Personality - PsyBlog

This Personality Trait Preserves Memory And Judgement

The best mindset to ward off cognitive decline can be cultivated using exercises such as visualising your best possible self.

Older adults with a more optimistic outlook experience fewer memory and judgement problems, research finds.

Optimism has also been linked to desirable health behaviours like:

Eating more healthily.
Exercising regularly.
Lower risk of heart conditions and stroke.

For the study, researchers followed around 500 older adults over four years to see if they experienced any cognitive impairments.

The results showed that the best mindset was optimism, which was linked to a lower risk of developing cognitive impairment.

Ms Katerina Gawronski, the study’s first author, said:

“We felt like this was an important topic to investigate and to our knowledge, it’s the first study to examine the link between optimism and cognitive impairment in older adults.

We found that optimism was indeed associated with better cognitive health over time.”

Best mindset can be learned

The good news is that optimism is not fixed in stone.

Exercises such as visualising your ‘best possible self‘ have been shown to increase optimism.

Here is how I’ve previously explained the exercise:

Visualising your best possible self may sound like an exercise in fantasy but, crucially, it does have to be realistic.

Carrying out this exercise typically involves imagining your life in the future, but a future where everything that could go well, has gone well.

You have reached those realistic goals that you have set for yourself.

Then, to help cement your visualisation, you commit your best possible self to paper.

This exercise draws on the proven benefits of expressive writing.

Dr Eric Kim, a study co-author, said:

“Therefore, optimism may be a novel and promising target for prevention and intervention strategies aimed at improving cognitive health.”

The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine (Gawronski et al., 2016).

12 Personality Traits Science Says Make You Irresistibly Attractive (P)

From optimism to non-conformity: what makes a personality truly captivating?

‘Inner beauty’ is important -- perhaps more than ever.

For one thing, personality traits have become more important in a potential partner than their finances in Western countries, at least over the last half decade.

Inner beauty is also reflected outside: positive personality traits — like helpfulness and honesty — make people appear physically more attractive.

While those displaying negative personality traits — like rudeness and unfairness — look physically less attractive to observers.

Here are 12 traits that research has found influence how attractive we find other people.

(Bear in mind that most of this research has been carried out on heterosexuals, although a substantial amount is likely relevant across the range of sexual preferences.)

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This Change In Personality Indicates Dementia

Older people given personality tests were followed for many years to see who developed dementia.

Increases in the personality trait of neuroticism are a sign that someone will go on to develop dementia, research finds. Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness. People higher in neuroticism find it harder to deal with stress and tend to see threats everywhere. The conclusions come from analysis of data from almost two thousand people in the US and the Netherlands. Older people given personality tests were followed for many years to see who developed dementia. The study’s authors explain:

“These findings provide reliable evidence of a consistent pattern of neuroticism increases preceding dementia diagnosis, and, further, suggest that change in neuroticism may occur early in the disease process. Additionally, these results indicate that individuals who remain undiagnosed have markedly different trajectories of neuroticism compared to individuals not diagnosed with incident dementia or MCI [mild cognitive impairment].”

Along with increasing neuroticism, the researchers also found that people who went on to be diagnosed with dementia also saw decreases in extraversion. They write:

“Assessments of extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness were also available… Our analyses revealed significant decreases in extraversion only, and solely for individuals with MCI [mild cognitive impairment]. These results may indicate that individuals with MCI might feel more cognitively challenged in the presence of others, possibly leading to avoidance of social activity.”

The study was published in the The Journals of Gerontology (Yoneda et al., 2018).

This Personality Trait Is Linked To A Stronger Immune System

Certain personality types have a stronger immune response.

Extraverts have stronger immune systems than introverts, a genetic analysis finds.

Extraverts are typically outgoing, talkative and energetic, meaning they tend to interact with more people.

They are, therefore, exposed to more infections.

A stronger immune response may help to protect extraverts against infectious diseases.

Introverts, meanwhile, tend to have a weaker immune response, as do cautious people.

But this may be because they are exposed to fewer infections, since they tend to be less sociable.

The study included 121 people who were given personality questionnaires, along with genetic tests and general health screening.

The genetic tests focused on two groups of leukocytes, one involved in antibodies and the antiviral response and the other in inflammation.

The results showed that extraverts had the highest expression of pro-inflammatory genes.

The effect of these genes is to help fight off infections.

Introverts and cautious conscientious people tended to have a lower inflammatory response.

Professor Kavita Vedhara, the study’s first author, said:

“Our results indicated that ‘extraversion’ was significantly associated with an increased expression of pro-inflammatory genes and that ‘conscientiousness’ was linked to a reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes.

In other words, individuals who we would expect to be exposed to more infections as a result of their socially oriented nature (i.e., extraverts) appear to have immune systems that we would expect can deal effectively with infection.

While individuals who may be less exposed to infections because of their cautious/conscientious dispositions have immune systems that may respond less well.

We can’t, however, say which came first.

Is this our biology determining our psychology or our psychology determining our biology?”

The study also found no evidence that neurotic people — who are prone to anxiety and depression — were any more likely to get sick than people with stable emotions.

Previous studies, though, have shown that conscientiousness is linked to long life.

The study was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology (Vedhara et al., 2019).

This Personality Trait Is Strongly Related To Superior IQ

Higher intelligence drives ‘cognitive hunger’.

Openness to experience is the personality trait most strongly linked to higher intelligence, research finds.

People who are open to experience tend to be intellectually curious, imaginative, seekers of variety and sensitive to their feelings.

Naturally, people who are open to experience like trying out new activities and ideas.

Openness to experience is one of the five major aspects of personality, along with conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion.

The study’s author, Dr Scott Barry Kaufman, explains:

“Openness to experience is the broadest personality domain of the Big Five, including a mix of traits relating to intellectual curiosity, intellectual interests, perceived intelligence, imagination, creativity, artistic and aesthetic interests, emotional and fantasy richness, and unconventionality.”

The conclusions come from a survey of 146 people who were asked questions about their personality and intelligence.

The results showed the strongest links between openness to experience and higher IQ.

Being open to experience is so powerful that it is linked to intelligence when measured almost 40 years later.

In particular, two aspects of openness to experience were most strongly related to intelligence.

Firstly, intellectual engagement, which comprises:

finding abstract thinking pleasurable,
enjoying coming up with new solutions to problems,
and liking reading.

Secondly, aesthetic engagement, which can involve activities like:

going to the cinema,
drawing or painting,
dancing,
and playing a musical instrument.

More intelligent people are particularly appreciative of beauty: they have a strong aesthetic sense.

Curious

Along with these factors, insatiable curiosity is also strongly linked to higher intelligence.

The link is probably down to higher intelligence driving ‘cognitive hunger’.

Cognitive hunger makes people seek out new experiences to satiate this hunger.

The study was published in The Journal of Creative Behavior (Kaufman, 2013).

What Your Career Choice Says About Who You Really Are (P)

The conclusions come from personality profiles of almost 70,000 people in 250+ different occupations.

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The Personality Trait That Fuels Shopping Addiction

The personality trait is linked to alcoholism and other types of substance misuse, problem gambling and even shopping addiction.

Neuroticism is the personality trait often linked to addiction — including shopping addiction, research finds.

Shopping can provide a way of escaping the unpleasant thoughts that neurotic people are more likely to experience.

Neuroticism is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.

Neuroticism — one of the five major aspects of personality — is a trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.

Many types of addiction have been linked to neuroticism, including alcoholism and other types of substance misuse and problem gambling.

The study on shopping addiction included 23,537 people who were given tests of personality, self-esteem and shopping behaviours.

Dr Cecilie Schou Andreassen, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“Our research indicates that people who score high on extroversion and neuroticism are more at risk of developing shopping addiction.

Extroverts, typically being social and sensation seeking, may be using shopping to express their individuality or enhance their social status and personal attractiveness.

Neurotic people, who typically are anxious, depressive, and self-conscious, may use shopping as a means of reducing their negative feelings.”

Personality is not the only factor linked to shopping addiction though, said Dr Andreassen:

“Addictive shopping clearly occurs more regularly amongst certain demographic groups.

It is more predominant in women, and is typically initiated in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, and it appears to decrease with age.”

In contrast, people at low risk of shopping addiction tend to be more agreeable, conscientious and open to new experiences with higher levels of self-control.

Dr Andreassen said:

“We have also found that shopping addiction is related to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, and shopping may function as an escape mechanism for, or coping with, unpleasant feelings – although shopping addiction may also lead to such symptoms.”

Seven signs of shopping addiction

The symptoms of shopping addiction are closely related to other addictions like alcoholism and substance addictions.

Here are the seven signs of shopping addiction:

You think about shopping/buying things all the time.
You shop/buy things in order to change your mood.
You shop/buy so much that it negatively affects your daily obligations (e.g., school and work).
You feel you have to shop/buy more and more to obtain the same satisfaction as before.
You have decided to shop/buy less, but have not been able to do so.
You feel bad if you for some reason are prevented from shopping/buying things.
You shop/buy so much that it has impaired your well-being.

‘Agreeing’ or ‘completely agreeing’ with at least four of these seven statements indicates a possible shopping addiction.

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychlogy (Andreassen et al., 2015).

The Connection Between Openness and IQ: Discover The Secret To High IQ

One personality trait is linked to higher intelligence above all others.

Being open to experience is the personality trait most strongly linked to high IQ.

People who are open to experience show a special interest in things that are unconventional, new and complex.

Openness to experience is one of the five major aspects of personality, along with conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion and agreeableness.

Recent research has shown that certain sub-components of openness have strong links to high IQ:

Appreciating beauty,
having an active fantasy life,
being emotionally sensitive,
and wide-ranging curiosity

Strongest of these is curiosity: people who are highly curious are likely to have high IQs.

Curiosity is strongly linked to IQ because higher intelligence drives ‘cognitive hunger’.

Cognitive hunger makes people seek out new experiences.

The conclusions come from a study of 17,415 people in the UK who were given personality and IQ tests and followed up over four decades.

The study’s authors explain their results:

“…childhood intelligence is indeed positively associated with adult trait Openness, even when it was assessed almost four decades earlier when participants were at 11 years.

Intelligence may influence the development of personality in that intelligent people develop habits to satisfy their curiosity and ‘‘cognitive hunger’’ which are an essential ingredient of Openness.”

It is a higher IQ that drives a greater level of openness to experience, the authors write:

“Parents of higher socioeconomic status may foster children’s trait Openness by providing better resources such as choosing good schools and cultural environment (theaters, museums, traveling abroad, etc.); intelligent children tend to use more mental activities (such as abstract ideas, learning new
vocabularies, or math formulas) than those who are less intelligent; school settings (quality of teaching, good facilities) may enhance pupils to engage more in school learning.

All these three factors may influence educational and
occupational achievement, which in turn, may increase
the scores on Openness.”

The study was published in the Journal of Individual Differences (Furnham & Cheng, 2016).

These Positive Personality Traits Make People Happiest

Having any, some or all of these qualities is linked to living a happier life, study finds.

Being enthusiastic and difficult to discourage are two of the personality traits linked to the highest well-being, research finds.

Enthusiastic people tend to have more fun in life and experience fewer negative emotions.

Being difficult to discourage is related to more positive growth, self-acceptance and greater achievement in life.

These were not the only personality factors linked to well-being.

People who are industrious, compassionate and intellectually curious are also happier, but in different ways.

Industrious people, for example, work harder towards long-term goals and are very achievement-oriented.

Compassionate people tend to feel more positive emotions and have better relationships with others.

The intellectually curious are open to new ideas and they enjoy thinking deeply and benefit from greater personal growth.

The conclusions come from a survey of 706 US adults, who were asked about their personality and different aspects of their well-being.

The study demonstrates that there are different paths to happiness.

Positive emotions are good, but so is feeling satisfied with your life, being independent, reaching life goals and experiencing personal growth.

Personality psychologists typically identify high extraverts who are low in neuroticism as the happiest people, as the study’s authors explain:

“The large literature describing the associations between personality traits and well-being suggests that extraversion (the tendency to be bold, talkative, enthusiastic, and sociable) and neuroticism (the tendency to be emotionally unstable and prone to negative emotions) are especially strong predictors of well-being.

But is wellbeing only accessible to the extraverted and non-neurotic?”

No, they argue, being a non-neurotic extravert is not the only way to be happy.

If you look more closely at personality, it turns out there are multiple paths to happiness.

The authors write:

“…the personality–well-being relation varies appreciably across personality aspects and distinct dimensions of well-being.

Not all aspects of extraversion and neuroticism are equally predictive, and aspects of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness/intellect also have idiosyncratic, meaningful associations with distinct forms of positive functioning.”

In other words, it’s possible to be a happy, neurotic, introvert.

It’s just a kind of happiness reached via a different route.

The study was published in the Journal of Personality (Sun et al., 2018).

Why Some People Find Boredom So Stressful — Which Leads To Impulsive Decisions (M)

Why boredom could be taking a bigger toll on your mental health than you think.

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