Personality traits and long-term health status. The influence of neuroticism and conscientiousness on renal deterioration in type-1 diabetes

Stringent long-term control of blood glucose concentration in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) can decrease albuminuria, presumably forestalling development of renal insufficiency. Personality characteristics may influence a diabetic patient's ability and willingness to follow a prescribed regimen to achieve glycemic control. This study investigated the relationship of 2 personality factors to renal deterioration time (from initiation of insulin therapy to renal failure) in 85 patients with IDDM and end-stage renal disease. Persons moderate in the personality trait of neuroticism and high in conscientiousness had renal deterioration times that were 12 years longer than persons with either high or low neuroticism and low conscientiousness, presumably because of better self-care. The implications of this study's findings are discussed.

How physicians appraise everyday memory failures of patients across the adult life span

A person-perception paradigm was used to investigate how primary care physicians appraise young, middle-aged, young-old, or old-old hypothetical patients (targets) who experience incidences of everyday memory failure. The physicians distinguished among targets who experienced short-, long-, and very long-term types of failure. However, their ratings of the point at which they would recommend intervention and of the referrals they would make in response to the three types of failure were not affected by the age of the target. The physicians' responses are compared with prior research results obtained for lay subjects' appraisals of young versus older targets' memory failures. The implications for primary care physicians' views of the significance of everyday memory failures in older adults are discussed.

Dimensions of self-report about everyday memory in young and older adults

This study investigated the relationship between several aspects of memory self-report, objective memory, attitude toward intellectual aging, self-rated health, and self-rated depression in young and older adults. Participants completed a self-report depression scale, and then rated their discomfort with eight categories of everyday forgetting and their attitudes toward intellectual aging. One week later, they rated how frequently they experience the same categories of forgetting, and then completed a battery of objective memory tests analogous to those categories. Ten days later, they rated their willingness to participate in both memory improvement classes and nonmemory classes. Older adults reported significantly more frequent failures but less discomfort with the failures than the young adults. Frequency, discomfort, and self-reported depression were all positively correlated in the older group, but not the young group. Young and old adults were equally positive about participating in memory classes, which both age groups preferred to nonmemory classes; the correlation between willingness to participate in memory classes and objective memory approached significance in the young, but not in the old. Attitude toward intellectual aging was correlated with frequency of and discomfort with forgetting in the older group.

Here's looking at you: the relative effect of age and attractiveness on judgments about memory failure

Young and elderly females read vignettes describing short-term, long-term, and very long-term memory failures. Each vignette was accompanied by a photograph of an attractive or unattractive young or elderly female target person. Subjects judged each vignette for possible attributions for the target's failure (ability, effort, task difficulty, luck, and attention). They also rated whether the failure was a sign of mental difficulty and whether medical and/or psychological evaluation was indicated. Failures of elderly and unattractive targets were attributed to lack of ability. Failures of young targets were attributed to lack of effort and lack of attention, whereas failures of attractive targets were attributed to task difficulty and lack of attention. Elderly and unattractive targets were judged as having greater mental difficulty and need for evaluation than young and attractive targets. In an a priori comparison, age predominated over attractiveness in memory failure judgments. Subjects, particularly the young, considered very long-term failures more indicative of mental difficulty and need for evaluation than short-term or long-term failures.

Age, gender, and individual differences in memory failure appraisal

Young adults (22 men and 24 women) and older adults (24 men and 24 women) rated 12 gender-neutral vignettes describing short-term, long-term, and very-long-term memory failures. Vignette target persons were young (21-32) or older (65-75) men or women. Subjects of both age and gender groups used a double standard: Failures of older targets of both genders were rated as signifying greater mental difficulty than failures of young targets; failures of young targets were attributed to lack of effort and attention. Young subjects judged very-long-term failures more harshly than did older subjects. Subjects' objective memory performance, self-rated memory failure frequency, memory failure discomfort, and depression made little difference in their target person ratings.

Everyday memory failure: age differences in appraisal and attribution

A person perception paradigm was used to test 86 young and 84 older Ss for evidence of a double standard in appraising everyday memory failures of young and older targets. Vignettes were judged on separate Likert scales for possible attributions for the failure (ability, effort, task difficulty, chance, and 2 measures of attention), signs of mental difficulty, need for memory training, and indications of need for professional evaluation. Results confirmed a double standard used by young and old: The failures of older targets were judged as signifying greater mental difficulty and greater need for memory training than were the identical failures of young targets. Older Ss were more lenient overall than young Ss in their appraisals. Young Ss judged target persons' memory failures as signifying more mental difficulty, and they more readily recommend professional evaluation.

Age, gender, and individual differences in memory failure appraisal

Young adults (22 men and 24 women) and older adults (24 men and 24 women) rated 12 gender-neutral vignettes describing short-term, long-term, and very-long-term memory failures. Vignette target persons were young (21-32) or older (65-75) men or women. Subjects of both age and gender groups used a double standard: Failures of older targets of both genders were rated as signifying greater mental difficulty than failures of young targets; failures of young targets were attributed to lack of effort and attention. Young subjects judged very-long-term failures more harshly than did older subjects. Subjects' objective memory performance, self-rated memory failure frequency, memory failure discomfort, and depression made little difference in their target person ratings.

Everyday memory failure: Age differences in appraisal and attribution

A person perception paradigm was used to test 86 young and 84 older Ss for evidence of a double standard in appraising everyday memory failures of young and older targets. Vignettes were judged on separate Likert scales for possible attributions for the failure (ability, effort, task difficulty, chance, and 2 measures of attention), signs of mental difficulty, need for memory training, and indications of need for professional evaluation. Results confirmed a double standard used by young and old: The failures of older targets were judged as signifying greater mental difficulty and greater need for memory training than were the identical failures of young targets. Older Ss were more lenient overall than young Ss in their appraisals. Young Ss judged target persons' memory failures as signifying more mental difficulty, and they more readily recommend professional evaluation.