Stability and Change in Positive Self-Appraisal from Midlife to Later Aging

Abstract

This research investigated stability and change in the self-appraisal of having lived up to one's abilities from midlife to later aging. The subjects were 185 participants in the Terman Study of the Gifted, who had been asked to rate themselves with respect to living up to their abilities in 1960 (at an average age of 48) and in 1996 (at an average age of nearly 85). While there was a positive relation between self-appraisal at the 2 times, net change favored a more positive appraisal in aging. Those who rated themselves positively at both times had more positive personality characteristics in early to mid-adulthood, more education, better self-rated health in midlife, somewhat higher ambition in early adulthood and midlife, and greater satisfaction with their achievement in early aging. Those who changed positively in their self-appraisal, as compared with those with a negative later self-appraisal, had somewhat better education, better self-rated health in midlife, higher level occupations, and greater satisfaction with their achievement in early aging. Self-appraisals in later aging were related to current life satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of the role of the self-concept and the self-narrative in life-span development.