Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
2-2008
Abstract
We hypothesize that older adults who anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to social rejection because of their old age (i.e., have high age-based rejection sensitivity) are vulnerable to depression and poor social functioning. We further hypothesize that the association between age-based rejection sensitivity and poor psychological health would be attenuated among older adults who possess adequate cognitive coping ability--they can discern and respond discriminatively to subtle variations in situational demands (i.e., have high discriminative facility). Based on the results of a focus group study, we constructed an age-based rejection sensitivity measure, which predicts greater depression, poorer social functioning, greater loneliness, and lower life satisfaction among individuals in late adulthood. As hypothesized, the relationship between age-based rejection sensitivity and poor psychological health was weaker among older adults with high (vs. low) discriminative facility.
Keywords
Older Adults, Rejection Sensitivity, Discriminative Facility
Discipline
Family, Life Course, and Society | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Journal of Research in Personality
Volume
42
Issue
1
First Page
169
Last Page
182
ISSN
0092-6566
Identifier
10.1016/j.jrp.2007.05.001
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
CHOW, Debbie Sau-King, AU, Evelyn Wing-Mun, & CHIU, Chi-Yue.(2008). Predicting the Psychological Health of Older Adults: Interaction of Age-Based Rejection Sensitivity and Discriminative Facility. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(1), 169-182.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/604
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.05.001