Lecture 7: Wealth, Happiness and Health

What is Loss Aversion? (Kahneman & Tversky 1979)

when Losses loom twice as large as gains so we want to minimise losses and maximise gains.

Income is a small but...

very robust predictor of life satisfaction.

How do losses influence mood?

Losses have twice the impact on utility (pos mood, well being) than equivalent gains.

How may a highly conscientious person be effected by losses? (Boyce, Wood & Ferguson)

Conscientious individuals place great value on economic outcomes and put more effort into achieving their goals - places losses as a lack of their own ability.

- therefore losses loom larger

(Boyce, Wood & Ferguson, 2015 ) findings

- change in household income and change in life satisfaction

- losses affect those high in conscientiousness much more than those low.

- seen by + 1 SD conscientiousness

- conscientious not as beneficial when it comes to losses - greater dis utility

which personality Pre-marrige influenced happiness when married (with marriage)? (Boyce, Wood & Ferguson, 2016) findings

Conscientiousness - linked to increased satisfaction over the years of marriage.

- BUT - only found in women

Why may highly conscientious individuals have higher satisfaction with their marriage?

They tend to place more value on relationship goals may strive harder to ensure success.

For men, what personality trait is associated with increased satisfaction in marriage?

Extraversion - 1+ SD above the mean is predictive of increased satisfaction with marriage over a 7 year period. - status?

What other personality trait for women is associated with increased marriage satisfaction?

Introversion

What do the findings suggest of (Boyce, Wood & Ferguson, 2016)

Traits can influence major life outcomes.

What is the journey of health to mortality?

- bodily awareness - report symptom

- Doctor-patient interaction (seek treatment)

- compliance (take medication)

- Pathogenesis (how body reacts to it)

- Mortality.

How to measure symptom reporting and personality? Viral challenge studies:

Expose 50% to a pathogen and 50% to a placebo.

- keep in isolation

- examine for 1-2 weeks

How to measure symptom reporting and personality? Quasi-experiments

Examine people at high and low stress times. Usually done on the same students during exams and vacation times.

How to measure symptom reporting and personality? Case control designs

Take a group of people who have experienced a life stressor and compare them to people who haven't

- match them as much as possible (age, gender etc)

What are two ways of verifying a disease?

- clinical blood tests

- Symptoms that people report

what are covariates that may influence susceptibility to disease

- Age

- Time of year (winter)

- nutrition

- depression

Whats a Sub-clincial infection?

When you may show to have an infection through a blood test but have no symptoms

What did find Feldman et al (1999) on Neuroticism and symptom reporting?

- viral challenge study

- those high in Neuroticism report more symptoms and more severe symptoms whether or not they are actually ill

What did find Feldman et al (1999) on Openness and symptom reporting?

Those high in Openness report more symptoms than those low in openness ONLY when objective colds are present (actually ill)

- openness - correlated with general intelligence and IQ

What did find Feldman et al (1999) on Conscientousness and symptom reporting?

conscientiousness leads to more illness reporting - (also when they actually are)

- best predictor for longevity as people high in conscientiousness highly value their health.

Which other study found that those high in Neuroticism lead to greater reporting of symptoms when not actually ill (subjective illness)?

Cohen S et al (2003)

What did Cohen S et al (2003) find on Extraversion and symptom reporting?

Those high in positive affect (extraversion)

- as objective illness goes down, so does reporting

- with subjective illnesses too

How does symptom recall change over time depending on personality? (Encoding/recall of symptoms) (Larsen 1992)

- Have to recall symptoms when visit GP

- High in Neuroticism = recall symptoms as worse than they actually were (recall bias)

- Record symptoms each day for 3 months

- recall number and severity of symptom from past 3 months

What is Lazarus's transactional model?

Decision process of a threatening situation and how to control it.

- coping with a stressful situation > leads to an outcome

- personality can affect all of these decisions in this process

What did Ferguson et al (2006) find on personality and occupational stress

People high in negative oriented personality (Neuroticism) are more likely to judge the work environment and more negative than those low in N.

- N influences amount of symptom's reported - independent carry over effect from personality trait.

How do different personalities cope with stressful events? Which traits are linked to having more optimal/enagement coping strategies? (Connor-smith & Flachsbart, 2007)

Extraversion, Conscientiousness and openness are linked to overall engagement coping strategies (problem solving) which are generally beneficial to health.

Adaptive

Which traits are linked to having more disengagement coping strategies? (Connor-smith & Flachsbart, 2007)

Neuroticism - is associated with disengagement and more avoidant strategies such as substance abuse and alcohol which are not beneficial to health. maladaptive

How can we learn to be sick?

Through an associative process

What is an example of 'learning to be sick'?

Conditioned Nausea

- immune system reacts as people get closer to hospital

- from initial physiological response to chemotherapy

- physical symptom becomes triggered from nurse or environment.

Conditioned sickness and gulf war syndrome (Ferguson et al 2004)

Symptom reporting (sickness) becomes conditioned on environmental triggers (environmental fumes) without the actual thing that causes sickness.

- more severed odours 'cause' increased symptoms on subsequent day.

How can lab studies assess odour and illness?

- pair odour and symptoms (Enriched c02/ammonia)

- test - odour causes symptoms

- stronger for people high in Neuroticism

What are the general and specific abilities that predict job performance ?

Cognitive ability (higher IQ) such as perceptual, numerical, verbal and then spatial

What are the general and specific abilities that predict Training ?

Cognitive ability (IQ) and more specifically Numerical ability is a good predictor for how well you develop skills in your job.

Which personality trait influences work performance abilities the most?

Conscientiousness adds significantly to how well you perform at work (extraversion = small effect)

- used in assessments for jobs

What did Ferguson et al (2000; 2003) investigate?

How personality traits predict Medical School performance

What does General knowledge (A levels) predict for medical school performance?

It predicts Pre-clinical knowledge well (fact learning) but does not predict anything about their clinical skills.

How does conscientiousness predict pre clinical and clinical knowledge?

It predicts how well you perform pre-clinically but has a negative affect on how you perform clinically (-.20)

Why may conscientiousness become a negative predictor of clinical performance?

in a clinical environment you need to have flexibility to apply knowledge to many different ways. so too much conscientiousness becomes an inhibitor when flexibility is needed to apply knowledge.

What did Ferguson et al (2016) find?

initially, conscientiousness predicts successful A level performance and clinical knowledge

- however - it negatively predicts clinical knowledge performance (replicates) where fluidity and flexibility is needed (relax constraints/rigidity)

Which other personality trait was found to have a negative predictability on clinical skills performance? Ferguson et al (2016)

High emotional stability has a negative affect on clinical skills performance

- have to have a bit of anxiety/arousal to pick up on cues around you to perform well

What did Patterson, Ferguson et al (2005) identify?

The core skills that underlie general practice to develop a way to select GP's. (competency domain)

what task can be used to assess good UGRA performance? (Shafquat, Ferguson et al (2015)

Mental rotation task

- if good at this task they should be better at the Turkey breast Task (UGRA0

Findings (Shafquat, Ferguson et al (2015) - MRT and UGRA

The better people were at mental rotation task, the better they were at the overall task performance on UGRA

Do we therefore select UGRA doctors based on their MRT skills?

No

Why do we not select UGRA doctors based on their MRT skills?

Because there is an indirect discrimination. men on MRT tasks tend to do better than women - would have very few female surgeons.

- just need to train people om MRT instead/additional training.

- otherwise would discriminate people (illegal_

What practical implications do the results from (Shafquat, Ferguson et al (2015) suggest?

The MRT task should be used as an assessment to identify which people need further training on spatial cognition to become an anaesthetist/surgeon.

- guide on who needs extra training - not as a way of selecting.

Which study investigated how well traits predict overall compliance with taking medication?

Molloy, O'Carroll & Ferguson, 2014

Which trait predicts better compliance with medication use?

Conscientiousness (conscientious people live longer)

How does conscientiousness compare with other factors that predicts compliance with medical use?

- social support

- being married

- depression

what is pathogenesis?

How people's bodies respond to a drug. does everybody repoisn teh same

What is beneficial when fighting illnesses?

A High antibody response

How do personality traits influence how well a person's body responds to a drug?

For those higher in Neuroticism, their antibody responses are lower than those lower in neuroticism (to an injection)

- High N affects physiological response to a vaccination.

How does personality influence health behaviours and risk?

N = Traffic risk like road accidents

E = exercise, sex

O = drug taking, sex

A = Accident control

C = wellness behaviours

How does IQ influence health behaviours and risk?

higher IQ = better job

- better health behaviours such as exercise and diet

- live in areas with less social deprivation (access to better resources)

- richer people live longer.

- direct relationship between wealth and longevity (context has importance)

How does Conscientiousness influence longevity?

People high in Conscientiousness live longer than those who are low in C, both in men and women. (by 2 years on average) (better behaviours/health, more likely to go to doctors when ill)

How does Neuroticism influence longevity?

Those high in Neuroticism die at a quicker rate (maladaptive coping, poorer physiological response)

Which 3 traits of big 5 are protective against early death?

Extraversion

Openness

Conscientiousness

Which 2 behaviours are the biggest contributors towards mortality?

Smoking

Inactivity

What is a 'Type D' personality?

A particular personality trait thats (distressed) that's predictive of Coronary heart disease.

Which 2 facets make up Type D personality?

Negative Affect (NA) and Social Inhibition (SI)

- make up an idependent risk factor for a heart disease

What makes up Negative affect?

A sense of Dysphoria, tension and worry

What makes up Social Inhibition?

Reticence and Withdrawal.

What is the physiology behind Type D personality?

High cortisol reactivity - stress hormone (high) = immune suppressant and increases heart rate/weight.

- increased inflammatory markers in blood (CHD)

What is the personality theory of geographical psychology?

- personality exists beyond the individuals but lives in the geography of the world we live in

- do we see clusters of personality by geographical region?

Where are more friendly and conventional personality traits more likely to be seen in the US?

- Low N

- High E

- mid west

Where are more relaxed and creative personality traits more likely to be seen in the US?

- High O

- West coast (California etc) - engage in physical exercise, eat healthy and less likely to smoke.

Where are more temperamental and uninhibited personality traits more likely to be seen in the US?

- Low E

- High N and O

around New York area

Why do personalities closer based on geographical areas?

- our values and beliefs drive us towards other people who have similar traits/environments where those trait work.

- move toward areas that suit your personality.

What was found about the individual and the country?

self-reported pain = higher depression scores.

- higher cognition (high IQ) pain is lower.

- when depression levels in the country is high, individual traits have very little difference. - normative values and beliefs dominate.

What is a Pro-social Phenotype?

Socially cooperative people. e.g Blood donors. organ donor registrations, donate to charity, volunteer for a charity.

How did personality influence the pandemic and situational strength? (Mills and Ferguson 2025)

People with the Prosocial phenotype (propensity to want to help people) - still abide by the Covid rules despite the rules being ambiguous/ambiguous..