Neuroticism moderates the daily relation between stressors and memory failures.

Abstract

The present investigation extends previous work on the relationship between daily stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting by examining whether this relationship varies across levels of neuroticism. A daily diary study of 333 older adults (mean age = 73.27 years, SD = 7.17) in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (see A. Spiro & R. Bossé, 2001, for additional information) was used to examine whether there were neuroticism differences in cognitive reactivity to daily stressors. Multilevel models indicated that on days when people high in neuroticism experienced stressors, particularly interpersonal stressors, they were more likely to report memory failures compared to those who were lower in neuroticism. The findings may have important implications for age-related cognitive decline. Keywords neuroticism; daily stressors; interpersonal stressors; memory failures; intraindividual variability Neuroticism, and the constant elevated levels of negative affect that accompany the trait over years or decades, can lead to a negative emotion "hair trigger" in older adulthood (Kendler, Thornton, & Gardner, 2001;. This process suggests that as people high in neuroticism grow older, they become more susceptible to elevated negative affect. Therefore, they may become hypersensitive to stress. Indeed, Mroczek, Spiro, Griffin, and Neupert (2006) reported that older adults high in neuroticism were the most reactive to stressors (compared with younger and middle-aged adults). More recently, Mroczek and Spiro (2007) NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript neuroticism in older men were associated with elevated mortality risk, which points to the potential of high neuroticism to influence physical health outcomes. Mroczek and Spiro (2003) also found that older men with high levels of neuroticism complained of more memory problems than did those with low levels of neuroticism. Given these findings and the previously documented associations between laboratory-based stressors and cognition (e.g., Lupien & Lepage, 2001;McEwen, 2000;Sapolsky, 1999) as well as naturalistic stressors and memory failures (Neupert, Almeida, Mroczek, & Spiro, 2006a), it is important to examine whether older adults high in neuroticism exhibit patterns of hypersensitivity to daily stressors with respect to their daily memory. Although this process of hypersensitivity is often observed for negative affect, it has yet to be established with daily memory failures. Because the sample in the present study consisted of older adults, we were able to examine this process in people for whom age-related declines in memory (whether real or perceived) might be particularly salient.The tendency of people high in neuroticism to react to stressful situations with high negative affect is called the stress reactivity effect (Bolger & Schilling, 1991;Suls, 2001), and it is perhaps the central concept in understanding individual differences in mood regulation (Mroczek et al., 2006). When people high in neuroticism ex...

The effects of daily co-occurrence of affect on older adults’ reactivity to health stressors

“…This semi-structured inventory possesses construct validity; stressor content and focus variables accounting for 8% of the variance in physical symptoms and 12% of variance in negative mood (Almeida et al, 2002). This paper-pencil version of the DISE has been used with previous results from the NAS diary data (e.g., Neupert et al, 2006; Neupert et al, 2008) as well as other daily diary studies (e.g., Neupert, Ennis, Ramsey, & Gall, 2015). Participants respond yes or no to whether arguments, potential arguments, work or volunteer setting stressors, home stressors, network stressors, health stressors, and other stressors occurred each day.…”

“…These positive emotions may serve to dampen the detrimental effects of the negative emotions on reactivity to stressful situations (Levenson, 1999). In line with previous studies (e.g., Almeida, 2005; Neupert, Mrozcek, & Spiro, 2008), reactivity is operationalized as the within-person relationship between a stressor and a given outcome. It follows then, that individuals with higher levels of co-occurrence of affect could show less reactivity in response to daily stressors.…”

Chapter 5<BR> Cognitive Resilience in Adulthood

“…Such a disposition (typically characterized as neuroticism , as we will detail in the following text) may exacerbate the damaging effects of stress on cognition. Neupert, Mroczek, and Spiro (2008) analyzed diary reports of participants from the Normative Aging Study over 8 days and found that reports of stress were coupled with reports of memory failures, but that this effect was heightened for those higher in neuroticism.…”

Travma Sonrasi Stres Bozukluğu, İşyeri̇nde Zorbalik Ve Nöroti̇kli̇k: Araştirma Öneri̇si̇

“…Nörotik bireylerin yaşamları boyunca olumsuz duygulanımlar tecrübe etmeye meyilli oldukları, olayların olumsuz yönlerine odaklandıkları (Hemenover, 1996) stres verici olaylara aşırı duyarlılık gösterdikleri, stres yaratan olayları daha olumsuz algıladıkları ve stres verici olaylarla karşılaştıklarında daha olumsuz tepkiler verdikleri araştırmalarca ortaya konan bir bulgudur (Neupert, Mroczek ve Spiro, 2008). Stres verici olayların gerçekçi olmayacak ölçüde tehditkâr olarak algılanması ve olumsuz bir şekilde anlamlandırılması sonucu onlardan kaçınma ve onları elimine etme davranışlarının artması hem algılanan stres miktarını arttırmakta, hem de stresle etkili bir şekilde başa çıkılmasını zorlaştırmaktadır (Abbasi, 2011).…”