Personality - Page 18 of 32

The Personality Trait That Indicates Depression Risk

Around 25% of Americans experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.

Being neurotic is the strongest risk factor for depression and anxiety, research finds.

Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotions like fear, guilt, shame, sadness and anger.

People who are neurotic tend to startle easily and can be nervous even when there is nothing to be nervous about, the study showed.

The good news is that a depressive personality can be changed, contrary to what many people think.

Also, being high in conscientiousness and an extravert together has a protective effect on people who are highly neurotic.

The conclusions come from a study of 132 adolescents who were told they would receive mild electric shocks at specific moments.

The results showed that neurotic people were more nervous even when they knew there was no shock coming.

Professor Michelle Craske, the study’s first author, said:

“…these findings suggest that persons with high neuroticism would respond with appropriate fear to actual threatening events, but with additional unnecessary anxiety to surrounding conditions.
This type of responding may explain why neuroticism contributes to the development of pervasive anxiety.”

Professor Craske explained that her goal is to see what separates depression from anxiety and what unites them:

“Anxiety and depression often go hand in hand; we’re trying to learn what factors place adolescents at risk for the development of anxiety and depression, what is common between anxiety and depression, and what is unique to each.
We chose this age group because 16-to-19 is when anxiety and mood disorders tend to surge in prevalence.”

Many of the participants were already experiencing anxiety and depression before the study started, Professor Craske said:

“We assumed most would not be currently anxious or depressed and we would see who develops disorders over time.
We were surprised to see that more than 20 percent had a current or past anxiety disorder, and 30 percent had a current or past mood disorder at the start of the study.”

The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Craske et al., 2009).

The Type Of Personality Traits Linked To Being Prejudiced (M)

These antagonistic personality traits are linked to prejudiced view against gay and trans people.

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Is Our Psychology More Nature or Nurture? 29 Million Twins Reveal All (M)

14.5 million pairs of twins reveal the root cause of your personality, intelligence, propensity for mental illness and health.

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The Personality Trait Linked To Loneliness

Feeling lonely is a part of some people’s genetic makeup.

People who are neurotic have a genetic tendency towards loneliness, research finds.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that indicates a tendency to experience stress and insecurity.

However, loneliness is not just genetic, it is also a result of life circumstances.

In fact, the environment plays a bigger part than genetics — which is good news, because that means it can change.

Lonely people do not have to stay that way, whatever their genetic makeup.

Professor Julie Aitken Schermer, the study’s first author, said:

“If you have rich interactions with people, that’s an environmental component that would combat the genetic impact of loneliness.”

The conclusions come from research on 764 pairs of twins in Australia.

Twins enable researchers to separate out the influence of genetics and the environment on a person.

All were asked about their personality and any loneliness they experienced.

The results showed that people who were neurotic reported feeling more lonely.

In contrast, those who were high in extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness were less likely to experience loneliness.

The authors write:

“The results suggest common genetic and unique environmental factors play a role in personality and loneliness.”

Professor Schermer is worried about the spread of loneliness across society:

“It does concern be me because we’re getting lonelier as a society.
We’re not having the same richness of interaction.”

Professor Schermer sees it in her students:

“They’re all looking at their devices and not interacting with each other.
I always tell my students, ‘Put your stuff down and talk to each other.’
This is the key time to make friends – they already have things in common.”

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Schermer & Martin, 2019).

There Are Two Types Of Extroverts: Agentic And Affiliative

There are two types of extroverts, each with distinct brain anatomies.

There are two different types of extroverts — ‘agentic’ and ‘affiliative’ — each with distinct brain structures, research finds.

Agentic extroverts are ‘go-getters’: the kind of outgoing people who are persistent, assertive and focused on achievement.

The other kind of extroverts have a softer side.

Affiliative extroverts tend to be more affectionate, friendly and sociable.

Both types of extroverts share distinct brain anatomy as well as displaying distinct differences, the new research finds.

Dr Tara White, the study’s first author, said that extroverts in general are keen to share:

“These are people just sharing with you how they tend to experience the world and what’s important to them.
The fact that that’s validated in the brain is really exciting. There’s a deep reality there.
This is the first glimpse of a benchmark of what the healthy adult brain looks like with these traits.”

Scanning for types of extrovert

For the study, researchers scanned the brains of 83 people to look for similarities and differences in key areas of the brain.

They found that both types of extroverts had more gray matter in the medial orbitofrontal cortex.

This area of the brain has been linked to making decisions based on rewards.

Agentic extroverts, though, had larger volumes in some other areas as well.

These were related to learning and memory for reward, cognitive control of behaviours and planning and execution.

The study can’t tell us whether these areas are the cause of the personality differences or the result of them, or perhaps some combination of the two.

The study’s authors concluded:

“[The] findings provide a developmental benchmark from which to better understand the etiology of problems in agentic extroversion and affiliative extroversion, such as can occur in normal aging and neurodegenerative disease.”

The study is published in the journal Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience (Grodin & White, 2015).

This Authentic Personality Trait Reduces Depression

The trait is linked to feeling pure and in touch with yourself.

Believing in free will makes you feel more authentic and pure, research finds.

Free will is the belief that we have the power to make our own choices and we are not ruled by fate.

Feeling closer to your true self has a number of benefits, including lower depression and anxiety.

A sense of free will also helps boost people’s self-esteem and increases their sense of meaning in life.

Dr Elizabeth Seto, the study’s first author, said:

“Whether you agree that we have free will or that we are overpowered by social influence or other forms of determinism, the belief in free will has truly important consequences.”

For the study, almost 300 people were split into two groups.

One group wrote about experiences that reflected free will, while the other wrote about experiences that lacked it.

The results showed that a lack of free will was linked to less self-awareness and even self-alienation.

People who wrote about free will, though, felt more in touch with themselves.

Dr Seto said:

“Our findings suggest that part of being who you are is experiencing a sense of agency and feeling like you are in control over the actions and outcomes in your life.
If people are able to experience these feelings, they can become closer to their true or core self.”

In a subsequence study, people whose sense of free will was boosted, reported feeling more authentic about making a donation to charity.

Dr Seto said:

“When we experience or have low belief in free will and feel ‘out of touch’ with who we are, we may behave without a sense of morality.
This is particularly important if we have a goal to improve the quality of life for individuals and the society at large.”

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (Seto & Hicks, 2016).

The Surprising Link Between Blood Pressure And Personality Traits

Blood pressure can be treated with medication and/or a series of relatively simple lifestyle changes, including exercise and diet.

High blood pressure can make people more neurotic, a study finds.

Neuroticism is one of the five major aspects of personality — it is characterised by heightened levels of anxiety and worry.

Treatment of this common condition, therefore, could help to reduce common neurotic tendencies, such as worry, hostility and depression — not to mention its more usual benefit of heart health.

Blood pressure can be treated with medication and/or a series of relatively simple lifestyle changes, including exercise and diet.

While the link between neuroticism and high blood pressure has already been identified, it was not clear which causes which.

The study’s authors write:

“Individuals with neuroticism can be sensitive to the criticism of others, are often self-critical, and easily develop anxiety, anger, worry, hostility, self-consciousness, and depression.
Neuroticism is viewed as a key causative factor for anxiety and mood disorders.
Individuals with neuroticism more frequently experience high mental stress, which can lead to elevated [blood pressure] and cardiovascular diseases.
Appropriate surveillance and control of blood pressure can be beneficial for the reduction of neuroticism, neuroticism-inducing mood disorders, and cardiovascular diseases.”

Diastolic blood pressure

The genetic study examined millions of samples of blood pressure and psychological states from 8 different studies including many hundreds of thousands of people.

The results showed that diastolic blood pressure caused high levels of neuroticism.

Diastolic blood pressure is the second number in the measurement and it reflects the blood pressure in your arteries when your heart rests between beats.

However, there was no link between blood pressure and depressive symptoms, anxiety or happiness.

It is not known exactly why blood pressure has this effect on personality, but clearly heart and brain are linked.

Other studies on the link between personality and blood pressure have shown that:

Thinking positive is linked to lower blood pressure.
People with high levels of the personality trait of neuroticism are at a greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.

→ Read on: how to spot the common signs of high blood pressure

The study was published in the journal General Psychiatry (Cai et al., 2022).

The 2 Universal Traits Both Sexes Find Attractive In A Partner

Despite major social changes in the last fifty years, some old-fashioned differences still exist between the sexes.

Intelligence and friendliness are the two traits seen as most attractive by both men and women in a potential romantic partner, research finds.

Despite major social changes in the last fifty years, some old-fashioned differences still exist between the sexes.

Men tend to care more about women’s appearance and go for younger women.

Women, meanwhile, have a tendency to focus more on security and financial prospects.

The conclusions come from a study of 14,399 heterosexual people from 45 different countries.

Broadly, these tendencies have not changed in the last forty years, the researchers find.

Women place more importance on men’s intelligence and good health, while men are more focused on appearance.

Women still prefer older partners, with the average age difference between men and women being around 2-3 years.

However, in cultures with more gender equality, partners tend to be closer in age.

The study has been criticised on social media, explains Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, study co-author:

“One criticism of the findings that was quickly posted on social media was that there’s extreme overlap between the sexes in their partner preferences.
Some thought this should have been better communicated in the article.
But the criticism is unfair in this context, and not something that was undervalued.
The research identifies similarities, overlaps and differences.”

As with many psychology studies, the researchers are focused on average differences across many people.

Individuals, though, display incredible variety.

In other words, many men and women will have similar goals in dating while some women do focus more on appearance and some men focus more on money and security.

Professor Mons Bendixen, study co-author, said:

“The point of the article is to see if the gender differences observed in earlier cross-cultural studies were reproducible.
To a great extent, they are.”

Why men focus on looks…

One theory for why men focus on looks and women on security comes from evolutionary psychology.

Evolutionary psychology is a branch of psychology that attempts to explain mental traits as adaptations or products of natural selection.

According to the theory, women have more to lose from a relationship: they are left holding the baby.

Hence, their focus on security and age (older men tend to be richer).

Men, though, search for genetic fitness in their offspring.

They, or at least their genes, want to reproduce themselves in the fittest way possible.

Younger and more attractive women are more likely to produce healthy and genetically fit children.

Hence, men’s focus on looks.

It is highly debatable whether or not the explanation provided by evolutionary psychology is really true.

Certainly, its principles are not fashionable right now — not that fashion is any guide to truth.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Walter et al., 2020).

This Personality Trait Is Surprisingly Sexy To Men And Women

Women in the study guessed that the personality trait of conformity would attract men, but it didn’t.

Women in the study guessed that the personality trait of conformity would attract men, but it didn’t.

When it comes to dating, both sexes prefer a non-conformist partner, a study finds.

Although most people know a rebellious man is sexy; the results upend the common assumption that men prefer women who play by the rules.

Women in the study guessed that the personality trait of conformity would attract men, but it didn’t.

The study’s authors write:

“Women overestimated how attracted men would be to the conformist women.
People think that men prefer conformist women, but this impression is discrepant from reality.”

For the study researchers asked 115 people to rate a series of profiles for attractiveness.

They were asked to judge how attractive it was to them personally and how attractive it would be to someone else.

Both men and women preferred someone who ‘did their own thing’ rather than someone who ‘went along’ with everyone else.

Not only this, the researchers also found that people were…

“…most attracted to their ex-partners the more they judged their ex-partners to be nonconformist.”

The fact that women thought men would prefer conformity may be a leftover from more sexist times.

In the days when women were supposed to be agreeable, subdued and modest, the tendency to conformity would also have fitted the stereotype.

Thankfully those days are gone.

Sexy personality trait

The researchers didn’t just stick to pen-and-paper questionnaires though.

In another study they had 111 people meet in small groups.

When people rated how attractive the other members of the group were, it emerged that:

“…participants ostensibly in a small-group interaction showed preferences for nonconformist opposite-sex targets, a pattern that was particularly evident when men evaluated women.”

The study’s authors conclude:

“Dating success was greater the more nonconformist the sample was, and perceptions of nonconformity in an ex-partner were associated with greater love and attraction toward that partner.”

Other attractive personality traits include:

extraversion and having stable emotions,
kindness,
playfulness,
generosity,
intelligence and friendliness,
optimism,
and being compassionate.

The study was published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Hornsey et al., 2015).

One Personality Trait That Boosts The Immune System

People with this personality trait believe they can control their lives and make improvements.

Optimism aids the recovery of stroke survivors, a study finds.

More optimistic stroke survivors have lower levels of inflammation and less physical disability after three months.

In general, the personality trait of optimism is linked to a very much longer life.

Being optimistic — a trait that can be boosted — can increase the odds of reaching 85-years-old by up to 70 percent.

The power of optimism to lengthen life may be partly down to its enhancing effect on the immune system.

Optimistic people tend to expect positive outcomes in the future.

Critically, optimists believe they can control their lives and make improvements.

Being optimistic is frequently linked to improved health outcomes.

For example, optimism has been previously linked to better heart health.

Dr Yun-Ju Lai, the study’s first author, said:

“Our results suggest that optimistic people have a better disease outcome, thus boosting morale may be an ideal way to improve mental health and recovery after a stroke.”

The study included 49 people who had had strokes.

They were asked about their levels of optimism and these were compared with their recovery.

The results showed that more optimistic people tended to have lower levels of bodily inflammation, as evidenced by interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein levels.

The more optimistic people were, the lower their levels of these inflammatory markers.

Chronic inflammation tends to harm the brain and impairs the body’s ability to recover.

Dr Lai said:

“Patients and their families should know the importance of a positive environment that could benefit the patient.
Mental health does affect recovery after a stroke.”

Increase your optimism

Exercises such as visualising your ‘best possible self‘ have been shown to increase optimism.

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 journal Stroke (Lai et al., 2020).