Health Status and the Five-factor Personality Traits in a Nationally Representative Sample

Abstract

The authors' objective was to determine the association between the 'big-five' personality traits and mental and physical disorders among adults in the United States. The Midlife Development in the United States Survey, a nationally representative sample of 3032 adults ages 25-74, was used to determine the association between the five-factor traits of personality and common mental and physical disorders. Findings are consistent with and extend previous results showing that conscientiousness is associated with significantly reduced likelihood of a wide range of mental and physical disorders among adults in the general population, and inversely that neuroticism is associated with increased rates. Among adults with physical illnesses, associations were found between personality and likelihood of physical limitations, especially conscientiousness. These findings provide a framework upon which research on complex causal processes may proceed. Thus future research attention might profitably be directed to conscientiousness-relevant processes, such as adherence to health and treatment recommendations and internalization of healthy societal norms for sensible health-related behavior.

Childhood onset of migraine, gender, parental social class, and trait neuroticism as predictors of the prevalence of migraine in adulthood

“…Neuroticism, in particular, has been strongly implicated with numerous health outcomes and longevity (Bogg & Roberts, 2004;Chapman et al, 2011;Goodwin & Friedman, 2006;Hagger-Johnson et al, 2012;Kern & Friedman, 2008). Earlier Eysenck (1985) noted that individuals high in Neuroticism and low in Conscientiousness were more prone to developing chronic psychosomatic illnesses.…”

Investigating the effects of conscientiousness on daily stress, affect and physical symptom processes: A daily diary study

“…For example, data from the Terman Life Cycle Study have shown that people high in C have a significantly reduced risk of dying in any given year (Friedman et al, 1993). C has also been found to be associated with better health status (Goodwin & Friedman, 2006), greater adherence to medication (Molloy, O"Carroll & Ferguson, in press) and lower obesity risk across populations (Jokela et al, 2013a). Most recently, in the largest study of its kind, C has been shown to be the only higher-order personality trait to be related to mortality risk across populations (Jokela et al, 2013b).…”

Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

“…Others have found that these traits affect outcomes such as behavior in economic games (Ben-Ner, Kramera, and Levy 2008;Koole, Jager, and van den Berg 2001), political tolerance (Marcus et al 1995, ch. 8), job satisfaction (Hogan and Holland 2003;Salgado 1997), alcohol and tobacco consumption (Paunonen and Ashton 2001), and physical and mental health (Goodwin and Friedman 2006). Although the Big Five personality traits have only recently begun to 2 Cognitive ability is the only psychological trait that is more stable through the life cycle than the Big Five (Caspi, Roberts, and Shiner 2005, 466-67). receive attention in political science, existing evidence suggests that they are significant predictors of political outcomes such as ideology and turnout (Gerber et al 2010b;Mondak and Halperin 2008).…”