Personality and Physical Activity

1. Personality and Physical Activity EPHE 348

2. What is Personality? • Basic definition - dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions, is (McCrae et al., 1990) • Hypothesized to represent a biological influence towards culturally conditioned phenomena, behavior, and life events • Traits are place holders for yet to be discovered neurotransmitters and genes • The environment provides a means for the expression of personality

3. History of Personality • Oldest history in psychology • Dated to 400 B.C. with Hippocrates suggesting that there were four basic types of people associated with bodily humors • melancholic (depressed) black bile • choleric type (irritable) yellow bile • sanguine (optimistic) blood • phlegmatic (calm) phlegm

4. History Cont... • Flash forward to the 20th century • Gordon Allport (1930-40) • one of the most influential trait theorists • believed that traits are basic building blocks of psychological organization integrating what would be otherwise dissimilar stimuli and responses

5. History • Personality was almost abandoned in the 1960’s & 1970’s • Mischel (1968) argued that all individual differences are socially learned • Personality has now seen a resurgence over the last 20 years from evidence of heritability, cross-cultural stability, and neuroscience

6. Heritability • Twin studies are the most persuasive • Identical twin evidence is consistently stronger than fraternal twins • Explains about 50 % of personality • New research is at the level of genetic markers • Long way to go in this exciting area

7. Temporal Stability • Test-retest reliability / stability is identical from 2 weeks to 45 years • Appears to be continuity between temperaments and personality from childhood to adolescence • Traits are relatively enduring reaching peak consistency at 50-60

8. Cross-Culture Reliability • Identified similar personality structures and traits across all cultures

9. Neuroscience • Attempts to understand personality with natural science • Extraversion and cortical arousal • Neuroticism and the nervous system • Still in the early stages of research

10. How do we sort out the number of personality traits? • Theorizing / hypothesizing (e.g., Hippocrates) • Lexical studies • English contains 18,000 words that refer to characteristics of a behavior • Factor analysis reduces them into similar groupings • Idea is that language has been at least partially developed to describe behavior

11. Leading Personality Theories • One of the most famous and lasting pioneers in personality is Hans Eysenck • Identified two major dimensions: • 1) Extraversion-introversion • 2) Neuroticism-emotional stability • Third is Psychoticism - less researched

12. Eysenck’ s Model • Extraversion = activity, sociability, assertiveness, expressiveness, ambition, dogmatism, and aggression • Neuroticism = inferiority, unhappiness, anxiety, dependence, hypochondria, guilt, and obsessiveness • Psychoticism = risk-taking, impulsiveness, irresponsibility, manipulativeness, sensation-seeking, tough-mindedness, and practicality

13. Eysenck meets Hippocrates

14. Leading Personality Theories • The most popular model of personality is the five-factor model (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1990) • Proposes 5 key traits • Neuroticism • Extraversion • Openness to experience • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness

15. Five-Factor Model • Neuroticism = anxiety, depression, self-consciousness, vulnerability, angry hostility, impulsiveness • Extraversion = warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions • Openness to experience = fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values • Agreeableness = trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness • Conscientiousness = competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline, and deliberation

16. Personality and Health • Personality influences health through two Routes: • 1) Psychophysical – effect of psychological events on physiological, neuroendocrine, and metabolic processes • 2) Behavioral – overt actions and inactions that influence exposure to pathogenic agents / disease

17. Personality and Physical Activity • Rhodes and Smith (2006) meta-analysis of 35 studies • N,E,C are reliable correlates with a small ES • Linked to vigorous activities but not light activities • No gender difference • Potential cultural differences (Can/USA = E; UK = C)

18. Personality integrated with Social Cognition?

19. Extraversion (Rhodes, Courneya, Jones, 2002; Rhodes & Courneya, 2003; Rhodes, Courneya & Jones, 2003; Rhodes, Courneya & Jones, 2004)

20. Personality and the Stages of Change • Research suggests that personality may affect stage progression and regression (Rhodes et al., 2001; Lochbaum et al., submitted) • Significant difference in E, N, & C between Action/maintenance and contemplation /preparation • No difference in precontemplation - personality acts as a facilitator / inhibitor but not a decision maker for exercise?

21. Personality as a Moderator of Intention-Behaviour • High C individuals follow through with their exercise intentions more than low C individuals (self-discipline, organization, competence) (Conner et al., 2007; Rhodes et al., 2002) • High E individuals follow through with their exercise intentions more than low E individuals (greater opportunity and environment for physical activity ) (Rhodes et al., 2002, 2003; Hagan et al., in press) • Low N individuals follow through with their exercise intentions more than High N individuals (Less distraction/interference from mood ) (Hagan et al., in press)

22. Conscientiousness(Rhodes, Courneya, Blanchard & Plotnikoff, 2007)

23. Sub-Trait Analyses? Extraversion Positive Emotions Sociability Warmth Activity/ Adventurousness Assertiveness Sensation Seeking

24. Hagan et al. in press

25. Moderators of Intention-Behaviour • Rhodes et al., 2005 –C Achievement Striving • Hagan et al. in press – N Anxiety