Being conscientious appears to be the best bet for good health among traits known as the “Big Five,” which are the basis for most psychological personality assessments.
Although the findings vary across studies, all of the Big Five personality traits have been linked to self-reported health, with Conscientiousness generally showing the strongest and most consistent effects (Hampson, Goldberg, Vogt, & Dubanoski, 2006; Takahashi, Edmonds, Jackson, & Roberts, 2013).
Conscientiousness has also been associated with more positive mental health and adaptive coping skills [22, 23].
Key points. Among the "Big Five" personality traits, conscientiousness is especially predictive of living a longer life. The trait has also been linked to health-related behaviors such as smoking and sleep, which may help explain its link to longevity.
The Five Factor Model breaks personality down into five components: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness, and Stress Tolerance. Personality tests that are based on this model measure where an individual lies on the spectrum of each of the five traits.
Why does personality affect health? Your personality guides your behaviors and habits, and both play a big part in your overall health. The way you handle stress, your activity level, how often you socialize or see your doctor — all of these things are affected by your personality traits, starting early on.
Neuroticism, one of the Big 5 personality traits, is typically defined as a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.
What Big 5 trait is associated with health and longevity? Conscientiousness- those who are more conscious are less likely to engage in risky behaviors which are the mechanisms that are associated with mortality.
Studies have demonstrated that Neuroticism and Extroversion decline with age, while Agreeableness and Conscientiousness increase.
"These results suggest that high scores in the specific personality traits conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness, are associated with longevity," the researchers wrote.
The five personality traits of the FFM are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Neuroticism refers to the vulnerability to emotional instability and self-consciousness.
The prediction of general health has been a consistent goal for personality researchers. Past research has found that healthier individuals tend to be less Neurotic, and higher in Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness.
Agreeableness. This personality trait includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.1 People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative while those low in this personality trait tend to be more competitive and sometimes even manipulative.
A trait associated with good social health is the ability to get along with others. Life expectancy in the United States today is between 76 and 79 years old.
Agreeableness is a personality trait that can be described as cooperative, polite, kind, and friendly. People high in agreeableness are more trusting, affectionate, altruistic, and generally displaying more prosocial behaviors than others.
[24] revealed that Neuroticism and Extraversion correlate with the two components used to measure subjective well-being (Positive and Negative affect) while Openness and Agreeableness correlate with only one of the two components (Positive affect).
Persons with elevated levels of neuroticism respond poorly to environmental stress, interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and can experience minor frustrations as hopelessly overwhelming.
The agreeableness scale contained both positively (“take time out for others”) and negatively keyed (“insult people”) items. Likewise, the neuroticism scale included positively (“worry about things”) and negatively keyed (“seldom feel blue”) items.
While conscientiousness tends to increase across the life span, the rate and direction of change differs depending on age.
It has been shown over and over again that the two major personality traits most predictive of well-being in the Big Five model are high extraversion and low neuroticism.
Measured concurrently, neuroticism and conscientiousness were associated with greater disease burden.
Recent findings from empirical studies have shown that individuals high in conscientiousness tend to report better physical health status [10,29,30].
And, according to research, neurotic people are more likely to be creative thinkers. Neurotics also possess more emotional depth. “They have more experience handling negative emotions, which, though difficult, can also make them deeper, and facilitate empathy and understanding for other people's struggles,” Dr.
In general, people who are high on the neuroticism scale react with quick arousal to situations and can take a long time to get back to their baseline level. In other words, they live with emotional instability and may have trouble regulating their behaviors as a result.