Some participants in the Fordham Study (2012)
Willie Diament, 102; Susan Schrag, 101 years old; Ann Collins, 104 years old; Junius Barber, 99 years old; Henrietta Johnson, 102 years old
Another key component is the will to live, which manifests somewhat paradoxically.
"They all have no problem talking about death and dying. They have their last wills and they’re fully prepared, but they still want to stick around. They say they enjoy life," Jopp said. "So they have a really interesting attitude toward death and dying."
This unusual way of viewing their mortality could, according to Jopp, evolve from their exposure to death and dying — one price of advanced age.
"They have seen so many people die [that] they’re the supersurvivors," she said.
Their singular will to live yields high levels of self-efficacy, the third trait common among centenarians. Regardless of their age, these individuals retain a sense of being able to fulfill their needs and accomplish their goals — a quality that became apparent while simply trying to find time to speak with them, Jopp said.
"They’re really busy," she said. "We have people who are very involved with activities at their senior centers, and even people who are still working. One of the participants is the CEO of a company. She took over after her husband died."
Fourth, the centenarians tend to be optimistic, and continue to look forward to their lives.
Jopp found that these four psychological strengths working in concert outweigh factors — such as health and financial resources — that others consider requisite for well-being.
"The interesting thing is that those classic factors that usually predict wellbeing are no longer important to these very old people," Jopp said. "It’s especially true when it comes to health. These people have learned to change their standards.
"They often have chronic diseases, but they don’t seem to suffer as much as younger people do, because they change their attitudes about [health]. For them, it’s a blessing that they can still be alive."
The Heidelberg and Fordham centenarian studies, though, revive a familiar dualism within the question of longevity. Do we need superior genetics to get us there, for instance, by protecting us from health issues such as cardiovascular diseases, or can mindset alone chart the course?
"I really believe it’s both," Jopp said. "There are personality factors that are related to longevity [such as extroversion], but personality also has a large genetic component, so it could be there are direct genetic effects as well as indirect effects via behavior and attitudes."
When the interviews are done and the data are in by the end of this summer, we might just be a little closer to discovering the secrets to reaching old age — and living it well.
"One of the overarching goals of my studies is to try to figure out how we can shape these psychological strengths over the lifespan," Jopp said. "For example, can we teach children to be more optimistic and to take a different perspective when something's not working out? What can we change about our attitudes … to develop a larger coping repertoire?"
Psychological Strengths in Centenarians: Mechanisms of Adaptation in the Very Old (2010–2012)
Note: Pictures of some of the participants in the study
Copyright © 2012, Fordham University.
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