Personality - Page 6 of 31

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).

Why Believing People Can Change Is So Important in Life (M)

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).

What Your Bedtime Reveals About Your Personality (M)

Your bedtime routines could reveal a lot about your personality traits, such as conscientiousness and the propensity to take risks.

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2 Personality Traits That Predict Your Lifespan

People with this personality trait tend to have better health habits and more stable jobs and marriages.

People who are conscientious and careful live the longest lives, research finds.

Conscientious people tend to be self-disciplined and they aim for achievement.

Two aspects of conscientiousness have the strongest link to a long life:

A preference for order,
and an orientation towards achievement.

Careful people are also less likely to smoke or drink and experience lower levels of stress.

In more bad news for people trying to enjoy their lives, happiness seems to have little connection with a long life.

The reason is that cheerful, laid-back people tend to be more careless about their health.

Persistent and conscientious people, though, get that check-up.

The conclusions come from an analysis of 20 different studies which included over 8,900 people in many countries.

Being more conscientious was consistently linked to living a longer life.

It is probably because conscientious people tend to have better health habits and more stable jobs and marriages.

Conscientiousness is one of the five major aspects of personality, along with agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience and neuroticism.

Professor Howard S. Friedman, the study’s co-author, said:

“The major finding is that this conscientiousness aspect of personality is indeed reliably predictive of mortality risk across studies.
This seems to be as important as most commonly assessed medical risk factors, few of which are psychological.”

If you are not that conscientious, there is still hope, said Dr Margaret L. Kern, study co-author:

“There is some evidence that people can become more conscientious, especially as they enter stable jobs or good marriages.
We think our findings can challenge people to think about their lives and what may result from the actions they do.
Even though conscientiousness cannot be changed in the short term, improvements can emerge over the long run as individuals enter responsible relationships, careers and associations.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality (Kern & Friedman, 2008).

The Personality Trait That Lowers Dementia Risk

The trait may encourage people to keep their mind active, which is a protective factor against dementia.

People who are open to experience have a lower risk of developing dementia, research finds.

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 is one of the five major aspects of personality.

Being more open to experience may encourage people to keep their mind active, which a protective factor against dementia.

People with higher openness to experience also tend to have higher levels of education, which also reduces dementia risk.

The second personality trait linked to dementia in the new study was neuroticism.

Being neurotic increased the risk of developing dementia by 6 percent, the researchers found.

The major personality trait of neuroticism involves a tendency towards worry and moodiness.

People who are neurotic are more likely to experience negative emotions like depression, anxiety, guilt and envy.

Other studies have found that being neurotic may double the risk of developing dementia later in life.

Neurotic people are particularly sensitive to chronic stress.

Personality, though, is not destiny, when it comes to dementia — good brain health is about nature and nurture.

Many factors can reduce the risk of developing dementia such as a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating properly and getting enough exercise.

Indeed, making four out of five critical lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent.

Keeping the mind active is thought to be important for reducing the risk of dementia.

Learning new activities, travel and deepening social relationships may all be beneficial.

The present study included 524 people who were given tests of personality and symptoms of pre-dementia.

Ms Emmeline Ayers, the study’s first author, explained:

“While more studies are needed, our results provide evidence that personality traits play an independent role in the risk for or protection against specific pre-dementia syndromes.
From a clinical perspective, these findings emphasize the importance of accounting for aspects of personality when assessing for dementia risk.”

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (Ayers et al., 2020).

The Personality Trait Linked To Longer Life

This personality trait can be boosted using simple exercises.

People who are optimistic tend to live longer, research finds.

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

Optimism has also been linked to better memory, psychological resilience and higher quality of life.

Optimistic people tend to expect positive outcomes in the future.

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

So, optimistic people may live longer partly because they develop healthier behaviours.

Psychological resilience is also a factor, said Dr Eric Kim, the study’s first author:

“While most medical and public health efforts today focus on reducing risk factors for diseases, evidence has been mounting that enhancing psychological resilience may also make a difference.
Our new findings suggest that we should make efforts to boost optimism, which has been shown to be associated with healthier behaviors and healthier ways of coping with life challenges.”

The study included 70,021 nurses, whose health was tracked over six years.

The results showed that the most optimistic women had a 30 percent lower risk of dying than the least optimistic women.

Among the reduced risks linked to optimism were:

38 percent lower chance of dying from heart disease,
52 percent lower chance of dying from infection,
16 percent lower chance of dying from cancer.

Optimism can be learned

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.

Here is how I’ve previously explained the exercise:

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.
This exercise draws on the proven benefits of expressive writing.

The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Kim et al., 2016).