 37. Personality and Health 785
size of the relations between personality and 
health, just as there are limits on the abil -
ity of personality alone to predict behavior. 
These limitations and complexity do not 
mean that personality is unimportant or of 
minor significance in predicting or improv -
ing health. On the contrary, because mod -
ern notions of personality are well suited to 
capturing complex and ongoing biopsycho -
social processes relevant to health, personal -
ity may prove more valuable than traditional 
but relatively static measures, including tra -
ditional biological measures (e.g., serum 
cholesterol), demographic measures (e.g., 
ethnicity), social measures (e.g., marriage 
status), or psychopathology measures (e.g., 
depression).
All in all, the field of personality and 
health is thriving, with striking conceptual 
and methodological development guided 
by the significant progress already made by 
personality psychology. Our own research 
has involved interdisciplinary teams, which 
are often key to solid progress.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Howard S. Friedman’s contribution was sup -
ported in part by Grant Nos. R01 AG08825 and 
AG027001 from the National Institute on Aging. 
Sarah E. Hampson’s contribution to the prepa -
ration of this chapter was supported in part by 
Grant No. R01 AG020048 from the National 
Institute on Aging.
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