influences with each other. Results are discussed in the context of the origins of singlehood satisfaction and life satisfaction.
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