Personality and cognitive adaptation: the absence of neuroticism and its effects on the well-being of widowed women over time
Year: 2007
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Widows scoring lower on the trait of neuroticism (N; i.e.. negative emotional reactivity) tend to score higher on measures of well-being than high-N widows.This study examined if low-N widows employ adaptive cognitive processes (e.g., positive information processing biases) to mediate the association between personality and well-being.Reports of widowed women's perceptions of their marriage, measured in 200212003 by the Marital Aggrandizement Scale (MAS; O'Rourke & Cappeliez, 2002), were compared to their perceptions of their marriage at that time, as recalled three years later, as well as at present (IV = 47).It was predicted that low-N widows would have higher MAS responses than high-N widows, and that this difference would increase over time.There was no interaction between neuroticism and time on MAS scores.Scores of highand low-N widows on measures of psychiatric distress and life satisfaction were different at baseline and demonstrated lesser disparity at Time 2.
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Heather R. Goldberg
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2279559622