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Personality & Individual Differences 21042 > Topic 3: Personality & Mental Health > Flashcards

Topic 3: Personality & Mental Health Flashcards

1
Q

How does conscientiousness effect survival rate for ‘Medicare’ aged 65-100 years?

A

More conscientious = higher rate of survival.

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2
Q

What are the 4 pathways for explanations of the relationships between health and personality?

A

Direct causation.
Correlational.
Casual chain.
Somatogenic.

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3
Q

What is direct causation?

(Think Health)

A

Direct biological link between personality and health.

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4
Q

What is correlational cause of health problems?

A

Personality trait itself is not causing the exact health output. E.g., something genetic. This gene causes an aspect of the personality and this gene also causes health problems.

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5
Q

What is a casual chain?

A

Personality causes behavioural patterns and these behavioural patterns are linked to health. E.g., linked to more likely to engage in risky behaviours.

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6
Q

What are the somatogenic causes of personality traits?

A

Aspects of health cause the changes in personality e.g., brain damage.

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7
Q

What did Friedman and Rosenman (1959) discover?

About CVD and Personality

A

Personality factors can predict cardiovascular diseases.
They found that whether an individual was type A or type B personality determined their risk for developing CVD.

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8
Q

What are some type A personality characteristics? (7)

A

Competitive, ambitious, driven, impatient, aggressive, anger, hostility.

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9
Q

What are some of the type B personality characteristics?

A

Takes life as it comes, uninterested in power and achievement, relaxed.

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10
Q

What were the limitations of the original interview based measure to measure type A personality?

A

Mainly captured anger + hostility components rather than the other features.

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11
Q

What was the ‘Jenkins Activity Survey’ (Jenkins, Zyzanski + Rosenman, 1979)?

A

Covers a broad range of components, better measurement of the type A personality.

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12
Q

What did Maltby, day and Macaskill (2017) identify about Type A personality and CVD risk?

A

Large, longitudinal, epidemiological studies: inconsistent findings. (Mainly with men).
Meta-analyses:
* A significant but modest effect of Type A on CVD
* Differences in results related to inconsistencies in personality assessments used.

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13
Q

What were the three separable components of Type A personality?

A

Competitively striving for achievement, sense of urgency, hostility (toxic component).

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14
Q

What did Chida and Steptoe (2009) discover from their meta-analysis related to anger and hostility?

A

Anger and hostility are significantly associated with heart disease incidence and prognosis.

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15
Q

How is hostility linked to CVD?

A

Direct causation: higher levels of hostility means higher reactivity to stress and therefore more likely to cause health problems.

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16
Q

What is type C personality? What are the limitations?

A

Cancer prone.
Kissen + Eysenck (1962): high E and low N, therefore suppresses and represses emotions.
Limitations: little convincing evidence from prospective studies. E.g., Hansen et al (2005), no link between E or N in a cohort of around 30,000 followed for over 25 years.
Much of Eysenck’s work on this topic was considered questionable.

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17
Q

What is type D personality?

A

Depressed and socially inhibited. Denollet (2000): poorer recovery from heart attack and increased risk of future heart problems.

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18
Q

What did Chapman, Roberts and Duberstein (2011) identify regarding the relationship between conscientiousness and longevity and what did this support?

A

Clear link between conscientiousness and longevity.

Most support for casual behavioural chain mechanism.

Potential casual biological chain mechanism.

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19
Q

What coping mechanisms does high conscientiousness lead to?

A

Regular exercise, healthy diet, low levels of smoking + alcohol/substance abuse. This all leads to increased longevity.

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20
Q

What is the link between lower interleukin-6 and health?

A

High levels of conscientiousness lead to lower interleukin-6 that then. High levels of this are seen to cause an increased stress response which therefore causes health problems, therefore decreased levels of this cause decreased stress and therefore less health problems.

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21
Q

What did O’Connor et al., (2009) find about the associations between high conscientiousness and stress?

A

High conscientiousness associated with fewer daily stressors and better coping.
People who are high in conscientiousness are likely to be more organised and therefore less likely to have daily stressors and therefore will be better at coping as they are more organised.
They also are more likely to have productive, helpful coping mechanisms. So therefore they are more likely to experience less stressors and when they do experience them, they are likely to be able cope with them better.

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22
Q

What did Chapman, Roberts + Duberstein (2011) discover about neuroticism and health?

A

They found that high levels of neuroticism (e.g., high anxiety, high vulnerability, angry hostility, self-consciousness, depression and impulsiveness) leads to effects on exercise, diet, smoking etc. This therefore leads to reduced longevity.

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23
Q

What are the limitations to Chapman, Roberts + Duberstein (2011) discoveries about neuroticism and health? (4)

A

Some confounding of socio-economic status (SES).
Some inconsistent results.
Low SES environment could be more of a problem, in the sense that it causes high levels of neuroticism and reduced longevity.
The inconsistent results suggested that there was some benefits to longevity rather than reducing it.

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24
Q

What did Friedman (2000) discover?

Types of Neuroticism

A

Healthy vs unhealthy neuroticism.
‘Healthy’ Neuroticism = high anxiety but low depression and vulnerability, therefore engagement in preventative behaviours and therefore increased longevity.

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25
Q

What did Chapman, Roberts and Duberstein (2011) discover about the links between extraversion and health problems?

A
  • Mixed results for extraversion.
  • Different effects for specific facets.
  • Positive associations between E and mortality partly explained by smoking.
  • Excitement-seeking/impulsivity with destructive addictive behaviours.
  • But, also evidence for protective effects of extraversion.
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26
Q

What did Ploubidis + Grundy (2009) discover about extraversion and mortality?

A
  • 9003 people completed EPI.
  • 5755 followed up 20 years later.
  • Higher E associated with increased mortality.
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27
Q

What did Weiss et al. (2012) find some evidence for?

(hint - extraversion)

A

Higher levels of extraversion lead to more social ties/social support (buffer against stress).

Active and engaged life leading to increased longevity.

We do not know whether this is a direct effect.

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28
Q

What did Weiss et al. (2012) do with extraverted gorillas?

A
  • Personality ratings of 283 captive Western Mountain Gorillas.
  • Rated on ‘Gorilla Behavior Index’ (Gold & Maple, 1994) in 1993.
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29
Q

What is characterises extraversion for gorillas?

A
  • Active: moves a lot.
  • Playful: initiates play and joins in when play is solicited.
  • Sociable: seeks companionship of others.
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30
Q

What is dominance for gorillas?

A
  • Strong: depends on sturdiness and muscular strength.
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31
Q

What is fearfulness for gorillas?

A

Analagous to neuroticism in humans.
* Insecure: hesitates to act alone.

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32
Q

What is understanding for gorillas?

A

Analogous to agreeableness in humans.
* Protective: prevents harm or possible harm to others.

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33
Q

What was the mean age, how many had died and what did they control for in the gorilla extraversion experiment?

A
  • Mean age 16.5 yrs at baseline.
  • 119 died by 2011 follow-up.
  • Examined personality predictors of survival.
    Controlled for:
  • Age.
  • Sex.
  • Captivity vs wild born.
  • No. of previous transfers.
34
Q

What were the findings from the Weiss et al. (2012) gorilla experiment?

A

They only found that extraversion predicted survival. High levels of extraversion = higher survival rates and longer periods of survival.

35
Q

Why might higher levels of extraversion improve survival for gorillas?

A
  • Improved immune functioning.
  • Stronger social ties/support.
  • Lower cardiovascular disease.
    Suggests that the protective effects (in evolutionary terms) go back a long time and provide a benefit in evolutionary terms.
36
Q

What did Chapman, Roberts and Duberstein (2011) suggest about the link between openness to experience and longevity?

A
  • Good evidence for positive association with longevity.
  • Mechanism unclear.
    Higher openness to experience -> more likely to engage in cognitive and educational activities, increases the cognitive reserve and leads to increased longevity. Also the better cognitive and educational activities, means that you are more likely to read and understand things that can make you make better health decisions.
37
Q

What were the findings from the Waxman et al. (2013) experiment on low birth weights?

A
  • Lower E and O.
  • Higher N, A, C.
  • Higher ‘Cautiousness.’ For low birth weight.
  • Therefore, pointing to the idea that biological mechanisms can link to personality traits.
38
Q

What are the potential mechanisms between the finding that low birth weights lead to higher cautiousness?

A
  • Extra-uterine brain development. Due to differences in brain development. The premature baby has to have some of its brain development occurring outside of the uterus, therefore if this is a more stressful environment, the baby could adapt to be more cautious, as the brain is used to this more stressful environment. Personality that is sensitive to detecting and avoiding stress.
  • Subsequent illness. They are more likely to experience other illnesses and therefore are likely to be more cautious due to them having to adapt their behaviours when they have these other illnesses.
  • Higher parental monitoring and behavioural restrictions. In an effort and protect and keep them safe, therefore the children become more cautious.
39
Q

What did Jokela et al. (2014) carry out in regards to chronic disease and the Big 5 traits?

A

Looked at the impact of chronic diseases on the Big 5 traits. Meta analysis of four longitudinal studies (N>17,000).

40
Q

What did the Forest plots for the Jokela et al. (2014) experiment show about the link between chronic illnesses and extraversion? What were the findings for emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience?

A

More chronic conditions = lower levels of extraversion.

With the exception of agreeableness, the increased number of chronic diseases caused an decrease in emotional stability, conscientiousness and openness to experience.

41
Q

What are the 5 Ts in relation to personality research? (Hagger-Johnson and Pollard Whiteman, 2008). (Hint: practical applications).

A
  1. Targeting campaigns to personality traits.
  2. Tailoring interventions to personality profiles.
  3. Personality ‘Training.’
  4. ‘Treatment’ of personality. E.g., through drugs.
  5. (Recording) Transformation. This will make any changes to personality recognisable for the individual and therefore they can understand, accept and cope with any of the personality changes that occur alongside their chronic disease.
42
Q

What are diathesis-stress models?

A

Stable and situational factors can impact the risk of developing mental health problems.
These models explain how it is the interaction between these two factors that can impact the risk of developing this illness.
Considering the two factors together explains the risk of developing a mental health problem. Each of the factors can interact and contribute to the overall risk of developing mental health disorders.

43
Q

What is diathesis defined as?

A

An inherent vulnerability to develop an illness.

44
Q

How does stress impact the likelihood to develop an illness?

A

Stress can increase the risk of developing an illness.

45
Q

What is the relationship between diasthesis and risk of developing a mental health illness?

(What type of relationship)

A

Could be linear, exponential, step chain or even others!
Unlikely to be simply additive.
There could be a much more complex relationship or it could be linear.

46
Q

What are the (3) reasons as to why identifying personality diatheses is difficult?

A

There could be several diathesis per disorder.
There may be protective factors.
Diatheses may be differentially sensitive to certain types of (congruent stressor).

47
Q

Why does ‘several diathesis per disorder’ make identifying personality diatheses difficult?

A

Range of different personality traits that could work independently or even interact with each other. These personality traits could interact differently with stress to impact the likelihood that someone is going to develop a mental health condition. Not only personality factors, also other factors such as gender, culture, genes etc.

48
Q

What are examples of some of the protective factors to developing a mental health disorder?

A

Social support, personality traits, self-esteem.

49
Q

What is the Specific Vulnerability Hypothesis (Blatt + Zuroff, 1992)?

A

Personality diathesis X and personality diathesis Y may be differentially impacted by certain life stressors. Some personality traits may be more impacted by certain stressors compared to others.

50
Q

What are the symptoms used to diagnose major depressive disorder (MDD)?

A
  • Prolonged depressed mood.
  • Loss of interest and pleasure.
  • You must have one of the first two symptoms to be diagnosed.
  • Weight or appetite changes.
  • Sleep difficulties.
  • Agitated or slowed behaviour.
  • Fatigue or energy loss.
  • Reduced concentration.
  • Feelings of guilt or worthlessness.
  • Thoughts of death or suicide.
51
Q

What are some of the diatheses that can increase an individuals vulnerability to depression?

A
  • Female gender.
  • Relative with depression.
  • Death of parent in childhood.
  • Lack of social support.
52
Q

What are some examples of stressors that can increase the risk of an individual developing depression?

A

Various life events such as:
- Divorce.
- Unemployment.
- Physical illness.

53
Q

What are the most extensively researched personality diatheses that are associated with depression? (Haslam, 2007).

A

High autonomy, high dependency, self-critical personality style, pessimistic explanatory style.

54
Q

What is high autonomy?

A

‘Compulsive self-reliance.’ Aversion to being controlled/dependent on others.

55
Q

What is the predicted domain-congruent stressor that high autonomy people are vulnerable to?

A

Indicators of personal failure. E.g., poor exam performance, failure to get promotion.

56
Q

What is the self-critical personality style?

A

Hold unreasonably high standards for self, and prone to punishing self-evaluations.

57
Q

What is the predicted domain-congruent stressor that self-critical personality style people are vulnerable to?

A

Negative life events that they feel responsible for e.g., accidents or mistakes.

58
Q

What is a pessimistic explanatory style?

A

Explain negative events according to stable and global causes, feels unable to avoid negative life events.

59
Q

What predicted domain-congruent stressors is the pessimistic explanatory style is particularly vulnerable to?

A

Negative life events that could be attributed to stable/global causes e.g., failure.

60
Q

What is high dependency?

A

‘Anxious attachment.’ Exaggerated need for others’ guidance, nurturance and approval. Fears separation and abandonment.

61
Q

What predicted domain-congruent stressor are high dependency people vulnerable to?

A

Events related to interpersonal conflict, loss rejections and separation. E.g., relationship breakup.

62
Q

What is the Specific Vulnerability Hypothesis?

A

There are personality diathesis associated with certain stressors, and these stressors interact with these personality diathesis and effect risk of developing depression.

63
Q

The fact that high autonomy and self-critical individuals are focussed on achievement, means that which events would cause them to have a high risk of depression?

A

Achievement-related stressful events.

64
Q

The fact that high dependency s are focussed on relationship, means that which events would cause them to have a high risk of depression?

A

Relationship-related stressful events.

65
Q

What are the cause of inconsistencies in the support of the Specific Vulnerability Hypothesis?

A
  1. Little focus on other risk and protective factors (e.g. self-esteem). Wider range of variables need to be considered.
  2. Too much focus on individual stress level relative to group. Absolute levels relative to the group, rather than an individuals stress over time. E.g., person A may experience more stress than person B, but person B may be experiencing more stress than they have previously experienced and therefore they may be triggered to develop MDD.
  3. Researcher cannot classify stressful events for each individual. Difficult to categorise stressors! (differences in interpretation, plus ‘spill over’ effects). E.g., divorce could be considered relationship based stressor but it could be achievement based as an individual may think that they have ‘failed’ in the relationship. Difference in interpretation. Knock-on/spill-over. E.g., divorce can cause housing problems that may be categorised as different stressor.
66
Q

What was the Abela et al., 2012 study?

(hint - children)

A

Looked at the depression risk in children and adolescents.
Children completed the questionnaires and inventory at baseline and then were followed up over a year, measured every 6 weeks.

67
Q

What was the analyses for the Abela et al., 2012 depression risk in children and adolescents study?

A
  • Ability of Dependency and Self-Crit to predict depression. Are these traits actually diatheses?
  • Effect of increased amount of total stress (not congruence).
  • Role of self-esteem as a protective factor.
68
Q

What was found from the Abela et al., 2012 study on depression risk in children and adolescents?

A

No evidence that self-criticism acts as a diathesis.
Diathesis-stress effects apparent for Dependency.
Dependency acts as a diathesis but is buffered by protective effects of self-esteem.
High dependency, low self-esteem showed the highest amount of depressive symptoms of all the groups and these were especially higher in times of high stress.
Self-esteem buffered against the high levels of dependency. Buffering effect of high self-esteem specific to children high in dependency, as those low in dependency did not have this protective effect.

69
Q

What is schizotypy?

A

(Risk factor for schizophrenia and schizophrenia related disorders). This means that it is a personality diathesis because it increases the risk of someone developing this mental disorder.

70
Q

What was the model based on Meehl (1962, 1990) in regards to schizotypy?

(4 steps)

A

Firstly, one or more genes that contribute to the development. They change the way in which the CNS develops (more likely to be multiple genes).

These changes in CNS are labelled as schizotaxia (abnormalities in the circuitry of the brain).

This schizotaxia can manifest itself in the personality diathesis of schizotypy.

High levels of this can cause higher risk of developing the disorders: shizophrenia, schizotypic disorders and endophenotypes.

Stressors and other potentiators are involved and interact with the schizotypy to increase the risk of developing the disorders listed above

71
Q

What are endophenotypes?

A

Measurable biological or psychological markers that are thought to underlie specific personality traits or disorders.

They are considered to be intermediate phenotypes, lying somewhere between the genetic makeup (genotype) and the observable personality characteristics (phenotype).

72
Q

What is the Kwapil et al. (2013) study that gives evidence that schizotypy can confer vulnerability to developing schizophrenic disorders?

A

534 undergrads.
Wilconsin Schizotypy Scales.
10 year follow up (prospective longitudinal study).
Clinical assessments.

73
Q

What are some of the symptoms associated with positive schizotypy?

A

Perceptual abberation and magical ideation. Essentially the positive symptoms of schizotypy.

74
Q

What are some of the symptoms associated with negative schizotypy?

A

Physical and social anhedonia (essentially the negative symptoms of schizotypy).

75
Q

What disorders were people with positive schizotypy more likely to have?

A

Mood disorders and substance abuse.

76
Q

What disorders are people with negative schizotypy more likely to have?

A

Schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
Schizoid traits and lower relationship closeness.

77
Q

What stressors that if people with positive schizotypy more vulnerable to? (Haslam, 2009).

A

Chaotic environment.

78
Q

What stressors that if people with negative schizotypy more vulnerable to? (Haslam, 2009).

A

Birth complications.

79
Q

Why has creativity been associated with schizotypy?

A

‘Overinclusive’ thinking in schizophrenia. ‘Thought and speech containing illogically connected ideas.’ This is similar to creativity, where unique ideas are thought of.

80
Q

How did the Ando, Claridge and Clark (2014) study provide evidence for the link between schizotypy and creativity?

(Hint: comedians).

A

Online schizotypy scales completed by:
* Comedians (N=523). Creative group.
* Actors (N=364). Non-creative control.
Compared with existing ‘normal’ groups. Anything above zero indicates higher scores than the general population, anything below zero indicates lower scores than the general population. On the O-LIFE scale for Schizotypy.

81
Q

What were the results for the Ando, Claridge and Clark (2014) study proving the link between creativity and schizotypy?

(Hint: comedians).

A

Actors and comedians scored higher than normal controls on most subscales.
Comedians > actors for three subscales.
This shows that having high levels of schizotypy is associated with creativity.

82
Q

What was the study conducted by Mason, Hort and Woo (2015) that further confirmed the connection between creativity and schizotypy?

A
  • Online recruitment of 294 poets.
  • Compared with existing ‘normal’ groups.
  • 18.37% met diagnostic criteria for self-reported bipolar (cf population level: 3.7%). Symptoms of the bipolar similar to schizotypy.
  • Highest levels of schizotypy for ‘avant-garde’ poets. More experimental type of poetry that is often thought of as more creative.

Personality & Individual Differences 21042 (5 decks)

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