Personality & Health: Models Of Association Flashcards
(41 cards)
Four broad causal models have been advanced to explain associations between personality and physical health. These are?
- Transactional stress-moderation model
- Health behaviour model
- Structural weaknesses model
- Illness behaviour model
For the most part, the 4 causal models used to explain the associations between personality and health, although discussed separately they should not be ….?
Thought of as mutually exclusive.
They may in fact operate synergistically to affect health.
Within the context of the transactional stress model, Lazarus & Folkman argue that personality constructs ….. ?
May moderate stress induced physiological arousal and therefore illness via 3 different pathways.
Locate the Alpha press and the Beta press within the transaction stress model.
Alpha press = objective qualities of the situation
Beta press = cognitive appraisal
Lazarus & Folkman argue that personality may alter the subjective cognitive appraisal of ongoing life experiences. Provide an example.
Neurotic individuals tend to appraise neutral or ambiguous situations as more threatening and less manageable.
How do the transactional stress model and a transactional stress moderation model differ?
The transactional stress moderation model brings in the construct of personality and thus its potential for moderating the;
Objective qualities of the situation
Cognitive appraisal
Coping strategies
According to Lazarus & Folkman, personality may influence the availability, choice, or effectiveness of one’s coping strategies and social resources. Provide an example.
Neuroticism is routinely associated with coping strategies that are ineffective or do not match the adaptive demands of a given stressor.
Lazarus & Folkman note that people can actively create or select different types of situations as a function of their personality. Provide an example.
Neuroticism has been prospectively associated with higher exposure to stressful situations and interpersonal conflict.
Taking into account both Lazarus’s model and Selye’s model, finish this passage (explaining the pathway from appraisal to illness).
If an individual perceives a situation as threatening, this is likely to …………..?
Trigger Selye’s Biological Stress Reaction. According to Selye, physiological arousal levels rise, and when the physiological arousal levels are chronically high & raised for an extended period, this result in an adverse impact on health. Thus leading to a greater potential for illness.
Lazarus & Folkman ague that personality constructs may moderate stress induced physiological arousal, & therefore illness by three different pathways. Describe the 1st pathway.
The first pathway being the individual’s appraisal of the situation. Lazarus & Folkman argue that personally may alter the subjective appraisal of ongoing life experiences. For example, neurotic individuals have been found to appraise neutral or ambiguous situations as threatening & less manageable. Thus more likely to trigger Selye’s Biological Stress Reaction, raise physiological arousal & increase vulnerability to illness.
Describe the 2nd pathway moderated by personality as identified by Lazarus & Folkman.
The second pathway identified by Lazarus & Folkman is coping. According to Lazarus & Folkman, personality may influence the availability /choice for effectiveness of one’s coping strategies & social resources. For example, neuroticism is routinely associated with coping strategies that are ineffective or at a mismatch with the demands of the given stressor.
So neurotic individuals more likely to feel low self-efficacy, that they can’t cope with the perceived demands of a situation, and more likely to raise physiological arousal levels to chronic levels for an extended duration of time, thus leading to a greater potential for illness.
For the Transactional stress moderation model to be considered fully transactional, what pathway (3rd pathway) must be accounted for?
The fully transactional model will consider how the personality influences the objective features of the situation.
The 3rd pathway helping to explain the moderating process of personality constructs on stress induced physiological arousal is bidirectional. Explain the bidirectional processes.
People can actively create or select different types of situations as a function of their personality. Individuals high on neuroticism are more likely to in the future find themselves in situations involving interpersonal conflict & more likely to trigger stress responses.
On the other hand, the environment/objective qualities of the situation can come to shape personality. An individual who is constantly exposed to adverse situations for instance, may lead overtime to greater emotional instability.
Transactional stress moderation model: Although neuroticism is the most salient personality dimension for stress reactions, what personality construct has attracted the most research within a stress-moderation framework?
Hostility
The interest in hostility grew out of earlier work on the what & who by?
Type A personality
Developed by cardiologists Friedman & Rosenman.
Finish this sentence,
Friedman & Rosenman observed that patients who had heart attacks often seemed ….. ?
Patients who suffered coronary heart disease were more likely to have ……?
To have different personalities, when compared with other patients.
Type A personality.
3 narrow personality traits came to define the coronary prone Tyoe A personality. These traits are?
- Am easily aroused hostility
- An excessive competitive drive
- A habitual sense of time urgency
How is the Type A personality classified at the dimensional level?
A combination of high Neuroticism and high Extraversion.
The choleric temperament.
The Western Collaborative Group Study pioneered research on the Type A concept with a prospective investigation of coronary heart disease incidence in 3154 initially healthy men. What was the overall outcome?
Rosenman et al found that the risk posed by Type A personality was comparable with more traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease such as age, weight, family history of heart disease, smoking habits, cholesterol level and blood pressure.
Moreover, the association between coronary heart disease and Type A Personality was found to be independent of these traditional risk factors.
Transactional Stress Moderation Model: Did subsequent prospective research confirm the findings by Rosenman et al?
Subsequently research only partially confirmed the findings by Rosenman et al.
Overall, it was found that only the trait “an easily aroused hostility” predicted coronary heart disease - even in a re-examination of the data from the Western Collaborative Group Study.
One of the most frequently cited studies to have examined the association between hostility and coronary heart disease is that of who?
Barefoot et al (1983)
The relationship between hostility and coronary heart disease by Barefoot et al (1983) included:
- How many participants
- from which university
- completion of which index
- mortality monitored for how long
- 255 male students from the university of North Carolina
- Cook-Medley Hostility Index (Ho)
- administered the Ho in 1955 and all cause mortality monitored for the next 25 years.
Findings by Barefoot et al included: over the 25 year period, participants who had scored above the median on hostility (Ho greater than or equal to 14) had …. ?
5 times the incidence of clinical coronary heart disease as those who scored below the median (Ho < 14).
Findings by Barefoot et al included: hostility scored predicted….. ?
All cause mortality over the 25 year period.
