The purpose of this study were to examine the influence of personality on mental and physical health of spouse caregivers and to determine whether there were differences in such influences depending on disease context. The disease contexts compared were Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD; with no coexisting dementia)--both chronic, degenerative diseases of later life. It was predicted that personality would be related to mental and physical health, directly and indirectly, and that AD caregivers would have higher levels of perceived stress and worse mental and physical health outcomes. Participants in the study were 175 caregivers (88 AD; 87 PD) living at home with their ill spouses. The data provided an excellent fit to the hypothesized model of the relationships between personality, disease group, social support, perceived stress, and mental and physical health. Seventy-eight percent of the variance in mental health was accounted for and 35% of the variance in physical health was explained. Personality had significant direct and indirect effects on mental health and significant indirect effects on physical health. As predicted, AD caregivers had significantly worse mental health than PD caregivers; however, AD caregivers had better physical health than PD caregivers, controlling for other variables in the model. These results are discussed in relation to the existing caregiving and behavioral medicine literature. Future research should include different domains of personality--states and longer term self-regulatory processes in addition to traits--to advance models of caregiving processes further.

Personality factors and coping strategies were examined among a sample of spouse caregivers. Fifty spouse caregivers of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia completed the NEO-FFI, a personality inventory designed to measure traits identified in the five-factor trait model, and a revised measure of the Ways of Coping Checklist. Results from a series of multivariate regressions showed that personality traits explained 60% of the variance in emotion-focused coping, 30% of variance in problem-focused coping, and 15% of variance associated with social support coping. Discussion focuses on the usefulness of including personality characteristics of the caregiver in formulating models of the caregiving coping process.

Loss of reciprocity in marital relationships may affect women more negatively than men. Future studies that address underlying mechanisms of gender differences and focus on similar caregiving situations and contexts deserve attention.

An experiment was conducted to test the effects of assessment feedback on rapport and self-enhancement. After adult participants (N = 83) completed the Millon Index of Personality Styles, the experimental group was given personalized assessment feedback; the control group received only general information about the inventory. After the session, all rapport-related scores (positive evaluations of examiner and session) and most of the self-enhancement-related scores (accurate mirroring, self-esteem, self-competence, and self-understanding) were significantly higher in the group that received assessment feedback. These results suggest that both processes are mechanisms by which the provision of assessment feedback produces positive change. Implications for mental health counselors are drawn.

T his study examined the psychosocial factors that in uence the possible selves of older adults in their 60s, 70s, and 80s or older. Speci cally, the factors that in uence when and why health becomes salient in later life were examined. Findings showed that health was the most important domain of self for the oldest group. Although age was the strongest predictor of health-related selves, older males with better health and few physical limitations, were most likely to report health-related selves. Leisure, the most salient domain for the youngest group, was predicted by age, independent of health. The ndings from this study shed light on how sense of self is in uenced by the changing developmental context of the later years, the importance of exploring alternative conceptions of ageing, and help to identify possible points of intervention to help older adults age more successfully.

A conceptual model was developed to identify developmental self-regulatory pathways to optimal psychosocial outcomes in adulthood. The model delineates influences among age, possible selves, developmental processes (i.e., coping, control), and well-being. Results showed age effects on all constructs except selective control. Three consistently common predictors of well-being (i.e., goal pursuit, goal adjustment, and optimization) emerged. The effects of age on well-being were differentially mediated by developmental processes. Specifically, negative age-related changes in offensive processes (i.e., goal attainment) were offset by positive influences of defensive processes (i.e., goal adjustment), which had the net effect of preserving well-being. The model demonstrates a more optimistic pattern of aging in which gains offset losses leading to positive outcomes and highlights the importance of examining both independent and combined influences of age, self, and developmental processes on psychosocial outcomes.

This study examined how future self-representations are affected by two different chronic illnesses, one focused on cognitive losses, early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), and one focused on physical losses, Parkinson's disease (PD). The impact of illness on possible selves (perceptions of self in the future) was made salient by a comparison with healthy older adults in order to better understand developmental issues in later life. Findings show that although there were no differences in the total number of domains reported by the groups, specific domains were reported differently by patient groups and all domains were likely to become infused with illness. As expected, patient groups had less self-efficacy and lower outcome expectancies for their future selves, and PD patients reported less distance from their feared selves. Although these findings are intuitive, this is the first empirical effort to document the impact of illness on older adults' self-representations. Group differences are explained in terms of disease context, and the importance of possible selves and self-regulatory functions as therapeutic mechanisms for adaptation to illness are emphasised.

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