✅ Topic 3: Personality And Health Flashcards
1
Q
What are the 4 potential pathways between Personality and Health?
A
- Direct Causation: Personality trait -> Health
- Correlational: Factor X -> Personality trait & Health
- Causal chain: Personality trait -> Behaviour -> Health
- Somatogenic: Health -> Personality trait
2
Q
What is meant by ‘Disease-Prone’ personality types? (comparing between Type A and B
A
- Study Aim: investigate personality type that predict cardiovascular diseases (CVD)
- Personality Type:
- Type A: competitive, ambitious, aggressive, anger, hostillity
- Type B: uninterested in power and achievement, relaxed - How to measure type A:
- ‘Challenging’ interview: anger & hostility ONLY
- Self-report Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS): broader range of components. - Result:
- Large-scale studies: inconsistent findings.
- Meta-analyses: significant but modest effect of Type A on CVD
- Inconsistencies in personality assessments used => different results - How can type A causes CVD?
- Anger & Hostility components are significantly associated with CVD cases & prognosis (TOXIC)
- Associated with reactivity to stress -> health
3
Q
What are other ‘Disease-Prone’ Personality Types?
A
- Cancer-Prone (Type C):
- High E and Low N
- Suppressed emotions
- Result: little convincing evidence (no link between E or N in a 30,000 cohort over 25yrs)
- Issues: ‘questionable’ studies (ethical issues) - Distressed (Type D):
- Depressed and Socially inhibited
- Result: poorer recovery from heart attack and increased risk of future heart problems.
=> Conclusion: better to look at Traits than Personality Types
4
Q
What is the effect of conscientiousness (C) on health (longevity)?
A
- Clear link between C and longevity => High C associated with fewer daily stressors and better coping
- Most support for causal behavioural chain mechanism.
- Example: C traits (e.g. competence, self-discipline, deliberation) -> healthy behaviours (e.g. regular exercise, diet, low/no smoking & substance abuse) -> increased longevity - Potential causal biological chain mechanism
- Example: C -> better coping mechanisms -> lower interleukin-6 (stress-related hormone) and increased longevity
5
Q
What is the effect of neuroticism (N) on health (longevity)?
A
- Argued to be of ‘general public health significance’
- Example: N traits (anxiety, angry hostility, depression) -> bad health behaviours -> reduced longevity
- BUT Confounds! SES & inconsistent results - Healthy vs Unhealthy Neuroticism:
- ‘Healthy’ N traits (e.g. high anxiety but low depression and vulnerability) -> engagement in preventative behaviours -> increased longevity
6
Q
What is the effect of extraversion (E) on health (longevity)?
A
- Mixed results for extraversion (depends on different effects of specific facets)
- Good facets (warmth, activity, sociability):
- Increased immune functioning
- More social ties/social suppport (against stress)
- Active and engaged life
=> Increased longevity - Bad facets (excitement-seeking/impulsivity):
- Associated with addictive behaviours
- High E associated with increased mortality, which is partly explained by smoking - Example study: Gorillas
- Gorillas are rated on Gorilla Behaviour Index
- High E gorillas: more active, playful and sociable
- Examine personality predictor of survival
- Controlled for: age, sex, rearing conditions
- Results: high E associated with lower mortality and increased longevity
- Implication: high E associated with higher immune functioning, stronger social ties/support, and low CVD (low stress)
=> May suggest evolutionary significance
7
Q
What is the effect of openness to experience (O) on health (longevity)?
A
- Good evidence for positive association with longevity but unclear mechanism
- Suggested mechanism: O traits (novelty, cognitively & behaviourally flexible) -> cognitive and educational activities -> Health decision making & ‘Cognitive reserve’ -> Increased longevity
8
Q
What is the effects of health on personality?
A
Examined very/extreme low birth weight (V/E LBW) associated with personality traits:
- Results;
- Lower E and O
- Higher N, A, C
=> Higher ‘Cautiousness’ - Potential mechanisms:
- Extra-uterine brain development
- Subsequent illness
- Higher parental monitoring and behavioural restrictions (safety)
Examined Personality change associated with chronic diseases. Results:
- Lower E, higher N, lower C and lower O, with increasing no. of chronic diseases
- A traits remains similar
9
Q
What is the 5 Ts model proposed Hagger-Johnson & Pollard Whiteman?
A
- Targeting campaigns to personality traits.
- Tailoring interventions to personality profiles
- Personality ‘Training’ (more resilience)
- ‘Treatment’ of personality (behaviours)
- (recording) Transformation
=> Utilise from the Personality traits - Health knowledge
10
Q
What is the Diathesis-Stress model?
A
- Definition:
- Diathesis: inherent vulnerability of developing an illness
- Stress: increase the risk of developing an illness - Why is this important?
- Many potential relationships between diathesis and risk levels
- Complicated (unlikely to be simply additive) - Why are personality diatheses difficult?
- Could be several diatheses per disorders
- Many confounds (e.g. culture, age, gene, SES)
- There maybe protective factors (e.g. social support, self-esteem, personality trait M)
- The Specific Vulnerability Hypothesis: certain personality traits makes individuals suffer more for one stressor and vice versa)
11
Q
What are the non-personality diatheses of depression?
A
- Several non-personality diatheses:
- Female gender
- Relative with depression
- Death of parent in childhood
- Lack of social support - Reactive to stressors (to events): e.g. divorce, unemployment, physical illness, etc.
12
Q
What are the personality diatheses of depression? How is SVH related to these personality types?
A
- High autonomy:
- Compulsive self-reliance
- Aversion to being dependant on others
- SVH: sensitive to indicators of personal failure - High dependency:
- Anxious attachment
- Exaggerated need for others’ guidance, nurturance and approval
- Fears separation & abandonment
- SVH: sensitive to events related to interpersonal conflicts, loss, rejection and separation. - Self-critical personality type:
- Hold unreasonably high standards for self
- Prone to punishing self-evaluations
- SVH: sensitive to negative life events one feels responsible for (e.g. accidents) - Pessimism personality type:
- Explain negative events according to stable and global causes
- Feel unable to avoid negative events
- SVH: sensitive to negative life events that could be attributed to stable/global causes (e.g. failure)
13
Q
How is SVH related to each personality diatheses of depression?
A
- Predicted Domain-Congruent Stressors (PDCS)
- situation that can worsen/increase risk of depression onset
- Certain personality types with PDSC won’t have depression onset if expose to non-related domains - What are the results for this SVH hypothesis?
- Mixed results
- Three possible causes for inconsistencies:
+ Little focus on other risk and protective factors
+ Too much focus on individual stress level relative to group (changes > stats)
+ Research cannot classify stressful events for each individual (interpretation differences)
14
Q
Describe a study that explains the mixed results seen in the personality diatheses of depression and SVH domains? (hint: children)
A
- Aim: looking at 140 children with current/past depressed parent, on the:
- Ability of dependency and self-criticism to predict depression
- Effect of increased amount of total stress
- Effect of self-esteem as protective factor - Method: measure personality types + protective factor using self-report
- children’s depressive experiences questionnaire
- self-esteem questionnaire
- children’s depression inventory (CDI)
- children’s hassles scale (CHS)
- Repeated measure for CDI and CHS every 6 week for a year - Result:
- No evidence of self-criticism as a diathesis
- Diathesis-stress effects apparent for high dependency
- High dependency acts as a diathesis, but is buffered by protective effects of self-esteem.
15
Q
What is the personality diathesis (schizotypy) model of schizophrenia? Describe a study supporting this model?
A
- Biological model based on Meehl:
- DNA (52 genes) causing CNS abnormalities (Schizotaxia) -> manifested as Schizotypy
- Combined external factors (e.g. stressors + traits) -> developing schizophrenia/schizotypic disorders - Supporting study
- 10-year longitudinal study tested for schizotypy using the Winconsin Schizotypy Scales (WSS)
- Positive schizotypy (perceptual aberration and magical ideation)
- Negative schizotypy (physical and social anhedonia)
- Results: people that scored high for positive and negative schizotypy later develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders - Specific vulnerabilities: Positive schizotypy experiencing chaotic environment stressors & Negative schizotypy experiencing birth complications stressors
=> Schizophrenia spectrum disorders
