Personality - PsyBlog

Science Says Look for This Personality Trait in Your Partner

This personality trait was linked to less marital conflict.

Positivity is one of the best personality traits for a partner, research finds.

Women who have positive partners report less marital conflict.

Other personality factors are also linked to a better relationship:

Women fought less with introverted men.
Women had less conflict with men who had stable emotions.

Marital conflict included things like criticism, too many demands or just getting on the other person’s nerves.

Along with personality factors, health was also important.

Women had less marital conflict if their partner was in good health.

Dr James Iveniuk, the study’s first author, said:

“Wives report more conflict if their husband is in poor health.

If the wife is in poor health, there doesn’t seem to be any difference in terms of the quality of the marriage for the husband.”

The conclusions come from a study of 953 hetersexual couples who had been together for an average of 39 years.

The results showed that the personality and health of the man was linked to marital conflict.

However, the woman’s personality and health made little difference in this regard, said Dr Iveniuk:

“Wives whose husbands show higher levels of positivity reported less conflict.

However, the wives’ positivity had no association with their husbands’ reports of conflict.”

Professor Linda J. Waite, study co-author, said:

“Several previous studies have been about the implications of marital status on health.

This research allows us to examine individual marriages and not ‘married people.’

We have the reports on the quality of the marriage from each person, about their own personality and their own health.”

The study was published in the Journal of Marriage and Family (Iveniuk et al., 2014).

A Peaceful Sign That You Are An Introvert

Discover the difference between healthy solitude and harmful isolation in this study.

Both extraverts and introverts need solitude to recharge — although introverts prefer to have more alone time, psychologists find.

Wanting to be alone is not necessarily a red flag for depression or isolation, the research concludes.

In fact, choosing solitude can be a sign of self-acceptance and personal growth.

Periods of solitude can provide spiritual renewal, critical self-reflection and even a chance for creative expression.

Professor Margarita Azmitia, study co-author, said:

“Solitude has gotten a lot of bad press, especially for adolescents who get labeled as social misfits or lonely.

Sometimes, solitude is good.

Developmentally, learning to be alone is a skill, and it can be refreshing and restorative.”

Wanting to be alone is not necessarily about shyness or loneliness, Professor Azmitia said:

“There’s a stigma for kids who spend time alone.

They’re considered lacking in social skills, or they get labeled ‘loners’.

It’s beneficial to know when you need to be alone and when you need to be with others.

This study quantifies the benefits of solitude and distinguishes it from the costs of loneliness or isolation.”

The conclusions come from a study of 979 young people who completed a survey about solitude.

The results showed that those who sought solitude because they felt rejected were at a higher risk of depression and anxiety.

However, those who sought solitude for positive reasons did not face any of these risks.

Dr Virginia Thomas, the study’s first author, said:

“These results increase our awareness that being alone can be restorative and a positive thing.

The question is how to be alone without feeling like we’re missing out.

For many people, solitude is like exercising a muscle they’ve never used.

You have to develop it, flex it, and learn to use time alone to your benefit.”

Dr Thomas said both introverts and extraverts need solitude:

“Introverts just need more of it.

Our culture is pretty biased toward extroversion.

When we see any sign of shyness or introversion in children, we worry they won’t be popular.

But we overlook plenty of well-adjusted teens and young adults who are perfectly happy when alone, and who benefit from their solitude.”

The study was published in the Journal of Adolescence (Thomas et al., 2019).

Longest Personality Study Reveals How Much 60+ Years Changes People (M)

Longest ever study of personality dramatically answers the old question of whether people really change with age.

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How Personality Traits Determine Your Artistic and Scientific Success

How does personality predict success in writing, the visual arts, invention, music, dance and science?

Being open to experience and intelligent are linked to greater creative achievement in life, research finds.

People high on these traits are more likely to have professional (paid) success in writing, the visual arts, invention, music, dance and science.

People who are open to experience are more likely to be imaginative, sensitive to their feelings, intellectually curious and seekers of variety.

Openness to experience also measures how much you like trying out new ideas or activities.

Intelligence and openness, though, bias people towards different domains:

For scientific creativity, intelligence is linked to greater achievement.
For artistic creativity, being open to experience is linked to greater achievement.

The link between intelligence and science, as well as openness and the arts, was also seen at the genetic level.

The study’s authors explain:

“While both openness and intelligence were correlated with creative achievement in both domains, the correlation between openness and artistic achievement was twice as strong as that between openness and scientific achievement.

At the same time, the correlation between intelligence and scientific achievement was more than twice that between intelligence and artistic achievement.”

The results come from a Swedish study of 9,537 twins.

All were given personality tests, along with being asked about their creative achievements in areas including writing, visual arts, invention, music, dance and science.

Twins were included in the study to test the influence of genetics and the environment on creativity.

The authors explain the genetic results:

“Genes associated with intelligence, however, played a significantly greater role in scientific achievement than in artistic achievement.

In fact, the majority of genetic influences on intelligence were also involved in scientific creative achievement.”

The varying importance of intelligence and openness across scientific and artistic domains probably comes down to the different demands, the authors write:

“…artistic and scientific domains will generally place different demands on […] creative problem solving.

For example […] scientific creativity, on average, operates under greater constraint and requires greater top-down cognitive control than does artistic creativity, while artistic creativity, in contrast to scientific creativity, depends more on spontaneous associations, emotional involvement and the expression of affect.”

The study was published in the journal Intelligence (Manzano & Ullén, 2018).

The Personality Trait Linked To Perfect Sleep

Training this personality trait could improve your sleep.

Optimists tend to sleep better, research finds.

People with positive personalities have a 70 percent lower chance of suffering from insomnia or sleep disorders.

Optimists are typically hopeful about the future and tend to believe that goodness pervades reality.

This may help them when sleeping as being positive helps reduce ruminative thoughts about stressful events that tend to keep insomniacs awake.

The research suggests that receiving training in optimism could improve people’s sleep.

Mr Jakob Weitzer, the study’s first author, said:

“Other studies have shown that optimists take more exercise, smoke less and eat a healthier diet.

On top of that, they have better strategies for coping with problems and experience less stress in challenging situations.

All these factors could contribute to better quality sleep.”

This study included over 1,000 people in Austria who were asked about their personality, lifestyle and sleep patterns.

People who are optimistic tend to agree strongly with statements like, “I’m always optimistic about my future” and strongly disagree with statements like, “I hardly expect things to go my way.”

The results clearly showed a link between greater optimism and improved sleep.

A previous study has found that people who are hopeful about the future are 78 percent more likely to report very good quality sleep.

Positive people also reported getting a good amount of sleep: six to nine hours per night.

Optimists were much less likely to report any symptoms of insomnia or daytime sleepiness.

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.

Mr Weitzer exlained:

“This involves trying to imagine an ideal and writing down how one’s best possible life could look in the future.

After several weeks of regular practice, it can help to increase an individual’s level of optimism.”

The study was published in the Journal of Sleep Research (Weitzer et al., 2020).

The Personality Trait Linked To Good Mental Health

This type of people are less likely to be neurotic.

People who are more spiritual have better mental health, psychological, research finds.

Spiritual people feel a greater connection with the rest of the universe.

Being spiritual may boost people’s mental health because it reduces self-centredness.

Dr Dan Cohen, the study’s first author, said:

“In many ways, the results of our study support the idea that spirituality functions as a personality trait.

With increased spirituality people reduce their sense of self and feel a greater sense of oneness and connectedness with the rest of the universe.

What was interesting was that frequency of participation in religious activities or the perceived degree of congregational support was not found to be significant in the relationships between personality, spirituality, religion and health.”

Three surveys asked people about their personality, spirituality and mental and physical health.

The study included Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.

The results showed that people with faith had lower levels of neuroticism, which indicates better mental health.

Spiritual people were also more likely to be extraverted.

Dr Cohen said:

“Our prior research shows that the mental health of people recovering from different medical conditions, such as cancer, stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, appears to be related significantly to positive spiritual beliefs and especially congregational support and spiritual interventions.

Spiritual beliefs may be a coping device to help individuals deal emotionally with stress.”

The study was published in the Journal of Religion and Health (Johnstone et al., 2012).

The 2 Most Common Personality Changes Between 18 and 40

The goals people aim for in life change with their personality.

The most common changes in personality between 18 and 40-years-old are to become more agreeable and more conscientious.

Agreeable people tend to be friendly, warm and tactful — always taking into account other people’s feelings.

More conscientious people, meanwhile, tend to be self-disciplined and aim for achievement.

Now, research finds that the goals people aim for in life change with their personality.

For example, people who became more agreeable over the years focus more on relationship and family goals.

People who became more self-controlled and organised tend to value family and economic goals.

Dr Olivia E. Atherton, the study’s first author, said:

“This study was a unique opportunity to examine how individuals’ personalities and major life goals were related to each other across two decades of life.

We found that, in many ways, one’s personality shapes the types of life goals that are valued, and as a result of pursuing those goals, personality changes.”

The study included over 500 people who tracked over more than 20 years.

They were asked about their goals for their careers, for being wealthy, for having a family and for being active in politics or religion.

The researchers then looked at these goals and compared them with people’s personalities.

One famous figure who promoted the benefits of goal-seeking was Albert Einstein, who said:

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”

The study’s authors write:

“Einstein’s tendency to be creative, curious, and intellectual likely fuelled his scientific goals, as well as his more aesthetic goals, such as his passion for playing the violin.”

The results of the study revealed that people’s personalities change in reliable ways:

“We found that, on average, individuals increased in agreeableness and conscientiousness, decreased in neuroticism, and showed little change in openness to experience and extraversion from age 18 to 40.”

People place less importance on goals as they got older, the research also found:

“By identifying their own personal strengths and limitations, middle-aged adults may place less importance on certain major life goals because some goals may no longer be viewed as self-relevant.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Atherton et al., 2020).

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How a growth mindset affects stress levels and health.

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The Personality Trait Linked To Perfect Sleep

The trait can be increased using psychological exercises.

Optimistic people tend to sleep the best, research finds.

People who are hopeful about the future were 78 percent more likely to report very good quality sleep.

Positive people also reported getting a good amount of sleep: six to nine hours per night.

Finally, optimists were much less likely to report any symptoms of insomnia or daytime sleepiness.

The reason optimism is linked to better sleep could be that it promotes positive coping.

People who cope adaptively with stress in life tend to seek support from others, eat properly, exercise regularly and anticipate stressful episodes.

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.

Inadequate sleep is linked to an increased risk of many chronic diseases, said Professor Rosalba Hernandez, the study’s first author, said:

“The lack of healthy sleep is a public health concern, as poor sleep quality is associated with multiple health problems, including higher risks of obesity, hypertension and all-cause mortality.

Dispositional optimism — the belief that positive things will occur in the future — has emerged as a psychological asset of particular salience for disease-free survival and superior health.”

The study included 3,548 people across three large US cities.

They completed measures of optimism and reported on their sleep quality.

People who are optimistic tend to agree strongly with statements like “I’m always optimistic about my future” and strongly disagree with statements like “I hardly expect things to go my way.”

Some participants were brought into the lab to have their sleep quality directly measured.

Professor Hernandez explained what the study found:

“Results from this study revealed significant associations between optimism and various characteristics of self-reported sleep after adjusting for a wide array of variables, including socio-demographic characteristics, health conditions and depressive symptoms.”

Optimism promotes adaptive coping, said Professor Hernandez:

“Optimists are more likely to engage in active problem-focused coping and to interpret stressful events in more positive ways, reducing worry and ruminative thoughts when they’re falling asleep and throughout their sleep cycle.”

The study was published in the journal Behavioral Medicine (Hernandez et al., 2019).