Personality & Health: Models Of Association

Question 1

Four broad causal models have been advanced to explain associations between personality and physical health. These are?

Answer 1

1. Transactional stress-moderation model
2. Health behaviour model
3. Structural weaknesses model
4. Illness behaviour model

Question 2

For the most part, the 4 causal models used to explain the associations between personality and health, although discussed separately they should not be ….?

Answer 2

Thought of as mutually exclusive.
They may in fact operate synergistically to affect health.

Question 3

Within the context of the transactional stress model, Lazarus & Folkman argue that personality constructs ….. ?

Answer 3

May moderate stress induced physiological arousal and therefore illness via 3 different pathways.

Question 4

Locate the Alpha press and the Beta press within the transaction stress model.

Answer 4

Alpha press = objective qualities of the situation
Beta press = cognitive appraisal

Question 5

Lazarus & Folkman argue that personality may alter the subjective cognitive appraisal of ongoing life experiences. Provide an example.

Answer 5

Neurotic individuals tend to appraise neutral or ambiguous situations as more threatening and less manageable.

Question 6

How do the transactional stress model and a transactional stress moderation model differ?

Answer 6

The transactional stress moderation model brings in the construct of personality and thus its potential for moderating the;
Objective qualities of the situation
Cognitive appraisal
Coping strategies

Question 7

According to Lazarus & Folkman, personality may influence the availability, choice, or effectiveness of one’s coping strategies and social resources. Provide an example.

Answer 7

Neuroticism is routinely associated with coping strategies that are ineffective or do not match the adaptive demands of a given stressor.

Question 8

Lazarus & Folkman note that people can actively create or select different types of situations as a function of their personality. Provide an example.

Answer 8

Neuroticism has been prospectively associated with higher exposure to stressful situations and interpersonal conflict.

Question 9

Taking into account both Lazarus’s model and Selye’s model, finish this passage (explaining the pathway from appraisal to illness).
If an individual perceives a situation as threatening, this is likely to …………..?

Answer 9

Trigger Selye’s Biological Stress Reaction. According to Selye, physiological arousal levels rise, and when the physiological arousal levels are chronically high & raised for an extended period, this result in an adverse impact on health. Thus leading to a greater potential for illness.

Question 10

Lazarus & Folkman ague that personality constructs may moderate stress induced physiological arousal, & therefore illness by three different pathways. Describe the 1st pathway.

Answer 10

The first pathway being the individual’s appraisal of the situation. Lazarus & Folkman argue that personally may alter the subjective appraisal of ongoing life experiences. For example, neurotic individuals have been found to appraise neutral or ambiguous situations as threatening & less manageable. Thus more likely to trigger Selye’s Biological Stress Reaction, raise physiological arousal & increase vulnerability to illness.

Question 11

Describe the 2nd pathway moderated by personality as identified by Lazarus & Folkman.

Answer 11

The second pathway identified by Lazarus & Folkman is coping. According to Lazarus & Folkman, personality may influence the availability /choice for effectiveness of one’s coping strategies & social resources. For example, neuroticism is routinely associated with coping strategies that are ineffective or at a mismatch with the demands of the given stressor.
So neurotic individuals more likely to feel low self-efficacy, that they can’t cope with the perceived demands of a situation, and more likely to raise physiological arousal levels to chronic levels for an extended duration of time, thus leading to a greater potential for illness.

Question 12

For the Transactional stress moderation model to be considered fully transactional, what pathway (3rd pathway) must be accounted for?

Answer 12

The fully transactional model will consider how the personality influences the objective features of the situation.

Question 13

The 3rd pathway helping to explain the moderating process of personality constructs on stress induced physiological arousal is bidirectional. Explain the bidirectional processes.

Answer 13

People can actively create or select different types of situations as a function of their personality. Individuals high on neuroticism are more likely to in the future find themselves in situations involving interpersonal conflict & more likely to trigger stress responses.

On the other hand, the environment/objective qualities of the situation can come to shape personality. An individual who is constantly exposed to adverse situations for instance, may lead overtime to greater emotional instability.

Question 14

Transactional stress moderation model: Although neuroticism is the most salient personality dimension for stress reactions, what personality construct has attracted the most research within a stress-moderation framework?

Answer 14

Hostility

Question 15

The interest in hostility grew out of earlier work on the what & who by?

Answer 15

Type A personality
Developed by cardiologists Friedman & Rosenman.

Question 16

Finish this sentence,
Friedman & Rosenman observed that patients who had heart attacks often seemed ….. ?

Patients who suffered coronary heart disease were more likely to have ……?

Answer 16

To have different personalities, when compared with other patients.

Type A personality.

Question 17

3 narrow personality traits came to define the coronary prone Tyoe A personality. These traits are?

Answer 17

1. Am easily aroused hostility
2. An excessive competitive drive
3. A habitual sense of time urgency

Question 18

How is the Type A personality classified at the dimensional level?

Answer 18

A combination of high Neuroticism and high Extraversion.
The choleric temperament.

Question 19

The Western Collaborative Group Study pioneered research on the Type A concept with a prospective investigation of coronary heart disease incidence in 3154 initially healthy men. What was the overall outcome?

Answer 19

Rosenman et al found that the risk posed by Type A personality was comparable with more traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease such as age, weight, family history of heart disease, smoking habits, cholesterol level and blood pressure.
Moreover, the association between coronary heart disease and Type A Personality was found to be independent of these traditional risk factors.

Question 20

Transactional Stress Moderation Model: Did subsequent prospective research confirm the findings by Rosenman et al?

Answer 20

Subsequently research only partially confirmed the findings by Rosenman et al.
Overall, it was found that only the trait “an easily aroused hostility” predicted coronary heart disease - even in a re-examination of the data from the Western Collaborative Group Study.

Question 21

One of the most frequently cited studies to have examined the association between hostility and coronary heart disease is that of who?

Answer 21

Barefoot et al (1983)

Question 22

The relationship between hostility and coronary heart disease by Barefoot et al (1983) included:
- How many participants
- from which university
- completion of which index
- mortality monitored for how long

Answer 22

• 255 male students from the university of North Carolina
• Cook-Medley Hostility Index (Ho)
• administered the Ho in 1955 and all cause mortality monitored for the next 25 years.

Question 23

Findings by Barefoot et al included: over the 25 year period, participants who had scored above the median on hostility (Ho greater than or equal to 14) had …. ?

Answer 23

5 times the incidence of clinical coronary heart disease as those who scored below the median (Ho < 14).

Question 24

Findings by Barefoot et al included: hostility scored predicted….. ?

Answer 24

All cause mortality over the 25 year period.

Question 25

Transactional Stress Moderation Model: a meta analysis by Myrtek (2007) which focused exclusively on prospective studies, suggests a somewhat weaker relationship between hostility and coronary heart disease. What does Myrtek attribute this weak association to?

Answer 25

The health behaviours of hostile individuals rather than to the biological stress response and over-arousal.
- hostility has been shown to predict cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, alcohol use, lack of exercise, excessive calorie intake and low SES.

Question 26

The Health Behaviour Model hypothesise that personality affects health by ….. ?

Answer 26

Influencing one’s engagement in health damaging or health enhancing behaviours.

Question 27

According to the Health Behaviour Model, what are some examples of health damaging behaviours?

Answer 27

Eating too much fat, drug use, practicing unsafe sex .. etc

Question 28

According to the Health Behaviour Model, what are some examples of health enhancing behaviours?

Answer 28

High fibre diet, regular exercise, adherence to medical advice etc

Question 29

Health Behaviour Model: it is argued that personality may affect health behaviours either directly or indirectly as a consequence of coping style. How does personality directly affect health behaviours?

Answer 29

Personality may shape a person’s belief system around the importance of health and healthy behaviours, or shape a person’s belief in the risks associated with negative behaviours.

Question 30

Health Behaviour Model: it is argued that personality may affect health behaviours either directly or indirectly as a consequence of coping style. How does personality indirectly affect health behaviours?

Answer 30

The Health Behaviour Model may align with the Transactional Stress Moderation Model - health behaviours, with positive or negative may be a result of how an individual copes with stress.
- Neurotic individuals are more likely to report using behaviours such as alcohol consumption to cope with stress.

Question 31

What dimension has emerged as the most consistent personality predictor of health related behaviours?

Answer 31

Conscientiousness

Question 32

Why is the consistently found relationship between conscientiousness and health related behaviours not surprising ?

Answer 32

Conscientiousness is defined in terms of individual differences in the propensity to follow socially prescribed norms for impulse control, to be task and goal directed, to be plan oriented, to delay gratification, and to follow norms and rules.

Question 33

Neuroticism and Extraversion have also been found to predict health behaviours but with inconsistent findings. Explain.

Answer 33

It has been reported that the inconsistencies can be explained better if attention is given to Extraversion & Neuroticism in combination with conscientiousness.
More likely to smoke - high in extraversion or high in neuroticism (or both) and low in conscientiousness.
Least likely to smoke - High in conscientiousness and low in extraversion regardless of Neuroticism levels.

Question 34

The structural weaknesses model posits that associations between personality and health …… ?

Answer 34

Occur because a biological structure (a structure shaped by genetic and environmental factors) influences both vulnerability to illness and the expression of the trait.

Question 35

Like the transactional stress moderation model the structural weakness model holds that individuals high on neuroticism are prone to stress. However, this conclusion is arrived at by completely different means. Explain,

Answer 35

In the framework of structural weaknesses model, neuroticism does not moderate appraisal or coping style to cause changes in automatic activation.
Rather neuroticism is nearly a market for an underlying biological vulnerability (an automatic nervous system that is highly reactive to situations that involve demand).

Question 36

The Illness Behaviour Model is not a model of illness per de but, rather, …. ?

Answer 36

A model of illness behaviour.
- behaviours like reporting symptoms, seeing a physician, taking medication etc.

Question 37

Illness behaviour is a self regulatory process crucial ….?

Answer 37

To effective illness management.

Question 38

The illness behaviour model holds that personality influences the …?

Answer 38

Degree to which a person perceives and labels bodily sensations as illness.

Question 39

Why was the illness behaviour model developed?

Answer 39

To highlight the dangers of relying on subjective health symptoms to measure health status rather than objective health outcomes.

Question 40

Costa & McCrae argue there is now growing consensus around the problem of neurotic artefact in health psychology research. What is neurotic artefact?

Answer 40

The illness behaviour of neurotic individuals (complaint prone) creates a selection bias influencing who seeks medical care or who receives a diagnosis.

Question 41

While neurotic artefact may be a problem in health psychology research, hard evidence from prospective studies exist linking neuroticism to objective health endpoints. For example, after controlling for traditional risk factors like smoking, alcohol consumption etc. neuroticism was linked with a increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
What model helps to explain this example? The Health Behaviour Model or the Biological Stress Response Model?

Answer 41

The biological stress response model as unhealthy behaviours were controlled for.