Replies to post #270 on Personality Types: What's yours? Chat/Discussion

[bartermania]

Stress and Personality
by Ben Martin, Psy.D.
February 17, 2006

Individuals differ dramatically in their response to a problem or a stressor. Some people are born with a temperament that predisposes them to higher or lower levels of tolerance to stress.

Your cognitive reaction to a situation plays a role in determining how stressful a situation is to you. This reaction is characterized by your appraisal of the nature, importance and implications of the event, and by your ability to effectively manage or cope with the event.

Your emotional responses to a situation are determined by your appraisal of both the situation and your coping abilities, as well as your temperament. For example, if you tell yourself, “I can handle this,” you will have a completely different emotional response than if you say, “This is terrible. I’m going crazy.”

Experts have developed several explanations for why certain people respond more positively or negatively to stressors. These include:

Our genetic makeup, which influences health and behavior. To some degree, it is human nature to feel stressed when we aren’t sure what to do or when faced with making a difficult or frustrating decision. And, some individuals may have a heightened level of arousal in the central nervous system, causing them to react more excitedly to events and adapt more slowly.

Experiencing something unusual or surprising causes stress. Researchers studying chimpanzees found that familiar and unfamiliar objects generally did not cause stress. But familiar objects shown in unfamiliar ways scared them. This reaction appeared to be innate; it was not based on a previous experience. In addition, half of all parents whose children are afraid of water report their children always had been fearful of the water; they had not had an initial traumatic experience that precipitated their anxiety.

Sometimes stress can lead to “positive reinforcement.” When we are feeling anxious, we may get attention or sympathy from our friends or family, for example. Attention or avoidance can reward us for our negative reactions.

Other psychological theories state that stress is born from internal conflicts, such as the struggle between our true or actual self and our ideal self, between unconscious views or needs or between our image of reality and actuality. For example, for the average student who wants to go on to a high-level college, taking entrance exams may be more stressful because he is unaware that he is putting pressure on himself to go beyond his own capabilities.

Past experience may color our view and how we interpret events, in turn determining our reactions and feelings. Anxiety, for example, may be a learned response to pain or mental discomfort. If you have one bad experience on a bumpy airline trip and then begin to expect that same level of discomfort on every trip, that expectation can color the future of your travels with a misinterpretation that all air travel is bad, even though it only happened once.

More recently, some psychologists have said we actually may “think or imagine ourselves into almost any emotional state.” We are not conditioned by our experiences in life to react a certain way; rather our inner thoughts determine our feelings and generate a sense of stress or calm. Those who catastrophize events or ask “what if” with an expectation of negative outcomes, without the data to determine whether their worries are true, add stress to their lives in situations that may or may not deserve a high level of emotional, cognitive or physiological responses.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/02/stress-and-personality/

[bartermania]

My results: Your Feedback

The California Child Q-Set (CCQ) Link to this test: http://www.personalitylab.org/tests/ccq_self.htm

The questionnaire you have just completed is the California Child Q-Set, or CCQ, an instrument developed by Jack and Jeanne Block (1980). The original goal of the CCQ was to provide psychologists with a tool for comprehensively describing the personalities of children and adolescents. Avshalom Caspi and colleagues (1992) reworded some of the CCQ items so that this measure can now be easily used by people who are not professional psychologists. Additionally, recent research has shown that the CCQ can be effectively used to describe the personalities of adults.

The Big Five

The “Big Five” is the most widely agreed-upon model of personality structure used by psychologists today. It proposes that the most basic dimensions of personality are captured by a set of five broad trait domains: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. Scores these five personality dimensions, as well as descriptions of people who score high and low on each of these traits, are presented in the table below.

Personality Scores and Descriptions

Score (0-100)
Personality Dimension

47
Extraversion
High scorers tend to be sociable and outgoing. They prefer to be around people most of the time. High Extraversion is associated with being seen as more popular and more socially competent, having more friends and dating partners, being accident-prone, taking more study breaks, engaging in thrill-seeking and delinquent behavior, better performance in sales and management jobs, higher job satisfaction, earning a higher salary, having more leadership roles, attending more parties, exercising more frequently, belonging to a fraternity, playing a sport, smoking cigarettes, consuming more alcohol, and preference for hip-hop, soul, funk, electronic, rock, and heavy metal music.

Low scorers tend to be reserved and serious. They often prefer to be alone or with a few close friends. Low Extraversion is associated with engaging in fewer risky behaviors.

69
Agreeableness
High scorers tend to be compassionate, good-natured, and eager to cooperate and avoid conflict. High Agreeableness is associated with being seen as more socially competent, with greater religiosity, greater willingness to help a stranger, and preference for pop, country, and religious music.

Low scorers tend to be hardheaded, skeptical, proud, and competitive. They tend to express their anger directly. Low Agreeableness is associated with having more dating partners, with smoking cigarettes, driving fast, and holding prejudicial views.

Agreeableness usually increases with age. Women tend to score higher on Agreeableness than do men.

86
Conscientiousness
High scorers tend to be responsible and well-organized. They have high standards and work hard to achieve their goals. High Conscientiousness is associated with earning higher grades, scoring higher on verbal intelligence tests, better school attendance, spending more time studying and completing household chores, sleeping more, being more religious, better performance in most jobs, and exercising more frequently.

Low scorers tend to act spontaneously rather than making plans. They may pay little attention to details, are not very well-organized, and can sometimes be careless. Low Conscientiousness is associated with risky behavior, disciplinary problems, being accident-prone, more job changes, consuming more alcohol, and receiving more traffic tickets.

Conscientiousness usually increases with age.

35
Neuroticism
High scorers tend to be sensitive, emotional, and prone to experience feelings that are upsetting. High Neuroticism is associated with exercising more frequently.

Low scorers tend to be secure, generally relaxed even under stressful conditions, and worry little. Low Neuroticism is associated with better physical and psychological health.

Neuroticism usually decreases with age. Women tend to score higher on Neuroticism than do men.

80
Openness to Experience
High scorers tend to be open to new experiences. They have broad interests and are imaginative. High Openness is associated with earning better grades, scoring higher on general intelligence tests, playing a musical instrument, holding liberal political opinions, and with preference for rock, heavy metal, classical, jazz, blues, and folk music.

Low scorers tend to be down-to-earth, practical, traditional, and pretty much set in their ways. Low Openness is related to earning a higher salary, holding conservative political opinions, and having prejudicial views of minority groups.

ps. IMO, the test I took is geared for adults. Check it out if, you're interested. -bart-