models of personality and physical health

Question 1

smith 2006

Answer 1

• He highlighted the importance to explain the mechanisms underlying the association between personality and subsequent health outcomes
• He proposed three types of models that delineate the effect of personality considering appraisal and coping in stressful situations:
  1. Health behaviours models
  2. Interactional stress moderation model
  3. Transactional stress moderation model

Question 2

health behaviour models

Answer 2

• Personality also affects appraisal and which coping strategies we use
• Personality influences engagement with health behaviours, and can also influence appraisals and our coping strategies when faced with stressful situations
• E.g., negative personality will appraise certain situations as negative and so will be stressed and not cope well, triggering unhealthy behaviours leading to illness
• Some health behaviours are misread as a coping strategy

Question 3

interaction stress moderation model

Answer 3

• Personality moderates both appraisals of potentially stressful circumstances and coping responses, which in turn alter physiological processes involved in disease etiology
• Personality is a moderator not a causer in this model

Question 4

transactional stress moderation model

Answer 4

• It extends the interactional model by including the bidirectional effect of personality on exposure to stressful life circumstances