3.2 Results
To define the constructs, first we turned to definitions provided by psychology and, secondly, to the Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (RAE,
2022). This is because use of the dictionary in the lexical approach to personality is well known, according to which individual differences that are socially relevant in people’s lives will be reflected in their language and will be expressed by a singular word (Goldberg,
1981).
From the qualitative analysis we observed that there were resources that we could identify as central, given that they were present in most of the interviews (in total nineteen). Thus, these allowed us to establish the hypothesis that they could be characteristic of centenarians, while others were peripheral (in total sixteen), that is, they reflected inter-individual differences and, consequently, there was no clear pattern. The resource frequency table is in Annex 2.
Nineteen central resources were identified that were grouped into six global constructs, added to which were resilience and intelligence, which were not grouped into any category. The global constructs were: (1) vitality, (2) taking pleasure in interaction, (3) commitment, (4) control, (5) intellectually motivated, (6) positivity. In addition: (7) resilience and (8) intelligence. These are described and exemplified below in textual quotes (verbatim). To not overburden the analysis, a maximum of two verbatim per resource will be used.
1) Vitality, in accordance with Ryan and Deci (
2001) vitality refers to feeling alive, alert, and full of energy. The centenarians interviewed are strongly connected to life, who not only live, but clearly want to continue living. They transmit energy through their attitude and voice, which is generally of good volume, rapid and strong. The psychological resources we grouped in this dimension were: activity and participation. 1.1) Activity, understood as the zest for doing things (RAE,
2022), was clearly reflected in the discourse, as they are people who have been working all their lives, always doing things, and enjoying doing them. Some stopped working at very advanced ages and, even today, they remain physically and intellectually active. There are many verbatim that reflect this characteristic; some examples are the following:
I was sewing until I was 98 (referring to her profession as a dressmaker). Now, I like to do crossword puzzles and I give the sudokus a try. I go downstairs in the elevator, but I walk up the stairs, to exercise my legs (Subject 1, woman, 100 years old). From the age of 10 until I got married, I worked in the tavern, and then sewing at home non-stop (…) Now, I really like doing wordsearch puzzles, I have fun and I’m fast. I also like playing Rumi a lot (it’s a complicated game, says her daughter), to play cards (Chinchón) and dominoes (Subject 8, woman, 102 years old).
1.2) Participation is also inferred from the centenarians’ discourse, because they are individuals who take part in things (RAE,
2022), who do not sit on the sidelines, who, despite their age, take advantage of the opportunities that arise to be active. Examples of behaviors that reflect this characteristic are:
On Tuesdays I go to a reading group and then we have a discussion (he recalls the last one they had), on Thursdays I go to a special gym. Every day from 10 to 11 I do exercises (Subject 5, woman, 100 years old). At 6 pm is the party for the grandparents and I’m going to go, also there’s bingo and I don’t want to miss it (Subject 16, man, 100 years old).
2) Taking pleasure in interaction, understood as the preference for relating and interacting with other people versus being alone (Quiroga & Navascues,
1995), is the second global construct we found. The centenarians interviewed are social, have warm ties with their families, friends, and caregivers, and are altruistic. 2.1) Sociability, the inclination of people to connect with others (Chapman-Quevedo,
2015), is inferred by the ease with which the centenarians create discourse as, in general, they are great conversationalists. This led to rapport being easily established during the interviews, and to them providing a lot of information. In addition, they claim to have always had friends and to have enjoyed social relationships throughout their life. Examples include the following:
I’ve never had trouble making friends, in that sense I’m really nice, I am. I’ve really had many friendships. (….) I have a reputation for being very talkative (Subject 2, woman, 104 years old). I’ve always liked to have friends and get along well with everyone (Subject 12, man, 101).
2.2) Warm bonds: this tells us that they feel and have felt loved (Ryff,
1989). Even with difficult childhoods, they have always had an adult role model (usually a female teacher) from whom they have received affection and support. Today, all of them get support from their families (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews/nieces) and/or caregivers, and they feel supported and loved by these people. Moreover, among those who live in retirement homes, the phrase “They love me a lot here” is one of the most widely heard verbatim. Some other examples are:
They love me a lot here, every time I see a nun, she does something kind and says something nice to me, and they don’t do that with everyone (Subject 16, man, 100). The best thing in my life are my children, grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren, who love me more than the grandchildren (…) I have one who’s 10 years old who sits on my lap and calls me ‘pretty great grandmother’ (Subject 14, woman, 104 years old).
2.3) Altruism: alludes to helping others without asking for anything in return (Moya,
1999). Disinterested help is another characteristic inferred from the discourse, as they have been willing to help those in need without asking for anything in return and without being asked to do it. Some behaviors that reflect this would be:
There was an elderly couple with limited resources who came to eat lunch at my house every day (.) That man kicked the maid out, who was a gypsy, because she became pregnant and she came to work at my house (Subject 3, woman, 102). I’ve always helped a lot in my village, for example, if a cow was lost, I offered to look for it and I had to walk a lot of kilometers across the mountain (Subject 12, man, 101 years old).
3) Commitment, we understand this as the psychological bond the person establishes with what he or she commits to (Betanzos-Díaz & Paz-Rodríguez,
2007), for example: performing a job, caring for children or parents, loyalty to friends, to their partner, etc. Within this construct we have grouped the following psychological resources: competence, responsibility, honesty, and perseverance. 3.1) Competence, referring to high skills in performance of the task and related to good execution (Maura,
2002). In other words, expertise, or aptitude to do something. From analysis of the interviews, it is inferred that centenarians are people who show high performance in what they do. For this reason they have been highly-valued workers, whether they were cleaners, shepherds or teachers. Their bosses gave them positions of responsibility and tried to convince them not to go when they wanted to leave their jobs. For example:
My bosses really valued me. I was with them for seven years and the day I got married the lady of the house cried as if she were my mother ( Subject 10, woman, 103 years old). And, well, I was in charge of all those people, I was in charge of the cattle, of all the cattle and ranchers, I was the foreman (…) When I left the cattle drive, I went to the village and they wanted me for all the jobs. I was made secretary of the City Council. I was also president of the Chamber of Agriculture for 20 years (Subject 16, man, 100 years old).
3.2) Responsibility, with a sense of duty, feeling they have done what they needed to do. According to the RAE (
2022), a responsible person is one who takes care and pays attention to what they do or decide. Some verbatim that reflect this characteristic are:
The nuns trusted me because I was very responsible. I was very hardworking. I also helped my mother a lot (….) I took care of my mother until her death, and then my husband… When my husband died, I took over the business (Subject 2, woman, 104 years old). When we returned to Spain (from Cuba), I was the one who worked and kept the family afloat. Castro kept our money, and my husband didn’t work (Subject 18, woman, 107 years old).
3.3) Perseverance, is the determination to do something to achieve an end (Duckworth,
2007). We find numerous examples that refer to this construct:
Four years ago, I broke my hip, and a month or so later I was already walking, without crutches, without a walker or anything. I’m very determined (Subject 6, woman, 101). We saved up (she and her daughter) until we got the down payment for a new apartment, and we left leaving my husband there. We did it in two years (Subject 9, woman, 102).
3.4) Honesty, referred to as authentic, trustworthy, reliable (Seligman,
2003). Numerous quotes lead us to this construct:
Then the man of the house said you’ll see, have the cook come to confirm what I’m saying. And I told the truth and I said, yes sir, you said you didn’t want women from the street working in your house as a maid, and I said she isn’t from the street, she didn’t do anything, and the other maids said, take that. And the man was so surprised that he said to me, well… I’m happy to have a person in the house I could go to court with” (Subject 4, woman, 102 years old). When it came time to do the accounts, I was never reproached for anything, never (Subject 16, man, 100 years old).
4) Control, under this description we have grouped the resources that involve action/influence from the subject on situations they face, as they understand they can have an influence on them. Control can thus be understood as a person’s conviction that they are able to influence the course of events (Kobasa,
1982). In this sense, from an in-depth discourse analysis of the interviews it is inferred that centenarians, in general, show: autonomy, environmental mastery, and practicality. 4.1) Autonomy, understood as independence of criterion (Ryff,
1989). In general, it is inferred from the centenarians’ discourse that they have made their own decisions, taken control of their own life, and directed it toward where they wanted to go. Some verbatim that reflect this are:
I’ve always followed my own judgment, even though others told me no, and time has proved me righ” (Subject 1, woman, 100 years old). I’ve always been completely independent. Plus, look, I had my car. My husband had his car, and I had mine (…). Yes, being independent is worth a lot (…) I drove until I was 99 years old, when my daughters forbade it, it’s that I’ve always been very independent and I didn’t want to depend on anyone to bring me somewhere and take me back (…) I always had to discuss, without asking for an opinion, but just discuss (Subject 11, woman, 102 years old).
4.2) Environmental mastery: the centenarians’ discourse reflects that throughout their life they have known how to organize, take advantage of the setting, and understand where the opportunities were and go after them. The centenarians’ way of acting coincides with the definition of this construct given by Ryff (
1989). For example:
I found out they needed a person to work in Washington at the press attaché’s home and I went, but I didn’t know the language or anything (Subject 4, woman, 102). I took charge of everything when my husband got sick and I had to face everything. I took over my husband’s business and took care of everything myself: the accounts, the banks, giving instructions to the men, everything (Subject 2, woman, 102 years old).
4.3) Practicality. Understood as thinking or acting by adapting to reality and normally pursuing a useful purpose (RAE,
2022). Some examples are:
My mother’s husband told me that, through his brother, who worked in the Ministry of Agriculture, they could place me in a laboratory with a permanent position, and since I played it safe, I thought it was fine, and I said, well, I’m going to study veterinary medicine. (….) In addition, we lived on Embajadores Street and the School of Veterinary Medicine was on the same street (Subject 5, woman, 100 years old). Referring to the end of the Spanish Civil War: When Franco came in everyone was with the Falange, and I, I’m telling you how I feel, I didn’t like the Falange because I was mourning my father, but my mother told me that all your friends are in the Falange and you’re alone, and nobody is going to feel the loss of your father more than I do, and I have to raise five children. And you go to the Falange, and my mother made me the blue shirt and everything, and I went to the Falange (Subject 14, woman, 104 years old).
5) Intellectually motivated: Referring to the pleasure of having an active mind, whether it is reading, playing cards, doing crossword puzzles or sudokus. Within this dimension we find resources such as: curiosity, love of learning and self-teaching.
5.1) Curiosity, understood as the zeal for knowing, traveling, being up-to-date (Peterson & Seligman,
2004). Some examples would be:
I started traveling with a friend after my husband died. I liked traveling a lot, but he didn’t. I was almost 80 years old, every year we went to a different place. We’ve been to Paris, Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Warsaw, Jerusalem, Turkey (Subject 5, woman, 100 years old). I’m up on what’s happening in the world. I voted in the last elections, and I know who the candidates were (Subject 7, woman, 102).
5.2) Love of learning. Refers to the interest in seeking to develop new skills, subjects and bodies of knowledge (Peterson & Seligman,
2004). It’s the joy of learning. Many of the centenarians interviewed are/have been voracious readers, with large collections of books. Even those who were unable to go to school learned to read and write on their own, which indicates a clear interest in learning, especially if we consider that when they were children illiteracy in Spain was 60% and this figure was even higher in the case of women and those born in rural areas (Collado,
2009). Therefore, being illiterate was fairly normalized. Moreover, they are aware of the importance of intellectual training, which is why many have fought to give their children university degrees, in some cases at the cost of great sacrifice. Some behaviors that reflect this construct are:
I’ve always read a lot, later I’ll show you my book collection (…). We came to live in Madrid so that my children could go to the University (Subject 7, woman, 102 years old). What I know, I learned in fits and starts, reading all the papers I could get my hands on, everything, because I liked to read as much as I could. A lot of times I was with the cattle and made the mistake of reading, reading, and they got into the planted field, and the guard came and said, ‘can’t you see where the sheep have gotten to, they’re eating what’s been planted’ (…) I’ve read everything I could. I’ve also written a lot (Subject 16, man, 100 years old).
5.3) Self-taught is the ability to learn new things on your own (RAE,
2022). Many of our centenarians have learned their trades on their own, without anyone teaching them. One of the centenarians, without having any training as a teacher, says:
My aunt set up a day care center and it had boys and girls. I taught the children how to read, I was about 18 years old (Subject 14, woman, 104 years old). I learned to sew alone, nobody taught me, they gave me a shirt and told me I had to make one just like it, and that’s how I learned (Subject 8, woman, 100 years old).
6) The sixth global construct we find is Positivity. Our centenarians are positive, but not in the sense of necessarily optimistic or joyful, but rather in the sense that they are grateful for life and who have known how to enjoy it despite the difficulties they have experienced. 6.1) Gratitude, as being aware and grateful for the good things that happen to you (Peterson & Seligman,
2004). For example:
Well, life has given me everything, thank God. It has given me disappointments, like losing relatives, but thank God I haven’t had a bad time (Subject 13, woman, 100 years old). I have a really good old age, I have very good sons-in-law, especially this one, and very good daughters also, all of them very good. Now is when I’m truly happy, enjoying life a little bit, being here (Subject 8, woman, 100 years old).
6.2) Enjoyment, the ability to identify and take advantage of the positive experiences that life offers you every day (Merino & Privado,
2015). Some examples would be:
I’ve always had a good life, thank God. Thank God, everything has always gone well (….) I loved enjoying the day with my husband (Subject 15, woman, 105 years old). I’ve lived my family life very intensely, as a mother, as a woman, I don’t know… I’ve always had a very full life (Subject 11, woman, 102 years old).
7) Resilience. Understood as the capacity to overcome adversity, and to even be strengthened by the experience (Rutter,
1985). The centenarians interviewed are remarkably resilient. The stories they tell reflect extremely difficult episodes in their life, such as: separation of parents during childhood, abusive husbands, loss of partner or even children, being locked in a room at the retirement home because of COVID-19, etc. This is in addition to the Spanish Civil War, which all of them lived at the end of their adolescence or in young adulthood. Despite all this, the centenarians have known how to get on with their lives, in some cases to redirect them and, above all, to not be psychologically damaged by the experience of adversity. Some examples are:
In the face of life’s difficulties, I haven’t given up, I’ve gone on as much as I could. I’ve learned to react to whatever comes your way, straight away I’ve got through it, and I’ve known how to respond (Subject 1, woman, 100 years old). I was very close to my wife; I was 97 years old when she died and my daughter didn’t think I’d get over it. At first, I was bad off, but then I thought that you only live once and you have to be strong, that my wife wouldn’t like to see me feeling bad (Subject 12, man, 101 years old).
8) Finally, to add as a central resource, intelligence. Intelligence is a general cognitive ability that allows us to think abstractly, reason, plan, successfully solve problems, learn quickly (Gottfredson,
1997); it is a transversal ability that permeates other psychological resources. Many of the behaviors of centenarians lead us to intelligence, for example: they have successful academic and professional results, are self-taught, are problem-solvers, they take on challenges even though they are not specifically trained and succeed, they love to learn and are curious, their conversation is fast, agile, and they have a good memory, they at least know to read and write even without having gone to school, and they have been able to adapt and direct their lives toward paths they find satisfying. For all these reasons, we would like to add that centenarians are intelligent people. Not for nothing, intelligence is one of the best predictors of longevity (Gottfredson & Deary,
2004). Some examples:
In school, outstanding in everything. What I liked most was math and history. The nuns took me up to the board for me to solve the problems (Subject 2, woman, 104 years old). For 20 years I was president of the Chamber of Agriculture (never had specific training) (Subject 16, man, 100 years old). My mother (baker) always asked me to put the bread in the oven because I could fit more loaves in (Subject 13, woman, 100 years old). I was always a very good student. During the war I became a teacher (although I didn’t have the qualification), I taught many children (Subject 14, woman, 104 years old).
In addition to these positive personality characteristics that we consider central, we found other resources in the analyses of the different interviews that, as we pointed out at the beginning, we call peripherals, because they reflected individual differences. That is, they were present in some interviews but not in others, and sometimes they even appeared conversely. For example, we found that some centenarians are assertive and defend their rights clearly. Nevertheless, others are accommodating. That is, they adapt to whatever, shying away from conflict. The same happens with religiosity. Some declare themselves very religious and practitioners of the Catholic faith, while others claim to be agnostic, and others openly declare themselves atheist. Just as with emotional calm or tranquility, some claim to be tranquil while others claim to have always been very nervous. In total we found 16 peripheral resources: confident, frank/clear, calm, self-esteem, cheerful, religious, assertive, flexible, tolerant, courageous, sense of humor, optimistic, creative, accommodating, dominant, innovative. Finally, it is necessary to point out that the results of this research reflect that psychological resources do not significantly change over time. The work of Lautenschlager and Förstl (
2007) notes that significant changes in personality during old age should be taken as a possible sign of some sort of dementia syndrome. In this sense, the stability in resources found in this study could be consistent with the fact that one of the requirements for selection in the sample was to have retained their cognitive abilities and not suffer from any type of dementia. Nevertheless, future studies should delve deeper into this question in the specific case of psychological resources.
3.3 Discussion
Some of the psychological resources identified as central are consistent with previous studies. This is the case of: activity, participation, sociability, warm bonds with others, competence, responsibility, love of learning and resilience (Puga,
2007; Poulain & Herm,
2021; Martin et al.,
2006; Masui et al.,
2006; Givens et al.,
2010; Baek et al.,
2016; Scelzo et al.,
2018; Martin et al.,
2010; Darviri et al.,
2009; Hutnik et al.,
2012). Others are novel because, as far as we know, we do not find them in other research. This is the case of: altruism, perseverance, honesty, autonomy, environmental mastery, practicality, curiosity, self-learning, gratitude, enjoyment, and intelligence. In addition, 16 peripheral resources were identified, product of individual differences: self-confidence, frank/clear, calm/tranquility, self-esteem, cheerful, religiosity, assertiveness, flexibility, tolerance, courage, humor, optimism, creativity, accommodation, dominance and innovation. Of them, as they are not concordant with other studies, the following especially caught our attention: religiosity, calm/tranquility, cheerful and optimism. Different studies (Puga,
2007; Poulain & Herm,
2021; Scelzo et al.,
2018) confirm that faith is one of the key points of centenarians. However, we find that religiosity and faith form part of individual differences. We find that there are centenarians who claim to have deep faith and be very religious, while others state they are agnostic or atheist. We consider religiosity to have a cultural component, a product of the era in which centenarians have lived. Thus, we found that those who declare themselves ideologically right-wing and who during the Spanish Civil War supported, directly or indirectly, the Nationalists are practicing Catholics. But those ideologically more left-wing, and who directly or indirectly supported the Republicans, claim to be agnostic or atheist. With regard to calm or tranquility, surprisingly some centenarians declare themselves very tranquil, textually “nothing upsets me,” while others claim they are and have always been very nervous. These results contradict what you would expect, and in fact emotional stability, measured through the Big Five model, appears as a typical characteristic of healthy centenarians (Martin et al.,
2006; Masui et al.,
2006; Givens et al.,
2010; Baek et al.,
2016). However, it is interesting to note that, according to our data, there is no clear pattern in this respect. Nor do we find that the centenarians are necessarily optimistic or cheerful, as stated in other studies (Puga,
2007; Scelzo et al.,
2018; Poulain & Herm,
2021). However, they are indeed positive, but in the sense of grateful and with the ability to enjoy the little things that life offers every day. In addition, it is generally true they are satisfied with their lives, and this characteristic is in fact shown in other studies (Puga,
2007; Scelzo et al.,
2018; Poulain & Herm,
2021).