Older people given personality tests were followed for many years to see who developed 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).
Certain personality types have a stronger immune response.
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.
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).
The personality trait is linked to alcoholism and other types of substance misuse, problem gambling and even 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.
One personality trait is linked to higher intelligence above all others.
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).
Having any, some or all of these qualities is linked to living a happier life, study finds.
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).
Playful people, though, are easily bored, explained Professor René Proyer, the study’s first author:
“Particularly playful people have a hard time dealing with boredom.
They manage to turn almost any everyday situation into an entertaining or personally engaging experience.”
The study included 533 people, half of whom were given three activities designed to boost their playfulness:
Write down three playful situations from the day.
Be playful in an unfamiliar situation.
Reflect on playful behaviour experienced during the day.
Dr Kay Brauer, study co-author, said:
“Our assumption was that the exercises would lead people to consciously focus their attention on playfulness and use it more often.
This could result in positive emotions, which in turn would affect the person’s well-being.
Our study is the first intervention study on adults to show that playfulness can be induced and that this has positive effects for them.”
The results showed that the exercises did lead to increased playfulness and a boost to happiness.
Professor Proyer said:
“I believe that we can use this knowledge in everyday life to improve various aspects.
This does not mean that every company needs table tennis tables or a playground slide.
However, one idea would be to allow employees to consciously integrate playfulness into their everyday work and, as a supervisor, to set an example for this kind of behaviour.”
The study was published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being (Proyer et al., 2020).
