People who are high on this personality trait have healthier hearts.
The trait can increase the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
The trait can increase the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
The personality trait of optimism is linked to a very longer life, research finds.
People who are optimistic are more likely to live an exceptionally long life.
Being optimistic — a trait that can be boosted — can increase the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.
Optimistic people tend to expect positive outcomes in the future.
Critically, optimists believe they can control their lives and make improvements.
Optimists tend to lead healthier lives and are also better at regulating their emotions.
They are less likely to smoke, have better body mass indexes and are more physically active.
Dr Lewina Lee, the study’s first author, said:
“While research has identified many risk factors for diseases and premature death, we know relatively less about positive psychosocial factors that can promote healthy aging.
This study has strong public health relevance because it suggests that optimism is one such psychosocial asset that has the potential to extend the human lifespan.
Interestingly, optimism may be modifiable using relatively simple techniques or therapies.”
The study included 71,173 people whose optimism and overall health was tracked.
The group were tracked for up to three decades.
The results showed that the most optimistic people lived up to 15 percent longer, with a 50-70 percent higher chance of reaching 85-years-old than the least optimistic people.
One of the reasons optimists live longer could be a healthier lifestyle, along with dealing with stress more effectively, said Dr Laura Kubzansky, study co-author:
“Other research suggests that more optimistic people may be able to regulate emotions and behavior as well as bounce back from stressors and difficulties more effectively.”
Exercises such as visualising your ‘best possible self‘ have been shown to increase optimism.
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.
The study was published in the journal PNAS (Lee et al., 2019).
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The main thing people look for in a partner.
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:
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).
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How to reduce the damage done by this depressive personality trait.
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).
Some people’s personalities naturally have greater resistance to mental health problems.
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).
The results from over 1.5 million people showed that many clustered around these four types.
The results from over 1.5 million people showed that many clustered around these four types.
There are four distinct personality types that many people fall into, according to research from 1.5 million people around the world.
They are the ‘average’, the ‘reserved’, the ‘role models’ and the ‘self-centred’.
While psychologists usually dislike the idea of personality ‘types’, Professor Luís Amaral, study co-author, said:
“Personality types only existed in self-help literature and did not have a place in scientific journals.
Now, we think this will change because of this study.”
Most people are ‘average’, as you would expect: they are relatively extraverted but also a little neurotic.
They are also relatively closed to new experiences, preferring to stick to what they know and not that curious about the world.
Reserved people tend to be emotionally stable but more introverted.
Set against this, they are also agreeable and conscientious.
This is the quiet, unobtrusive, willing and dependable type.
Role models tend to have stable emotions and be high in openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion.
This means they are friendly, hard-working, outgoing and curious.
Others naturally looked up to them because of their positive personality traits.
Professor Amaral said:
“These are people who are dependable and open to new ideas.
These are good people to be in charge of things.
In fact, life is easier if you have more dealings with role models.”
People are more likely to fit into the role model category as they get older.
Women are also more likely to fall into this category.
Self-centred people are extraverted but low in openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Teenage boys are particularly likely to be self-centred, Professor Amaral said:
“We know teen boys behave in self-centered ways.
If the data were correct and sifted for demographics, they would they turn out to be the biggest cluster of people.”
People tend to get less self-centred with age.
The results come from a survey of over 1.5 million people worldwide.
All were given standard tests of the five major factors of personality: neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness to experience.
The results showed that many — although not all — people tend to cluster around these four types.
Change is also possible between the groups, Professor Amaral said:
“When we look at large groups of people, it’s clear there are trends, that some people may be changing some of these characteristics over time.
This could be a subject of future research.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour (Gerlach et al., 2018).
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