Personality & Stress Flashcards
What is the importance of individual differences in the stress process?
Any external event can be a stressor, it’s just each persons appraisal and perception of the external event will determine the impact of stress on them
What are trait descriptive adjectives?
used to describe the characteristics of people
What are the three factors of personality?
1) Organized 2) Relatively Enduring 3) Influence the individual’s interactions with, and adaptations to, the intra-psychic, and physical and social environments”
What is the difference between psychological traits and current state?
Psychological traits describe how people generally are in a stable and consistent way, unlike current states, some traits are only activated during that specific state due to overpower.
What are the three advantages that we can get from using psychological traits?
- Describe people
- Explain behaviours
- Predict future behaviours
How do we conceptualize traits? (explain introversion + extraversion example)
Traits exist as dimensions rather than categories > people can be both introverted and extraverted. If there were categories, it wouldn’t make sense, because some people can be both extraverted, but have completely different scores off of the cutoff of being an introvert.
What are the 5 big personality dimensions? (ACONE)
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion
3 traits of Openness
imaginative, curious, creative
3 traits of conscientiousness
competence, organized, thorough
3 traits of Extraversion
warmth, talkative, excited
3 traits of Agreeableness
trusting, kind, compliant
3 traits of Neuroticism
anxiety, hostility, depression
What is the Interactional Model of the Personality-Illness Connection? and what was the issue with it?
Objective events happen, but personality determines their impact by influencing (moderating) our abilities to cope; Researchers were unable to identify stable coping responses that were consistently adaptive/maladaptive
What is the Transactional Model of the Personality-Illness Connection?
There is a reciprocal influence between personality and events; personality effects 3 things 1) coping 2) appraisal 3) events themselves
What is the Health Behaviour Model of the Personality-Illness Connection?
Personality affects health indirectly, through health-promoting/degrading behaviours
What is mediation?
The effect of one variable on another due to a third variable.
What is the Predisposition Model of the Personality-Illness Connection?
Associations exist b/w personality and illness b/c of a third variable that is influencing both (ex: physiological responsiveness)
What is the Illness Behaviour Model of the Personality-Illness Connection? and What Big 5 Personality is associated with this>
When personality influences the degree of perception on bodily sensations as illness; Neuroticism
Which Personality-Illness model is most ideal?
None, as all of them are quite mutually exclusive, depends on sitatuation
What are some consequences of having high neuroticism?
1) lower tolerance 2) negative emotions 3) negative affect 4) ineffective coping 5) lower happiness, life satisfaction & positive affect
Low extraversion & high neuroticism = ?
Less responsive, higher levels of positive affect
High conscientiousness = ?
reduced levels of perceived stress, more problem-focused coping
Extraversion & conscientiousness = ?
Resilience
High openness = ?
Reduced stress
High agreeableness = ?
Self-compassion
What are the 3 sub traits of the Type A personality?
1) Competitive achievement motivation 2) Time urgency 3) Hostility
What is the non-hostile Type A behaviour pattern?
- not prone to illness and is a “healthy”/positive version of Type A
What part of the Type A personality is a strong predictor of CVD?
Hostility
What part of the Type A personality is a strong predictor of CVD?
Hostility
What are the two sub-traits of the Type D personality? and what three consequences is it associated with?
1) Negative Affectivity 2) Social inhibition; 1) depression 2) anxiety 3) chronic stress
How does the Type D personality increase the risk for CVD
disturbances in brain’s stress response; exaggerated stress response with higher levels of cortisol, health behaviours and low social support
What are the three cognitive elements of the Hardy Personality towards stress?
1) Control
2) Challenge
3) Commitment
- perceive stress + challenge as not threatening
How is resilience associated with stress?
High resilience = high self-esteem/optimism = faster and effective recovery
High neuroticism, low extraversion, low agreeableness, low conscientiousness, and low openness
Less effective coping
High neuroticism = ?
Greater variety of unsuccessful coping strategies over time
High conscientiousness
More active and problem-focused coping
High extraversion and agreeableness = ?
More likely to use social support during stress, seek support, and display higher positive reappraisal
Higher openness
associated with positive reappraisal & use of humour during stress
What is high positive appraisal?
a positive coping strategy in which one focuses on the good in what is happening/has happened
Optimism, extraversion, conscientiousness & openness + stress = ?
Engagement coping = dealing directly with a stressor
Neuroticism + stress = ?
Disengagement coping = escaping & avoiding the stressor
