Envelhecimento ativo e características de personalidade em idosos portugueses

Abstract

Studies of adulthood, old age and the aging process, have gained prominence and importance in the early twenty-first century, due to demographic developments witnessed in the Western world (Fonseca, 2006). In Portugal, the Census of 2011 (INE, 2011) reflect a demographic profile characterized by an increase in the aging population and declining youth population, mainly due to a decrease in birth rates. The present study aimed to test empirically the profile in terms of personality characteristics in patients with active aging according to the model of active aging (WHO, 2002), and the elderly who do not have this condition. For this, we have made a quantitative study using the NEO instrument (Bertoquini and Pais-Ribeiro, 2006), it is an instrument that assesses the dimension neuroticism, extraversion and openness to experience. The sample of this research consists of 89 individuals (N = 89), 46 of which have some form of social participation, voluntary professional activity, ie older people with active aging and the outro 43 does not have any involvement social, that is, people do not active-aging. The data analysis showed that individuals with active aging have more lower levels of neuroticism than seniors with no active aging. In the extroversion field, there were no differences between the two groups. As regards openness to experience seniors who have no active aging revealing higher values than the elderly with active aging. These results allow us to determine the influence that personality characteristics have in aging active or not active, especially in regard to the areas neuroticism and openness to experience.

Date of Award	9 Jul 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	António Manuel Fonseca (Supervisor)