Personality - Page 11 of 30

The Surprising Personality Trait Linked To Depression

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).

1 Personality Trait Predicts Happy Marriage Over 40+ Years

One personality trait emerged as the most important for satisfaction across 40+ years of marriage.

People with very stable emotions tend to have the best marriages, research finds.

Stable emotions reflect low levels of the personality trait of neuroticism.

Emotionally stable people (those low in neuroticism) tend not to criticise their partners, behave defensively or be contemptuous of them.

In married couples, having an extraverted, outgoing partner is also linked to higher satisfaction.

In addition, both high agreeableness and high conscientiousness are linked to relationship satisfaction in dating couples.

But it is having a partner that is co-operative and responsible that is the key, not necessarily being that way yourself.

Neuroticism, though, has the greatest effect of all personality traits on how satisfied couples are with their relationship.

People with high levels of neuroticism are more likely to get divorced.

To see how beneficial these traits are imagine for a moment the reverse of someone who is stable, agreeable and responsible.

Being neurotic, along with dis-agreeable and irresponsible is known as the ‘lack-of-self-control’ cluster of personality traits.

It is not hard to see why this set of three personality traits — that are linked to psychopathology and substance abuse — might not make for the best marriage.

The conclusions come from a study that surveyed 136 dating couples and 74 married couples.

They were asked about both their own and their partner’s personality as well as their satisfaction with their marriage.

The personality trait of neuroticism — one of the five major aspects of personality — emerged as most important, just as it has over decades of research.

The study’s authors describe one early piece of research that…

“…studied 278 couples from the mid-1930s through the early 1980s.
[…]
Analyses indicated that respondents who initially were high on neuroticism were more likely to become divorced over the course of the study.
[…]
Neuroticism scores showed significant predictive power across time spans of more than 40 years.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality (Watson et al., 2001).

These Parental Personality Traits Are Linked To Children’s Success (M)

There is little evidence that children ‘turn into’ their parents, but parental personalities are central.

There is little evidence that children 'turn into' their parents, but parental personalities are central.

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The Personality Type Linked To Poor Mental Health

This personality type affects around one in six people in the US.

People with personality disorders are at double the risk of developing mental health problems by 35-years-old, research finds.

People with personality disorders are more likely to be socially disadvantaged, separated or divorced.

By 35, people with personality disorders are almost twice as likely to be experiencing depression and/or anxiety.

Personality disorders affect around one in six people in the US.

The three most common personality disorders in the US are:

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
Paranoid personality disorder.
Antisocial personality disorder

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is one of the most well-known of personality disorders

Those with OCPD are typically perfectionists who are also highly fearful or anxious.

They want to control everything and find it very hard to relax.

In contrast, those with a paranoid personality disorder are extremely mistrustful of others.

They are very sensitive and are always on the lookout for things that confirm their worst fears: that everyone is out to get them.

They assume others are hostile, they bear grudges and find it hard to have an emotional connection with others.

Finally, people with an antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for other people’s feelings or judgments.

They see themselves as free of society’s rules and standards and are similar to what we think of as a psychopath.

→ More details on how to spot personality disorders.

Dr Paul Moran, who led the Australian study of 1,520 people, said:

“At the age of 24, personality disorder was already linked with social disadvantage, substance misuse and poor mental health.
Eleven years later, the presence of personality pathology predicted the occurrence of anxiety and depression, as well as the absence of long-term relationships.
What is most striking is that these associations were not due to pre-existing mental health, substance use or social problems.
People with personality disorder appear to be a distinctly vulnerable group with regards to future mental health and relationship problems.”

The study was published in the The Lancet Psychiatry (Moran et al., 2016).

These Personality Types Are The Most Compatible

The main thing people look for in a partner.

People tend to look for the same personality type in a partner over-and-over again, research concludes.

One of the main things people look for is a similar personality to themselves.

So, extraverts prefer other extraverts, agreeable people prefer other agreeable people, and so on.

However, it is more than that, the researchers found.

There is also a lot of similarity between a person’s ex-partners.

One of the advantages of having similar partners is learning how to deal with a particular personality type.

Ms Yoobin Park, the study’s first author, said:

“In every relationship, people learn strategies for working with their partner’s personality.
If your new partner’s personality resembles your ex-partner’s personality, transferring the skills you learned might be an effective way to start a new relationship on a good footing.”

The conclusions come from a study of 332 people.

Researchers compared the personalities of their current partners with those of their past partners.

They were asked how much they agreed with statements like:

“I am usually modest and reserved.”
“I am interested in many different kinds of things.”
“I make plans and carry them out.”

The results showed that people tend to have a ‘type’, said Ms Park:

“It’s common that when a relationship ends, people attribute the breakup to their ex-partner’s personality and decide they need to date a different type of person.
Our research suggests there’s a strong tendency to nevertheless continue to date a similar personality.
The effect is more than just a tendency to date someone similar to yourself.
The degree of consistency from one relationship to the next suggests that people may indeed have a ‘type’.
And though our data do not make clear why people’s partners exhibit similar personalities, it is noteworthy that we found partner similarity above and beyond similarity to oneself.”

In some circumstances, though, sticking to the same personality type all the time can be damaging, said Ms Park:

“So, if you find you’re having the same issues in relationship after relationship, you may want to think about how gravitating toward the same personality traits in a partner is contributing to the consistency in your problems.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Park & MacDonald, 2019).

City vs Countryside: How Where You Live Affects Your Happiness (M)

City vs countryside? Open vs closed-minded people? How does personality and place interact to affect life satisfaction?

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Perfectionism Is Related To Higher Depression Risk — But It Can Be Reduced

How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.

The personality trait of perfectionism is linked to higher depression risk, a review of ten different studies finds.

People who are perfectionists are worried about making mistakes and they tend to be heavily critical of themselves.

They feel pressure from society to perform to a high standard and they think others are continually judging their performance.

When perfectionists fail to meet their lofty standards, they tend to get depressed.

Practicing self-acceptance or self-compassion is one of the best ways of dealing with perfectionist tendencies.

The conclusions come from research collecting together the results of 10 separate studies including 1,758 people.

The results showed that neuroticism, or ‘negative emotionality’ is the personality trait most strongly linked to depression.

However, being a perfectionist is associated with an additional risk.

The authors explain their results:

“In our meta-analysis of 10 longitudinal studies composed of undergraduate, community member, psychiatric patient, outpatient and medical student samples, neuroticism was the strongest predictor of change in depressive symptoms.
Even so, all seven perfectionism dimensions still predicted change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”

One aspect of perfectionism is feeling societal pressure.

The authors write:

“…socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-criticism, and perfectionistic attitudes add incrementally to understanding change in depressive symptoms beyond neuroticism.”

Perfectionism is problematic because high standards are so hard to reach consistently.

The authors write:

“…people high in perfectionistic concerns appear to think, feel and behave in ways that have depressogenic consequences [causing depression].
Such people believe others hold lofty expectations for them, and often feel incapable of living up to the perfection they perceive others demand.
They may agonize about perceived failures and have doubts about performance abilities because they experience their social world as judgmental, pressure-filled and unyielding.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Personality (Smith et al., 2016).

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).

These 2 Dark Triad Personality Traits Are Highly Attractive

The study showed 128 young women personality profiles of various men.

Extraverts with stable, or non-neurotic personalities are particularly attractive, research finds.

However, both of these personality traits also help explain the attraction of the ‘bad boy’ to women, who also tends to be laid-back and extraverted.

Narcissist and psychopaths are seen as both extraverted and having stable, non-neurotic personalities, the study found.

Both of these contribute to the attractiveness of men with ‘dark triad’ personalities.

The ‘dark triad’ of personality factors includes narcissism and psychopathy, along with Machiavellianism.

The study’s authors write:

“Women, particularly in respect of short-term mating, may be attracted to ‘bad boys’, possessing confidence, hard-headedness and an inclination to risk-take – all accurate descriptors of Dark Triad [DT] men; all attractive to women.”

Another explanation for the attractiveness of bad boys could be their superficial charm, the authors write:

“Women may be responding to DT men’s ability to ‘sell themselves’; a useful tactic in a co-evolutionary ‘arms race’ in which men convince women to pursue the former’s preferred sexual strategy.
This ability may derive from a ‘used-car dealer’ ability to charm and manipulate, and DT-associated traits such as assertiveness.
Men with a DT personality are undoubtedly well-placed to successfully implement such a strategy.”

The conclusions come from a study in which 128 young women were shown personality profiles of various men.

One was designed to be high in dark triad personality factors.

The results showed that women saw the ‘bad boy’ as more attractive, when appearance was held constant.

Here are the authors’ quick description of the dark triad personality traits:

“Narcissism is defined by a sense of entitlement, dominance and a grandiose self-view.
[…]
Machiavellians are interpersonally duplicitous, insincere and extraverted.
[…]
Psychopathy consists of callousness, a lack of empathy, and
antisocial, erratic behaviour.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Carter et al., 2014).

The Personality Trait Linked To Lower Depression Risk

Some people’s personalities naturally have greater resistance to mental health problems.

Extraverts are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety or any other form of mental health problem, research finds.

Extraverts tend to enjoy other people’s company, are often full of energy and tend to be talkative.

Other people give extraverts energy and they have a tendency to feel bored when alone.

The conclusions come from a study of 441 people in Finland who were given tests of personality, depression and anxiety.

The study also found that people who are neurotic are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.

The study’s authors write:

“…the personality dimension neuroticism is strongly associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms, and the personality dimension intraversion is moderately associated with depressive symptoms among participants in this urban general population.”

Neuroticism, the authors explain, is:

“…characterized by proneness to anxiety, emotional instability, and self-consciousness, whereas extraversion involves positive emotionality, energy, and dominance.”

People who are both neurotic and introverted are at higher risk of depression and anxiety.

However, those who have stable personalities and who are extraverted are less likely to experience depression and anxiety.

The study was published in the journal Depression and Anxiety (Jylhä et al., 2006).