A Cultural Comparison of Personality Profiles of U.S. and Japanese Centenarians.

The purpose of this study was a cross-cultural examination of centenarians' personality through a person-centered approach to examine if there is a "resilient" personality profile consistent across cultures. Proxy reports information was obtained from family and close friends of 239 U.S.

Examination of important life experiences of the oldest-old: cross-cultural comparisons of U.S. and Japanese centenarians.

The purpose of this study was to compare the most important life events reported by U.S. and Japanese centenarians.

Stability and change in affect among centenarians.

Much information is available about physical and functional health among very old adults, but little knowledge exists about the mental health and mental health changes in very late life. This study reports findings concerning positive and negative affect changes among centenarians. Nineteen centenarians from a Midwestern state participated in four assessments over a 6-month period.

Understanding centenarians' psychosocial dynamics and their contributions to health and quality of life.

While it is understood that longevity and health are influenced by complex interactions among biological, psychological, and sociological factors, there is a general lack of understanding on how psychosocial factors impact longevity, health, and quality of life among the oldest old. One of the reasons for this paradox is that the amount of funded research on aging in the US is significantly larger in the biomedical compared to psychosocial domains. The goals of this paper are to highlight recent data to demonstrate the impact of four pertinent psychosocial domains on health and quality of life of the oldest old and supplement recommendations of the 2001 NIA Panel on Longevity for future research.

Personality and longevity: findings from the Georgia Centenarian Study.

Centenarians are thought of as unique and exceptional survivors. This study evaluated specific personality traits and configurations of traits among participants of the Georgia Centenarian Study. Two hundred and eighty five centenarians and their nominated proxies participated in this study.