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PERSONALITY AND COGNITIVE AGING: ARE POSITIVE TRAITS
PROTECTIVE?
by
Emily Anne Schoenhofen
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(PSYCHOLOGY)
August 2007
Copyright 2007 Emily Anne Schoenhofen
Object Description
| Title | Personality and cognitive aging: are positive traits protective? |
| Author | Schoenhofen, Emily Anne |
| Author email | schoenho@usc.edu |
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Psychology |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2007-04-25 |
| Date submitted | 2007 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2007-08-07 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Gatz, Margaret |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Meyerowitz, Beth Pedersen, Nancy |
| Abstract | The purpose of this study was to examine whether personality traits affect cognitive functioning and rate of cognitive decline in older adults. Participants were 857 individuals from the Swedish Twin/ Adoption Study of Aging (SATSA). Data included four personality measures and longitudinal cognitive measurements. It was hypothesized that individuals who endorsed higher levels of conscientiousness, openness, and optimism would have higher cognitive test scores and lesser rates of cognitive decline, whereas agreeableness would not protect against cognitive decline. Latent growth curve models were fit to assess level of cognitive performance (intercept) and trajectories of cognitive performance over advancing age (slope). As predicted, higher levels of openness to experience were associated with a significantly higher performance across all cognitive tests for both males and females even after controlling for education. Agreeableness, as expected, but also conscientiousness and optimism, did not confer any consistent advantage on either cognitive performance or cognitive decline. |
| Keyword | personality; aging; cognitive decline; older adults |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m765 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Schoenhofen, Emily Anne |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Schoenhofen-20070807 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Schoenhofen-20070807.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Full text | PERSONALITY AND COGNITIVE AGING: ARE POSITIVE TRAITS PROTECTIVE? by Emily Anne Schoenhofen A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS (PSYCHOLOGY) August 2007 Copyright 2007 Emily Anne Schoenhofen |
