Category: Personality

The Surprising Personality Trait Linked To Depression

The type of people who are more sensitive to negative emotions.

The type of people who are more sensitive to negative emotions.

People who are more open to experience are at higher risk of depression.

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

In particular, people who are into art and in touch with their emotions are more likely to experience depression.

It may be because artistic people are more sensitive.

The conclusion comes from a study of 143 people who were given tests of personality, focusing on the personality trait of openness to experience:

“Open individuals exhibit an increased awareness of, and receptiveness to, their feelings, thoughts, and impulses, as well as a need for variety, or a recurrent need to enlarge and examine experience.”

Some people in the study had never been depressed, some were depressed in the past and the remainder were currently experiencing depression.

The authors explained the results:

“Depressed participants (both current and past) scored significantly higher than nondepressed participants on the broad factor of Openness, as well as on both Openness to Aesthetics and Openness to Feelings.”

Sensitivity to the arts is probably linked to sensitivity to negative emotions, the authors write:

“It seems more likely that individuals who are attuned to beauty and the arts might be more sensitive, in general, and might therefore be more sensitive to, and affected by, negative events and stimuli.”

An appreciation of art and the experience of depression may be strongly linked:

“…the experience of depression may lead to an existential ”reexamination of the purpose of living,” and consequently bring the depressed individual “in touch with the mystery that lies at the heart of ‘tragic and timeless’ art”

Similarly, Ludwig (1994) suggested that the experience of depression (as well as other emotional problems) serves to fuel the writers “motivation for expression, . . . providing them with the basic ingredients for their art’.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality Assessment (Wolfenstein & Trull, 1997).

3 Personality Traits Linked To Better Mental Health

Three personality traits are especially powerful in helping people deal with emotional distress.

Three personality traits are especially powerful in helping people deal with emotional distress.

Being optimistic, feeling positive emotions and controlling negative emotions are all linked to better mental health, psychologists have found.

The good news is that all three traits can be trained and improved.

Practicing these positive traits can actually change vital brain structures.

Indeed, research reveals that people with these resilient personality factors have greater brain volume in critical areas of their prefrontal cortex.

Dr Sandra Dolcos, study co-author, said:

“People are not necessarily aware of how plastic the brain is.

We can change the volume of the brain through experience and training.

I teach brain and cognition, and students are so empowered at the end of the course because they realize that they are in charge.

It means that we can work on developing new skills, for instance, new emotion regulation strategies that have a more positive approach, and can actually impact the brain.”

The conclusions come from 85 people who were given both brain scans and personality tests.

The scans focused on the prefrontal area of the brain, the region above and behind the eyes.

Dr Dolcos explained:

“We knew from the clinical literature that there are relationships between brain volume and certain personality traits.

Lower brain volume in certain areas is associated with increased anxiety.”

Mr Matt Moore, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“…we found that if you have larger volume in this set of brain regions, you had higher levels of these protective personality traits.”

The scans revealed exactly where higher resilience can be seen in the brain’s structure, Mr Moore said:

“This study gives us the coordinates of the brain regions that are important as well as some traits that are important.

As the next step, we can then try and engage this plasticity at each of these levels and then train against a negative outcome.”

The study was published in the journal Personality Neuroscience (Moore et al., 2018).

This Empathetic Personality Trait Protects Against Loneliness

People like this enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints and others look to them for advice.

People like this enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints and others look to them for advice.

Wisdom protects people against loneliness.

People high in two particular components of wisdom — empathy and compassion — are especially unlikely to become lonely.

Wisdom is a personality trait: typically, wise people enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints and other people look to them for advice.

Wise people are also skilled at filtering negative emotions and do not postpone major decisions.

Professor Dilip Jeste, the study’s first author, said:

“An important finding from our study was a significant inverse correlation between loneliness and wisdom.

People with higher scores on a measure of wisdom were less lonely and vice versa.

Loneliness was consistently associated with poor general health, worse quality of sleep and less happiness, whereas the reverse was generally true for wisdom.”

The study included older adults in a relatively isolated, rural area of Italy.

The researchers also surveyed people living in San Diego, an urban/suburban area in the US.

All were asked about various components of wisdom, including compassion, empathy, emotional regulation and self-reflection.

The results showed that people who were high in empathy and compassion were particularly unlikely to feel lonely.

Professor Jeste said:

“Both loneliness and wisdom are personality traits.

Most personality traits are partially inherited and partially determined by environment.”

Like many other personality traits, wisdom can be difficult to change, but not impossible.

Dr David Brenner, study co-author, said:

“If we can increase someone’s compassion, wisdom is likely to go up and loneliness is likely to go down.

At UC San Diego, we have considerable interest in enhancing empathy and compassion to reduce levels of stress and improve happiness and well-being.”

Professor Jeste said:

“So how do you increase compassion? Utilizing approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy or writing in a gratitude diary can help someone become more compassionate.”

The study was published in the journal Aging and Mental Health (Jeste et al., 2020).

This Personality Trait Can Be Changed — Even With Zero Motivation (M)

Far from being impossible to change, people can increase this personality trait.

Far from being impossible to change, people can increase this personality trait.

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The Personality Trait Linked To Loneliness

Feeling lonely is a part of some people’s genetic makeup.

Feeling lonely is a part of some people’s genetic makeup.

People who are neurotic have a genetic tendency towards loneliness.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that indicates a tendency to experience stress and insecurity.

However, loneliness is not just genetic, it is also a result of life circumstances.

In fact, the environment plays a bigger part than genetics — which is good news, because that means it can change.

Lonely people do not have to stay that way, whatever their genetic makeup.

Professor Julie Aitken Schermer, the study’s first author, said:

“If you have rich interactions with people, that’s an environmental component that would combat the genetic impact of loneliness.”

The conclusions come from research on 764 pairs of twins in Australia.

Twins enable researchers to separate out the influence of genetics and the environment on a person.

All were asked about their personality and any loneliness they experienced.

The results showed that people who were neurotic reported feeling more lonely.

In contrast, those who were high in extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness were less likely to experience loneliness.

The authors write:

“The results suggest common genetic and unique environmental factors play a role in personality and loneliness.”

Professor Schermer is worried about the spread of loneliness across society:

“It does concern be me because we’re getting lonelier as a society.

We’re not having the same richness of interaction.”

Professor Schermer sees it in her students:

“They’re all looking at their devices and not interacting with each other.

I always tell my students, ‘Put your stuff down and talk to each other.’

This is the key time to make friends – they already have things in common.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Schermer & Martin, 2019).

The Personality Trait That Shapes Mental Health — Beyond Neuroticism (M)

The link between neuroticism and mental health is well known, but another trait has been overlooked.

The link between neuroticism and mental health is well known, but another trait has been overlooked.

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These 2 Personality Types Are The Most Romantically Compatible

People prefer a certain personality type in a romantic partner, study demonstrates.

People prefer a certain personality type in a romantic partner, study demonstrates.

People with similar personalities are the most compatible.

Extraverts get on with other extraverts, conscientious people are happy with other conscientious people, the agreeable love other agreeable people — and so on.

There was no evidence in this study that opposites attract.

Romantic partners also get on better — at least initially — when they have similar attitudes.

For a happy marriage, though, it is a similar personality that works best.

Similar attitudes, which are easier to gauge than personality, may help people with similar personalities find each other.

The study’s authors write:

“People may be attracted to those who have similar attitudes, values, and beliefs and even marry them – at least in part – on the basis of this similarity because attitudes are highly visible and salient characteristics and they are fundamental to the way people lead their lives.”

The conclusions come from a study of 291 newlyweds who were asked about their personality, attitudes and marital satisfaction.

The results showed that the couples who had similar personalities were happier together.

Attitudes — whether similar or not — made no different to marital satisfaction.

The authors write:

“…once people are in a committed relationship, it is primarily personality similarity that influences marital happiness because being in a committed relationship entails regular interaction and requires extensive coordination in dealing with tasks, issues and problems of daily living.

Whereas personality similarity is likely to facilitate this process, personality differences may result in more friction and conflict in daily life.

As far as attitudes are concerned, people who chose to marry each other should be well aware of how similar or different they are on these domains because attitudes are very visible and salient.

This suggests that attitudinal and value differences, when they exist, are part of a conscious decision to stay together on the basis of other important considerations.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Luo & Klohnen, 2005).

10 Life-Changing Benefits Of Optimism (P)

Optimistic people don’t just think differently: here are 10 ways they live fundamentally better lives.

From how we think and feel to how we age, love, sleep and even earn, the benefits of a hopeful mindset are far-reaching.

Optimists are certainly in the majority: around 80 percent of people are optimists, which tends to encourage persistence, cooperation and ambition.

Critically, optimists believe they can control their lives and make improvements.

While optimism is partly genetic and related to upbringing and circumstances, there is evidence it can be cultivated.

These ten studies uncover just how much the outlook can shape our lives.

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The Personality Trait That Predicts Who Achieves Their Goals (M)

Some personalities are wired for success: research reveals the hidden factor behind sticking to goals.

Some personalities are wired for success: research reveals the hidden factor behind sticking to goals.

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