Authors: Jessica Stewart, PhD Candidate, Well being Psychology, College of British Columbia | Editors: Romina Garcia de leon and Shayda Swann
Printed: January 19, 2024
It’s not laborious to imagine that individuals with tendencies towards anger or aggression will find yourself with extra well being issues than those that have a constructive outlook. Many research have proven that persona traits are related to bodily well being and mortality.
Character traits might be recognized as patterns of emotions, ideas, and behaviours that take form in a single’s childhood and grow to be constant all through one’s life.
The 5-Issue Mannequin of persona is a typical methodology of describing persona traits and separates the traits into agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to expertise.
Hostility, which is an attribute of neuroticism, is related to coronary coronary heart illness and mortality, whereas conscientiousness predicts longevity.
Depressive signs, which roughly 350 million individuals world wide at present expertise, have been linked to persona traits. A 2023 examine confirmed that all 5 dimensions of persona had been linked to adjustments in depressive signs however neuroticism has the strongest affiliation with depressive signs, with people who find themselves excessive in neuroticism being extra prone to expertise depressive signs.
Character traits can also be a reason behind the appreciable intercourse distinction in depressive issues that exists between women and men throughout sociocultural contexts. This distinction exists throughout the lifespan, with females round twice as seemingly as males to expertise depressive issues from adolescence to late maturity.
Neuroticism and despair in girls
In a 2022 examine, neuroticism was correlated with the prevalence of possible main depressive episodes for each women and men. Nonetheless, the impact of neuroticism within the incidence and persistence-recurrence of possible main depressive episodes was solely present in females. In different phrases, the examine discovered a neuroticism-related vulnerability in girls for the incidence or persistence-recurrence of a significant depressive episode.
Previous analysis has instructed one neural mechanism between neuroticism and despair discovered solely in girls. It has been described as a correlation between neuroticism and resting-state regional cerebral blood circulate within the hippocampus and midbrain, and neuroticism predicted depressive signs by means of larger exercise of those areas, that are utilized in emotional processing and regulation.
Conscientiousness and despair in girls
Conscientiousness impacts women and men in another way as nicely. In the identical 2022 examine, the interplay discovered between gender and conscientiousness for the incidence of depressive symptomatology demonstrated a bigger protecting impact of conscientiousness for males in comparison with girls. In different phrases, being excessive in conscientiousness helps males forestall depressive signs greater than it does for girls.
Contemplating the impression of persona traits and gender on depressive signs, researchers advocate together with persona and gender-specific methods in psychological well being and despair intervention or prevention applications.