what is personality?
unique, underlying, stable, psychological structures and processes that shape actions and reactions to environment
structure of personality
- personality core: most res to change, dev from early environmental interactions, concept of self, interests, motivations, attitudes, and beliefs
- typical responses: predictable behaviors in certain environment
- role-related behaviours: most dynamic, behaviour influenced by context
learning/situational vs. dispositional/trait theories of personality
- learning/situational emphasize environmental influences such as conditioning or social learning
- dispositional/trait emphasize indidvidual biology or traits on personality
- both acknowledge there is interaction between individual and environment in determining behaviour
biological theories of personality: ancient greek theory of humors
balance of bodily fluids indicates personality, first theory of mind body connection; blood (sanguine) cheerful, yellow bile (choleric) irritable; black bile (melancholic) depressed, phlegm apathetic
biological theories of personality: Sheldon’s Constitutional Theory 1942
individuals have predetermined body type which pre-disposes to certain personality traits
1. ectomorph: lean and tall, introverted and socially restrained
2. endomorph: plump, sociable and relaxed
3. mesomorph: athletic, dominant, risk-taking, aggressive
trait vs. state
- trait: enduring dispositions that have consistent influence on behaviour regardless of context
- state: psychological reaction to situation
trait theories
personality is internal, consisting of specific traits (e.g. moody, anxious), and general traits (e.g. neuroticism)
trait theories of personality: Eysenck’s theory
personality exists on spectrum of 3 dimensions:
1. intro/extroversion (E): reticular formation in cortex mod NE for arousal, introverts high base activation thus avoid stim, low pain tolerance, are reserved and unsociable, extroverts low base activation, seek stim, high pain tolerance, are outgoing, social, optimistic
2. neuroticism/stability (N): limbic sys and ANS drive flight or fight, neurotic more sensitive to ANS activation and longer reactions, are anxious and moody, often related to neg mental health disorders, stable is calm
3. psychotism/superego (P): hormone driven, higher androgen and low serotonin leads to greater psychotism where more aggressive, implusive, hostile, small effect on exercise but advantageous in certain sport situation, superego is empathetic, cooperative, and altruistic
trait theories of personality: five factor model
- openness to experience/intellect (O): ability to accept and adjust to new ideas/situations, perceptive, creative, reflective
- conscientious (C): tendency to be determined, goal-orientated, systematic, disciplined
- extraversion (E): tendency to be outgoing and sociable
- agreeableness (A): compatible with others, cooperative and generous
- neuroticism (N): tendency to be anxious, moody, tense
gender-role orientation on personality and exercise
- instrumental: assoc with masc, risk-taking, independent, competitive, aggressive
- expressive: assoc with fem, affectionate, compassion, understanding, sympathy
- fem/expresive may avoid masc/instrumental activity (certain exercise) when given choice, may be from socalization rather than biology, problematic to assign traits to gender
type A and B behaviour pattern
type A hostile, competitive, agressive, goal-orientated and prone to CV events/disease, type B more relaxed
hardiness and exercise
hardiness is resilience, sense of control over events, commitment and involvement in everyday life, percieve life events as opportunities than stressors; protects against neg effects of stress, correlated with tendency to engage in more beneficial behaviours to health (e.g. exercise)
OCEAN model and exercise
- openness: + outdoor exercise
- conscientiousness: + outdoor exercise, intentions to exercise, have set exercise scheduled, able to overcome barriers; most pos influence on exercise
- extraversion: mod-vig exercise, good with self-reporting, intentions to exercise, prefer exercising with others, do for enjoyment, able to overcome barriers, most pos influence on exercise
- agreeableness: can exercise with others
- neuroticism: avoid group exercise, not good at self-reported exercise, lower exercise adherence, help with overcoming barriers, help enhance appearance, less enjoyment, neg influence on exercise
Artese et al. (2017): relationship between accelerometry measured PA and Big Five factors in older adults
1. overview
2. hypothesis
3. results
4. interpretation
- comparing (objective measures) accelerometer PA and Big Five factors to find influence of personality on PA in independent older adults living in retirement communities
- personality traits may play sig role in PA for older adults who have more time to focus on self than when life is structured around work and raising children, based on prev research, high N, low E + C are less likely to engage in PA
- strength of associations between personality and amount of accelerometer PA similar to self-report PA, with OCEA pos assoc, N neg, high assoc CEN + A (unexpected), personality traits more relevant during higher intensity PA
- agreeableness has strong pos correlation since agreeable community living older adults may do more PA helping less functional community members, relation not present in middle-aged adults since they have less time to focus on own interests, disability and health status may also influence PA outside of personality
exercise and Eysenck’s theory
1. extraversion
2. neuroticism
- exercise increases stimulation, greater adoption and adherence, high pain tolerance can exercise at higher intensity (greater variety and excitement) with lower RPE, activity sub-trait (tendency to be busy, energetic, prefer fast-paced living) increase exercise
- assoc with sedentarism, greater ANS activation greater risk of CVD, exercise decreases HR, BP, and reactivity to stress thus reduce trait anxiety over time
stress recovery and neuroticism
1. overview
2. results
3. conclusions
- is high neuroticism related to slower recover from stress, 2 groups of women high N/low N performed social stress task with hostile, neutral, friendly interactions
- 10 mins after stressor, high neuroticism exp higher state anxiety in all situations, stress much higher than low N in neutral, both high in hostile; sig higher BP for high N during hostile than low N
- high N exp prolonged stress reponse and slower recovery from stressor
personality and exercise
1. overview
2. antecedents
3. consequences
- considered during ex Rx bc small but sig impact on health behaviors such as reactivity to stressors, psychological responses to illness, aerobic exercise beneficial for higher N to reduce CVD risk
- How personality impacts exercise behaviour: exercise types, preferred intensity (able to sustain higher intensity despite pain), setting (group vs. alone, outdoor vs. indoor, competitive v. cooperative v. leisure), ability to stick to plan, schedule exercise, willingness to try new activities, risk taking
- how exercise impacts personality, increases enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, confidence, task SE, ability to overcome barriers, resiliency, ability to handle stress, willingness to new activity and to take greater risk, decreases CVD risk 2x
psilocybin therapy on personality structure
1. overview
2. methods
3. results
4. conclusion
- neuroticism assoc with higher risk of phys and mental health concerns bc linked to limbic sys and SER for mood and motivation, psilocybin is SER mimetic, investigate if psilocybin acting as SER can change personality traits
- mod to severe depression, 2 doses of psilocybin in supervised setting, measure personality structure at baseline and 3 months follow up
- immediate effect on depression severity at week 1, effect lasting even at 3 months, at 3 months decreased N, increased E and O
- fast and long lasting method to reduce neg phys and mental health outcomes assoc with N
personality and exercise motivation
study looking at relation between OCEAN and SDT motivation in people at local rec centre who were exercisers (>6 months), those using more external motivation (amotivation, ext reg, introjection) have higher N, lower O, higher internal reg (id, intergration, intrinsic motivation) have higher E and C
why high E and C have higher intrinsic motivation for exercise
- autonomy: conscientious people better at planning, scheduling, and following thorough with goals out of own volition (higher autonomy), extroverts have higher adherence bc stim seeking and good at overcoming barrier
- competency: more conscientious more likely to do, more practice at E, more competent
- relatedness: extroverts seek social stim bc prefer exercise in groups
exercise intensity preference and tolerance
- preference: predisposed to select particular level of effort when given opportunity to choose
- tolerance: trait influencing abilty to continue exercising at imposed level of effort even when activity becomes uncomfortable
- regardless must consider individual preference since greatly improves likelihood of adherence to exercise program
