This report presents an analysis of two research studies on various issues related to developmental issues emerging in midlife and/or later adulthood. Harris & Dollinger (2003) examined individual differences in personality traits and anxiety about aging in an empirical investigation. Treas & Mazumdar (2003) focused on the dilemmas confronting older people in America's immigrant families. Though addressing significantly different aspects of the aging process, both of these empirical studies illustrate the fact that in addition to genetic, physiological, and natural environmental factors indirectly impacting on an individual's rate of and response to aging, other factors such as social networks, gender, health status, and cognitive development are also significant influences (Dacey & Travers, 2004).
Harris & Dollinger, 2003, specifically looked at the relationship between neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and their relationship to anxiety about aging sing a sample of 144 undergraduate students attending a Midwestern university. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not students high on the personality trait of neuroticism would exhibit the greatest anxiety about aging. The research employed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and the Anxiety about Aging Scale, two instruments that appear to be effective in assessing the five personality factors presented above and, secondly, measuring overall anxiety about aging.
Theoretically, it has been suggested that fear of aging is linked to high levels of neuroticism. Nevertheless, fear of aging may also, according to Dacey & Travers, 2004, be associated with other variables including health concerns, familial health issues, self-image, and perceptions of social support. Harris & Dollinger, 2003, used Pearson correlations for the five dimensions of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, total anxiety about aging scores...