There is little evidence that children ‘turn into’ their parents, but parental personalities are central.
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).
City vs countryside? Open vs closed-minded people? How does personality and place interact to affect life satisfaction?
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 personality traits that help cadets graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point.
The personality traits that help cadets graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point.
Grit and intelligence are two personality factors vital for success, research suggests.
Grit is the trait of perseverance and passion that keeps people working towards long-term goals.
While higher intelligence helps people succeed at certain activities, it may be grit that really propels people over the line.
The conclusions come from a study of over 11,258 cadets entering the US Military Academy at West Point.
Professor Angela Duckworth, the study’s first author, said:
“I was looking for a context in which people might be quitting too early.
There’s such a thing as quitting at the right time.
But there’s also such a thing as quitting on a bad day when you’re discouraged and maybe shouldn’t be making such a big decision.”
All cadets entering the Academy in nine successive years completed measures of grit, plus the researchers had access to cognitive scores and tests of physical abilities.
Professor Duckworth said:
“We accumulated all this data in part so we could answer more definitively the question of whether grit predicted success outcomes.
We now have more confidence in our original conclusions.
At the same time, we wanted to explore where, perhaps, grit wasn’t the most important factor.”
The results showed that the trait of grit was most useful to cadets during ‘Beast Barracks’, a six-week initiation during which 3 percent of cadets drop out.
Professor Duckworth said:
“The grittier you are, the less likely you are to drop out during that very discouraging time.”
In classroom activities it was intelligence that mattered most.
To graduate from West Point, though, a combination of grit and physical ability was more important than cognitive abilities.
Professor Duckworth said:
“This work shows us that grit is not the only determinant of success.
Yes, it’s very important, helping people stick with things when they’re hard, but it’s not the best predictor of every aspect of success.”
Fascinatingly, the higher cadet’s cognitive abilities, the lower their grit.
Smarter people seem to have less determination to overcome the odds, perhaps because they face fewer challenges.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Duckworth et al., 2019).
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).
Wisdom can protect us from loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Wisdom can protect us from loneliness, anxiety and depression.
Wisdom — a modifiable personality trait — is linked to greater happiness, resilience, and mental well-being.
It is also linked to less depression, anxiety and loneliness.
Here are seven signs that you are a wise person:
Professor Dilip V. Jeste, study co-author, said:
“There are evidence-based interventions to increase levels of specific components of wisdom, which would help reduce loneliness and promote overall well-being.
Like the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the novel coronavirus, wisdom can aid in protecting us from loneliness.
Thus, we can potentially help end a behavioral pandemic of loneliness, suicides and opioid abuse that has been going on for the last 20 years.”
The results come from a survey of over 2,000 people who were asked about seven major aspects of wisdom.
These are:
Like many other personality traits, wisdom can be difficult to change, but not impossible.
Here are two examples of ways to increase components of wisdom.
One method that has been tested scientifically is to practice referring to yourself in the third-person (Weng et al., 2013).
Instead of saying “I feel hurt and angry,” a person might say to themselves, “He feels hurt and angry.”
The simple technique helps people distance themselves from the strong emotions they are feeling in the moment.
Compassion, another component of wisdom, is also not something you either have or you don’t — it can (and should) be learned and nurtured.
Participants a one study took part in one-day course in loving kindness meditation to improve their self-compassion.
This helps foster benevolent and loving feelings towards the self and others.
After the self-compassion training, people felt better in themselves, were more compassionate towards others and there was more activation in the areas of the brain associated with love, affiliation and positive emotion.
→ Related: Decision-Making Skills: 16 Ways To Improve
The study was published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics (Thomas et al., 2021).
This personality trait is linked to living almost 8 years longer on average.
This personality trait is linked to living almost 8 years longer on average.
Optimists are most likely to hold positive beliefs about aging, researchers finds.
Critically, optimists believe they can control their lives and make improvements.
This means that believing in a healthy, engaged old age is a self-fulfilling prophecy — people with these views tend to experience better health and are more active and social.
Ms Shelbie Turner, the study’s first author, said:
“How we think about who we’re going to be in old age is very predictive of exactly how we will be.”
People who imagine themselves more positively at 50-years-old tend to have better health 40 years later, studies have found.
They are less likely to suffer a heart attack, have better memory, greater will to live and are less likely to die prematurely.
Professor Karen Hooker, study co-author, said:
“Previous research has shown that people who have positive views of aging at 50 live 7.5 years longer, on average, than people who don’t.”
For the study, 244 people were tested for their optimistic traits and for how they saw themselves in the future.
Each person listed two ‘hoped-for’ future selves and two ‘feared’ future selves.
For example, people feared being chronically sick and in pain and hoped to be healthy and active.
The results revealed that optimistic people were more positive about aging.
Older people are often stereotyped as suffering memory problems, having difficulty exercising and being poor drivers.
Professor Hooker said:
“Kids as young as 4 years old already have negative stereotypes about old people.
Then, of course, if you’re lucky enough to live to old age, they eventually apply to you.”
Even older people sometimes reinforce these stereotypes themselves in the way they behave and think about aging.
Professor Hooker said:
“People need to realize that some of the negative health consequences in later life might not be biologically driven.
The mind and the body are all interwoven.
If you believe these bad things are going to happen, over time that can erode people’s willingness or maybe even eventually their ability to engage in those health behaviors that are going to keep them as healthy as they can be.”
The social mixing of young and old would help generate positive views of aging, says Professor Hooker:
“The more you’re around older people, the more you realize that it’s not all bad.
Older people can do some things better than young people do. Increasing opportunities for intergenerational relationships is one way we can make people more optimistic about aging.”
People naturally become more optimistic with age, studies have found.
However, exercises such as visualising your ‘best possible self‘ have been shown to increase optimism in the short-term.
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 The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (Turner & Hooker, 2020).
Among the major personality traits, it shows the strongest link to depression.
Among the major personality traits, it shows the strongest link to depression.
Negative emotionality is linked to a higher risk of depression, data from millions of people finds.
Negative emotionality, or being neurotic, involves a tendency towards fear and worry.
People who are neurotic are more likely to experience negative emotions like fear, jealousy, guilt, worry and envy.
The good news is that a depressive personality can be changed, contrary to what many people think.
The study’s conclusions come from analysing data from over two million people.
Their DNA revealed 269 genes related to depression.
Certain genes were also related to some lifestyle choice, like smoking.
The study shows that experiencing depression is linked to personality, which is partly controlled by genes.
Dr Raliza Stoyanova, of Wellcome, who funded the study, said:
“This large study is an important advance in understanding how genetic variability might contribute to risk for depression.
Given that current treatments work for only half of those who need them, the study provides some intriguing clues for future research to follow up — for example that biological pathways involved in developing the condition may not be the same as those involved in responding to treatment.”
Dr Sophie Dix, Director of Research at mental health charity MQ, said:
“This study adds to the weight of evidence that genes are one of the key risk factors in depression, which is also impacted by life events such as social environment and trauma.
The value of this could really be seen when looking into the development of personalised treatments — a welcome step given the dearth of innovation in identifying new approaches.
We have seen very little advancement in nearly 50 years for people living with depression and right now the avenues available are not working for everyone.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Howard et al., 2019).
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