Stress Moderators (Personality) 2

What is hardiness?  

• Can affect cognitive appraisal events

hardiness= less illness 

Hardiness- a resilient personality  

• This affects the way people think about things in their lives 

What are its 3 components of hardiness?  

• Commitment - high emotional investment in what we do, they also tend to do better  (lower is the opposite)

• Control -  general sense that we impact things in our life (the opposite of helplessness) 

• Challenge- viewing things that are difficult or stressful as an opportunity for growth 

What did Kobasa et al. (1982) find regarding relations between stress, hardiness, and health?

Hardiness was measured at times T1 and so was stress and times T2 (which means 2 years later) was illness symptoms 

(Main effect means for just this variable, the relationship between the variable and the outcome)

There's a relationship between stress and illness 

Hardiness has a relationship with illness 

The interaction: does the relationship between stress and illness vary between hardiness (yes)

(hardiness is a  moderator)   

• Illness rates are pretty similar with people with low stress, regardless of their hardiness (low and high) 

• People with high stress and high hardiness have less disease 

What is explanatory style? 

Cognitive personality variable 

• People who are not depressed tend to have an optimistic explanatory style

What are its 3 dimensions explanatory style? 

Internality vs externality  

Stability vs instability 

Globality vs specificity 

(These are associated with depression)

Internality vs externality 

Internality: making an internal attribution (there's self-blame) 

• For example being rejected from a job you really wanted and blaming yourself for having something wrong with you 

Externality: making an external attribution (no self-blaming,  but the situation caused this to happen) 

• For example, being rejected from a job but realizing that it is not your fault and just something else you cannot control

Stability vs instability 

Stability makes a stable attribution (such as thinking you are going to get the job eventually) 

Instability makes an unstable attribution (such as thinking you are never going to get a job) 

This is about stability over time 

Globality vs specificity 

Globality- When we make a global attribution we dont contain our ngetiave thoughts but spread it into our life (thinking nothing in my life is good when you get rejected from the job you wanted)

Specificity- when we make a specific attribution (we dont think our life is terribly but just specify the job u got rejected from) 

Pessimistic

Pessimistic: internal, stable, global attributions 

• Risk of death (pessimistic and optimistic) (peterson et al., 1998)

How does Globality vs specificity, Stability vs instability, Internality vs externality relate to health (Peterson et al., 1998)?

Internal attributional style was not attributed to mortality risk 

• But globality was associated with mortality risk 

Globality was a predictor of earlier death 

• The study was conducted with males and females being measured separately because of different mortality rates 

• Pessimistic thinking kills early: Believing that bad events will affect all areas of your life (globality) predicts an earlier death.

• Specific vs. General: Blaming yourself internally for bad things doesn't shorten your life, but expecting those bad things to ruin everything else does.

What is optimism?

Tendency to believe that one will generally experience good vs bad outcomes 

• Optimistic: external, unstable, specific attributions 

How is optimism related to health (e.g., Scheier et al., 1989)? 

Scheier & carver Study: 

• All participants were about to have surgery 

• Recovery was measured after surgery

• 6 months later they self-reported their recovery 

• The study showed that faster recovery was based on their optimism being higher and those who were optimistic before surgery were already back to their normal life  

• Optimistic participants those who were positive before surgery were most likely to ask questions about their recovery journey 

Optimism has been shown to have better health outcomes and lower mortality rates

What are unrealistic optimism and defensive pessimism?

There is a limit to how much optimism we can have in our lives

• This is unrealistic optimism 

Example: not putting on ur seatbelt; they think they don't need protective measures 

Someone is pessimistic that good outcomes can come 

• This is defensive pessimism 

Example: putting on their seatbelt because they anticipate how the worse can happen

How is conscientiousness related to health (Friedman et al., 1993; Turiano et al., 2013)?

People with higher conscientiousness live longer than those with lower conscientiousness 

Friedman et al., study: 

• Studied high and low conscientiousness throughout one's lifespan between men and women

• 14% less likely to die those who have a higher conscientiousness

• Looked at health behaviors as potential moderators (like smoking or drinking) 

• People with higher conscientiousness lived longer because they were most likely to exercise, have a healthier diet, be more organized but also less likely to smoke n drink 

Takeaway: Conscientiousness predicted longer life  

How is neuroticism related to health (Chapman et al., 2010; Turiano et al., 2015)?

There's mixed findings on neuroticism

• Neuroticism is associated with increased risk of death (Chapman et al)

• Neuroticism associated with decreased risk of death  (Turiano et al) 

These studies are prospective and longitudinal

 

• Freidman said there could be two pathways coming from neuroticism;  neuroticism is leading people to having healthier behaviors or poorer health 

High neuroticism and low consciousness= bad health 

High neuroticism and high consciousness= better health

What is the Type A behavior pattern?

Known to have a very intense personality (competitive, hurried, hostile, tense) 

Meanwhile, Type B Behavior pattern: Known to be less intense and more relaxed 

What component of Type A seems to be the most harmful to health?

• Friedman and Rosenman were cardiologists (found a correlation between type A and heart disease) 

• There's a link between type A behavior pattern and heart disease 

Type A behavior pattern- landmark studies 

Western collaborative group study (Rosenman et al) 

Had over 3,000 participants which were all men 

• Type A= 2x risk of CHD 8.5 years later

Framingham heart study (haynes et al) 

• Type A= 2x risk of CHD 8 years later 

Takeaway: Big longevity study shows that type A causes heart disease but some studies showed different outcomes like type A being more healthier 

Can interventions lower Type A personality traits/hostility (Friedman et al., 1984; Davidson et al., 2007)?

Type A and hostility 

Training for people with type A behavior pattern 

• Reduction in MI (myocardial infarction (heart attack)) 

Participants with type A were more likely to have another heart attack if they had a previous one

Went to cardiac counseling and type A reduction training (reducing emotional triggers or completely eliminating them) 

• Participants were followed for 3 years

• 28.2 of them had another heart attack in the intervention, 2nd group 21.2 had another heart attack in the counseling group ,12.9 had another heart attack in the control group

takeaway: Despite targeting stress and hostility, this specific type of behavioral intervention did not prevent repeat heart attacks and may have had unexpected negative outcomes.

Intervention to decrease hostility (davidson et al) 

Effect on hospitalization days, costs  

• addressing hostility

• Measures hospitalization days and costs 

• Non hostile and non randomized (n=10)

• Treated hostile (n=13) 2.5 days in the hospital 

• Control hostile (n=13) 2.8 days in the hospital

• Intervention was 8 months but the treatment was 6 months 

• p =.04 

Takeaway: People who had hostility n heart disease in the treatment group was associated with them spending less money wise and them being less days in the hospital 

• Researchers were successful in changing personalities