This is one of the best psychological predictors of how much someone will earn.
Study tests if depression changes people’s personality.
Study tests if depression changes people’s personality.
People who are depressed become more neurotic, more dependent on others and more thoughtful in the short-term, research finds.
After recovering from depression, though, people’s personality returns almost completely to its pre-depression state.
Depression does not change people’s personality in the long-term, the study found.
Indeed, people’s personality may become slightly more healthy after recovering from an episode of depression.
However, depression does affect people’s personality somewhat while they are experiencing an episode.
There was some evidence, though, that people lose some of their social confidence after an episode of depression.
It may also be that multiple, severe bouts of depression can have a long-lasting effect on personality.
The conclusions come from thousands of people, some with and some without depression, who were followed across six years.
The study’s authors explain the results:
“None of the scales for which negative change would be
predicted by the scar hypothesis (increased neuroticism, emotional reliance, and lack of social self-confidence; decreased ascendance/dominance, sociability, and extroversion) showed such change.In general, scores on these scales remained stable from time 1 to time 2; if they changed at all, they changed numerically in the direction of healthier scores at time 2.”
The results showed no evidence of the so-called ‘scar hypothesis’.
The authors explain that…
“…the “scar” or “complication” model, suggesting that the depressive episode is the cause of lasting change in personality.”
Instead, the study supports the idea that certain personality types are vulnerable to depression.
Negative emotionality is the strongest risk factor for depression among personality traits, research finds.
Negative emotionality is essentially being highly neurotic and involves finding it hard to deal with stress and experiencing a lot of negative emotions and mood swings.
People who are neurotic are more likely to experience negative emotions like fear, jealousy, guilt, worry and envy.
The study was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry (Shea et al., 1996).
How to change your personality for the better.
How to change your personality for the better.
Being more physically active makes people more extraverted, conscientious, agreeable and open to new experience, new research finds.
A few of the benefits of these personality changes include:
These changes to personality have been documented over years and decades.
Naturally, remaining sedentary is linked to the opposite pattern in personality.
Sedentary people have the tendency to become less agreeable, more introverted, less open to experience and less conscientious.
The good news is that only relatively small amounts of exercise are enough, over the years, to lead to positive changes to personality.
The study followed over six thousand middle-aged people for over two decades.
All completed personality surveys and gave details of how much physical activity they did.
There are all sorts of ways that exercise is probably linked to personality change.
The study’s authors write:
“A physically inactive lifestyle has a range of long-term
biological, health and cognitive outcomes, such as higher risk of frailty, worse mental and physical health and declines in
memory and executive functions.Such outcomes, in turn, may have a long-term impact on personality, such as reductions in the tendency to be self-disciplined and organized or to be exploratory and curious.
Indeed, cognitive decline, greater frailty, and more
depressive symptoms and disease burden have been associated with reduced conscientiousness and openness over time.”
Depression is also linked to an inactive lifestyle, they write:
“It is possible that the long-term functional limitations and depressive symptoms that result from a physically inactive lifestyle may be reflected in a lower tendency to experience positive emotions, be enthusiastic, and be agreeable.”
→ Read on: How to change your personality
The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Stephan et al., 2018).
The personality traits of people who wear glasses.
…and this is the personality trait that keeps you thin…
The disorder affects between 1 and 6% of the population.
The disorder affects between 1 and 6% of the population.
People with Borderline Personality Disorder experience very stormy emotions, commit self-destructive acts and are sometimes aggressive.
Often considered the most severe personality disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder is linked to a long history of instability in personal relationships.
The personality disorder causes very strong mood swings as a result of brain abnormalities in two key regions, according to a host of neuroscience studies.
Dr Lars Schulze, the study’s first author, said:
“Our results highlight brain abnormalities in the amygdala and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The amygdala is known to process emotional arousal and is hyperactive in BPD.
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which has a key role in the regulation of emotions, is less active during the processing of negative emotional stimuli in BPD.”
The researchers pooled the results of 19 different studies including hundreds of people, to compare those with the personality disorder to health controls.
Professor John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, explained the brain abnormalities they found:
“In order to understand these findings, it might be useful to imagine that the brain was a like a car.
The gas pedal for emotion might be the amygdala and the emotional brake might be the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
The current findings seem to suggest that, in borderline personality disorder, the brain steps on the gas yet does not as effectively brake emotion.”
The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Schulze et al., 2016).
In 30 years this trait has increased by up to one-third.
In 30 years this trait has increased by up to one-third.
Perfectionism in mind, body and career is on the rise in the young, new research finds.
The current crop of college students is more obsessed with being perfect than they were 30 years ago.
Making comparisons on social media could be one important driver for the rise in perfectionist tendencies.
The change could be having a dramatic negative effect on their mental health.
Dr Thomas Curran, the study’s first author, said:
“Meritocracy places a strong need for young people to strive, perform and achieve in modern life.
Young people are responding by reporting increasingly unrealistic educational and professional expectations for themselves.
As a result, perfectionism is rising among millennials.”
The study included 41,641 people from the US, Canada and Britain.
All were asked about three types of perfectionism:
Between 1989 and 2016, the type that had increased the most was socially prescribed — that which is imposed by society (up by 33%).
Other-oriented had increased 16% and self-oriented by 10%.
Dr Curran said:
“These findings suggest that recent generations of college students have higher expectations of themselves and others than previous generations.
Today’s young people are competing with each other in order to meet societal pressures to succeed and they feel that perfectionism is necessary in order to feel safe, socially connected and of worth.”
Competition among young people may be harming them, the researchers think.
There is competition over grade point averages, careers and how they look.
In the face of these pressures it can be hard to maintain good mental health.
This may help to explain why levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are higher among young people than a decade ago.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin (Curran & Hill, 2017).
The psychological traits linked to achieving old age.
The psychological traits linked to achieving old age.
Psychologists studying a group of Italians aged 90 to 101 have found they share certain psychological traits.
These include being stubborn, domineering and needing a sense of control.
This might suggest you need a determined attitude to make it through to 100-years-old.
Professor Dilip V. Jeste, who led the study, said:
“The main themes that emerged from our study, and appear to be the unique features associated with better mental health of this rural population, were positivity, work ethic, stubbornness and a strong bond with family, religion and land.”
The 29 Italians the psychologists interviewed live in nine villages in the Cilento region of Southern Italy.
They were all asked a wide range of questions.
Dr Anna Scelzo, the study’s first author, said:
“The group’s love of their land is a common theme and gives them a purpose in life.
Most of them are still working in their homes and on the land.
They think, ‘This is my life and I’m not going to give it up'”.
The study found that although the nonagenarian’s physical health had deteriorated, they were in better mental health than family members four decades younger.
Here are some direct quotes from the study interviewees:
- “I lost my beloved wife only a month ago and I am very sad for this. We were married for 70 years. I was close to her during all of her illness and I have felt very empty after her loss. But thanks to my sons, I am now recovering and feeling much better. I have four children, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. I have fought all my life and I am always ready for changes. I think changes bring life and give chances to grow.”
- “I am always thinking for the best. There is always a solution in life. This is what my father has taught me: to always face difficulties and hope for the best.”
- “I am always active. I do not know what stress is. Life is what it is and must be faced … always.”
- “If I have to say, I feel younger now than when I was young.”
Dr Scelzo summarised the psychological traits linked to achieving old age:
“We also found that this group tended to be domineering, stubborn and needed a sense of control, which can be a desirable trait as they are true to their convictions and care less about what others think.
This tendency to control the environment suggests notable grit that is balanced by a need to adapt to changing circumstances.”
The study was published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics (Scelzo et al., 2017).
No, it’s not intelligence! How could you think such a thing?
No, it’s not intelligence! How could you think such a thing?
Mothers value outgoing personalities in their children above intelligence, new research finds.
Apparently, Mom prefers a little show-off to a smarty-pants!
Dr Sophie von Stumm, study co-author, said:
“Given that higher levels of intelligence and conscientiousness are both linked to positive life outcomes such as success at school, at work, and in relationships, it’s surprising that only 1 in 10 mothers valued them as the most important characteristics for their child.”
The results come from a survey of 142 mothers of young babies in the UK.
Over half chose extraversion as the top trait they desired in their children.
Dr von Stumm said:
“While extraversion can have many benefits it is also associated with negative behaviours in adulthood, such as higher alcohol consumption and illegal drug use.
Understanding how mothers view personality is vital as their values influence their parenting and, through this, how their child’s personality traits develop.”
Agreeableness was the second most-desired personality trait for their children, followed by openness to experience, intelligence and conscientiousness.
Unsurprisingly, no mother wanted a neurotic baby.
Dr Rachel Latham, the study’s first author, said:
“We focused on the views of mothers, as they typically spend more time with their children than fathers, but it would be useful to examine the personality values of fathers too.
It would also be interesting to examine if mothers’ preference for extraversion changes over time as children grow older and enter formal education.
“In the long run we hope studies such as these can help us to understand how parents’ values shape a child’s personality and how this impacts on how children develop and learn and their future health, happiness, and success.”
The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Latham & von Stumm, 2017).
This is the closest PsyBlog gets to toilet humour.
This is the closest PsyBlog gets to toilet humour.
Do you hang your toilet roll with the end of the paper hanging ‘over’ or with the end hanging ‘under’?
According to a survey by Dr Gilda Carle, ‘over’ people are more assertive.
Assertive people are more likely to be in leadership roles and to have a take-charge attitude, says Dr Carle.
Those hanging the roll ‘under’ are more likely to be submissive.
Submissive people tend to be more agreeable, flexible and empathetic, says Dr Carle.
To create the toilet paper personality test, Dr Carle surveyed around 2,000 people of all ages, asking them whether they rolled the paper over or under.
Some people, Dr Carle has found, actually switched the toilet roll in other people’s houses (around one in five).
Naturally it was those ‘over’ people imposing their dominant personality on submissive ‘unders’.
Rolling under might also be linked to lower earnings, another survey has found.
73% of those earning under $20,000 rolled under, while 60% of those earning over $50,000 roll over.
(Who knew there were so many surveys on toilet roll alignment?)
Note: this survey was not published in a reputable peer-reviewed journal!
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