Personality as a Determinant of Health Behaviors and Chronic Diseases: Review of Meta-Analytic Evidence

Author(s):  
Markus Jokela

This chapter reviews the meta-analytic evidence on how personality traits of the Five-Factor Model (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) are associated with health behaviors (e.g., smoking, physical activity); chronic physical diseases (e.g., Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease); and all-cause mortality. A systematic literature identified 22 meta-analyses investigating the topic. The evidence suggests multiple associations between personality traits and health behaviors. By contrast, only conscientiousness was systematically associated with chronic diseases and mortality across multiple studies and disease end points, including all-cause mortality. While associations between personality and health outcomes are well established, the pathways connecting them remain largely unknown. Future studies need to focus on study designs that can better address the developmental patterns, mediating pathways, and causality in explaining why personality traits are associated with health.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Strømme ◽  
Karine Holthe Børstad ◽  
Andrea Eftang Rø ◽  
Eilin Kristine Erevik ◽  
Dominic Sagoe ◽  
...  

Objectives: The aim of the present meta-analysis was to synthesize results from the association between problem gambling (PG) and dimensions of the five factor model of personality and to identify potential moderators (gambling diagnosis: yes/no, comorbidity: yes/no and trait assessment: four or fewer items vs. five items or more) of these associations in meta-regressions.Methods: Searches were conducted in six databases; Medline, Web of Science, PsychInfo, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, and Cochrane Library (conducted on February, 22, 2021). Included studies: (1) reported a relationship between PG and at least one of the personality traits in the five-factor model, (2) contained information of zero-order correlations or sufficient data for such calculations, and (3) were original articles published in any European language. Case-studies, qualitative studies, and reviews were excluded. All articles were independently screened by two authors. Final agreement was reached through discussion or by consulting a third author. Risk of bias of the included studies was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Data were synthesized using a random effects model.Results: In total 28 studies, comprising 20,587 participants, were included. The correlations between PG and the traits were as follows: Neuroticism: 0.273 (95% CI = 0.182, 0.358), conscientiousness −0.296 (95% CI = −0.400, −0.185), agreeableness −0.163 (95% CI = −0.223, −0.101), openness −0.219 (95% CI = −0.308, −0.127), and extroversion −0.083 (95% CI = −0.120, −0.046). For all meta-analyses the between study heterogeneity was significant. Presence of gambling diagnosis was the only moderator that significantly explained between-study variance showing a more negative correlation to extroversion when participants had a gambling diagnosis compared to when this was not the case.Discussion: The results indicated some publication bias. Correcting for this by a trim-and-fill procedure showed however that the findings were consistent. Clinicians and researchers should be aware of the associations between personality traits and PG. Previous studies have for example showed neuroticism to be related to treatment relapse, low scores on conscientiousness to predict treatment drop-out and agreeableness to reduce risk of treatment drop-out.Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42021237225).


2009 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 631-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle D. Taylor ◽  
Martha C. Whiteman ◽  
Gerald R. Fowkes ◽  
Amanda J. Lee ◽  
Michael Allerhand ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Oltmanns ◽  
Thomas A. Widiger

Personality traits predict physical health outcomes including health behaviors, health perceptions, disease, and mortality. Maladaptive traits of personality disorders may predict even more variance in physical health indicators. Dimensional models of maladaptive personality traits are replacing categorical models of personality disorder, and the five-factor model of personality disorder (FFMPD) is a useful dimensional model of maladaptive traits. However, there has been little work investigating the criterion validity of the FFMPD. The present study serves as a broad initial overview of the FFMPD scales in the prediction of health behaviors, heath perceptions, and insomnia symptoms across two timepoints in a representative community sample of older adults (N = 1,060). Findings indicate that the FFMPD scales explain a significant amount of variance in the physical health variables across time. Exploratory analyses indicate that the FFMPD traits have incremental validity over covariates, normal-range personality traits, and personality disorder criteria.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Oltmanns ◽  
Thomas A. Widiger

Personality traits predict physical health outcomes, including health behaviors, disease, and mortality. Maladaptive traits of personality disorders may predict even more variance in physical health indicators. Dimensional models of maladaptive personality traits are replacing categorical models of personality disorder, and the Five-Factor Model of personality disorder (FFMPD) is a useful dimensional model of maladaptive traits. However, there has been little work investigating the criterion validity of the FFMPD. The present study serves as a broad initial overview of the FFMPD scales in the prediction of health behaviors, heath perceptions, and insomnia symptoms across two time points in a representative community sample of older adults (N = 1,060). Findings indicate that the FFMPD scales explain a significant amount of variance in the physical health variables across time. Exploratory analyses indicate that the FFMPD traits have incremental validity over covariates, normal-range personality traits, and personality disorder criteria.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtland S. Hyatt ◽  
Emily S. Hallowell ◽  
Max M. Owens ◽  
Brandon M. Weiss ◽  
Lawrence H. Sweet ◽  
...  

Abstract Quantitative models of psychopathology (i.e., HiTOP) propose that personality and psychopathology are intertwined, such that the various processes that characterize personality traits may be useful in describing and predicting manifestations of psychopathology. In the current study, we used data from the Human Connectome Project (N = 1050) to investigate neural activation following receipt of a reward during an fMRI task as one shared mechanism that may be related to the personality trait Extraversion (specifically its sub-component Agentic Extraversion) and internalizing psychopathology. We also conducted exploratory analyses on the links between neural activation following reward receipt and the other Five-Factor Model personality traits, as well as separate analyses by gender. No significant relations (p < .005) were observed between any personality trait or index of psychopathology and neural activation following reward receipt, and most effect sizes were null to very small in nature (i.e., r < |.05|). We conclude by discussing the appropriate interpretation of these null findings, and provide suggestions for future research that spans psychological and neurobiological levels of analysis.


Assessment ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107319112110061
Author(s):  
Jared R. Ruchensky ◽  
M. Brent Donnellan ◽  
Christopher J. Hopwood ◽  
John F. Edens ◽  
Andrew E. Skodol ◽  
...  

Structural models of personality traits, particularly the five-factor model (FFM), continue to inform ongoing debates regarding what personality attributes and trait domains are central to psychopathy. A growing body of literature has linked the constructs of the triarchic model of psychopathy (boldness, meanness, disinhibition) to the FFM. Recently, researchers developed both item and regression-based measures of the triarchic model of psychopathy using the NEO Personality Inventory–Revised—a popular measure of the FFM. The current study examines the correlates of these two FFM-derived operationalizations of the triarchic model using data from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. The two approaches had strong convergent validity coefficients and similar patterns of criterion-related validity coefficients. Meanness related to greater personality pathology characterized by exploitation of others and poor attachment, whereas disinhibition related to indicators of greater negative affect and poor behavioral constraint. Boldness related to reduced negative affect and greater narcissistic personality traits. Although the item and regression-based approaches showed similar patterns of associations with criterion-variables, the item-based approach has some practical and psychometric advantages over the regression-based approach given strong correlations between the meanness and disinhibition scores from the regression approach.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Kożusznik ◽  
Anita Pollak ◽  
Dominik Adamek ◽  
Damian Grabowski

Abstract Our article presents work on the development and validation of Influence Regulation and Deinfluentization Scale (DEI-beh). Reviewing concepts regarding its influence constitutes an introduction to the original deinfluentization concept coined by Barbara Kożusznik. The author’s theory has provided the basis for creating a diagnostic tool. The elaborated DEI-beh method consists in evaluating conditions which determine managerial effectiveness and shape reciprocal influences among team members. Our article describes this tool’s creation and its validation procedure. Positive relationships between DEI-beh’s individual dimensions and temperament characteristics, defined in Pavlov’s concept (1952), and selected personality traits, proposed in the Five-Factor Model Personality by Costa and McCrae (1992), confirm the tool’s external validity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarete Vollrath ◽  
Markus A. Landolt ◽  
Karin Ribi

Previous studies based on a variety of behaviour, temperament, and personality measures identified a pattern of over‐activity, impulsiveness, emotional instability, and aggressiveness in children who are prone to accidents. The present study is the first to study accident‐prone children by means of a comprehensive test for the assessment of the Five Factor model (Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) (Mervielde & De Fruyt, 1999). 118 children, aged 6–15 years, who were hospitalized due to an accident‐related injury, were contrasted with 184 school‐children of the same age. Lower socio‐economic status was under‐represented in both groups. Children who were exposed to accidents had higher scores on the facets of energy, optimism, and non‐shyness (Extraversion domain), and lower scores on the facets of concentration and achievement striving (Conscientiousness domain). There was no indication of higher aggressiveness, impulsiveness, or emotional instability in the group exposed to accidents, and there were no gender‐by‐accident interactions. Results suggest that there is a relatively benign pattern of personality traits that is related to greater accident hazard in children. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Wolfradt ◽  
Jörg Felfe ◽  
Torsten Köster

This study examines the relationship between self-perceived emotional intelligence (EI) measured by the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) [1] and other personality measures including the five-factor-model. The EI construct has lately been re-defined as the ability to think intelligently about emotions and to use them to enhance intelligent thinking [2]. Two studies provide support that self-reported EI is mainly associated with personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, self-perceived creativity), life satisfaction and thinking styles with only a low relation to verbal intelligence. Furthermore, persons higher in the EI dimension “emotional efficacy” produced more creative performances than persons low in this domain. These findings suggest that self-reported EI cannot be considered as a rational form of intelligence so that it does qualify to fit into the framework of personality traits.


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