APS Award Address

Psychosocial Predictors of Longevity: Understanding Health the Terman-ator Way

Howard S. Friedman University of California, Riverside

Medical investigations often think they are asking the question, 'Why do people become ill?' when they are really studying 'Who becomes ill?' Variability in vulnerability and recuperation is at least as important as the general causes of disease, but yet is critically under-appreciated. Expanding on and following up the cohort first tracked as children by Lewis Terman in 1922, we have collected death certificates, validated new measures, and modeled lifelong psychological predictors of health and longevity. Personality, social relations, and behavioral patterns predict health and longevity across the lifespan, but often in unexpected ways. Applying the rigorous conceptual scrutiny and analytic techniques of psychology can lead to a better understanding of health.