protects their health. Much research on personality in recent years has focused on five
broad personality types: openness to experience (or intellect), conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (or emotional stability) (McCrae and Costa,
1987; Digman, 1990). This is often referred to as the Big Five Taxonomy or the
OCEAN model of personality. A growing body of research now relates traits from
the Big Five Taxonomy to various health behaviours and health outcomes. For
example, Booth-Kewley and Vickers (1994) suggest that the Big Five personality traits
may determine the extent to which people engage in general clusters of health-related
behaviours such as substance use risk behaviours (e.g. smoking). However, there has
been less research on how openness and agreeableness link to health outcomes so we
will focus on extraversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness. The Big Five model is
based on the assumption that a range of more specific personality traits can be under -
stood as blends of the different Big Five traits. Some of the best evidence for the impacts
of personality on health outcomes arises from work looking at more specific personality
traits. So, for example, work has examined the impact of optimism or positive affect
on health. We will consider work on optimism, type A behaviour pattern and hostility
as important areas of research relating personality traits to health outcomes. Some
research has also suggested a cancer or type C personality type (see Focus 6.1) and a
distressed or type D personality type (see Focus 6.3).
Since the magnitude of personality effects on health outcomes can be comparable
to known biological factors, these effects must be taken seriously by health psychologists
(Ferguson, 2013; Hampson et al., 2006; Hampson, 2012). In the Western world the
leading causes of morbidity and mortality in middle and later life are now various
chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, cancer and diabetes, while in children,
adolescents and young adults unintentional injuries are the leading causes of death.
Personality traits may have important roles to play in both these periods of life.
116 COPING RESOURCES
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:1 Explain how optimism is related to positive health outcomes and the role of
attributional styles in this relationship.
2 Discuss the effects of type A personality and hostility on coronary heart disease
and potential mediation of these effects through physiological reactions.
3 Describe the role of neuroticism (or negative affect) on poor health and the
explanations of this effect through perceptions of stress, ability to cope and
social support.
4 Describe the impact of extraversion on positive and negative health outcomes
through effects on mood and health risk behaviours.
5 Describe the relationship between conscientiousness and positive health
outcomes and the mediating effects of health behaviours.
6 Evaluate the different mechanisms through which personality variables affect
health outcomes.LEARNING OUTCOMES