Search

Background: Personality influences an individual's adaptation to a specific job or organization. Little is known about personality trait differences between medical career and specialty choices after graduating from medical school when actually practicing different medical specialties. Moreover, whether personality traits contribute to important career choices such as choosing to work in the private or public sector or with clinical patient contact, as well as change of specialty, have remained largely unexplored. In a nationally representative sample of Finnish physicians (N = 2837) we examined how personality traits are associated with medical career choices after graduating from medical school, in terms of employment sector, patient contact, medical specialty and change of specialty., Methods: Personality was assessed using the shortened version of the Big Five Inventory (S-BFI). An analysis of covariance with posthoc tests for pairwise comparisons was conducted, adjusted for gender and age with confounders (employment sector, clinical patient contact and medical specialty)., Results: Higher openness was associated with working in the private sector, specializing in psychiatry, changing specialty and not practicing with patients. Lower openness was associated with a high amount of patient contact and specializing in general practice as well as ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology. Higher conscientiousness was associated with a high amount of patient contact and specializing in surgery and other internal medicine specialties. Lower conscientiousness was associated with specializing in psychiatry and hospital service specialties. Higher agreeableness was associated with working in the private sector and specializing in general practice and occupational health. Lower agreeableness and neuroticism were associated with specializing in surgery. Higher extraversion was associated with specializing in pediatrics and change of specialty. Lower extraversion was associated with not practicing with patients., Conclusions: The results showed distinctive personality traits to be associated with physicians' career and specialty choices after medical school independent of known confounding factors. Openness was the most consistent personality trait associated with physicians' career choices in terms of employment sector, amount of clinical patient contact, specialty choice and change of specialty. Personality-conscious medical career counseling and career guidance during and after medical education might enhance the person-job fit among physicians.

Objective: Diabetes is an increasingly important public health concern, but little is known about the contribution of psychological factors on diabetes risk. We examined whether personality is associated with risk of incident diabetes and diabetes-related mortality., Method: An individual-participant meta-analysis of 34,913 adults free of diabetes at baseline (average age 53.7 years, 57% women) from 5 prospective cohort studies from the United States and United Kingdom. Personality dimensions included extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience based on the Five Factor Model., Results: During an average follow-up of 5.7 years, 1845 participants became diabetic. Of the 5 personality dimensions, only low conscientiousness was associated with an elevated diabetes risk (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.82-0.91 per 1 standard deviation increment in conscientiousness). This association attenuated by 60% after adjustment for obesity and by 25% after adjustment for physical inactivity. Low conscientiousness was also associated with elevated risk of diabetes mortality (HR = 0.72, CI = 0.53-0.98 per 1 standard deviation increment in conscientiousness). Other personality traits were not consistently associated with diabetes incidence or mortality., Conclusions: Low conscientiousness-a cognitive-behavioral disposition reflecting careless behavior and a lack of self-control and planning-is associated with elevated risk of diabetes and diabetes-related mortality. The underlying mechanisms are likely to involve health behaviors, such as poor weight management, physical inactivity, and adherence to medical management recommendations.

Objective: The current study examines associations between five factor personality traits and average sleep duration, sleep deficiency, and sleep problems., Method: The participants were from two population-based samples from Australia (n = 1,104, age range 31-41) and Finland (n = 1,623, age range 30-45). Self-reports of sleep behavior, sleep problems (Jenkin's scale), and five factor model personality traits (NEO-FFI) were collected. Associations between personality traits and sleep were analyzed with linear regressions., Results: The results showed that higher extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were, in general, associated with better sleep, whereas higher neuroticism was associated with sleeping less well. Openness was not associated with sleep. Most of the associations were replicable between the samples from the two countries, but personality traits explained only small part of the variance in sleep behavior., Conclusions: Increasing the knowledge on personality and sleep may benefit more personalized treatment of sleep disorders and help in personnel selection to jobs in which it is critical to stay alert. However, longitudinal research is needed to confirm the current findings.

Objective: This study examined the association between personality traits and work stress., Methods: The sample comprised 757 women and 613 men (aged 30 to 45 years in 2007) participating in the Young Finns study. Personality was assessed with the NEO-FFI questionnaire and work stress according to Siegrist's effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model., Results: High neuroticism, low extraversion, and low agreeableness were associated with high ERI. Low conscientiousness was associated with high ERI in men. No association was found between openness and ERI. High neuroticism, high extraversion, and low agreeableness were associated with high effort and low neuroticism, high extraversion, and high agreeableness with high rewards. High conscientiousness was associated with high effort, and in women, with high rewards. High openness was associated with high effort., Conclusions: This study suggests that personality traits may predispose to and protect from work stress.

Background: Research on the long-term effects of Type A behavior and its components in the prediction of physical activity in adulthood is scarce and there is a lack of prospective data that are able to show such an association., Purpose: We examined the relations between components of Type A behavior and physical activity from youth to early midlife., Method: The sample included 2,031 participants (43.8% of males) aged 9 to 24 years in 1986 from the Young Finns Study. Type A behavior was measured by the Hunter-Wolf A-B Rating Scale at three phases in 1986, 1989, and 2001. Physical activity was assessed using a short self-report questionnaire at five phases between 1986 and 2007., Results: High Type A leadership was associated with high physical activity in 1986 (r = 0.37, P < 0.01), 1989 (r = 0.36, P < 0.01) and 2001 (r = 0.31, P < 0.01), and youth leadership also predicted high adult physical activity (P < 0.001). After adjustment for age, education, occupation, smoking, body mass index, and baseline physical activity, the association remained significant. There was also a bidirectional association between Type A leadership and physical activity. Persistent physical activity during the adult years was associated with a higher Type A leadership than persistent physical inactivity (Cohen's d = 0.34, P < 0.001), even after controlling for potential confounders. The associations of other components of Type A behavior, i.e., hard-driving, eagerness-energy, and aggression with physical activity were marginal., Conclusion: There is a direct relation between Type A leadership and physical activity at different development phases that maybe bidirectional.

This study examined the association between five‐factor model personality traits and perceptions of organisational justice. The sample for the study comprised 903 participants (35–50 years old; 523 women) studied in 2007 and 2012. Measures used were the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Five‐Factor Inventory questionnaire and the short organisational justice measure. The results showed that high neuroticism was associated with low distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Furthermore, high agreeableness was associated with high procedural and interactional justice and high openness with high distributive justice. This study suggests that neuroticism, agreeableness and openness are involved in perceptions of organisational justice and that personality should be considered in research and in practices at the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Previous studies have indicated that personality can lead to selection into unemployment, and that unemployment can adversely influence psychological well-being. This study examined the relationship between trait hostility and unemployment, hypothesizing a two-way relationship. Participants were from the Young Finns study that began in 1980, including 2097 (56% women) individuals followed over 15years from 1992 to 2007. Short-term unemployment within the preceding year was reported in 2001 and current unemployment status was reported in 2007. Long-term history of unemployment was reported in 2001 and 2007. Results showed that high hostility is associated with higher risk of becoming unemployed and having longer unemployment duration. Being unemployed predicted higher hostility in the short-term, but not over the long-term after adjustments for participant's own and parental educational level. Thus, personality factors are involved in the self-selection into unemployment and unemployment can influence short-term personality change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We studied the developmental trends of temperament and character in a longitudinal population-based sample of Finnish men and women aged 20–45 years using the Temperament and Character Inventory model of personality. Personality was assessed in 1997, 2001, and 2007 (n = 2,104, 2,095, and 2,056, respectively). Mean-level changes demonstrated qualitatively distinct developmental patterns for character (self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence) and temperament (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence). Character developed toward greater maturity, although self-transcendence decreased with age. However, self-transcendence was the strongest predictor of overall personality change. Cohort effects indicated lower level of self-transcendence and higher level of self-directedness and cooperativeness in younger birth cohorts. Regarding temperament, novelty seeking decreased and persistence increased slightly with age. Both high novelty seeking and high persistence predicted overall personality change. These findings suggest that temperament and character traits follow different kinds of developmental trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Objective: The long QT syndrome (LQTS) is an inherited cardiac disorder which predisposes the mutation carrier to ventricular arrhythmias that can lead to sudden death. The objective of the present study was to examine the association between the symptom status of congenital long QT syndrome mutation carriers and their temperament. Methods: The study subjects included 587 LQTS mutation carriers from the Finnish LQTS registry, and 2056 individuals from a database study, the Young Finns Study (YFS), representing general population and serving as control subjects. The LQTS subjects were divided into symptomatic (n=259) and asymptomatic (n=328) groups, according to their history of arrhythmic events. Temperament was assessed using the Cloninger''s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), assessing novelty seeking, harm avoidance and reward dependence. Results: Congenital long QT syndrome mutation carriers had a higher harm avoidance (HA) than those representing the general population (2.77 vs. 2.61, p<.001, η²=0.011). Symptomatic and asymptomatic LQTS mutation carriers did not differ from one another in any of the three Cloninger''s temperament traits. HA was significantly higher in women (2.72 vs. 2.54, p<0.001 η²=0.017). Conclusions: LQTS mutation carriers may have higher stress proneness because of their high HA, which in turn may predispose them to the effects of environmental loading and thus increase the risk of arrhythmias. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Testosterone is the main male hormone that has been associated with various behavioral traits in humans and other animals. We investigated whether levels of total testosterone, free testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin were associated with temperament traits in a population-based sample of Finnish men at two measurement times taken 6 years apart (n =686 in year 2001, n =727 in year 2007). Temperament was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory that consists of four temperament traits: novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence. Higher levels of total and free testosterone were associated with higher novelty seeking (standardized B =0.103, p <0.001). This association was also observed in a longitudinal within-person analysis (B =0.084, p =0.008), suggesting that the association is not confounded by stable between-individual differences in other characteristics. Within-individual variation in total testosterone was associated with higher reward dependence, and higher levels of free testosterone were marginally associated with higher reward dependence. Reward dependence reflects the importance of social rewards to an individual. These results provide additional evidence for the stable and time-varying associations between testosterone and temperament in humans. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Objective: Personality is a potential factor determining individual differences in body-weight change. The current study examines associations between personality traits and change in body-mass index (BMI) over six years. Method: The participants were 762 women and 648 men aged 24–39years at the base-line. Personality was assessed with the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). For calculating BMI, height and weight were assessed at a clinic. Results: Longitudinal analyses conducted with linear regressions showed that in men and women, higher Novelty seeking predicted higher BMI (p<.05), whereas lower Reward dependence predicted higher BMI in women (p<.05) when baseline BMI was taken into account. In addition, cross-sectional associations for several TCI traits were found in age and education adjusted analyses. In women, higher Self transcendence (p<.05) was associated with higher BMI. In men, higher Novelty seeking (p<.001) and Self transcendence (p<.01) and lower Self directedness (p<.01) and Cooperativeness (p<.05) were associated with higher BMI. In addition, analyses of variance were conducted for multidimensional trait profiles (trait combinations). Significant temperament profile related differences in BMI were found in all analyses in women. Associations with character profiles and in men were less consistent. Conclusion: The results give support for personality playing a role in weight gain. Knowledge on personality may be used for motivating weight loss and designing weight management interventions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]