Personality and Ill Health
Critically assess the part played by personality in making some individuals more prone to ill health than others.
Health is most often described as being about the absence of illness or disease. However, health is not simply about physical symptoms, but it also encompasses our mental health and social well-being. The most common definition of health is that provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Among the psychological factors that impact health, personality - that is stable individual differences in thinking, feeling and behaving- plays a pivotal role. For example, an individual high in a sense of coherence (SOC), therefore perceive less stress and see the world as more manageable, resulting in good health (Williams, 2010). Furthermore, the individual differences that exist in terms of the attitude the individual has towards their health and how they conceptualise their illness is very important.
Although it is a popular notion that personality traits influence the state of a persons physical health, it is difficult to establish the true nature of the relationship between personality and health , including measurement, the distinction between subjectively reported symptoms and objective signs of illness and the direction of causation (Matthews et al., 2003). Four ways in which health status and personality might be linked have been identified by Suls and Ritterhouse, (1990). Firstly is the strongest assumptions about the importance of personality traits which represent biologically based differences that may cause different illness outcomes. Second, the relationship between traits and illness might be correlational rather than casual. Third is the possibility that traits lead to behaviours that in turn lead to illnesses e.g. smoking. Finally, illnesses may cause personality changes. Nonetheless research has tended to focus on
Health is most often described as being about the absence of illness or disease. However, health is not simply about physical symptoms, but it also encompasses our mental health and social well-being. The most common definition of health is that provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Among the psychological factors that impact health, personality - that is stable individual differences in thinking, feeling and behaving- plays a pivotal role. For example, an individual high in a sense of coherence (SOC), therefore perceive less stress and see the world as more manageable, resulting in good health (Williams, 2010). Furthermore, the individual differences that exist in terms of the attitude the individual has towards their health and how they conceptualise their illness is very important.
Although it is a popular notion that personality traits influence the state of a persons physical health, it is difficult to establish the true nature of the relationship between personality and health , including measurement, the distinction between subjectively reported symptoms and objective signs of illness and the direction of causation (Matthews et al., 2003). Four ways in which health status and personality might be linked have been identified by Suls and Ritterhouse, (1990). Firstly is the strongest assumptions about the importance of personality traits which represent biologically based differences that may cause different illness outcomes. Second, the relationship between traits and illness might be correlational rather than casual. Third is the possibility that traits lead to behaviours that in turn lead to illnesses e.g. smoking. Finally, illnesses may cause personality changes. Nonetheless research has tended to focus on