Category: Personality

The study underlines the surprising resilience of the human mind in the face of life’s tragedies.

People get more optimistic as they get older, research finds.

From the age of 15 until mid-life, people’s optimism tends to increase and remains at a high until they reach their 60s or 70s, when it starts to drop again.

Even health problems, divorce and bereavement fail to dent people’s fundamental optimism.

The study underlines the surprising resilience of the human mind in the face of life’s tragedies.

Dr William Chopik, the study’s first author, said:

“We found that optimism continued to increase throughout young adulthood, seemed to steadily plateau and then decline into older adulthood.

Even people with fairly bad circumstances, who have had tough things happen in their lives, look to their futures and life ahead and felt optimistic.”

The study included 75,000 people in the US, Germany and the Netherlands.

They were asked about their levels of optimism, along with life events such as new jobs, marriage, divorce and bereavements.

Dr Chopik was surprised by how the most serious life events affected people’s optimism:

“Counterintuitively — and most surprising — we found that really hard things like deaths and divorce really didn’t change a person’s outlook to the future.

This shows that a lot of people likely subscribe to the ‘life is short’ mantra and realize they should focus on things that make them happy and maintain emotional balance.”

The results showed that, on average, people become more optimistic between 15 and 60 or 70 years old.

Dr Chopik said:

“There’s a massive stretch of life during which you keep consistently looking forward to things and the future.

Part of that has to do with experiencing success both in work and life.

You find a job, you meet your significant other, you achieve your goals and so on.

You become more autonomous and you are somewhat in control of your future; so, you tend to expect things to turn out well.”

Old age brings a decline in optimism as people face health concerns and their own death.

Nevertheless, people do not become fully fledged pessimists, said Dr Chopik:

“Retirement age is when people can stop working, have time to travel and to pursue their hobbies.

But very surprisingly, people didn’t really think that it would change the outlook of their lives for the better.”

People’s resilience is remarkable, Dr Chopik said:

“We oftentimes think that the really sad or tragic things that happen in life completely alter us as people, but that’s not really the case.

You don’t fundamentally change as a result of terrible things; people diagnosed with an illness or those who go through another crisis still felt positive about the future and what life had ahead for them on the other side.”

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

Although people high in this personality trait generally suffer from more stress and anxiety, some have a surprising health advantage.

Being neurotic can be good for your health in some circumstances.

So-called ‘healthy neurotics’ are people who combine neurotic personality traits with being conscientious.

Healthy neurotics have lower levels of markers of inflammation in their blood, suggesting their immune system is functioning better.

The self-discipline of being conscientious counteracts unhealthy neurotic behaviours like overeating and drinking too much alcohol.

Dr Nicholas A. Turiano, the study’s first author, said:

“These people are likely to weigh the consequences of their actions, and therefore their level of neuroticism coupled with conscientiousness probably stops them from engaging in risky behaviors.”

A survey of 1,054 adults found that those who were both neurotic and conscientious had lower levels of inflammation in their blood.

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) is an immune protein that is linked to chronic disease.

The neurotic and conscientious also had fewer chronic health problems and lower body-mass indexes.

The results are somewhat surprising as neurotic people tend to suffer more from stress and anxiety, which are also linked to worse health.

Dr Turiano said:

“Speculation is that healthy neurotics may be hyper-vigilant about their lifestyle and about seeking treatment when a problem arises.

It’s their conscientiousness that guides their decisions to prevent disease or quickly get treatment when they don’t feel well.”

Better physical health is not the first advantage identified for the neurotic, as I’ve written previously:

“High levels of creativity may go hand-in-hand with neuroticism.

It’s because the area of the brain which is linked to creativity also has the tendency to overthink things and worry.

Neuroticism is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.”

Neurotic people also seem to suffer from indecision as a result of worrying about the future.

One way to reduce this is to start learning to take action:

“Learning to value taking action is an important way of reducing the harmful effects of neuroticism.

People high in anxiety and neuroticism dislike taking action, recent research reveals.”

→ Read on about the harmful effects of neuroticism.

The study was published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (Turiano et al., 2012).

Conscientious people are systematic and dutiful and are more likely to follow through on their plans than their less conscientious peers.

Being more conscientious is simply a matter of faking it until you make it, a study suggests.

Far from being impossible to change, people can increase their conscientiousness by starting to behave in more hard-working and organised ways until it becomes second nature.

People in the study did things like make to-do lists and tidy up their homes.

Increased conscientiousness is one of the changes to personality that people desire the most, along with increased extraversion and emotional stability.

Conscientiousness is one of the five major aspects of personality.

Conscientious people are systematic and dutiful and are more likely to follow through on their plans than their less conscientious peers.

Conscientious people are also are more careful, efficient and self-disciplined — and they aim for achievement.

Personality change, though, is often seen as something that is very hard or even impossible.

Dr Nathan Hudson, the study’s author, begs to differ:

“The idea of personality trait change – especially other people trying to change an individual’s personality – can sound scary.

But whether we recognize it or not, society is filled with interventions designed to try to change our personality traits.

For instance, elementary school is a giant intervention designed to help children become more intelligent, yes, but also kinder and more sociable, responsible and hardworking.”

For the research, Dr Hudson tested college student’s ability to change two aspects of their personality: increase their conscientiousness and increase their emotional stability.

The results showed that conscientiousness could be increased through simple practice, whether or not the students were motivated to change.

Dr Hudson said:

“Motivation is largely irrelevant to interventions targeting conscientiousness, as long as participants adhere to the intervention.”

However, emotional stability could  not easily be increased when the students were not motivated.

Dr Hudson thinks it comes down to the nature of negative emotions:

“For many people, it can be difficult to ‘just stop feeling angry’ or ‘just stop being stressed.

My hunch is that indirect strategies for changing someone’s emotions, such as writing in a journal or thinking about positive things, can only really work when people want to use those techniques to change their emotions.”

Dr Hudson thinks organisations and schools could help people improve some personality traits:

“This provides promising evidence that schools, companies, or other organizations could ask people to make relatively minor changes that could help improve their lives by making them more organized and responsible over time.

In contrast, it appears that emotional stability might require a bit more investment from the people who partake in an intervention.”

→ Read on: How To Change Your Personality

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Hudson, 2021).

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:

1. You remain calm under pressure.
2. You do not postpone making major decisions.
3. You engage in self-reflection to understand myself.
4. You approach situations where your help may be needed.
5. You find it easy to give helpful advice to others.
6. You enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints.
7. Your spiritual beliefs give you inner strength.

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:

• self-reflection,
• pro-social behaviors (such as empathy, compassion and altruism),
• emotional regulation (understanding and controlling your emotions),
• acceptance of diverse perspectives,
• decisiveness,
• social advising (such as giving rational and helpful advice to others)
• and spirituality.

Increase your wisdom

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.

1. Increase emotional control

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.

2. Increase compassion

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.

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.

Overcoming ageist stereotypes

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.”

Increase your optimism

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).

When a perfectionist slips up, they criticise themselves too much and can experience burnout and depression.

Being self-compassionate is one of the best remedies for a perfectionist personality, research finds.

Learning self-acceptance helps protect the type of perfectionists who are highly self-critical from depression.

Some perfectionists are very worried about making mistakes and push themselves too hard to succeed.

When a perfectionist slips up, they criticise themselves too much and can experience burnout and depression.

However, perfectionists who are self-compassionate and self-accepting are less likely to get depressed.

The conclusion comes from a study of 541 adolescents and 515 adults.

All were given tests of perfectionism, depression and self-compassion.

Dr Madeleine Ferrari, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“Self-compassion, the practice of self-kindness, consistently reduces the strength of the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression for both adolescents and adults.”

The study’s authors explain how self-compassion is helpful:

“…self-compassion is ‘a useful emotion regulation strategy, in which painful or distressing feelings are not avoided but are instead held in awareness with kindness, understanding, and a sense of shared humanity’.

Thus, instead of avoiding social comparisons or overcompensating for negative feelings about the self through futile attempts to attain a higher social rank, the cultivation of self-compassion might help individuals to unconditionally accept ones’ failings.”

The study was published in the journal PLoS ONE (Ferrari et al., 2018).