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Personality and Healthy Aging in Adulthood pp 93–110Cite as

Using Ambulatory Assessments to Understand Personality-Health Associations

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Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 26))

Abstract

The assessment of personality is moving beyond typical questionnaire assessments and beginning to rely on repeated assessments where people respond multiple times a day for multiple days. These ambulatory assessments open up new avenues of research directly relevant to understanding healthy aging. In this chapter, two underutilized methods are discussed. First, dynamic metrics of personality, such as variability in behavior, inertia, and synchronicity, are likely to be related to healthy aging over and above standard mean-level trait assessments. These assessments can further allow better tests of personality processes, such as person-situation transactions, given that assessments are collected in situ rather than collapsed across time and context. Second, ambulatory assessments allow personality to be assessed at an idiographic level, where personality is defined not by comparison to others but how each person has a structure of personality unique to them. These idiographic assessments are likely better suited to identify which components of personality are linked to health processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Joshua J. Jackson & Emorie D. Beck

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  1. Joshua J. Jackson
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  2. Emorie D. Beck
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Correspondence to Joshua J. Jackson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA

    Patrick L. Hill

  2. Department of Psychology and University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Mathias Allemand

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Jackson, J.J., Beck, E.D. (2020). Using Ambulatory Assessments to Understand Personality-Health Associations. In: Hill, P.L., Allemand, M. (eds) Personality and Healthy Aging in Adulthood. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32053-9_7

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