Links Between Personality and Health Essay

The importance of understanding the cerebrate in the midst of record and health are being increasingly recognized within the scientific and psychological society, all over the years research and theoretical advances have begun to uncover that personality good deal have an effect on health, whether good or bad. Illnesses can be a cause of many factors that may be biological, psychological, environmental or even sociological. Suggesting that illnesses are related to more than just biological infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis, pneumonia, influenza, etc. of which during the 1900s were major killers within western societies. (Stroebe, 2000) Yet as medicines understanding of these diseases grew and as vaccinations and treatments were made available the major culprit for death was no longer of a purely biological nature. By the year 2000 the major killers were taking the form of cardiovascular diseases which include coronary tenderheartedness disease(CHD), High rent pressure, and cancer, (American Heart Association, 1999) that have many psychological, environmental and behavioral cogitate, and most importantly links to assay and how our body copes while experiencing it.Selyes three stages of the general edition syndrome (1976) can be directly linked to the above and have on many occasions been associated to personality and its effects on health. These developments have facilitated in the lay outation of Health psychology, as researchers in this field evaluate and convey the link between the mind and body, and how the environment may have an impact on these to stool illness or health. The following essay will interpret work written by professionals within the field of Health Psychology and offer an story of how Personality can impact health, with reference to research and theories, and to highlight personalitys role in Coronary Heart disease and cancer. The effect of stress on an individuals physical health can have very serious consequences if t he bodys response to the stress is over aroused.The extended arousal of the harmonized system and the adrenal cortical system can cause major damage to the arteries and organs, yet long term stress can have an effect on the bodys immune system, lowering its ability to fight off diseases, this particular notion has had a lot of links to the development of cancer. (Taylor, 1986) Yet the links between the ideas that stress affects health has also been linked to the individuals personality. Ultimately the concept is that challenging environments produce stress, and that sealed individuals that possess a particular personality are poor at coping with stress, this is usually associated with personality traits and certain coping skills.Studies into the effects of Hardiness by Kobasa, (1979) Kobasa, Maddi and Kahn, (1982) have shown that men who have had High levels of stress yet low occurrences of illness differed from those that had become ill during stressful events. The link seems lo gical as those that had slight illnesses had felt as if they had more control and commitment in their lives while at the same time seeing certain situations such as losing a job, as a challenge instead of a setback, signifying that those individuals would be able to turn what could have been a stressful situation into their advantage. This particular study was further conducted on males, however and alternative study showed similar results when conducted on females.( Wiebe and McCallum, 1986) An alternative to theory to the Hardiness scale is The Type A personality type that has had links to CHD and other heart issues.Physicians believe that the traits of a Type A personality tend to be, aggressiveness, impatience and often an over involvement in work. The individuals that often let on this type of behavior tend to be very competitive and often find it difficult to relax. (Friedman and Rosenman, 1974) In comparison with type A, Type B individuals are those that do not show the ch aracteristics of a Type A person. They can relax and work without a feeling of urgency they are less likely to become agitated or angry. The Biological connection between Type A people and coronary heart disease suggests that the individuals sympathetic nervous system responds to stress in a maladaptive way.Most people when exposed to stressors such as high demands at work, feel angry, or agitated yet not to the extent to which it could cause any long term issues, as they are not prolonged and easily returned to a regulation state, however an individual with a type A personality would show a much high increase in blood pressure and heart rate. The sympathetic nervous system on a Type A individual would be Hyper-responsive to stressors. The theory is that all of these psychological and physiological changes damage the heart. (Manuck and Kranz, 1986) In relation to the above there have been many large scale studies that suggest that there are larger varieties of risk factors than j ust CHD, Such as smoking, and obesity. (Rosenman, 1975) patterns shown by research suggests that it is not necessarily the individuals traits such as high ambition and the need to work, instead the negative emotions that a Type A personality possesses such as anger are seen as the main culprits for the health problems.Friedman and Rosenmans Western collaborative group study was the longitudinal study of 3534 men, between the ages of 39 and 59. Each individual was medically examined and given a category of either Type A or its contrasting Type B, it was found that 53 per cent of the participants were Type A and the rest Type B. (Rosenman, 1964) After an 8.5 year follow up results had shown that Type A men had experienced higher numbers of CHD in comparison with Type B over the course of the study. Coinciding studies such as the Framingham Study (Haynes et al, 1978) and the British Regional Heart study (Jognston et al, 1987) looked into the link between Type A and CHD, each study show ed higher numbers of CHD (both MI man Angina) among Type A men and women .