Correlates of well-being in adulthood and old age: A tale of two optimisms

Journal of Research in Personality 39 (2005) 224–244 www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp

Correlates of well-being in adulthood and old age: A tale of two optimisms夽 Derek M. Isaacowitz¤ Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, MS 062, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA Avialble online 14 April 2004

Abstract Are older adults more optimistic than younger adults, and does optimism relate to wellbeing diVerently across the adult lifespan? This study attempted to address these issues by testing the link between two optimism constructs, explanatory style and dispositional optimism, and well-being in a sample of 280 young, middle-aged, and older adults. Consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory, older adults had more optimistic explanatory styles than their younger counterparts in the positive aYliation domain, and this eVect remained signiWcant after controlling for a number of demographic and aVective covariates. In contrast, older individuals reported less optimistic explanatory styles for negative health/cognitive events. No age diVerences in dispositional optimism or pessimism remained after controlling for covariates. Main eVects of negative aYliation explanatory style and dispositional optimism and pessimism were found in the prediction of well-being measures across age groups. However, no signiWcant Age £ Optimism interactions emerged in the prediction of depression or life satisfaction, providing no support for the assertion that optimism may relate to well-being diVerently at diVerent times in the adult life span.  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

夽 This research was supported by grants from the Max Planck Society and a Dissertation Research Grant from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology. This study was a part of the author’s dissertation from the University of Pennsylvania (Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., chair). The author thanks Chris Peterson for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and David Block for his assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. ¤ Fax: 1-781-736-3291. E-mail address: [email protected].

0092-6566/$ - see front matter  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.02.003

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1. Introduction Older adults, on average, appear to have positive and satisfying aVective lives (Carstensen & Charles, 1998). While psychologists have traditionally viewed late life as a time of emotional Xattening and disengagement (Cumming & Henry, 1961; Schulz, 1985), recent research has suggested quite the opposite: older adults remain emotional beings who not only experience a full range of emotions, but who also seem to be more adept than their younger counterparts at avoiding negative aVective states (Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000; Charles, Reynolds, & Gatz, 2001; Levenson, Carstensen, Friesen, & Ekman, 1991; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998). Beyond aVect, older adults show no decline in life satisfaction compared with younger adults (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). Despite the surprisingly positive picture of subjective well-being in old age presented by several recent studies, however, individual diVerences do exist. As at any age, some older adults have better wellbeing, while others are doing worse. Thus, successful aging can be deWned and assessed by variability in aVect and life satisfaction, the components of subjective well-being (Diener et al., 1999). Researchers interested in understanding why some individuals are more successful in regulating their aVect and well-being than others have tended to treat age as an uninteresting variable, at least post-childhood. However, life-span developmental psychologists now recognize adulthood as a time when changes take place in important psychological processes. For example, according to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, 1992; Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999), when endings are made salient to individuals, they reorganize their social goals and prioritize emotionally salient goals over other ones. Getting older is the strongest cue that time is Wnite and that the most important ending is approaching. This theory suggests that individuals may become more optimistic with age, insofar as they are proactively regulating their socioemotional world. Therefore, the complex of psychological processes surrounding emotional experience and well-being may change throughout adulthood. The predictors of emotional experience are not necessarily static either. However, as life-span developmental psychologists have started to better understand age diVerences in the experiences of emotion, much less attention has been paid to the unfolding of the predictors of these experiences across the adult life-span. For example, optimism has been a widely studied predictor of individual diVerences in aVect (Scheier & Carver, 1993; Seligman, 1990). Interest in optimism as a predictor of well-being is rooted in cognitive models in which habitual frames of processing information have ramiWcations for aVect (see, for example, Beck, 1967). Many individual studies exist linking optimism, variously deWned, with aVective outcomes such as depressive symptoms (for example, Peterson & Seligman, 1984; Vickers & Vogeltanz, 2000). Some of these studies include participants older than college students (for example, Kamen-Siegel, Rodin, Seligman, & Dwyer, 1991; Scheier et al., 1989). Despite the existence of such studies, though, no systematic investigations of optimism in adulthood and old age have hitherto been conducted. Given diVerences in aVect between older and younger individuals (Carstensen et al., 2000; Charles et al., 2001),

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diVerences either in the levels of aVect predictors, or in the relationship of these predictors to aVect, would also be expected. The purpose of the current study was therefore to systematically evaluate how this one particular predictor of aVect, optimism, may diVer in mean levels and may relate to well-being diVerently in adults of diVerent ages. This goal is complicated somewhat by the existence of two primary ways of operationalizing optimism: explanatory style (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) and dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985). Below, I brieXy consider these two optimisms, with particular attention to previous studies considering them in life-span perspective. I argue that these constructs are diVerent not just in name, but also in more fundamental properties that may have implications for diVerential relationships to age. Then, I propose several hypotheses for the current study of optimism and well-being in adulthood and old age.

2. Explanatory style Explanatory style theory is based on the observation that individuals have stylistic ways of explaining events that happen in their lives. A style of explaining negative events with causes that are internal, stable, and global is known as a “pessimistic explanatory style” (Peterson & Seligman, 1984). In contrast, an optimistic explanatory style involves making external, temporary, and speciWc causal explanations for negative events (Seligman, 1990). The argument that explanatory style predicts well-being arises from the multitude of Wndings linking depressive symptoms with a pessimistic explanatory style, measured with the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ: Peterson et al., 1982) or a content analysis technique. Peterson and Seligman (1984) review a variety of evidence showing that a pessimistic explanatory style predicts increases in depressive symptoms over time in diVerent populations. 2.1. Explanatory style in older adults A small number of previous studies on explanatory style have included middleaged and older individuals. One study found older adults making more stable and speciWc explanations for negative events than college students (Lachman, 1990). Another study found a modest correlation between explanatory style and depressive symptoms in a small sample of extremely healthy older adults (Kamen-Siegel et al., 1991). A study using texts written by the same individuals over periods of up to 50 years used content analysis and found relative stability over time for negative but not positive events (Burns & Seligman, 1989). Isaacowitz and Seligman (2001) measured explanatory style using the Attributional Style Questionnaire–Older Adult Version (ASQ–OAV) by making minimal word modiWcations to the ASQ so that the items were more suitable for older adults. In this sample of 71 community-dwelling older adults, age 64–94, mean explanatory style score both in the aYliation and achievement domains were substantially higher

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than the means usually found in studies of college students (Peterson et al., 1982). In a later study with individuals aged 60–99 Isaacowitz and Seligman (2002) created the Older Adults’ Attributional Style Questionnaire (OAASQ), replacing the achievement items with more relevant health/cognitive items. Mean levels in this study for explanatory style in the aYliation domain was similar to the Wrst study, whereas health/cognitive mean levels were more comparable to usual mean levels of explanatory style in college students. In studies of young adults, more optimistic explanatory styles tend to be moderately negatively correlated with depressive symptoms (Peterson & Seligman, 1984). In older adults, these correlations have been in the predicted direction but have generally not been large enough to reach statistical signiWcance (Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2001, 2002). Thus, previous studies suggest an equivocal relationship between explanatory style and depression in older adults.

3. Dispositional optimism Scheier and Carver (1985, 1993) consider dispositional optimism as a generalized positive expectancy for the future, whereas dispositional pessimism involves generalized negative expectations. This future-oriented deWnition of optimism is a theoretically distinct operationalization of optimism and is more closely related to lay conceptions of the meaning of the term than is explanatory style’s notion of optimism as a style of understanding why events have occurred in the past. The Life Orientation Test (LOT: Scheier & Carver, 1985) measures dispositional optimism and pessimism using separate 4-item scales. Research on dispositional optimism in older adults suggests that the optimism and pessimism scales may be somewhat independent, with diVerent correlates and predictive relationships (Mroczek, Spiro, Aldwin, Ozer, & Bossé, 1993; Robinson-Whelen, Kim, MacCallum, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1997). Thus, many researchers who use the LOT now evaluate the two scales separately. However, no studies have directly examined age diVerences in levels of dispositional optimism and/or dispositional pessimism. The LOT has been used in several studies to predict important outcomes among adults of various ages. Dispositional optimism and/or pessimism have been linked to faster recovery from coronary bypass surgery among middle-aged men (Scheier et al., 1989), as well as changes in anxiety and perceived stress in a sample of middle-aged and older women (Robinson-Whelen et al., 1997). Bromberger and Matthews (1996) found that more pessimistic women who experienced ongoing stress tended to have high levels of depressive symptoms after three years. While both dispositional optimism and pessimism may not relate to well-being in each study, overall the constructs do appear linked to well-being in adults of all ages. 3.1. Explanatory style and dispositional optimism: DiVerential age relationships? The two existing theories and body of research on optimism diVer not just in name and assessment techniques, but also in more fundamental ways that might

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have implications for how they may vary (or not) with age. Whereas dispositional optimism and pessimism are conceptualized as general expectancies that an individual carries with them through diVerent situations, explanatory style is considered to be consistent within domains but at least potentially distinct from one domain to another (e.g., academic/professional vs. interpersonal/aYliative). Lifespan developmental theory and research provide compelling evidence that general and domain-speciWc psychological processes relevant to socioemotional functioning may have quite diVerent adult developmental patterns and trajectories. From a theoretical perspective, McAdams (1996) has proposed three levels of personality: traits, personal concerns, and the life story. Whereas the trait level may be relatively stable, personal concerns will be a function of time and context (Hooker & McAdams, 2003). Furthermore, while these levels are not necessarily hierarchical and their exact relationships to each other remains to be elucidated (Hooker, 2002; Hooker & McAdams, 2003), it is reasonable to expect at least that domainspeciWc processes are embedded in broader traits (see also Roberts & Donahue, 1994). Therefore, generalized traits may serve as constraints on domain-speciWc motives. From a more empirical perspective, Lachman’s (1986; Lachman & Weaver, 1998) work on general and domain-speciWc locus of control has made a strong case for diVerentiating between general and domain-speciWc sense of control in adulthood and old age: while general locus of control may show no age diVerences (Lachman, 1986) with age, domain-speciWc patterns vary considerably. While some domains show lower levels of control in older individuals (such as relationship with children), other speciWc domains showed age-related increases in control (work, Wnances; Lachman & Weaver, 1998). While expectancies can be domainspeciWc, dispositional optimism and pessimism by deWnition refer to generalized expectancies. In contrast, explanatory style is about speciWc domains—and work that has purported to be general has actually used domain-speciWc measures: for example, in Metalsky’s (Metalsky, Abramson, Seligman, Semmel, & Peterson, 1982; Metalsky, Halberstadt, & Abramson, 1987) well-known studies of explanatory style and depressive symptoms among college students, the measure of explanatory style used was actually a composite score only of the achievement domain, thus speciWcally relevant to the stressful event in question (doing well or poorly on a midterm). The ability of aging individuals to maintain their self-views in the face of changing abilities has been well-documented in both the self literature (e.g., Brandstaedter & Greve, 1994) and in the body of work Wnding no age diVerences in subjective wellbeing (as reviewed in Diener et al., 1999). This work suggests that on an overall level, compensatory processes work to guard against major variability in global self-views and beliefs. Thus, more global self-relevant psychological constructs may likely be quite similar in adults of diVerent ages. In contrast, domain-speciWc processes such as explanatory style may be more likely to be diVerent in level at diVerent times in adult development. For example, according to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al., 1999), individuals become more selective and proactive about their social relationships as they get

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older. Thus, their explanatory style for interpersonal events may become more optimistic or positive as their social networks become more satisfying and more tailored to their own wishes (Lansford, Sherman, & Antonucci, 1998). Similarly, midlife may be a time of work-related success and relatively high control beliefs for the achievement domain (Lachman & Weaver, 1998); thus, explanatory style for achievement events may be higher in middle-aged adults, followed perhaps by a decline as individuals retire. Finally, explanatory style for health and cognitive functioning is likely to be lower in older individuals, following a similar trajectory as locus of control for health and intellectual functioning (Lachman, 1991). Similarly, the relationship between optimism and subjective well-being may vary in adults of diVerent ages, but diVerently so for the diVerent forms of optimism. A central tenet of the compensatory theories that account for how overall well-being may remain stable as individuals age is that the importance of diVerent domains may shift (for example, the model of Selective Optimization with Compensation: Baltes & Baltes, 1990). For example, an individual who is no longer able to run marathons may decide that marathons are not so important, but some other mode of exercise that is less strenuous may become more valued. Or, exercise as a whole may be downgraded in importance, whereas religious activities become more central. Goal theories posit that certain important domains are most central to an individual’s well-being at any point in time (e.g., Cantor & Sanderson, 1999); therefore, to the extent that particular life domains are more or less important to individuals of some ages, they may be more or less predictive of well-being in those individuals. Thus, while general mechanisms would likely feature stable relationships to well-being in adults of diVerent ages, domain-speciWc ones may vary in their ability to predict wellbeing as a function of changes in importance. To the extent that age diVerences in the outcomes of subjective well-being do exist, these variations might help explain the resulting age diVerences in aVect and well-being. Again, socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that close social relationships will be most relevant to the well-being of older individuals, whereas they may downplay the importance of professional accomplishments that might carry additional beneWts only in an uncertain future. Therefore, explanatory style for interpersonal events may become more strongly linked to well-being as individuals age, but their explanations for achievement events may become less critical to their well-being as part of their overall compensatory strategy, even if their explanatory style for achievement events is relatively positive given their level of accomplishment through midlife. Health and cognitive functioning will likely be more salient to the well-being of older adults, as their possible decline becomes a source of concern and functional diYculty for older individuals (see, for example, Williamson, ShaVer, & Parmelee, 2000). From an empirical rather than theoretical perspective, studies in which both explanatory style and dispositional optimism are measured in the same sample have yielded inconsistent results on the relationship between the constructs (see Gillham, Shatté, Reivich, & Seligman, 2001 for a review). In college students, some Wnd only moderate correlations (Hjelle, Belongia, & Nesser, 1996) while other studies Wnd higher ones (Gillham, Tassoni, Engel, DeRubeis, & Seligman, 1998). In older adults,

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explanatory style and dispositional optimism appear to be uncorrelated (Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2002). In summary, in addition to simply being diVerent operationalizations of optimism dealing with the past (explanatory style) and the future (dispositional optimism), the constructs diVer in more fundamental ways that should have implications for their relationships both to age and to well-being. Both explanatory style and dispositional optimism have been investigated as predictors of wellbeing in adults based on the notion that systematic diVerences in information processing (from expectation to interpretation) can inXuence the aVective tone of an individual’s life (Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2003). But a more detailed consideration of the nature of the two constructs suggests that, to the extent that these variables do predict well-being, these relationships may vary dynamically across the adult lifespan. 3.2. The current study Previous investigations of optimism and subjective well-being in adults of diVerent ages have shared two primary limitations: Wrst, they have exclusively investigated one segment of the adult population, be it college students or older adults; and second, diVerences in how optimism is measured have made it diYcult to compare results. Moreover, very few studies have evaluated the two primary optimism constructs simultaneously (Gillham et al., 2001). The purpose of the present study was therefore (a) to simultaneously evaluate age diVerences in mean levels of the two operationalizations of optimism, explanatory style and dispositional optimism; and (b) to investigate the relationship of both to subjective well-being among adults in three age groups, using the same measurement tools across all age groups. Following Diener et al.’s (1999) assertion that subjective well-being includes aVective states and cognitive construal, the current study assessed well-being using measures of depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Samples of young, middle-aged, and communitydwelling older adults participated in this study. Based on the Wndings of previous research described above, and considering recent Wndings on aVect in adulthood and old age (e.g., Carstensen et al., 2000; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998) as well as socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al., 1999), it was hypothesized that 1. Age diVerences would emerge for the domain-speciWc measures of explanatory style but not for the generalized expectancies of dispositional optimism and pessimism. In particular, older individuals were expected to report more positive explanatory style in the aYliation domain but less positive explanatory styles in the health/cognitive domain than their younger counterparts, while middle-aged individuals were expected to show the most positive explanatory style in the achievement domain. 2. Domain-speciWc explanatory style would show diVerential relationships to wellbeing with age, given the changes that take place with age in what domains are most salient to well-being. In contrast, no age diVerences in generalized expectancies were expected.

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4. Method 4.1. Participants Participants for this study were recruited from three adult age groups: young adults (age 18–25), middle-aged adults (age 36–59), and older adults (and 60 and above). Older adults could only participate if they were community-dwelling, did not utilize any regular skilled nursing care in their housing, and did not show any clear evidence of cognitive impairment. Young adults were recruited primarily through written and electronic advertisements in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, and many were students in local colleges and universities. The majority of the middleaged participants were recruited from church and synagogue groups in the Philadelphia area, and older adults primarily from senior centers in the region.1 One hundred young adults, 86 middle-aged adults, and 94 older adults completed the interview. The young adults (mean age D 20.56, SD D 1.75) consisted of 27 male and 73 female participants; of these, 67 identiWed themselves as Caucasian, 8 as African-American, 19 as Asian or Asian-American, and 6 as members of other ethnic groups. The middle-aged group (mean age D 48.74, SD D 4.90) had 30 men and 56 women, with 74 Caucasians, 8 African-Americans, and 3 Asian-Americans. One middle-aged adult did not report ethnicity. Finally, the older adult group (mean age D 76.71, SD D 8.70) consisted of 31 men and 63 women. This group included 83 Caucasians and 10 African-Americans. One older adult participant did not report ethnicity.
2 analyses revealed that the ethnic distribution of the 3 age groups was signiWcantly diVerent,
2(6, N D 278) D 37.62, p 0 .05. Not surprisingly, group diVerences also emerged on educational attainment and self-reported health; education: F(2, 265) D 81.38, p 0 .05; health: F(2, 275) D 34.48, p 0 .05. The middle-aged group had the most total years of education completed (M D 17.67, SD D 3.32), followed by the young adults (M D 14.77, SD D 1.63) and the older adults (M D 12.34, SD D 3.07). For selfreported health, young adults reported the highest levels (M D 3.45, SD D .89), followed by middle-aged (M D 3.01, SD D .76) and older adults (M D 2.29, SD D .94) on a self-report scale going from 0 (poor) to 4 (excellent). All pairwise comparisons between the age groups revealed signiWcant group diVerences using Tukey contrasts. As described above, the age groups diVered not only in age but also in their ethnic compositions. SpeciWcally, there was a substantial number of Asian-Americans in the young adult group, whereas there were fewer in the middle-aged group and none in the older group. Therefore, ethnicity was entered as a covariate in the analyses.

1 Recruitment methods diVered among age groups in this study. Middle-aged and older individuals were more likely to be recruited from religious organizations than were the young adults. The study had only a rudimentary measure of religiosity (religious service attendance). Previous research linking religious fundamentalism with explanatory style (e.g., Sethi & Seligman, 1993) has demonstrated a relationship between the constructs that likely would not be captured with the simple measure available; therefore, the decision was made to leave this possible confound as a limitation of the study for future research with better measures to disentangle.

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4.2. Procedure All participants completed paper-and-pencil measures once in person with a member of the research team. This packet of questionnaires consisted of a demographics sheet, all measures of explanatory style and dispositional optimism, as well as measures of subjective well-being: depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Additionally, participants completed an inventory of human strengths, along with several measures concerning what areas of life are currently most important to them. Participants Wlled out these measures either individually or in small groups with a member of the research team. A member of the research team assisted any participants who had diYculty completing the questionnaires. Several older adults had diYculty reading the measures; in these cases, research assistants read the measures aloud to them and the participants provided their responses verbally. 4.3. Measures 4.3.1. Explanatory style Building on previous research on explanatory style in adults of diVerent ages, two measures of explanatory style were included in the current study. First, all participants completed the original version of the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ: Peterson et al., 1982), which consists of 12 vignettes that participants are instructed to vividly imagine happening to them. They then provide a perceived cause of the event, and rate the internality, stability, and globality of the cause. The vignettes on the ASQ are divided into two content areas: achievement and aYliation. Within each area, half of the vignettes are positive, and half are negative. Composite explanatory styles were calculated by valence for each domain. Therefore, a higher score for positive events and a lower score for negative events on any domain indicates a more “optimistic” style for that area, i.e., more internal, stable, and global for positive events and more external, temporary, and speciWc for negative events. Reliabilities for the scales were calculated using Cronbach’s . The resulting s were .62 for positive aYliation, .60 for negative aYliation, .67 for positive achievement, and .66 for negative achievement. While modest, these are consistent with previous research using subsets of items from the ASQ (see Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2001; Peterson et al., 1982). While there was some modest intercorrelation among the scales, they were considered separately for the theoretical reasons listed above. The second measure of explanatory style included in this study was the health/cognitive section of the Older Adults’ Attributional Style Questionnaire (OAASQ: Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2002). This measure was included both because it was more salient to the lives of older adults and because of the eVects found in a previous study using this measure. However, all participants Wlled out both the original ASQ as well as the Health/Cognitive items from the OAASQ, regardless of their age. It is important to note that, in contrast to Isaacowitz and Seligman (2001), the items on the ASQ were not modiWed to make them easier for older adults to answer. Instead, they were asked to answer the unmodiWed original items. Similarly, participants of all ages completed

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the older-adult-focused health/cognitive items from the OAASQ. The items from the OAASQ are identical in form to the original ASQ items, and are scored the same way. Reliability for the health/cognitive scale was .69 for positive health/cognition, and .63 for negative health/cognition. 4.3.2. Dispositional optimism Scheier and Carver (1985) developed the Life Orientation Test (LOT) to measure dispositional optimism and pessimism. The scale consists of 4 optimism items (“I’m always optimistic about my future”), 4 pessimism items (“If something can go wrong for me it will”), and 4 Wller items (“I enjoy my friends a lot”). Participants indicate their agreement with each item using a 5-point Likert scale. Based on previous research demonstrating that the dispositional optimism and pessimism scales may be independent and have distinct correlates, the two scales were analyzed separately. Scale scores are simply the sum of the scores on each Likert item. Higher scores on each scale indicate higher levels of that dispositional trait. These two scales demonstrated good reliability, with a coeYcient  of .76 for dispositional optimism and .80 for dispositional pessimism, almost identical to the reliabilities reported by Mroczek et al. (1993). 4.3.3. Depressive symptoms Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression Scale (CES-D: RadloV, 1977). The CES-D measures depressive symptoms over the previous week, and appears appropriate for use among community-dwelling elderly (RadloV & Teri, 1986). The scale includes 20 items, 4 of which are reverse-coded. Higher scores on the CES-D correspond to higher levels of depressive symptoms. 4.3.4. Life satisfaction The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS: Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & GriYn, 1985) assesses the cognitive evaluation component of subjective well-being. Participants rated how positively they feel about their current life on 5 items, each scored with a 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate more positive assessments of an individual’s life. CoeYcient  for this scale was .81. 4.3.5. Negative and positive aVect The Positive and Negative AVect Schedule (PANAS: Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) was used to assess positive and negative aVective in the participants “today.” This scale was included in order to determine whether age diVerences in optimism might emerge even after controlling for aVect variables on which age groups might diVer. Mean scores for the positive and negative aVect scales were used in the analyses. CoeYcient  was .87 for positive aVect and .86 for negative aVect. 4.3.6. Health Each participant responded to a single question about their perceived health, rating it on a 5-point scale going from “poor” to “excellent.”

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4.4. General analytic strategy To test for age diVerences in levels in optimism, I Wrst conducted a MANOVA in which age group was the independent variable and the 8 types of optimism (6 explanatory style variables, 2 dispositional optimism variables) were the dependent variables. Because demographic and aVective variables might confound these main eVects, MANCOVAs were then run to determine whether these age diVerences were maintained after controlling for other variables (such as education and aVect) that might covary with age. Only when these residual scores were obtained were further group analyses conducted: to test our hypotheses regarding age diVerences in explanatory style, a planned comparison was conducted comparing older adults to the other two age groups. Following Keppel’s (1991) recommendations, no Type I error adjustment was made for this single paired comparison. Given our lack of agerelated hypotheses regarding dispositional optimism, any signiWcant group eVects would be followed by post hoc Tukey comparisons. Correlations between optimism and well-being were then evaluated. Finally, age diVerences in the optimism-wellbeing relationship were examined using moderated multiple regression, with age entered as a continuous variable.

5. Results 5.1. Hypothesis 1: Age diVerences in optimism A MANOVA in which age group was the independent variable and the 8 optimism variables were dependent variables yielded a signiWcant multivariate eVect of group, F(16, 488) D 5.49, p 0 .05. Therefore, between-subjects eVects of age group were evaluated separately for each of the 8 optimism measures. Raw means by age group are presented in Table 1. Several other variables also covaried with age: education, ethnicity, self-reported health, depressive symptoms, and positive and negative aVect (also shown in Table 1). Therefore, these analyses were then repeated in a MANCOVA after controlling for each of these covariates. The multivariate eVect of group remained signiWcant, F(16, 460) D 2.05, p 0 .05. Thus, I also evaluated betweensubjects eVects of age group for the individual optimism measures after controlling for these covariates. 5.1.1. Explanatory style As shown in Table 2, controlling for covariates produced age diVerences in explanatory style in the aYliation domain for positive events, F(2, 236) D 3.74, p 0 .05 and in the health/cognitive domain for negative events, F(2, 236) D 3.61, p 0 .05. Consistent with hypotheses, examination of the residual means suggested that older adults scored highest both on positive aYliation events (more optimistic) and negative health/cognitive events (more pessimistic). Planned comparisons comparing older adults to the other age groups were signiWcant in both cases: positive aYliation, t(243) D 39.42, p 0 .05, negative health/cognition, t(243) D 3.93, p 0 .05.

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Table 1 Means and SDs for explanatory style and dispositional optimism, as well as possible covariates, in the sample Variable mean (SD)

Young adults

Middle aged

Older adults

F-value for betweensubjects eVects

Positive aYliation E.S. Negative aYliation E.S. Positive achievement E.S. Negative achievement E.S. Positive health/cognitive E.S. Negative health/cognitive E.S. Dispositional optimism Dispositional pessimism Education Self-rated health Depressive symptoms Positive aVect Negative aVect Life satisfaction

46.12 (5.07) 36.34 (7.12) 46.43 (8.05) 41.12 (7.93) 44.50 (6.77) 39.94 (9.40) 10.41 (3.18) 5.36 (3.17) 14.77 (1.63) 3.30 (.76) 13.74 (8.56) 3.01 (.79) 1.80 (.67) 16.84 (3.39)

48.23 (5.86) 35.19 (6.71) 44.66 (7.23) 40.15 (7.68) 47.06 (6.72) 39.45 (9.99) 10.96 (2.67) 4.17 (2.92) 17.70 (3.32) 2.96 (.91) 9.94 (8.30) 3.42 (.68) 1.37 (.47) 16.83 (4.05)

50.29 (8.40) 34.21 (9.37) 48.11 (8.04) 40.21 (9.43) 47.47 (8.74) 42.95 (8.72) 11.86 (3.09) 6.41 (4.10) 12.60 (3.16) 2.29 (.96) 12.12 (8.66) 3.20 (.75) 1.35 (.47) 17.94 (3.95)

F(2, 250) D 8.91* F(2, 250) D 1.62 F(2, 250) D 3.78* F(2, 250) D .39 F(2, 250) D 4.23* F(2, 250) D 3.17* F(2, 250) D 5.87* F(2, 250) D 9.31* F(2, 270) D 74.06* F(2, 270) D 32.04* F(2, 270) D 4.56* F(2, 270) D 6.72* F(2, 270) D 19.49* F(2, 270) D 2.35

*

p 6 .05.

Table 2 Marginal means and standard errors for explanatory style and dispositional optimism in the sample, controlling for various covariates Variable marginal mean (SE)

Young adults

Middle aged

Older adults

F-value for betweensubject eVects

Controlling for years of education, self-reported health, ethnicity, depressive symptoms, and positive aVect Positive aYliation E.S. 46.36 (.75) 48.35 (.86) 49.75 (.95) F(2, 237) D 3.70* Negative aYliation E.S. 35.86 (.86) 35.58 (1.00) 34.26 (1.09) F(2, 237) D .60 Positive achievement E.S. 46.80 (.89) 44.73 (1.02) 47.22 (1.13) F(2, 237) D 1.47 Negative achievement E.S. 41.31 (.93) 40.88 (1.08) 39.16 (1.19) F(2, 237) D .91 Positive health/cognitive E.S. 44.73 (.84) 46.12 (.96) 47.67 (1.06) F(2, 237) D 2.10 Negative health/cognitive E.S. 39.34 (1.06) 38.98 (1.22) 43.64 (1.35) F(2, 237) D 3.49* Dispositional optimism 10.75 (.31) 10.93 (.36) 11.46 (.40) F(2, 237) D .86 Dispositional pessimism 4.94 (.35) 5.16 (.41) 5.64 (.45) F(2, 237) D .52 Controlling for above, as well as dispositional optimism and pessimism Positive aYliation E.S. 46.27 (.75) 48.33 (.86) 49.90 (.95) Negative aYliation E.S. 35.84 (.86) 35.57 (.99) 34.30 (1.10) Positive achievement E.S. 46.73 (.90) 44.72 (1.03) 37.34 (1.14) Negative achievement E.S. 41.20 (.94) 40.85 (1.07) 39.34 (1.12) Positive health/cognitive E.S. 44.72 (.84) 46.13 (.96) 47.69 (1.07) Negative health/cognitive E.S. 39.39 (1.07) 38.98 (1.22) 43.58 (1.36) *

F(2, 235) D 4.12* F(2, 235) D .54 F(2, 235) D 1.51 F(2, 235) D .67 F(2, 235) D 2.09 F(2, 235) D 3.28*

p 6 .05.

Because the levels model described in Section 1 suggests that general dispositions are broader than domain-speciWc explanatory processes, age eVects on explanatory style were re-run controlling for dispositional optimism and pessimism in addition to the above covariates. Age diVerences in positive aYliation explanatory style and

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Table 3 The relationship between explanatory style and dispositional optimism in the three age groups r with DO r with DP

Young adults

Middle aged

Older adults

Positive aYliation E.S.

.08 ¡.10 ¡.24* .24* .23* ¡.11 ¡.25 .19 .08 ¡.10 ¡.17 .20*

¡.03 ¡.14 .05 ¡.02 ¡.02 ¡.05 ¡.07 ¡.02 .19 ¡.15 .04 ¡.08

.03 ¡.01 ¡.20 .04 .03 ¡.09 ¡.09 .03 .03 0 .12 .03

Negative aYliation E.S. Positive achievement E.S. Negative achievement E.S. Positive health/cognitive E.S. Negative health/cognitive E.S.

Note. The top number in each cell represents the correlation of each explanatory style variable with Dispositional Optimism (DO). The bottom number represents the correlation with Dispositional Pessimism (DP). * p 6 .05.

negative health/cognitive explanatory style remained signiWcant, as shown in the bottom panel of Table 2. Additionally, planned comparisons were unchanged: positive aYliation, t(243) D 28.12, p 0 .05, negative health/cognition, t(243) D 3.78, p 0 .05. 5.1.2. Dispositional optimism As shown in Table 2, after controlling for all covariates, no eVect of age emerged on dispositional optimism, F(2, 236) D .95 or pessimism, F(2, 236) D .51. To try to elucidate the relationship between dispositional optimism and the aVect covariates, age eVects on these aVect variables were re-run controlling for dispositional optimism and pessimism. Positive aVect and negative aVect remained signiWcantly diVerent in the diVerent age groups, but the age eVect on depressive symptoms was reduced to nonsigniWcance.2 5.2. The relationship between explanatory style and dispositional optimism Table 3 provides correlations between each of the six measures of explanatory style and dispositional optimism and pessimism in each of the three age groups. In young adults, negative aYliation explanatory style correlated with dispositional optimism and pessimism, and positive achievement explanatory style correlated with dispositional optimism. In middle-aged and older adults, no correlations between explanatory style and dispositional optimism reached statistical signiWcance. Interestingly, dispositional optimism correlated with dispositional pessimism diVerently in the three age groups. Dispositional optimism and pessimism were strongly inversely correlated in the young adult (r D ¡ .52, p 0 .05) and middle-aged 2 Similar analyses in which the eVects of explanatory style were controlled did not impact the age eVects found in the raw analyses on the aVect variables.

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(r D ¡ .41, p 0 .05) groups. However, the inverse relationship was not signiWcant in the older group (r D ¡ .18, n.s.). 5.3. Hypothesis 2: Optimism and subjective well-being 5.3.1. Patterns of correlation Explanatory style correlated with well-being primarily among young adults. Table 4 provides correlations in the three age groups between the six measures of explanatory style, two measures of dispositional optimism/pessimism, and the two measures of psychological well-being, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction. More pessimistic scores for explanatory style for negative aYliation and negative achievement events correlated with higher levels of depressive symptoms in young adults (though the correlation for the health/cognitive domain was only marginally signiWcant). None of the explanatory style—depressive symptom correlations were signiWcant in the middle-aged and older adult age groups except that more pessimistic negative aYliation explanatory style correlated with depressive symptoms in older adults. None of the explanatory style variables correlated with life satisfaction among any of the three age groups. As predicted, patterns of correlation between dispositional optimism and pessimism and well-being were more consistent across age groups. Every correlation between dispositional optimism and pessimism and depressive symptoms save one was signiWcant across age groups. These correlations are shown in Table 4. The only exception was the correlation between dispositional pessimism and depressive symptoms in young adults. For life satisfaction, also shown in Table 4, all correlations in all age groups met statistical signiWcance at the .05 level. Table 4 Correlations between explanatory style and dispositional optimism with depressive symptoms (top row) and life satisfaction (bottom row) Variable r with CES-D r with SWLS

Young adults

Middle aged

Older adults

Positive aYliation E.S.

¡.02 .14 .31* ¡.14 ¡.07 .14 .25* ¡.12 ¡.04 .01 .14 ¡.26 ¡.34* .33* .18 ¡.38*

¡.18 .08 .15 .05 ¡.02 ¡.02 .05 ¡.06 .07 .04 ¡.04 .08 ¡.32* .40* .29* ¡.37*

¡.06 .10 .21* ¡.13 ¡.04 ¡.07 .19 ¡.16 0 ¡.09 .05 .06 ¡.31* .40* .41* ¡.22*

Negative aYliation E.S. Positive achievement E.S. Negative achievement E.S. Positive health/cognitive E.S. Negative health/cognitive E.S. Dispositional optimism Dispositional pessimism

Note. The number in each cell is the raw Pearson’s correlation. p 6 .05.

*

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Table 5 Moderated multiple regressions on depression and life satisfaction, testing main eVects of age and optimism Predictor

Depression

Life satisfaction

Health Education Age Sex Ethnicity Positive aYliation E.S. Negative aYliation E.S. Positive achievement E.S. Negative achievement E.S. Positive health/cognitive E.S. Negative health/cognitive E.S. Dispositional optimism Dispositional pessimism

¡.10 ¡.18 * ¡.08 .02 .06 ¡.03 .18 * ¡.03 0 .06 ¡.02 ¡.25 * .16 *

.15* ¡.08 .05 ¡.02 ¡.11 .13 .02 ¡.01 ¡.03 ¡.10 .02 .31* ¡.14*

*

p 6 .05.

In all age groups, dispositional optimism correlated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater life satisfaction, whereas higher dispositional pessimism correlated with more depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction. 5.4. Regression analyses testing for age diVerences in prediction of well-being First, a moderated multiple regression was run separately for each well-being measure, depression and life satisfaction. Because education, self-reported health, and ethnicity had been signiWcantly related to the optimism and aVect variables in previous analyses, they were included in the Wrst step of these regression models, along with main eVects of the optimism variables and age (as a continuous variable). Then, interactions between age group and optimism were entered in the second steps. While main eVects emerged, no interactions reached signiWcance. The same was true for both depression and life satisfaction. Standardized betas for main eVects in these regression models are shown in Table 5. Main eVects emerged for negative aYliation explanatory style and dispositional optimism and pessimism on depression. Higher levels of dispositional optimism predicted less depressive symptoms, whereas higher scores on negative aYliation explanatory style and dispositional pessimism predicted more depressive symptoms. More years of education also predicted fewer depressive symptoms. For life satisfaction, better health, more dispositional optimism, and less dispositional pessimism predicted higher levels of satisfaction.

6. Discussion This study investigated age diVerences in optimism, and whether optimism predicts well-being diVerently in adults of diVerent ages. The study evaluated eight

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diVerent optimism measures, six related to explanatory style and two from the dispositional optimism tradition. Multivariate analyses suggested diVerential age relationships by measure. It was hypothesized that age diVerences would emerge in the domain-speciWc explanatory style variables, but not in the more generalized expectancies of dispositional optimism and pessimism. In particular, older adults were expected to report more positive explanatory styles for the interpersonal domain, following theory and evidence for more satisfying and selected social relationships in older individuals (e.g., Carstensen et al., 1999; Lansford et al., 1998), and more positive explanatory styles in the achievement domain at least through midlife, given their increasing control over their professional activities. However, less positive explanatory style concerning health and cognition was expected. Results for aYliation explanatory style supported the hypothesis; age diVerences in explanatory style for positive aYliation events favoring older adults were maintained even after controlling for a number of other demographic and aVective variables. Interestingly, whereas positive achievement explanatory style did display age diVerences in a model without covariates, it became nonsigniWcant in a model with covariates controlled. Similarly, only age diVerences in health/cognitive explanatory style for negative events were signiWcant after controlling for covariates, though this result was in the hypothesized direction. These results remained signiWcant even in a more conservative test in which dispositional optimism and pessimism was controlled. The other primary hypothesis of this study concerned the relationship between the various forms of optimism and subjective well-being in young, middle, and older adulthood. It was hypothesized that the generalized expectancy variables would show a consistent relationship with well-being that would not vary with age. In contrast, speciWc explanatory style variables were expected to show Age £ Optimism interactions, in accordance with the particular life domains most salient to individuals at various times in adulthood. For example, interpersonally related optimism was thought to be more important to older individuals, whereas achievement-related optimism should relate more strongly to the well-being of younger adults who are just starting to set and work toward professional goals. While main eVects of optimism on subjective well-being did emerge regardless of age, no interactions between Age and Optimism were found for any of the optimism variables. Thus, the results did not support diVerential relationships to well-being by age for any of the optimism constructs. Regardless of age, more positive explanatory style for aYliation events and higher levels of dispositional optimism predicted fewer depressive symptoms. More dispositional optimism and less dispositional pessimism predicted more life satisfaction across the age groups. However, it was the case that dispositional optimism and pessimism were stronger predictors of well-being than was explanatory style. 6.1. SpeciWc vs. general: Level vs. adaptiveness One major focus of the current study was evaluating two types of optimism in adult developmental perspective. Explanatory style and dispositional optimism are two optimism constructs currently used in personality and clinical psychology

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research, and little attention has been paid to relationships (or lack thereof) between the constructs. This study was predicated on the belief that there are theoretical reasons to investigate both of these constructs in the context of adult development, with particular attention to how domain-speciWc constructs such as explanatory style might diVer from generalized constructs like dispositional optimism. In other words, these two constructs are not just two ways of naming and measuring the same thing—they are, by deWnition, about two distinct levels of self-organization. Furthermore, life-span theory suggests diVerences between generalized and context- or domain-speciWc constructs with regard to both levels as well as adaptiveness or relation to life satisfaction. What was found in the current study, however, was a combination of age diVerences for domain-speciWc optimism measures, along with age invariance in the relationship between the optimism measures and the two well-being measures, depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. This pattern of Wndings is similar to Nolen-Hoeksema and Ahrens’s (2002) investigation of age diVerences in predictors of depression. While age diVerences existed in levels of both the predictor variables and in depressive symptoms, the relationships between the predictor variables and depression were primarily consistent across age groups. However, analyses did reveal that controlling for aVect eliminated any age diVerences in dispositional optimism, and controlling for dispositional optimism made age eVects on depressive symptoms disappear, though diVerences in positive and negative aVect remained signiWcant. Clearly, distinguishing between (and unpacking the relationship among) aVective states and dispositional aVect-type traits will be an important area for future inquiry, as more becomes known about life-span development across levels of personality. The results of this study suggest the value of considering both generalized as well as domain-speciWc personality constructs when attempting to understand links between personality and well-being across the life-span. While both types of variables seem to predict well-being, the broader, more generalized constructs seem much more invariant (once appropriate controls are made for related variables) across the lifespan than do domain-speciWc ones. These generalized constructs also seem to be stronger predictors of overall well-being across the adult lifespan than do more domain-speciWc ones. In the ever-evolving Welds of life-span personality and socioemotional development, an appreciation of the various levels of personality (e.g., McAdams, 1996) may be useful. 6.2. Age diVerences, age changes, and selective mortality There are several important reasons why these Wndings provide evidence for age diVerences in levels of explanatory style, but not for age changes in it. Most obviously, the age comparison component of this study is entirely cross-sectional, and diVerences among the age groups may arise from cohort rather than true age eVects. A more subtle reason that the age diVerences observed in this study may not be true age changes has to do with the established link between optimism and physical health across the life-span. Peterson (2001) recently concluded that, based on the results of many stud-

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ies, individuals with a pessimistic explanatory style have worse health and higher levels of mortality. Using data from the Terman Study, individuals with the pessimistic explanatory style of believing bad events resulted from global causes showed higher mortality levels (Peterson, Seligman, Yurko, Martin, & Friedman, 1998). Thus, any sample of older adults may be more selected for optimism, because their pessimistic counterparts will more likely have died at any prior age. Therefore, the higher levels of explanatory styles found among older adults in the current study may simply reXect the selective survival of optimistic individuals. Indeed, there is evidence for stability of explanatory style for negative events across the adult lifespan (Burns & Seligman, 1989). However, explanatory style for positive events is not nearly as stable. Findings of higher levels of positive explanatory style in the interpersonal domain in older age groups is also consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory’s assertion that individuals become more selective and proactive in their social relations with age (Carstensen et al., 1999). Socioemotional selectivity would predict an actual age eVect in which individuals feel more in control of their interpersonal relationships as they age, above and beyond any eVect of selective mortality for pessimists. Therefore, while the health data point to a selective mortality explanation for the eVects in the current study, theoretical accounts of social relationships across adulthood suggest that the Wndings may reXect actual age changes. While only long-term longitudinal data can distinguish between these two possibilities, it is likely that selective survival and actual changes in optimism with age conspire to produce more optimistic styles in surviving older adults. 6.3. Limitations An important caveat to the above conclusion is that the self-report measures of well-being used in this study are closer in form and content to the dispositional optimism measure than to the explanatory style measures; shared method variance may therefore play a role in our Wndings. Other limitations involve the methodology of the study. Clearly, this study is cross-sectional, and can make conclusions only about age diVerences and not about age changes. Furthermore, optimism may relate to simultaneous well-being in one way, but may have diVerent eVects on change in well-being over time (Isaacowitz & Seligman, 2001, 2002). It would be helpful to look at age diVerences in the ability of the optimism variables to predict change in well-being over time in adults of diVerent ages, though large samples would be needed to detect age diVerences, particularly given the minimal variability of well-being measures over short time periods (see, for example, Watson et al., 1988). Finally, this study used self-report measures to predict other self-report measures. A multimethod approach to the study of the links between optimism and well-being will be important in the future. 6.4. Conclusions and future directions In the search for individual diVerence predictors of subjective well-being across the adult lifespan, a surprising Wnding is emerging: a valuable predictor of who is

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happy and who is not, on average, is age (Carstensen & Charles, 1998). Some types of optimism, such as explanatory style in the aYliation domain, appear to be higher in members of those age groups who also report more subjective well-being, whereas other forms of optimism do not show this age pattern. Whether higher levels of optimism cause or result from age diVerences in well-being remains to be determined. The current study suggests, though, that while age diVerences in mean levels of optimism appear to exist, diVerences between young and old adults in the relationship between optimism and well-being by and large do not. High levels of dispositional optimism and, to a lesser degree, more optimistic aYliation explanatory style and low levels of dispositional pessimism, predict better well-being in all adult age groups. Therefore, age-related variations in levels of optimism, both generalized and domain-speciWc, do not appear to motivate age diVerences in aVect and well-being. A promising area of interest involves the attentional mechanisms by which optimism aVects how an individual understands his or her world at any age (Aspinwall & Brunhart, 2000; Isaacowitz, 2003). An important next step will be to determine how better measures both of attention and of well-being, such as tracking eye movements as an index of attention and more precise assessment of short-term hedonic changes, might help illuminate the complex relationship between optimism and subjective well-being across the entire life-span.

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