Category: Personality

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).

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).

The personality trait is usually seen as a positive one and at low levels even necessary.

Perfectionism is a bigger risk factor in suicide than is often thought, according to research.

Perfectionism involves being highly self-critical, constantly striving to meet the standards of others (typically parents or mentors) and being unsure about the efficacy of one’s own actions.

While a certain amount of perfectionism is adaptive and necessary, when it becomes an obsession, it can lead to a vicious cycle.

People in professions which have a strong emphasis on perfectionism — like lawyers, architects and physicians — are at a higher risk of suicide.

Professor Gordon Flett of York University, who co-authored the study, said:

“Perfectionism is the need to be – or to appear – perfect.

Perfectionists are persistent, detailed and organized high achievers.

Perfectionists vary in their behaviors: some strive to conceal their imperfections; others attempt to project an image of perfection.

But all perfectionists have in common extremely high standards for themselves or for others.”

It’s not hard to see how setting impossibly high standards for yourself would sometimes lead to negative feelings when these standards are not met.

Professor Flett continued:

“We summarize data showing consistent links between perfectionism and hopelessness and discuss the need for an individualized approach that recognizes the heightened risk for perfectionists.”

The research finds that people who feel strong social pressure to be perfect are at increased risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts (Flett et al., 2014).

At the same time, perfectionists are adept at hiding these feelings from others — after all, it would contradict their perfectionist persona to admit to suicidal thoughts.

Perfectionists like to maintain a mask of cool invulnerability to others, while inside their thoughts and emotions are anything but calm.

Professor Flett continued:

“They also tend to experience hopelessness, psychological pain, life stress, overgeneralization, and a form of emotional perfectionism that restricts the willingness to disclose suicidal urges and intentions.”

Ironically, if they decide to commit suicide, their perfectionism can lead to very thorough and precise plans for suicide.

* Ten Signs Your a Perfectionist

Professor Flett gives these tell-tale signs of perfectionism:

1. You can’t stop thinking about a mistake you made.
2. You are intensely competitive and can’t stand doing worse than others.
3. You either want to do something “just right” or not at all.
4. You demand perfection from other people.
5. You won’t ask for help if asking can be perceived as a flaw or weakness.
6. You will persist at a task long after other people have quit.
7. You are a fault-finder who must correct other people when they are wrong.
8. You are highly aware of other people’s demands and expectations.
9. You are very self-conscious about making mistakes in front of other people.
10. * You noticed the error in the title of this list.

→ Related articles:

• How parents turn their children into problematic perfectionists
• The 2 types of perfectionism: one helps while the other sabotages you
• How to spot a toxic perfectionist
• The best remedy for a perfectionist personality

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Grandiose narcissism is just one of the personality traits that’s elevated in geeks.

Geeks are more likely to have grandiose narcissistic self-views, a study finds.

The narcissism is accompanied by being extraverted, more open to experience and more prone to (non-clinical) depression.

The results come from a survey of 2,354 people published in the journal PloS ONE.

The study’s authors explain:

“…individuals may engage in geek culture in order to maintain narcissistic self-views (the great fantasy migration hypothesis), to fulfill belongingness needs (the belongingness hypothesis), and to satisfy needs for creative expression (the need for engagement hypothesis).

Geek engagement is found to be associated with elevated grandiose narcissism, extraversion, openness to experience, depression, and subjective well-being…”

This may be because:

“…narcissistic individuals who are unable to receive the admiration and praise to which they feel entitled (whether because of failure, or because their grandiose fantasy is impossible to live out in the real world) may turn to a fantasy world where such praise is more easily obtained.”

Of course this doesn’t explain the personality of all geeks, but it may explain a tendency within that culture.

Geekiness is also about wanting to belong, as the researchers explain:

“…geeks gain belongingness by rallying around the resources that are currently available: consumer goods and cultural artifacts.

…geeks use knowledge of geek interests (e.g., Star Trek trivia) and collections (e.g., model spaceships) as social currency.

…people who are outcast or rejected as children devote more energy to exploring solitary interests, including obscure interests, and eventually form ties to others with the same specialized interests, thereby forming a network of relationships based around previously solitary activities.”

So, what is geek culture?

“Geek culture is a subculture of enthusiasts that is traditionally associated with obscure media (Japanese animation, science fiction, video games, etc.).

However, geek culture is becoming increasingly mainstream; for example, in the past year alone, Dragon*Con, a major Geek convention in Atlanta, Georgia, attracted an attendance of over 57,000 members.”

The study was published in the journal PLoS ONE (McCain et al., 2015).

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is considered one of the most serious personality disorders, but it does respond to treatment.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is thought to affect between 1 percent and 6 percent of the population.

It is more common in women than men.

While many believe that BPD is not treatable, this is not true.

Psychotherapies and even time can both help to heal the disorder.

The most telling sign of BPD is a long history of instability in personal relationships.

This is partly caused by unstable and impulsive emotions.

At one time people with BPD can idolise someone else, and soon after they hate them.

As a result those with BPS often have very intense relationships with others.

Signs of borderline personality disorder

Here are 7 other signs of borderline personality disorder to look for:

1. Intense fear of abandonment or being alone, whether real or imagined.

2. The tendency to take risks without thinking about the consequences. Especially when the results hurt the self e.g. car crashes, risky sex or substance abuse.

3. Attempting to self-harm or thinking about suicide. People with borderline personality disorder are not usually trying to kill themselves when self-harming. Rather they are expressing feelings of anger towards the self or trying to feel ‘normal’.

4. Having an unstable sense of self. People with borderline personality disorder may often feel they are different people depending on who they are with. They often describe feeling lost and empty.

5. Paranoid thoughts and zoning out. Believing in things that are not true or sometimes zoning out so that it appears the person with borderline personality disorder is not really there.

6. Feeling intense anger — possibly over relatively trivial matters — and acting out physically in response.

7. People with borderline personality disorder are often on a kind of emotional roller-coaster. Intense anxiety could give way to intense depression, then to another strong emotion. These bouts can last a few hours or even a few days.

Mental health professionals usually look for a majority of these symptoms in order to diagnose someone with borderline personality disorder (there are some slightly different systems and related diagnoses).

BPD and empathy

People with borderline personality disorder find it difficult to empathise, research finds (Haas & Miller, 2015).

Dr Brian Haas, the study’s lead author, said:

“Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy.

This reduced activation may suggest that people with more BPD traits have a more difficult time understanding and/or predicting how others feel, at least compared to individuals with fewer BPD traits.”

Dr Joshua Miller, who co-authored the study, said:

“Borderline personality disorder is considered one of the most severe and troubling personality disorders.

BPD can make it difficult to have successful friendships and romantic relationships.

These findings could help explain why that is.”

Treatment for borderline personality disorder

The psychological treatment for borderline personality disorder often involves training in regulating the emotions.

Sometimes people with borderline personality disorder are given antidepressants.

This is because they are frequently depressed or suffering with other mental problems, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

However, the personality disorder generally improves over time even without specialised treatment (Sharp et al., 2021).

Still, early intervention in young people is the best approach.

Currently, the best treatments for borderline personality disorder are mentalisation-based therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy.

The majority of people can recover from a borderline personality disorder given time and the right treatment.

Causes of BPD

The cause of the condition is still not well understood.

However, it is likely a combination of genetic and environmental factors — as with many mental health problems.

People who experienced a trauma as children are 13 times more likely to have borderline personality disorder (Porter et al., 2019).

Physical neglect was the most common form of trauma experienced, followed by emotional abuse and sexual abuse.

The study found that 71 percent of those diagnosed with borderline personality disorder had experienced at least one childhood trauma.

Dr Filippo Varese, study co-author, said:

“During childhood and adolescence, our brain is still undergoing considerable development and we are also refining strategies to deal with the challenges of everyday life, and the negative feelings that come with them.

In some people who have experienced chronic, overwhelming stress in childhood, it is likely that these responses do not develop in the same way.

People can become more sensitive to ‘normal’ stress.

They are sometimes unable to deal with intense negative thoughts and feelings, and they might resort to dangerous or unhelpful measures to feel better, such as taking drugs or self-harming.

This can lead to various mental health difficulties, including the problems commonly seen in people who receive a diagnosis of BPD.”

→ Read on: How to change your personality

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It takes as little as five minutes to feel someone’s charisma bursting through.

People who are charismatic have a magic combination of being courteous and approachable as well as being able to influence others.

That is why we associate charisma with leadership and with making people feel comfortable.

Research finds there are six signs of a charismatic person (Tskhay et al., 2018):

1. Makes people feel comfortable.
2. Smiles at people often.
3. Can get along with anyone.
4. Has a presence in a room.
5. Has the ability to influence people.
6. Knows how to lead a group.

The first three are related to putting other people at their ease and the other three are related to leadership and presence.

Charisma seems to have little to do with intelligence, the researchers also found.

Highly intelligent people can be highly uncharismatic and relatively unintelligent people can have magnetic personalities.

Generally, though, charismatic people were quite agreeable — they are usually empathetic, warm and considerate.

This helps explain their ability to make people feel comfortable.

The study found that it can take as little as five minutes for people to pick up on someone’s charisma.

Speed is of the essence for charisma

People who are mentally quick on their feet are seen as more charismatic by friends, research finds (von Hippel et al., 2015).

Speed is of the essence, though, the researchers found, while IQ and mental agility were not as vital as they expected.

Professor William von Hippel, who led the research, said:

“Our findings show that social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to do.

Social intelligence also requires an ability to execute, and the quickness of our mind is an important component of that ability.”

Professor Hippel was fascinated by why some people exude more charisma than others.

He said:

“We decided to take a slightly different approach to the problem by trying to get a handle on what enables charisma.

When we looked at charismatic leaders, musicians, and other public figures, one thing that stood out is that they are quick on their feet.”

The study included 417 people who were rated on their charisma by friends.

They also took tests of personality and intelligence.

Each was then asked 30 questions which are common knowledge, such as: “Name a precious gem.”

People who were quicker to come up with easy answers like this were perceived as more charismatic by their friends, the results showed.

This was even true when people’s personality and intelligence was taken into account.

Professor Hippel said:

“Although we expected mental speed to predict charisma, we thought that it would be less important than IQ.

Instead, we found that how smart people were was less important than how quick they were.

So knowing the right answer to a tough question appears to be less important than being able to consider a large number of social responses in a brief window of time.”

Being mentally agile also allows people to consider different social responses on the spot.

This enables charismatic people to rule out inappropriate actions as well as pick out potentially witty responses.

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