The Relationship of Personality Trait Variables to Subjective Age Identity in Older Adults

The present study examines the relationship between personality trait variables and subjective age identity with two elderly samples. Subjects were asked both the age they feel (feel age) and the age they would like to be (ideal age). In Sample 1, which consisted of 241 community-dwelling adults aged 55 to 75 years, the traits of locus of control and social desirability were examined. In Sample 2, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience were examined with 355 community-dwelling adults aged 55 to 85 years. Internal locus of control and extraversion were related to the feel age measure, whereas powerful-others locus of control, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience were related to the ideal age measure. Trait variables did not moderate the relationships between the feel age measure and either self-reported health or affective state variables. However, both neuroticism and openness to experience were found to alter the relationship between the ideal age measure and affective state variables.

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