PSYC 270 Correlation Study

Personality Traits As Predictors of Health Behavior:

Emotional Stability, GPA & Substance Risk

Honor Pledge

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Abstract
Personality traits may be important predictors of various health behavior outcomes. Two hypotheses are tested which examined the associations between emotional stability and substance risk. Emotional stability, a domain of personality that has received little research attention, was found to be a predictor of substance risk. The slight, positive statistically significant correlation becomes somewhat smaller when controlling for GPA. Thus, we conclude that GPA partially explains the relationship between emotional stability and substance risk. Overall, the results suggest that personality is a slight predictor of health behavior patterns. Keywords: emotional stability, substance risk, GPA, health behavior

Personality Traits As Predictors of Health Behavior:

Emotional Stability, GPA & Substance Risk

Does an individual’s personality contribute to their health? Many studies concerned with adolescent psychopathology have found evidence between emotional and behavioral instability and substance use. Hyperactivity in childhood (Hechtman, Weiss & Perlman, 1984) and antisocial behavior (e.g., Jones, 1968; Cadoret et al., 1986) have been associated with vulnerability to substance use. It has been proposed that substance use is an attempt to self-medicate for difficult feeling states such as depression and anxiety (Khantzian, 1985). The association between emotional instability and substance risk is also supported by the fact that individuals who are considered emotionally instable often lack proper social support and thus engage in substance use to forget unpleasant experiences or to fulfill an emotional state that cannot be otherwise gratified. In summary, emotional instability has been associated with mental health problems, which have also been linked to substance use.
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between personality traits and health patterns in a population of college students through a correlational design method. The present study examined relationships among measures of personality, reaction time, health related behaviors, and a person’s health status. The broad research question was: are personality or reaction time measures related to a person’s health, and if so, what model best explains the relationship?
Smith (2006) discusses some of the past and current research findings concerning the relationship between personality and health. Specifically, that chronic anger/hostility and neuroticism/negative affectivity are the best-established personality risk factors for poor health. He describes several models that have been proposed as explanations for the relationship between personality and health. In the health behavior model, personality traits influence health behavior (e.g., smoking, exercise, sleep) or changes in health behavior in response to stressful life circumstances or events (229). Smith concludes by saying that the different perspectives in personality-and-health research can contribute to the ultimate goal of establishing a scientifically informed approach to identifying, explicating, and reducing psychosocial risk for physical illness.
Deary & Der (2005) report on the results of a study that examined predictors of how long a person will live, finding a strong correlation between higher IQ and better health. This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between IQ and longevity in a large sample from Scotland. After finding this strong correlation, they investigated several possible explanations for the relationship and found that the correlation still existed after controlling for education, social class, and smoking (64). The researchers concluded that the most important mediating variable is reaction time, which they judged as a measure of information processing efficiency.
Based off of these findings and recent discoveries in mental health and substance risk research, I predicted there to be a negative relationship between emotional stability and substance risk. That is, individuals considered less emotionally stable will be at a higher risk for substance use. Next, I anticipated GPA to account for the relationship between emotional stability and substance risk.
Method
Participants The data compiled from this study came from undergraduate UNC-Chapel Hill Psychology 270 students (N = 402) who participated by submitting scores through a BCR program during class. Individually, each student then developed their own hypotheses based on past research findings and the personality-health research question under examination. Data relating to each student’s specific hypotheses was generated through SPSS and the findings reported in a formal report.
Materials and Procedure
The BCR program designated 18 variables into seven blocks trials. The first set of blocks measured various personality items, reaction times to both a simple task (how long does it take a person to respond to the onset of a stimulus) and a choice task (how long does it take a person to identify which of four stimulus letters, A, S, K, or L, has been presented). The data consist of the geometric mean reaction times for overall responses as well as correct responses only. The blocks contained 50 items that measured the five personality factors taken from the International Personality Item Pool (http:/ipip.ori.org/). The five factors included: Surgency (or Extraversion), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect (or Imagination). The data consist of the average response to the ten items for each factor.
The remaining blocks contained the health behaviors inventory developed by Vickers, Conway, & Hervig (1990) and questions relating to current health status. The inventory assessed four types of behavior, including Wellness Maintenance and Enhancement, Accident Control, Traffic Risk, and Substance Risk. The data consist of the average response to items for each factor. The health status questions included: Days Missed Due to Illness, Other Days of Illness, Susceptibility to Minor Illness, Susceptibility to Major Illness, and Time to Recover. This block also included a final question regarding students’ GPA (something that might be related to intelligence, as in the Deary & Der article).
Specific to my hypotheses, emotional stability was measured by participants’ average response on a 1-7 (Not at all-Very Much) reverse scored scale to whether they get stressed out easily, worry about things, are easily disturbed, get upset easily, have frequent mood swings and often feel blue. Substance risk was measured by participants’ average response on the same reverse scored scale to whether they do not drink alcohol, take chemical substances which might injure their health (e.g., food additives, drugs, stimulants), smoke and avoid areas with high pollution. Participants also reported their current grade point averages (any number). By isolating the responses to these variables of interest, SPSS generated analyses of descriptive frequencies, bivariate correlations, and partial correlations.
Results
Results indicated a slight, positive statistically significant correlation between emotional stability (M=4.27, SD=1.00) and substance risk (M=4.33, SD=.95), r(402)=.118, p