Personality and quality of life: The importance of optimism and goal adjustment

This article concerns the relations between personality and quality of life. In the first part, we discuss different conceptualizations of personality and quality of life. We argue that personality affects quality of life by influencing how people approach and react to critical life situations. In the second part, we address the beneficial role played by two individual difference variables in promoting quality of life: dispositional optimism and goal adjustment. Literature is reviewed demonstrating that dispositional optimism facilitates subjective well-being and good health, mediated by a person's coping behaviors. In addition, we discuss studies that examine people who confront unattainable goals. The reported evidence supports the conclusion that individual differences in people's abilities to adjust to unattainable goals are associated with a good quality of life.     

Self-compassion,chronic age-related stressors,and diurnal cortisol secretion in older adulthood

Many older adults experience chronic age-related stressors (e.g., life regrets or health problems) that are difficult to control and can disturb cortisol regulation. Self-compassion may buffer adverse effects of these stressful experiences on diurnal cortisol secretion in older adulthood. To examine whether self-compassion could benefit older adults’ cortisol secretion in the context of chronic and largely uncontrollable age-related stressors, 233 community-dwelling older adults reported their levels of self-compassion, age-related stressors (regret intensity, physical health problems, and functional disability), and relevant covariates. Diurnal cortisol was measured over 3 days and the average area-under-the-curve and slope were calculated. Higher levels of self-compassion were associated with lower daily cortisol levels among older adults who reported higher levels of regret intensity, physical health problems, or functional disability (βs?<???.53, ps?<?.01), but not among their counterparts who reported lower levels of these age-related stressors (βs?<?.24, ps?>?.28). These results suggest that self-compassion may represent an important personal resource that could protect older adults from stress-related biological disturbances resulting from chronic and uncontrollable stressors.     

The Life Engagement Test: Assessing Purpose in Life

This article describes a 6-item scale, the Life Engagement Test, designed to measure purpose in life, defined in terms of the extent to which a person engages in activities that are personally valued. Psychometric data are presented including information about the scale's factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant predictive validity, and norms. The data suggest that the Life Engagement Test is psychometrically sound across different gender, age, and ethnic groups and is appropriate for wider use. Discussion centers on the use of the Life Engagement Test in behavioral medicine and health psychology research and recent associations that have begun to emerge between the scale and health-relevant outcomes.     

Self-Regulation of Common Age-Related Challenges: Benefits for Older Adults’ Psychological and Physical Health

This article addresses the role played by adaptive self-regulation in protecting older adults’ psychological and physical health. A theoretical model is outlined illustrating how common age-related challenges (i.e., physical challenges and life regrets) can influence older adults’ health. In addition, the proposed model suggests that older adults can avoid the adverse health effects of encountering these problems if they engage in adaptive self-regulation. Finally, this article reviews recent studies that examined the adaptive value of self-regulation processes for managing physical challenges and life regrets in the elderly. The findings from cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental studies document the importance of adaptive self-regulation for maintaining older adults’ health.     

Conscientiousness and stress exposure and reactivity: a prospective study of adolescent females

Conscientiousness is associated with health, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. To explore the role that stress might play, this study examined whether conscientiousness was associated with exposure and reactivity to life stress. This study followed 133 adolescent women every 6 months for 2.5 years. Participants completed a baseline measure of conscientiousness, and at each visit underwent a structured interview to catalogue episodic and chronic stress and had blood drawn to assess inflammatory processes. Participants higher in conscientiousness experienced fewer self-dependent episodic stressors and less academic and interpersonal chronic stress throughout the study. However, at times when they experienced higher levels of chronic interpersonal stress, they became more resistant to glucocorticoids. Higher levels of conscientiousness may protect adolescent women from exposure to certain stressors. However, when stress occurs, highly conscientious individuals may become more resistant to glucocorticoids, increasing their risk for processes that influence inflammatory conditions.     

Sleep duration buffers diurnal cortisol increases in older adulthood

This study examined the long-term associations between reports of sleep duration and diurnal cortisol secretion in older adulthood. It was hypothesized that longer sleep would protect older adults against increases in diurnal cortisol secretion over time. We tested this hypothesis using three waves of data from a 4-year longitudinal study involving 157 older adults. Results from growth curve and cross-lagged panel analyses demonstrated that levels and increases in sleep duration buffered long-term elevations of diurnal cortisol secretion. Reversed analyses indicated that diurnal cortisol secretion did not predict changes in sleep duration over time. These results were independent from sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, partnership status, and education) and health-related variables (i.e., chronic illness, medication usage, body mass index, and smoking). They suggest that long sleep exerts restorative functions and protects older adults from exhibiting increases in diurnal cortisol secretion over time.