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Journal of Personality Feb 2021We evaluated the role of natural disaster adversity on personality development in the wake of a hurricane, and the moderating role of previous hurricane exposure.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the role of natural disaster adversity on personality development in the wake of a hurricane, and the moderating role of previous hurricane exposure.
METHOD
We used a two-wave longitudinal design and a diverse sample of emerging adults (n = 691; mean age = 22 years; 72% females, 27% European American, 29% Latino, 23% Asian American, 15% African American, 6% Multiracial/Other) who were exposed to one of the most damaging hurricanes on record, though to differing degrees. Immediately after the hurricane, we assessed objective individual-level hurricane exposure, previous exposure to hurricanes, demographics, socioeconomic status, and Big Five personality traits. One year later, we re-assessed Big Five personality traits.
RESULTS
Using latent change models, we found significant individual differences both in participants' initial levels of personality traits at baseline, as well as in their developmental patterns of change in the year following the hurricane. However, there was no evidence of mean-level change. Moreover, neither hurricane exposure level, nor its interaction with previous exposure showed statistically significant associations with the rates of change in any personality trait.
CONCLUSIONS
The present findings support a stability account, whereby individuals largely maintain their personality dispositions following an adverse life event, in this case a hurricane.
Topics: Adult; Cyclonic Storms; Female; Humans; Individuality; Male; Personality; Personality Development; Personality Disorders; Young Adult
PubMed: 32031677
DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12542 -
Teaching and Learning in Medicine 2022Medical educators increasingly recognize both the challenges introverts, compared to extraverts, may face in medical training and the unique strengths they bring to...
PHENOMENON
Medical educators increasingly recognize both the challenges introverts, compared to extraverts, may face in medical training and the unique strengths they bring to practice. However, few researchers have examined in-depth how introverts and extraverts truly experience training and practice, particularly in specialties like surgery that tend to value qualities (e.g., dominance and assertiveness) typically associated with extraverts. This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of individuals with both personalities within the field of general surgery.
APPROACH
Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, six general surgeons and 10 general surgery residents who identified as introverted, extraverted, or ambiverted were recruited from two Canadian tertiary care hospitals to participate in semi-structured interviews. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively, and data were analyzed using open, selective, and thematic coding. Constant comparison allowed us to make sense of the similar and dissimilar views that emerged from each interview.
FINDINGS
Irrespective of their personalities, participants voiced two general patterns of responses. Some participants believed that "personality doesn't matter": that both introverted and extraverted practice styles were equally viable and neither introverts nor extraverts would find surgical training more challenging than the other (culture of equality). However, others believed that "personality matters," emphasizing that surgeons should be dominant and aggressive leaders. Only those who believed "personality matters" felt that introverts sometimes needed to act more extraverted in order to succeed in surgical training (culture of hierarchy). Similar numbers of introverts and extraverts adhered to each viewpoint.
INSIGHTS
Our qualitative approach allowed us to draw meaning from the complex subjective experiences of our research participants. Our findings suggest that two competing cultures (equality and hierarchy) co-exist within the field of surgery and that trainees, depending on which culture they adhere most to, will or will not "adapt" their personalities to the workplace. These findings deepen our understanding of the nuances of surgical culture and have important implications for how we select candidates based on personality.
Topics: Canada; Extraversion, Psychological; Humans; Introversion, Psychological; Personality; Surgeons
PubMed: 34000927
DOI: 10.1080/10401334.2021.1922284 -
The Medical Clinics of North America Mar 2023Gender identity is a deeply felt internal sense of self, which may correspond (cisgender) or not correspond (transgender) with the person's assigned sex at birth.... (Review)
Review
Gender identity is a deeply felt internal sense of self, which may correspond (cisgender) or not correspond (transgender) with the person's assigned sex at birth. Transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse people may choose to affirm their gender in any number of ways including medical gender affirmation. This is a primer on the medical care of transgender individuals which covers an introduction to understanding a common language, history of transgender medical care, creating a welcoming environment, hormone therapy, surgical therapies, fertility considerations, and cancer screening in transgender people.
Topics: Infant, Newborn; Humans; Male; Female; Transgender Persons; Gender Identity
PubMed: 36759103
DOI: 10.1016/j.mcna.2022.10.011 -
Journal of Personality Oct 2021While the overlap between personality and psychopathology is well documented, few studies examine how the two overlap at a lower, moment-to-moment level. We took an...
OBJECTIVE
While the overlap between personality and psychopathology is well documented, few studies examine how the two overlap at a lower, moment-to-moment level. We took an idiographic approach to examine personality and psychopathology processes at the individual level. Doing so offers a unique perspective by incorporating both dynamic time and structural analysis, two components that are traditionally examined separately when investigating the overlap between personality and psychopathology.
METHOD
Two experience sample studies measured personality states and personality problems up to four-times a day over a two-week period (Study 1 N = 349, observations = 11,124; Study 2 N = 161, observations = 8,261).
RESULTS
For some, personality states and personality problems are deeply intertwined, mirroring existing between-person findings. But for others the two are separate, indicating it is possible to separate personality (states) from a person's problems. Between-person differences in levels of depression had no association with the idiographic structure, indicating that between-person constructs operate separately from within-person processes. Finally, situations that are more likely to bring out personality problems did not alter the association between personality states and personality problems.
CONCLUSIONS
This method provides a novel conceptualization of personality-psychopathology overlap, bringing the focus beyond mostly static, between-person models to more dynamic, individual-level models.
Topics: Humans; Mental Disorders; Models, Psychological; Personality; Personality Disorders; Psychopathology
PubMed: 33748991
DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12634 -
Current Opinion in Psychiatry Jan 2023People and communities around the world face many crises, including increasing burdens from disease, psychopathology, burn-out, social distrust, and acts of hate and... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
People and communities around the world face many crises, including increasing burdens from disease, psychopathology, burn-out, social distrust, and acts of hate and terrorism. Personality disorder is arguably both a root cause and a consequence of these problems, creating a vicious cycle of suffering caused by fears, immoderate desires, and social distrust that are inconsistent with rational goals and prosocial values. Fortunately, recent advances in understanding the biopsychosocial basis and dynamics of development in personality and its disorders offer insights to address these problems in effective person-centered ways.
RECENT FINDINGS
Fundamental advances have been made recently in the understanding of the psychobiology and sociology of personality in relationship to health, and in basic mechanisms of personality change as a complex process of learning and memory. Promotion of self-awareness and intentional self-control releases a strong tendency for people to seek coherence of their emotions and habits with what gives their life meaning and value.
SUMMARY
People have a strong drive to cultivate personalities in which their emotions and habits are reliably in accord with reasonable goals and prosocial values. Person-centered therapeutics provide practical ways to promote a virtuous cycle of increasing well being for individuals and their communities and habitats.
Topics: Humans; Temperament; Personality Disorders; Personality; Emotions; Psychopathology
PubMed: 36449732
DOI: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000833 -
Surgery Nov 2022The challenging nature of performing surgery on a personal and professional level demands specific characteristics. Personality traits play an important role in the...
BACKGROUND
The challenging nature of performing surgery on a personal and professional level demands specific characteristics. Personality traits play an important role in the nature and behavior of humans, which are studied using the five-factor model. Therefore, we investigated the personality of 3 surgical generations.
METHODS
Three distinct surgical populations were approached. The Dutch Big Five Inventory-2 was sent out online to 126 surgical residents (response: n = 69) and 104 surgeons (response: n = 60) in a teaching region in the Netherlands. Moreover, medical students interested in surgery were approached via the students' surgical society (response: n = 54). To obtain a normative Dutch population sample, the Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences panel was used, creating groups of the following age categories: 18 to 25 (n = 84), 26 to 35 (n = 101), 36 to 67 (n = 432). One-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction was used to assess differences in personality scores.
RESULTS
Individuals interested in surgery (ie, surgically-oriented medical students, surgical residents, and surgeons) generally scored significantly higher on extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, open-mindedness, and lower on negative emotionality compared with the normative population sample. Across the surgical generations, surgical residents scored significantly lower on open-mindedness (3.60) compared with surgeons (3.92) and surgically-oriented medical students (3.82). Surgically-oriented medical students scored significantly higher in negative emotionality (2.44) compared with surgical residents (2.12) and surgeons (2.07).
CONCLUSION
Being a surgeon demands particular levels of determination and emotional stability. The surgical population shows a distinct personality pattern compared with the normative population, and more modest differences exist between persons in different stages of their surgical career.
Topics: Humans; Netherlands; Personality; Research; Students, Medical; Surgeons
PubMed: 36064500
DOI: 10.1016/j.surg.2022.08.003 -
Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Jan 2024Comprehending the influence of personality traits on functional outcomes in persons with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) can aid in tailoring interventions and support...
BACKGROUND
Comprehending the influence of personality traits on functional outcomes in persons with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) can aid in tailoring interventions and support strategies. We explored how demographic variables and personality traits predicted current vocation, information processing speed, anxiety and depression symptoms, and disability level in pwMS.
METHODS
We used a retrospective chart review on pwMS treated at the London (ON) MS Clinic, that assessed demographic data and personality traits. Participants were 384 (68.8 % females, mean age of 37.8, SD = 10.4) individuals with relapsing and primary progressive MS. We performed hierarchical linear regressions to predict outcomes while considering demographic variables and personality traits.
RESULTS
Younger age, higher education, and conscientiousness were significant predictors for better information processing speed, current vocation, depression symptoms, and disability level. Neuroticism was positively associated with anxiety and depression symptoms, while extraversion was negatively associated with depression symptoms. Women showed higher anxiety symptoms, while men showed higher depression symptoms.
CONCLUSION
Personality traits, such as neuroticism and conscientiousness, influence psychological outcomes in pwMS. Younger age and higher education are associated with better functional outcomes. Thus, when considering personality traits, future interventions should focus on those with higher neuroticism and lower scores on both extraversion and conscientiousness. Consideration of social support, coping strategies, and disease severity in future research may further enrich our understanding of MS outcomes.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Adult; Retrospective Studies; Personality; Neuroticism; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Multiple Sclerosis
PubMed: 38061317
DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.105138 -
American Journal of Psychoanalysis Jun 2022This paper illustrates how and when the personality characteristics of a political leader can initiate and/or become intertwined with societal and political processes....
This paper illustrates how and when the personality characteristics of a political leader can initiate and/or become intertwined with societal and political processes. We are not suggesting that "real world" issues and secondary process calculations are not important or should be discarded in favor of psychological considerations. Instead, we suggest that psychoanalysts and psychodynamically informed mental health professionals can contribute to a more complete analysis of political or societal processes and the personalities of leaders who play major roles in them. Only through such interdisciplinary work can we fully understand the complex and intertwined nature of the crucial events that shape political leaders' internal and external worlds.
Topics: Humans; Leadership; Personality; Politics; Ukraine
PubMed: 35739303
DOI: 10.1057/s11231-022-09349-8 -
Molecular Psychiatry Jun 2023The human brain's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides stable trait-like measures of differences in the perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social... (Review)
Review
The human brain's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides stable trait-like measures of differences in the perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning of individuals. The rsFC of the prefrontal cortex is hypothesized to mediate a person's rational self-government, as is also measured by personality, so we tested whether its connectivity networks account for vulnerability to psychosis and related personality configurations. Young adults were recruited as outpatients or controls from the same communities around psychiatric clinics. Healthy controls (n = 30) and clinically stable outpatients with bipolar disorder (n = 35) or schizophrenia (n = 27) were diagnosed by structured interviews, and then were assessed with standardized protocols of the Human Connectome Project. Data-driven clustering identified five groups of patients with distinct patterns of rsFC regardless of diagnosis. These groups were distinguished by rsFC networks that regulate specific biopsychosocial aspects of psychosis: sensory hypersensitivity, negative emotional balance, impaired attentional control, avolition, and social mistrust. The rsFc group differences were validated by independent measures of white matter microstructure, personality, and clinical features not used to identify the subjects. We confirmed that each connectivity group was organized by differential collaborative interactions among six prefrontal and eight other automatically-coactivated networks. The temperament and character traits of the members of these groups strongly accounted for the differences in rsFC between groups, indicating that configurations of rsFC are internal representations of personality organization. These representations involve weakly self-regulated emotional drives of fear, irrational desire, and mistrust, which predispose to psychopathology. However, stable outpatients with different diagnoses (bipolar or schizophrenic psychoses) were highly similar in rsFC and personality. This supports a diathesis-stress model in which different complex adaptive systems regulate predisposition (which is similar in stable outpatients despite diagnosis) and stress-induced clinical dysfunction (which differs by diagnosis).
Topics: Young Adult; Humans; Temperament; Disease Susceptibility; Psychotic Disorders; Brain; Personality; Connectome; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 37015979
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02039-6 -
Journal of Parkinson's Disease 2022While deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) significantly improves motor deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), it is still unclear... (Observational Study)
Observational Study
BACKGROUND
While deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) significantly improves motor deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), it is still unclear whether it affects personality functioning.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of the present study was to examine personality changes in patients with PD after STN-DBS from the perspectives of both the patients and caregivers. Moreover, by assessing the premorbid personalities of the patients, we tried to determine individual vulnerability to STN-DBS-induced personality changes.
METHODS
In total, 27 patients and their caregivers participated in our retrospective observational study. They were asked to assess the patients' personality changes with the Iowa Scale of Personality Changes (ISPC) and the patients' premorbid personalities with the Big Five Inventory (BFI).
RESULTS
Caregivers reported significant personality changes in the ISPC domains of Executive Disturbance (p = 0.01) and Disturbed Social Behavior (p = 0.02). Most of the ISPC domains were positively correlated with Conscientiousness, while Executive Disturbance was negatively correlated with Neuroticism of the BFI scale.
CONCLUSION
Our results show that executive and social functioning are the two most vulnerable domains in patients with PD after STN-DBS, especially in those patients who score higher for neuroticism and lower for conscientiousness on the BFI scale. The results of our study may provide movement disorder specialists with better counseling options and better selection of DBS candidates. Caregivers' perspective might contribute significantly in understanding postoperative personality changes.
Topics: Caregivers; Deep Brain Stimulation; Humans; Parkinson Disease; Personality; Subthalamic Nucleus
PubMed: 35342047
DOI: 10.3233/JPD-212879