Personality and Physical Health

Learning Objectives

  • Describe how we can assess the links between personality and physical health.
  • Explain the role that personality traits play in physical health.
  • Explain whether and how we can change our personalities to benefit our health.

Assessing Physical Health

Self-report Data (S-data)

  • Advantages: Holistic indicator predictive of health outcomes.
  • Disadvantages: Overlap in personality tests and health assessments; self-knowledge may be biased.

Life Data (L-data)

  • Sources: Medical records, death certificates.
  • Advantages: Concrete and objective data.
  • Disadvantages: Health is complex and multifactorial; may not capture the full nuance of health status.

Informant Data (I-data)

  • Friends' reports can predict health outcomes as effectively as self-reports.
  • Findings: Men: Openness and Conscientiousness; Women: Agreeableness and Emotional Stability (Jackson et al., 2015).

Behavioral Data (B-data)

  • Source: Bio-markers (e.g., physiological measures).
  • Advantages: More objective and specific; cannot be faked.
  • Disadvantages: Interpretation and measurement can be challenging.

Personality & Physical Health: The Challenge

  • Personality can influence health through mechanisms involving behavior and biological processes.

Type A Personality

  • Characteristics: Jittery, overreactive, hyper-competitive, obsessive ambition, and hostility.
  • Initial Findings: Linked to cardiovascular risks; however, evidence is not consistent.
  • Potential Positive: Ambition and hard work may promote health instead of detracting from it.

Hostility and Health

  • Hostility is a significant factor. Repeated hostile encounters may lead to stress, impacting health negatively.
  • Cynical Distrust: Linked to higher levels of inflammation, mediated by behavioral factors (e.g., BMI, smoking, and activity levels).

Negative Emotionality

Negative Effects

  • Linked to:
    • Worse immune function.
    • Elevated cortisol levels.
    • Onset of AIDS in HIV-positive individuals.
    • Accelerated disease progression.

Positive Effects

  • Can lead to living longer; attention to health due to worry, termed "healthy neuroticism" (high neuroticism with high conscientiousness).

Positive Emotionality

Negative Aspects

  • Engagement in riskier behaviors.
  • Failure to seek medical advice.

Positive Aspects

  • Associated with:
    • Lower cortisol levels.
    • Better immune response to vaccines.
    • Resistance to illness post-exposure to viruses.
    • Increased longevity.

Empirical Example: Nun Study (Danner et al., 2001)

  • Examined life narratives of 180 Catholic nuns at age 20.
  • Results showed a correlation between the number of positive emotional phrases used in their writings and longevity, with those using the most positive language living approximately 7 years longer.

Optimism and Health

  • Associated with protective effects against:
    • Heart disease and mortality from cancer.
    • Improved treatment outcomes and fewer side effects.

Conscientiousness

Benefits

  • Strong relationship with health outcomes, quality of life, and longevity.

Mechanisms

  • Better management of stress, leading to lower physiological wear-and-tear.
  • Associations with healthier behaviors (e.g., lower alcohol consumption and smoking).

Impacts of Employment on Health

  • Unemployment can lead to:
    • Reduced access to healthcare.
    • Poor nutrition and homelessness.
    • Increased stress.

Possibility of Changing Personality

  • Potential for volitional change; focusing on changing behaviors directly may be more achievable than altering broader traits.
  • Traits to consider for change: increasing conscientiousness, positive emotionality, and reducing hostility.
  • Incremental steps toward embodying desired traits are encouraged (e.g., "fake it until you become it").

Conclusion and Poll Questions

  • Type A personality's association with health challenges is nuanced; hostility is a critical aspect.
  • Conscientiousness generally has a positive correlation with better health outcomes, but research has shown mixed results.