Personality and physical health: toward an ecological approach to health-related personality research

Abstract

A vast academic literature shows that personality significantly mediates and moderates relationships between environmental stress and the onset and progression of physical disease. In the psychological literature, several models have been proposed for such links between personality and disease. Most of these models focus on the role of stress resistance, induced hyperactivity, constitutional predispositions, and risk factors such as the voluntary or forced exposure to perilous circumstances. It will be argued that at this moment, more than ever, personality psychologists and health psychologists should pose the fundamental question`What units shall we employ?'. A multifactor approach is suggested that acknowledges the role of (i) environmental factors as well as (ii) the individual's personal resources. Examples will be given of how the adoption of an ecological perspective can provide the tools for studying conditional effects in personality and disease research.

Striving for Unwanted Goals: Stress-Dependent Discrepancies Between Explicit and Implicit Achievement Motives Reduce Subjective Well-Being and Increase Psychosomatic Symptoms.

“…Mediation of this hidden stressor is expected to be only partial because life events have not only a subjective dimension but also an objective dimension that may directly influence the personality-disease relationship (cf. Van Heck, 1997). For example, a deadline for an important project may be objectively too short even when high personal investments to meet the deadline are completely congruent with an individual's implicit motive structure.…”

Burnout in health care and education workers: The role of situational and individual factors

“…Konkretno, Neuroticizam je u pozitivnoj vezi (Buhler & Land, 2003;Hills & Norvell, 1991), dok je Ekstraverzija negativno povezana sa sve tri dimenzije izgaranja (Bakker et al, 2006;Lakin et al, 2007). Neuroticizam se tako može shvatiti kao faktor rizika za razvijanje sindroma izgaranja, dok se Ekstraverzija može shvatiti kao protektivni faktor ličnosti (Eastburg, Williamson, Gorsuch, & Ridley, 1994;Francis, Louden, & Rutledge, 2004;Michielsen et al, 2004;Piedmont, 1993;Van Heck, 1997;Zellars et al, 2000).…”

Is Perceived Stress of French University Students Related to Personality Traits?

“…Many studies have taken interest in the relation between personality and mental and physical health (An, Chung, Park, Kim, Kim, & Kim, 2012;Baldwin, Kennedy, & Armata, 2008;Friedman & Booth-Kewley, 1987;Huan, Yeo, Ang, & Chong, 2006;Koleck, Bruchon-Schweitzer, & Bourgeois, 2003;Van Heck, 1997;Vandervoort, 1995). The relation between the five factors and psychopathological problems was, for example, the subject of a meta-analysis in 2005.…”