Self, Personality, and Life Regulation: Facets of Psychological Resilience in Old Age

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is twofold. First, this chapter describes various aspects of self and personality in old age (personality characteristics, self-definitions, experience of time, personal life investment, coping styles, affect) and relates them to individuals' satisfaction with their own aging. Second, based on a model of psychological resilience in old age, we examine whether these aspects of self and personality are protective of aging satisfaction (on a correlational level) in the face of somatic or socioeconomic risks. Taken together, our results indicate that self and personality involve processes and characteristics that help to maintain or minimize the loss of aging satisfaction in the presence of somatic and socioeconomic risk factors. On a correlational level, we observe different adaptive profiles for socioeconomic and somatic risks. Psychological Resilience of Self and Personality in Old Age: A Working Framework Depressivity and dissatisfaction belong to the negative aging stereotype (cf. Palmore, 1988). In contrast to this negative stereotype, most old and very old people, however, are not depressed and unsatisfied even in the face of somatic and socioeconomic risks. Which features and processes of the aging self are supportive of the maintenance of well-being? In the following, we focus on the correlational analysis of the potentially protective effects of older persons' self-perception, self-evaluation, and general personality characteristics.

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