A mental model of factors associated with subjective life expectancy

Emotional complexity and its effect on psychological distress as a function of chronological age and subjective distance-to-death

“…Thus, improved regulation is hampered when the nearness of death looms. Finally, as subjective DtD is related to higher distress (Griffin et al, 2013;Shrira et al, 2014), our findings follows the dynamic model of affect (Reich et al, 2003), according to which stress engenders generalization and simplification, and reduces cognitive and emotional complexity. Partially supporting the second hypothesis, emotional complexity was related to lower psychological distress among those who perceive death as close.…”

“…Covariates included gender, education [ranging on a scale from 0 (no formal education) to 5 (academic education)], marital status, and subjective health, as these were found to be related to age and subjective DtD (Griffin, Loh, & Hesketh, 2013;Palgi et al, 2014;Shrira et al, 2014), and we were interested in examining the effects of age and subjective DtD after adjusting for possible effects of other background characteristics. Subjective health was assessed with a single question ('As a whole, how do you rate your health?…”

The relationship between subjective life expectancy and self-reported alcohol use in Northern Irish adolescents

“…In other words, that some of the variance in drinking behaviour above and beyond that accounted for by year in school (proxy for age) and sex was accounted for by individual's perceived likelihood of living to age 75 years. This is a potentially important finding as some researchers have reported that to some extent, SLE is not a stable construct and might be amenable to intervention (Griffin, Loh, & Hesketh, 2013). However, the ORs clearly indicate that the vast majority of the variance in drinking behaviour in this cohort was explained by participants' age and sex, and not by their SLE.…”

Factors incorporated into future survival estimation among Europeans

“…It is well known that some people are more optimistic than others (Lyubomirsky 2001), a fact usually reflected in their expectations, including their future survival. Prior studies have noted that individuals consider their own experiences, history, and environmental influences when forming survival expectations (Griffin, Loh, and Hesketh 2013). Individual-specific judgment is the main reason that subjective survival probabilities (SSPs) exhibit greater variability compared to actual survival probabilities (Hamermesh 1985).…”

“…Nevertheless, there are also common factors influencing subjective survival expectations. One explanation is that people may have similar awareness and understanding about factors affecting future life expectancy through media, health campaigns, and their own experiences (Griffin, Loh, and Hesketh 2013). For example, the fact that smoking reduces life expectancy is widely known (Ferrucci et al 1999;Doll et al 1994).…”