Transcript No Slide Title

Personality and health: An assessment of healthy neuroticism
Kelsey C. Y. Stiles
E-mail: Kelsey Stiles, [email protected]
Poster presented at Undergraduate Research Symposium and
Psychology Undergraduate Honors Symposium
Spring 2015 at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
H.
Neuro.
• Neurotic individuals follow one of two pathways in terms of health
behaviors and outcomes – a detrimental route or a more beneficial,
healthy route
• Little research has been done on these “healthy neurotics,” so their
existence and defining characteristics are not known
• This healthy neurotic pattern has been theorized to occur when an
individual has high levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness
“If you noticed an abnormal lump or growth on
your skin, how likely is it that you would feel
extremely anxious about it?”
Method
“I worry about how my body is affected by
stress.”
Participants
Participants – Members of Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 192) who were at
least 18 years old participated in this study
Procedure and Materials
Participants completed:
• Items assessing healthy neuroticism designed for this study
• Stress questions - Keller, A., Litzelman, K., Wisk, L. E., Maddox, T.,
Cheng, E. R., Creswell, P. D., & Witt, W. P. (2012)
• Items from the Health Behavior Checklist - Vickers Jr, R. R., Conway,
T. L., & Hervig, L. K. (1990)
• NEO-PI-R Conscientiousness and Neuroticism Facet Scales available
through the International Personality Item Pool – Johnson, J. A.
(2014)
Neuro.
Background
Question 4 – Does healthy neuroticism have stronger
associations with health behaviors than conscientiousness
and neuroticism?
Correlations for healthy neurotic items
Con.
Question 2 – What behaviors define healthy neuroticism?
• Anxiety about health, reactions to stress, and understanding of
health information are important elements of healthy neuroticism,
which is defined as having high levels of conscientiousness and
neuroticism at the same time
Question 3 - Is healthy neuroticism related to good health?
“I am sometimes nervous about what a doctor
may tell me concerning my health.”
“I often think about the risk of having a
significant disease.”
“I tend to jump to the worst conclusions and
worry when I notice something off about my
health.”
“When I notice a particular symptom or health
abnormality, I tend to research it as much as I
can to understand what's going on.
“I feel that stressors in my life make me
unhealthy.”
“I feel uncomfortable if I cannot wash my hands
when in a dirty environment.”
Results
“When I find out new information from a doctor,
I tend to research it as much as I can to
understand what's going on.”
Question 1 - How common is healthy neuroticism?
“If I continue to have symptoms even after my
doctor tells me I am fine, I still believe something
is wrong.”
All healthy neurotic behaviors
• No health outcomes were associated with healthy neuroticism
• Conscientious individuals were healthier, and neurotic individuals were
unhealthier
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
• Healthy neurotics are relatively uncommon (14.6% of sample)
• Healthy neurotics tend to be females (3 females for every 1 male)
5.
6.
7.
8.
Friedman, H. S., Tucker, J. S., Tomlinson-Keasey, C., Schwartz, J. E., Wingard, D. L., & Criqui, M. H. (1993). Does childhood
personality predict longevity?.Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(1), 176.
Bogg, T., & Roberts, B. W. (2004). Conscientiousness and health-related behaviors: a meta-analysis of the leading
behavioral contributors to mortality. Psychological bulletin, 130(6), 887.
Goodwin, R. D., & Friedman, H. S. (2006). Health status and the five-factor personality traits in a nationally representative
sample. Journal of Health Psychology, 11(5), 643-654.
Chapman, B. P., Roberts, B., & Duberstein, P. (2011). Personality and longevity: knowns, unknowns, and implications for
public health and personalized medicine. Journal of aging research, 2011.
Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist, 64(4), 241.
Friedman, H. S. (2000). Long‐Term Relations of Personality and Health: Dynamisms, Mechanisms, Tropisms. Journal of
personality, 68(6), 1089-1107.
Weston, S. J. & Jackson, J. J. (2014). Identification of the Healthy Neurotic: Personality traits predict smoking after disease
onset. Journal of Research in Personality.
Turiano, N. A., Mroczek, D. K., Moynihan, J., & Chapman, B. P. (2013). Big 5 personality traits and interleukin-6: Evidence for
“Healthy Neuroticism” in a US population sample. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 28, 83-89.
• A number of health behavior items were associated with healthy
neuroticism, but they had stronger associations with the individual
traits of conscientiousness and neuroticism
• These items had stronger associations with neuroticism than with
conscientiousness
Conclusions
• Healthy neurotics are rare
• Healthy neuroticism does not appear to be beneficial for
health outcomes and is only somewhat related to beneficial
health behaviors
• The negative aspects of neuroticism seem to outweigh the
positive aspects
• Further refinement is needed to determine whether there is
a healthy side of neuroticism