Department of Human Development & Family Studies, Center on Aging & the Life Course, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2055, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2012 Jan;67(1):4-12. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbr072. Epub 2011 Jul 15.
Personality traits predict numerous health outcomes, but previous studies have rarely used personality change to predict health.
The current investigation utilized a large national sample of 3,990 participants from the Midlife in the U.S. study (MIDUS) to examine if both personality trait level and personality change longitudinally predict 3 different health outcomes (i.e., self-rated physical health, self-reported blood pressure, and number of days limited at work or home due to physical health reasons) over a 10-year span.
Each of the Big Five traits, except openness, predicted self-rated health. Change in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion also predicted self-rated health. Trait levels of conscientiousness and neuroticism level predicted self-reported blood pressure. All trait levels except agreeableness predicted number of work days limited. Only change in conscientiousness predicted the number of work days limited.
Findings demonstrate that a full understanding of the link between personality and health requires consideration of trait change as well as trait level.
个性特征可预测众多健康结果，但以往的研究很少使用个性变化来预测健康。
本研究利用来自美国中年研究（MIDUS）的 3990 名参与者的大型全国样本，考察个性特质水平和个性变化是否能在 10 年内预测 3 种不同的健康结果（即自我报告的身体健康、自我报告的血压和因身体健康原因限制工作或居家的天数）。
除了开放性之外，大五个性特质中的每一种都预测了自我报告的健康状况。宜人性、尽责性和外向性的变化也预测了自我报告的健康状况。尽责性和神经质的特质水平预测了自我报告的血压。除了宜人性之外，所有的特质水平都预测了工作天数的限制。只有尽责性的变化预测了工作天数的限制。
研究结果表明，要全面了解人格与健康之间的联系，需要考虑特质变化和特质水平。
