John Nesselroade - US grants

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): The assessment of age differences in the linkages among affect, personality, and cognitive performance is an important research focus for students of adult development and aging. Building a better understanding of the interrelationships among these subsystems will strengthen theories of aging and adaptation. The proposed research will take advantage of recent advances in tools for measuring and modeling affective, personality, and cognitive processes and will test a set of hypothesized relationships among these subsystems. The following questions are posed: (1) What are they dynamics of personality and cognitive changes under varying conditions of task-induced positive and negative affect? (2) What is the nature of the linkage between personality and cognitive systems under task-induced positive and negative affect? (3) Do personality traits exhibit systematic, short-term changes under varying levels of positive and negative affect or are they truly highly stable aspects of personality? (4) Do personality traits play a role in the relationships between positive and negative affect and cognitive performance? (5) What is the nature of age differences in these change patterns and in the patterning of their relationships with each other? Data to examine a specific set of hypotheses concerning the interrelationships among affect, personality, and cognitive performance will come from a computer-driven series of synthetic work tasks (SYNWORK) interspersed with self-assessment of affect and personality. Both older and younger adults will be studied. The data will be modeled using both traditional methods and newer, linear dynamic models that provide estimates of relationships both within and between subsystems of variables defined across temporal lags.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of the proposed training program is the strengthening of aging research by training pre- and postdoctoral level students to high levels of expertise in both the substance and methods of studying aging from a social and behavioral science perspective. The resulting benefits include the development of a better understanding of the aging process in relation to health, health practices, adaptation to changing capacities, and social interaction. This objective will be attained by a thorough and comprehensive program of training that includes: (1) formal course work; (2) apprenticeship on ongoing research projects; (3) formal participation in research meetings and colloquia; and (4) participation in specialized, technical workshops and practica aimed at developing quantitative skills. In addition to a substantive focus on aging issues, the training program will emphasize measurement and change representation, research design and implementation, and quantitative modeling and data analysis.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This competitive renewal application will allow continuation of the present training program in quantitative modeling in aging research, which began in 2002, in the Psychology Department at the University of Virginia. Funding is requested for 3 predoctoral trainees and 2 postdoctoral trainees per year. Thus, far, predoctoral trainees have typically been supported for 3 years and postdoctoral trainees for 1 or 2 years. Support for predoctoral trainees for up to 4 years is requested. There are two broad, long-term objectives of the training program. The first is to help raise the quality of research in the field of aging so that our understanding of age-related changes in physical and mental health, cognition and cognitive changes, life- satisfaction, and other key areas of functioning reaches the point that both preventive and remedial/compensatory programs that are effective can be designed and implemented. The second broad objective is to promote the continuation of a steady stream of methodological innovations that will contribute to further enhancing the scope and quality of aging research. Given these broad objectives, the more specific objective of the training program is to produce highly technically skilled behavioral scientists who are firmly committed to the field of adult development and aging and conduct their own rigorous, sophisticated research while also being able to counsel and advise less well-trained colleagues regarding the latest in powerful measurement, design, and modeling advances that will enhance the quality of their colleagues' research efforts as well. In the process, we select and train researchers with the interests and advanced skills to improve the existing methods and develop new ones, not just apply the current ones. Trainees who enable us to meet these objectives are somewhat rare but we have managed to produce several, including minorities and women, and place them in institutions where they can thrive professionally, as indicated in the progress report. The benefits to the study of aging and to science in general of producing such high level researchers are incalculable. The effects of having a corps of exceptional younger scientists working in the field of aging spill over positively into many areas. Improving the quality of science in the field of aging is a key leading indicator of improvement in physical and mental health, quality of life, and the general welfare of the elderly. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project involves the development and dissemination of a method for measuring abstract qualities important to aging research and theory construction such as depression, life-satisfaction, morale, wisdom, and expertise in ways that are appropriately different for different individuals or age groups while holding constant the meaning of those qualities being assessed. Rigorous mathematical concepts of invariance will be employed while accommodating idiosyncratic features of individuals and of subgroups that differ by variables such as age. Rules for meeting these conditions with mathematical rigor will be developed and described and the procedures will be illustrated with extant data. How the evaluation of psychometric properties such as reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, etc., can be accomplished within the novel measurement framework will be described and implications of the approach for improving particular assessment instruments (e.g., the CES-D) and creating new ones for use in studies of aging will be examined and discussed. Benefits to accrue include the development of improved assessment devices that can be used in a wide range of research projects, including individual data collections, clinical trials, and epidemiological studies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Completion of this project will lead to more appropriate measuring devices by which important attributes such as depression, morale, and life-satisfaction can be measured by physicians, counselors, and researchers. The results can then be used for more effective diagnosis, selection, and classification procedures in dealing with both well and impaired individuals, including the frail elderly.