Disease Prone Personality and Self-Healing Personality

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Disease Prone Personality and Self-Healing Personality

Introduction

Disease-prone personality type refers to people who react to stressful situations with unhealthy behavior patterns and negative affect, leading to physical illness and a shorter life expectancy (Heilmayr & Friedman, 2020). Disease-prone personality type is linked to persistently negative mood, anxiety, depression, and irritability. Individuals with this personality type tend to focus on the unsatisfactory aspects of life and are often unhappy. Consequently, individuals have an increased risk of developing stress-related ailments, such as coronary heart disease. Mainly, the disease-prone personality is characterized by hostility.

On the contrary, a self-healing personality refers to a group of psychological traits that involves a match between the environment and the individual, which maintains psychosocial and physiological homeostasis. It is the mechanism via which good mental health fosters good physical health (Heilmayr & Friedman, 2020). In addition, personality traits connected with a self-healing personality include being emotionally secure, conscientious, positive outlook on life, and having good and strong social interactions. These traits result in healthier behaviors, such as quitting smoking, improving adherence to exercise programs, and keeping a nutritious diet. This results in a stronger resilience to diseases that are associated with stress.

How our Personality Relates to our Health

According to Cherry (2022), our personalities have a significant role in shaping our habits and behaviors therefore, it should be no surprise that different personality types are associated with different health outcomes. Therefore, the most significant health predictors are personality traits. For example, there is a correlation between the personality traits shown in childhood and adult health and between those traits and other important health indicators, such as total lifespan. Our habits and actions, both essential contributors to our general health, are determined mainly by our personality (Brantley, 2019). Besides, our personality traits impact many aspects of our life, beginning in childhood, including how we respond to stressful situations, the amount of physical exercise we get, the number of friends and acquaintances we have, and how often we go to the doctor.

In addition, according to Brantley (2019), certain personality traits in childhood, such as being conscientious, agreeable, imaginative, or intelligent, may positively impact one’s health in later years. Children who exhibit these personality traits are more likely to have a higher education, have healthier eating habits, refrain from smoking, and have a longer life expectancy. Notably, our traits alter our perspective on life, how we understand the world around us at work, and how we interact with our friends, families, and romantic partners. Our personalities may have both direct and indirect impacts on our levels of psychological distress, both positively and negatively, through negative interactions and social support. Lastly, an increase in openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion are linked to better long-term health outcomes, whereas higher levels of neuroticism are linked to worse long-term health outcomes.

How Personality Relates to Certain Illnesses

According to Cherry (2022), an individual’s personality type certainly impacts their health and well-being; in fact, some illnesses are most likely to be impacted by an individual’s psychological characteristics. For example, heart disease is more likely connected to personality type than cancer. The tendency to feel more anger and hostility is one of the characteristics linked to an elevated risk of heart disease in people with a disease-prone personality. In addition, Type A personality type is associated with certain illnesses such as hypertension, social isolation, and increased job stress. Notably, patterns of harmful habits such as smoking, poor diet, and lack of physical exercise may lead to illness if an individual’s personality is poor. Lastly, dysfunctional personality traits may make it challenging to control the symptoms of psychiatric disorders and also serve as a trigger for the growth of depressive, anxiety, or psychotic symptoms.

How Self-efficacy and Resilience Contribute to Good Health

Self-efficacy has direct and indirect effects on health behavior because it influences motivation. Individuals’ confidence in their abilities has a significant impact on both the difficulty of the tasks they choose to do and the loftiness of their intended outcomes. Self-efficacy may play a significant role in people’s health, nutrition, and disease management. For instance, people seeking to stop smoking might benefit from a high level of self-efficacy since it increases the likelihood that they will really be able to achieve their objectives. According to Cherry (2020), self-efficacy contributes to good health by influencing an individual’s behaviors, such as maintaining a weight reduction plan, giving up alcohol, managing chronic pain, maintaining a healthy diet, and adhering to an exercise schedule. In addition, resilience contributes to good health by helping to protect people from several mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression. The development of resilience helps to mitigate factors that raise the likelihood of mental health issues, such as experiencing trauma or being bullied.

Personal Applications

From the Big Five personality test, I was able to understand different factors that contribute to my personality. From the Big Five personality test, I got an average score on the extroversion factor, meaning that sometimes I am an outgoing and social person while other times I prefer to be alone. The test also revealed that I am emotionally stable; thus, I can develop a balanced and integrated way of seeing life’s problems. I had a high score in agreeableness, which revealed that I am more cooperative and have personal attributes such as kindness, trust, affection, altruism, and other prosocial behaviors. Besides, this revealed that I enjoy helping and making other people happy. A high score in the conscientious factor revealed that I am a methodical and detail-oriented person. Besides, this showed that I exhibit traits that are proactive, considerate of others’ feelings, and I am mindful of deadlines. Lastly, this test revealed that I am intelligent and easily understand things, and can deal with difficult situations.

I think that my personality is more of a self-healing personality. This is because the Big Five personality test revealed that I have personality traits associated with a self-healing personality type, such as being emotionally secure, conscientious, having a positive outlook on life, and having good and strong social interactions. Looking back at my family members, I see a pattern of self-healing personality. To start with, my parents are emotionally stable as they continually develop a balanced way of solving family issues. Besides, all my family members are conscientious, and we are all detail-oriented people as well as mindful of other people’s feelings.

Conclusion

This personality class taught me that different individuals have different personality traits. I have also learned that personality traits greatly influence health outcomes. Besides, I have realized that developing self-efficacy and resilience is essential in ensuring that we have good health. I have gained that although it is impossible to alter one’s personality, we may get insight into illness susceptibility and self-healing by observing the patterns of behavior shown by disease-prone and self-healing people. Putting more emphasis on leading a healthier lifestyle might make all the difference. As opposed to being in relationships that are stressful and fraught with conflict, cultivating positive and helpful social connections is preferable. Defending oneself against stress and everyday life challenges via the cultivation of effective coping mechanisms is one way to protect oneself against the development of stress-related illnesses.

References

Brantley, A. (2019). How Does Your Personality Affect Your Health? – WellTuned by BCBST. WellTuned by BCBST. Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://bcbstwelltuned.com/2019/05/09/how-does-your-personality-affect-your-health/.

Cherry, K. (2022). How Self Efficacy Helps You Achieve Your Goals. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954.

Cherry, K. (2022). Your Personality Type Can Impact Physical and Mental Health. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/how-personality-type-affects-health-4153786.

Heilmayr, D., & Friedman, H. S. (2020). Self‐Healing and Disease‐Prone Personalities. The Wiley Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences: Clinical, Applied, and Cross‐Cultural Research, 371-376. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118970843.ch326