Personality and Wellbeing

Question 1

Subjective well being

Answer 1

• Life satisfaction
• Positive effect

Question 2

Psychological well being

Answer 2

• Positive relations
• Personal growth
• Self acceptance

Question 3

Consequences of medical model

Answer 3

• Psychologists become victimisers
• Helps humans thrive

Question 4

Garmezy (1974)

Answer 4

• children at high risk for psychopathology had surprisingly healthy adoptive parents

Question 5

What is resilience

Answer 5

• Adapting to changes well
• Overcome different challenges

Question 6

Resilience as a personality trait

Answer 6

Connor Davidson resilience scale, measures it as a trait

Wagnild & Young 1990, balanced perspective and attributes a meaning to life.

Silk et al (2007) how does social and biological factors influence the progression of resilience

Question 7

Resilience as a process

Answer 7

Gillespie et al (2007) you can learn resilience as a result of hardship, can be learnt at any point in life

Question 8

Mechanism of Sensitisation
(resilience as a process)

Answer 8

Fossion et al 2013
- jewish adults who had experienced trauma had lower level of resilience and they also had higher levels of depression

Question 9

Immunisation Mechanism
(resilience as a process)

Answer 9

• we are immune and better at coping as a result of accumulated stress and trauma

Question 10

The Resilience Enhancement Programme for Students
(REP-S)

Answer 10

Cognitive resilience (goal setting)
Social resilience (social support)
Mind-Body resilience (mindfulness)
- lower perceived stress after programme

Question 11

Trait and Process

Answer 11

• Resilience is a dynamic attribute, it is a normal adaptive process however there is potential to have resilient traits

Question 12

Personality and mental health

Answer 12

• Positive mental health links with extraversion
• Emotional stability links with neuroticism

Question 13

Personality Traits and mental disorders
(Kotov et al, 2010)

Answer 13

• Anxiety and depression is linked with high neuroticism and low conscientiousness
• Substance abuse is linked with low agreeableness
• “general’ personality traits aren’t often assessed in clinical practise

Question 14

Spectrum Model

Answer 14

• Diagnosis is based on the extremity of the score
• Would be better to use for chronic depression rather than episodic as results will fluctuate as a result of depressive episodes
• neuroticism and psychopathology over lap

Question 15

Common cause model

Answer 15

• Personality traits and mental disorder both stem from genetic and environmental determinants
  -Neuroticism and psychopathology have similar underlying ‘causes’
• Neuroticism appears related to mental illness but not causal

Question 16

Vulnerability Model

Answer 16

Diathesis + Stress = disorder
e.g. inherited risk of disorder and trauma can cause psychological disorder
Having high or low levels of a trait can increase risk of mental disorder
- assessed over long period of time and start as young adults when most don’t yet have depressive disorder

Question 17

State and Scar Model

Answer 17

• When personality traits are higher after a mental health episode, it indicates scarring
• Changes in personality after recovery
• Assess personality traits before and after episode - when this has been done findings are inconsistent

Question 18

Is neuroticism just psychopathology in disguise

Answer 18

• Just because you score highly in neuroticism it doesn’t always mean you will suffer from a mental health episode
• May be a marker for vulnerability but doesn’t explain why vulnerability is increased