This is a chapter excerpt from Guilford Publications.

Handbook of Personality Development.

Edited by Dan P. McAdams, Rebecca L. Shiner, and Jennifer L. Tackett. Copyright © 2019.
Purchase this book now: www.guilford.com/p/mcadams4

CHAP TER 28

Personality Development and Health

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Sarah E. Hampson

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It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.
—Mahatma Gandhi

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When it comes right down to it, health is every- Adams, 2013). Much of the evidence for the
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thing: “Without health life is not life” (attributed link between personality and health is based on
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to the Buddha). The overwhelming significance personality trait research (personality as actor),
of staying healthy may not be uppermost in our but I also consider goals (personality as agent,
minds when we are young, unless we have the agentic personality), and the relation between
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misfortune to fall seriously ill in childhood or health and autobiography (personality as au-
youth. Ill-health often seems to strike, meteor- thor). Personality trait research is dominated by
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like, from out of nowhere. Yet modern science the five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 2008),
tells us that the seeds of many diseases may also referred to as the Big Five framework
be found in our genes, our lifestyles, and our (John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008), for assessing
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personalities. The idea that our personalities personality in terms of broad and relatively
can influence our health has a long history, but independent domains: extraversion, agreeable-
it’s only recently that strong scientific evidence ness, conscientiousness, emotional stability (vs.
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for this link has accumulated. It is a complex neuroticism), and openness to experience (also
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association, with numerous intervening links called intellect/imagination). Other traits have
forming a chain from personality to health or been studied in relation to health, including
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illness through several intermediate steps such optimism, pessimism, sensation seeking, and
as stress and behavior. Making the connection various measures of self-control that are similar
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between personality and health does not mean to conscientiousness. These traits can be con-
that we are to blame for our diseases, but it does ceptually related to the five-factor framework,
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give us insights into how we might be able to which has proved to be a valuable organizing
alter our health trajectory. tool in personality and health research (Turiano,
In this chapter, I examine how personal- Chapman, Gruenwald, & Mroczek, 2015).
ity development can influence health, and how When studying the link between personality
health can influence personality development. traits and health, it is important to consider that
In McAdams’s integrative theory of personal- both sides of the equation are moving targets.
ity and self, a child develops from being a so- Health changes can be sudden, but the onset of
cial actor to a motivated agent and an autobio- chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes are
graphical author, to eventually become an adult usually the result of metabolic changes taking
who integrates all three of these components place over years or decades. Similarly, person-
into the self (Hooker & McAdams, 2003; Mc- ality traits change across the life course. We are

489
490 V. A p p l i c at i o n s a n d I n t e g r at i o n s

learning that personality development seems causality. Longitudinal studies are more com-
to parallel other areas of human development. pelling and are used exclusively in this chapter.
Just like our physical development, personality When significant associations are found be-
traits undergo dramatic changes in childhood tween personality measured some time prior to
and youth, then stabilize somewhat in adult- the assessment of health status, after controlling
hood before changing more rapidly again in old for obvious confounds (e.g., gender and educa-
age (Specht et al., 2014). The comparison is so tion), then a stronger inference can be made that
pronounced that normative personality devel- personality has had an effect on health. Simi-
opment across childhood and youth has been larly, if personality is assessed after a signifi-
described as following the “maturity” principle cant health event, it may suggest that the event
(Hogan & Roberts, 2004; Roberts, Wood, & influenced personality. Given that both person-

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Caspi, 2008). In their meta-analysis, Roberts, ality and health change over the lifespan, a more

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Walton, and Viechtbauer, (2006) compared sophisticated design is to measure them both on
mean levels of traits in samples that differed by multiple occasions and investigate the relation

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age and found that the maturational trend over between change in one and change in the other.
the first 30 or so years of adulthood is for people Nevertheless, all of these study designs are ob-
to become less neurotic, and more dominant (a servational, not experimental, so they cannot

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part of extraversion), agreeable, and conscien- provide unambiguous answers about the direc-
tious, whereas in old age, they become less open tion of causality. In addition, there is always the

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to experience and have less social vitality (an- possibility that personality change and health
other extraversion facet). change are the result of an underlying influence

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As with traits, the goals and motives of agen- not included in the study (the so-called “third
tic personality also change across the lifespan variable” explanation) that gives rise to a spuri-
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(Heckhausen & Wrosch, 2016). Health goals be- ous association, in which case there would be no
come more central with age, particularly with causal relation between personality and health.
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the onset of chronic disease, and older people’s The selection of findings on personality de-
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goals are likely to become less ambitious. Hav- velopment and health presented here emphasiz-
ing a health goal, such as to exercise more, im- es studies relating personality traits to objective
plies that one has control over one’s action. The assessments of physical health. Self-reported
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importance of belief in control is at the heart disease status and general health are also wide-
of Heckhausen, Wrosch, and Schulz’s (2010) ly used in personality and health research. How-
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lifespan theory of control, in which they argue ever, self-reports can be less accurate than more
that we are motivated to exert control over the objective measures, such as a medical diagnosis
developmental challenges that come with aging. or the results of a laboratory test. Self-reports
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We do so through a range of control strategies, are subject to biases, including personality bi-
some designed to help us achieve specific goals, ases. For example, people who are more neu-
such as directing resources to the goal (joining rotic tend to report more symptoms (Costa &
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a health club), whereas other strategies may in- McCrae, 1987). Objective assessments of health
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volve self-protective goal disengagement (e.g., refer to measures such as blood pressure, heart
no longer aiming to complete a half marathon rate, height, and weight taken by a qualified
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but settling for the 5K run instead). Similarly, clinician; they also include laboratory assays
the autobiographical self changes with time as of biological materials such as blood and urine.
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a result of experiences and reevaluation. The These measurements are commonly referred to
onset of illness can be a life-changing event that as “biomarkers.” An undisputable objective in-
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causes a major reappraisal of one’s identity. dicator of health is vital status (alive or dead),
The causal relation between personality and and longevity is used as a health outcome in
health runs in both directions: Personality in- some longitudinal studies of personality and
fluences health, and health influences person- health.
ality. Studies generally cannot yield definitive The chapter is organized as follows. The first
findings about the direction of the association, sections sum up findings on the prospective as-
but some study designs permit stronger infer- sociation between personality assessed at one
ences than others. Cross-sectional studies have stage in life and health assessed at a later stage.
uncovered many interesting associations be- Next, studies of personality change in relation
tween personality and health, but they cannot to health, and health change in relation to per-
lead to strong conclusions about the direction of sonality, are considered. Then I look at whether
 28. Personality Development and Health 491

there are interventions to change the course of order stability indicates the extent to which
personality development to lead to better health an individual maintains his or her position in
outcomes. Finally, I draw some conclusions a group: Is the most talkative kid in the class
about the possibilities offered by the changing in elementary school the most talkative teen in
nature of personality to improve health. high school? These correlations are lower for
children than for adults across the same time in-
terval, but they are far from negligible. In their
Personality in Childhood and Adolescence analysis of 152 studies, Roberts and DelVecchio
in Relation to Later Health (2000) reported a rank-order stability correla-
tion for children ages 6–12 years between .40
The idea that a child’s personality is linked, per- and .50, whereas for adults ages 50–59, it was

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haps causally, to his or her health as an adult over .70. Rank-order stability is different from

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may seem quite a stretch. To illustrate with an the mean-level stability, which describes the
extreme but, sadly, all too real example, we may extent to which the average level of a trait in

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remember a classmate in elementary school who a population changes across times of measure-
was a rule-breaker, always getting into trouble ment and is indicative of normative, matura-
and doing risky things. How did life turn out for tional trends. Given that childhood personality

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that classmate? In personality terms, we could traits are undergoing maturational and idiosyn-
describe him or her as sensation seeking: some- cratic change, is it possible that trait levels as-

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one who seeks out thrills and adventure, and sessed on one occasion in childhood can tell us
acts impulsively. On the Big Five dimensions, anything about future health? The surprising

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he or she might be high on extraversion, low answer is “yes.”
on conscientiousness, and perhaps emotionally Two studies demonstrated that childhood
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unstable. Based on research on predictors of personality traits assessed in elementary school
substance use, we know that he or she was at predict clinical health status in young adulthood
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increased risk of smoking cigarettes and drink- (Moffitt et al., 2011) and middle age (Hampson,
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ing alcohol as a preteen, using marijuana in his Edmonds, Goldberg, Dubanoski, & Hillier,
or her early teens, and possibly going on to hard 2013). In both studies, health status was mea-
drug use. Tragically, as a young adult, he or she sured by combinations of biomarkers indicative
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may have died in a drunk-driving accident, or of cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk,
from a drug overdose. If the classmate survived such as lipid levels, blood glucose, and waist
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these youthful hazards, he or she may have de- size. Childhood traits even predict longevity
veloped lung cancer later in life, caused by a (Friedman et al., 1993). Childhood personality
lifetime addiction to cigarettes, or liver disease scores were derived in different ways across
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from heavy drinking. This is an extreme ex- these studies: by a comprehensive assessment
ample. Childhood personality pathways to adult of parent-, teacher-, and self-reports combined
health outcomes are likely to be less dramatic. across multiple assessments (Moffitt et al.,
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Over time, modest personality influences may 2011); by combined parent and teacher ratings
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be associated with the development of more or (Friedman et al., 1995); and by teachers’ impres-
less healthy habits, and personality traits may sions of the child formed over an entire school
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interact with environmental factors, such as ex- year (Hampson et al., 2013). Nevertheless, the
posure to stress, leading to slow but insidious strongest and most consistent associations with
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effects on later health. health outcomes found in these studies were

In childhood, roughly defined as elementary for traits of childhood conscientiousness. The
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school grades 1–6 (ages 6–12 years), children’s broad domain of personality labeled consci-
personalities are typically assessed by observ- entiousness includes important characteristics
ers such as teachers or parents because chil- such as self-control, persistence in the face of
dren’s self-reflective capacity is limited. At this challenges, planning ahead, and being orga-
age, personality undergoes changes, as has been nized. Such qualities promote a range of posi-
shown by comparing trait stability measured tive life outcomes, including health.
by rank-order correlations within different age These studies demonstrated associations
groups. The rank-order correlation coefficient across decades between childhood traits in
measures the degree of similarity between the the Big Five domain of conscientiousness and
relative standing of members of a sample on a health in adulthood, after controlling for con-
trait at one time compared to another. Rank- founding variables such as educational attain-
492 V. A p p l i c at i o n s a n d I n t e g r at i o n s

ment and gender. Importantly, childhood con- traits such as lack of self-control may result in
scientiousness predicts health outcomes even behaviors that increase the probability of expo-
after removing the influence of adult consci- sure to dangerous or traumatic situations and
entiousness. At least two independent studies adversely affect health through long-lasting
have demonstrated that regardless of their level biological consequences of stress. Investigating
of conscientiousness in adulthood, conscien- these kinds of links in the chain from childhood
tious children are more likely to be healthier personality to adult health outcomes is one cur-
adults, as indicated by a combination of cardio- rent direction in personality and health research
vascular and metabolic biomarkers (Hampson (Shanahan, Hill, Roberts, Eccles, & Friedman,
et al., 2013), and by longevity (Martin, Fried- 2014).
man, & Schwartz, 2007). The maturational A somewhat different approach to studying

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trend (mean level change) suggests a decline childhood personality and health is illustrated

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in conscientiousness in childhood and adoles- by the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns
cence followed by increases in adulthood (Soto, (CRYF) study, which is an ongoing investiga-

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John, Gosling, & Potter, 2011). However, con- tion of risk factors for cardiovascular disease
scientiousness shows modest rank-order sta- in a representative sample ages 3–18 at recruit-
bility across time. In the Hawaii Longitudinal ment. The investigators combined a variety of

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Study of Personality and Health, the correlation environmental and individual psychosocial risk
between conscientiousness measured in child- factors, including parent’s ratings of their child’s

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hood at about age 10 and 40 years later was r = self-regulation, into a summary score. In effect,
.25 (Edmonds, Goldberg, Hampson, & Barck- this score collapsed a series of variables that

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ley, 2013; Hampson & Goldberg, 2006). Using could be seen as related in a causal chain into
data from the ongoing Dunedin Multidisci- a single index. The summary score predicted a
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plinary Health and Development Study, Moffitt composite measure of cardiovascular health as-
and colleagues (2011) obtained a slightly higher sessed by self-report and clinical measures 27
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correlation of r = .30 for self-control assessed years later (Pulkki-Råback et al., 2015). In ad-
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across a shorter time span from childhood to dition, children’s self-regulation alone predict-
young adulthood, and Martin and colleagues ed cardiovascular health, consistent with other
(2007) observed a somewhat lower correlation studies that have measured the related concepts
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of r = .15 for participants in the Terman Life of self-control and conscientiousness.

Cycle study between child and adult conscien-
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tiousness averaged across measures 18 and 28

years later. These comparatively low levels of Adult Personality in Relation to Later Health
rank-order stability reflect the length of time
Young Adulthood
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between assessments and the age span, which

encompassed the period of maximum develop- Young or “emerging” adulthood (roughly ages
mental change (i.e., childhood to adulthood). 18–30) is a period of continuing physical and
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The long-lasting influence of childhood con- psychological development that has been sin-
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scientiousness on health, regardless of later gled out as a development period in its own
conscientiousness, suggests that there may be right that lies between adolescence and adult-
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something special about this trait during the ele- hood (Arnett, 2000). Young adults in this age
mentary school years. Epidemiologists describe group explore relationships and career choices
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this type of time-limited effect as a critical or with varying degrees of success, and their ex-
sensitive period for exposure to a particular risk perience in these roles may lead to personality
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factor (Lynch & Davey Smith, 2005). They are changes. Investment in social roles such as mar-
typically concerned with an external influence riage and parenthood has been associated with
such as poverty. Here, we can extend the idea to normative personality development in some
an internal influence, namely, the level of a par- (e.g., Roberts & Wood, 2006) but not all studies
ticular personality trait. It may be the case that (e.g., van Scheppingen et al., 2016).
childhood is a critical period for laying down Despite personality change in young adult-
patterns of behavior and their biological effects hood, personality measured during this time
that endure into adulthood. Childhood consci- can predict later health outcomes. College
entiousness may foster healthy habits, such as students have long provided a ready sample
participating in active hobbies, and practicing for psychological research, including studies
dental hygiene. On the other hand, personality of personality and health. In the middle of the
 28. Personality Development and Health 493

previous century, the Grant Longitudinal Study only. The latter finding is somewhat surprising,
was initiated with a sample of healthy and suc- but it might be that those women with lower re-
cessful male Harvard undergraduates. They ward dependence were less concerned with the
were first assessed as undergraduates between social rewards of maintaining their weight.
1938 and 1942, then followed up repeatedly with Studying the long-term implications for
self-report and objective assessments of physi- health of personality assessed in children, youth,
cal and psychological health. This classic study and young adults requires a major investment of
is well described in Vaillant’s (1977, 2012) en- resources, so, not surprisingly, there are rela-
gaging books. The Harvard study, like the Ter- tively few such studies. Although these studies
man Life Cycle Study, continues to offer rich inevitably did not include personality measures
opportunities for researchers, who can conduct that are now considered state of the art, their

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new analyses on these old and valuable data to data can either be reanalyzed to provide mea-

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test current hypotheses. For example, Peterson, sures aligned with the five-factor model (Mar-
Seligman, and Vaillant (1988) measured pessi- tin & Friedman, 2000), or their measures can be

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mistic explanatory style by content analysis of interpreted within this framework (Peterson et
reports of their World War II experiences ob- al., 1988). By reanalyzing these valuable data to
tained from a subset of the Harvard men. They address contemporary research questions, they

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related this measure of pessimism to the men’s continue to provide insights into the associa-
physical health assessed by doctors every 5 tion between early personality and later health

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years until age 60. Those who were more pes- (Kern, Hampson, Goldberg, & Friedman, 2014).
simistic had worse health in later life, control-

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ling for baseline health. Moreover, pessimistic
Adulthood
style predicted decreases in health from one
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assessment to the next. This is one of the first The period from around ages 30–60 is when
studies to show that a personality characteristic there is comparatively little personality devel-
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measured at one time was associated with sub- opment and rank-order stability of personal-
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sequent health change measured over a series ity traits reaches its peak (Specht et al., 2014).
of assessments. In the Big Five framework, the Based on the hypothesis that personality exerts
dimension of optimism is probably associated a sustained, prospective influence on health
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with aspects of all of the Big Five except open- outcomes, studies limited to this age range are
ness/intellect (Sharpe, Martin, & Roth, 2011). expected to yield the strongest associations be-
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More recent studies of young adults also em- tween personality and health. A stable level on a
phasize the significance of predicting health trait such as conscientiousness over years or de-
change from personality characteristics. The cades may have cumulative benefits for the in-
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Dunedin Study demonstrated the influence of dividual through, for example, the maintenance
personality traits measured during young adult- of good health practices that provide high levels
hood on later health change (Israel et al., 2014). of cardiovascular and metabolic protection.
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Lower levels of conscientiousness and openness Mortality is the ultimate hard endpoint for
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measured by observer ratings at age 26 were as- longitudinal studies of adult health. There is by
sociated with decreases in clinically assessed now compelling evidence to indicate that the
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health (a combination of biomarkers) from personality trait of conscientiousness is a pro-

ages 26 to 38, controlling for numerous other spective predictor of longevity: Adults who are
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risk factors. As the researchers noted, this is a more conscientious are likely to live longer than
powerful demonstration of the influence of per- those who are less conscientious. This evidence
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sonality on health because these traits prospec- for adults confirms the dramatic findings for
tively predicted health change, similar to the childhood conscientiousness in the Terman Life
findings for pessimism in the Harvard study. In Cycle Study first reported by Friedman and col-
a comparable design, in the CRYF, two person- leagues (1993) over 20 years ago. The evidence
ality traits of young Finns ages 24–39 at base- for adults comes from individual studies (e.g.,
line predicted their weight gain over the subse- Hagger-Johnson et al., 2012; Terracciano, Löck-
quent 6 years (Hintsanen et al., 2012). Higher enhoff, Zonderman, Ferrucci, & Costa, 2008),
novelty seeking predicted weight gain for men and meta-analyses that combine findings across
and women, and lower reward dependence (i.e., multiple studies. A meta-analysis of 20 inde-
being less empathic, sentimental, and sensitive pendent samples including nearly 9,000 people
to social cues) predicted weight gain for women established a pooled correlation of r = .11 be-
494 V. A p p l i c at i o n s a n d I n t e g r at i o n s

tween conscientiousness and mortality (Kern such process through which personality influ-
& Friedman, 2008). This effect may not seem ences may operate (Hampson et al., 2016). Luo
high, but it is greater than the effect of aspirin and Roberts (2015) found that changes in con-
on reducing the risk of heart disease, and the scientiousness, stress, and self-reported health
effect of intelligence on mortality risk (Rob- studied over 3 years were associated. These
erts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007). changes suggested a stress mechanism in which
Another meta-analysis of over 76,000 individu- higher conscientiousness protected a person
als from seven different cohort studies, with a from experiencing stress, which in turn pro-
mean age of 50.9 years at the time of personal- tected his or her health. More research relating
ity measurement, found that conscientiousness changes on traits, health outcomes, and poten-
was the only one of the Big Five traits to predict tial mechanisms can be expected in the future

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all-cause mortality (Jokela et al., 2013). Those as investigators try to pinpoint more precisely

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in the lowest tertile for conscientiousness had a the possible causal relations among these vari-
34% increased risk of dying compared to those ables.

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in the top two tertiles. Other Big Five traits that The studies described so far have suggested
have been associated with mortality risk, but that regardless of the age at which personality
less consistently, are neuroticism and hostil- was measured, the trait of conscientiousness,

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ity (low agreeableness), and a few studies have and ones conceptually similar to it, have been
found extraversion to increase and openness to the most consistently related to later morbidity

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experience to decrease mortality risk (Ferguson and mortality. This reliable and replicable pro-
& Bibby, 2012; Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, spective finding suggests that conscientiousness

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& Goldberg, 2007; Turiano, Spiro, & Mroczek, may be causally related to health, and mecha-
2012). nisms for this influence have been examined.
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However, these studies do not fully consider
the possible impact of personality development
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Personality Development on health. They demonstrated that being more
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and Personality–Health Mechanisms conscientious at a certain age conferred a future

health benefit, but they do not consider the ef-
Personality and health researchers are inves- fects of personality change on health. If a trait
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tigating mechanisms that may explain the as- is indeed causally related to a health outcome,
sociation between personality traits and health then changes on the trait should be associated
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outcomes that have been observed across the with corresponding changes on that outcome. I
lifespan (Hampson, 2012; Hill, Turiano, Hurd, consider in the next part of this chapter studies
Mroczek, & Roberts, 2011; Turiano et al., 2015). that offer the possibility for stronger causal in-
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For example, a conscientious person may be ferences because they have examined personal-
more likely to have a healthy lifestyle than an ity change.
unconscientious person. The conscientious per-
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son will take the steps that are necessary to exer-

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cise regularly and have healthful food available Personality Change and Health
at home. He or she will have sufficient persever-
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Change in Adulthood
ance to stick with exercise goals, and enough
self-control to resist those high-fat, high-sugar, Developmental changes in the direction of
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high-salt foods deliberately designed to tempt personality maturation (increasing agreeable-

us. Healthful habits sustained over adult life ness, conscientiousness, and extraversion, and
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reduce the likelihood of developing chronic, decreasing neuroticism) may be beneficial for
life-threatening conditions such as diabetes and health. These maturational changes in the so-
heart disease, and childhood conscientiousness cially desirable direction may result in better
appears to set us on the path to acquiring and health because of greater conformity to good
maintaining those habits and enjoying the ensu- health practices, and less stress resulting from
ing health benefits (Hampson, Edmonds, Gold- negative social interactions or other events pre-
berg, Dubanoski, & Hillier, 2015). cipitated by undesirable traits.
Health-behavior mechanisms only provide a A study of over 11,000 Australians indicated
partial explanation for the association between that socially desirable personality change is as-
personality and health, leaving room for other sociated with health improvements (Magee,
possible processes to be involved. Stress is one Heaven, & Miller, 2013). The Big Five per-
 28. Personality Development and Health 495

sonality traits and self-reported health were much more there is to discover about mecha-
measured on two occasions, 4 years apart. In- nisms of personality, behavior, and health
creases in extraversion and conscientiousness, change over the life course.
and decreases in neuroticism were associated If desirable trait change can be associated
with better health. A strength of this study was with poor health, then personality change per se
that personality and health were each measured may be related to health outcomes. Is it possible
at the two time points, so that both personality that absolute trait change in adulthood is dam-
change and health change could be examined. aging for health? Another study using MIDUS
In a study that had a longer follow-up period of data illustrates this possibility. Human and col-
10 years, Turiano, Pitzer, and colleagues (2012) leagues (2013) related personality change over
used data from the Midlife in the United States two assessments 10 years apart, to self-reported

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(MIDUS) study to relate personality change to health, and to the metabolic syndrome objec-

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self-reported health. Big Five personality traits tively assessed at the time of the second person-
were assessed on two occasions 10 years apart, ality assessment. The metabolic syndrome is a

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and health was assessed by self-report on the constellation of biomarkers such as waist cir-
second occasion. As in the study by Magee cumference, blood pressure, and fasting blood
and colleagues (2013), becoming more consci- glucose, which indicates risk of cardiovascular

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entious and less neurotic was associated with disease and diabetes. Trait change in the un-
better health but, in addition, becoming more desirable direction was associated with worse

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agreeable was associated with poorer health. self-reported health. However, the most strik-
This finding indicates that socially desirable ing finding from this study was that absolute

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changes in personality may not necessarily personality change was associated with having
translate into health benefits. For example, a more biomarkers meeting the cutoff for meta-
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person who becomes more agreeable over time bolic syndrome. This study also found that ab-
may be more willing to provide care for a fam- solute change (either increases or decreases) in
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ily member with developmental disability or agency, which measured empowerment and the
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dementia. Caregivers are at higher risk of de- sense of control over one’s environment, was
veloping their own physical and mental health associated with poorer metabolic health. The
problems (Schulz & Sherwood, 2008). In a biomarkers were only measured at the second
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similar vein, more empathic parents caring for assessment, so it is unknown how much health
adolescent children had higher levels of inflam- change occurred over the follow-up. It is pos-
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mation than less empathic parents (Manczak, sible that changing health over 10 years led to
DeLongis, & Chen, 2016). Empathy is a person- the observed changes in personality, so causal
ality trait that overlaps with agreeableness and inferences from these findings are tempered by
©

conscientiousness (Melchers et al., 2016). this limitation. Nevertheless, it is a provocative

Researchers are only beginning to study the idea that personality change in either direction
mechanisms by which personality changes are can have negative consequences for health. In
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related to health changes. If traits influence adulthood, personality is typically relatively

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health through behaviors, then trait change may stable (both rank-order and mean-level stabil-
be related to behavior change and, hence, health ity), so when personality change does occur, it
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change. In a study conducted with a commu- may be related to a life event or stressor, which
nity sample over 3 years, Takahashi, Edmonds, could affect health. Perhaps trait change in
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Jackson, and Roberts (2012) observed that in- adulthood threatens one’s coherent sense of self.
creases in conscientiousness were associated In adults, traits, motives, and autobiographical
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with increases in health-enhancing behaviors narrative are integrated to form a sense of self,
and self-reported health. However, a recent so changes in any one of these components may
meta-analysis produced different results. Data weaken that sense of self, which may have nega-
from seven longitudinal studies indicated that tive health consequences.
individuals’ health-enhancing behavior did not
increase and decrease in concert with increases
Change in Old Age
and decreases in their conscientiousness (Joke-
la, 2016). There are several possible reasons for We still have much to learn about personal-
this null finding, such as differences in the mea- ity in old age, but it does appear to be a time
sures of conscientiousness across the different when maturational personality change becomes
studies, but this analysis is a reminder of how more likely after a period of relative stability in
496 V. A p p l i c at i o n s a n d I n t e g r at i o n s

adulthood (Specht et al., 2014). Findings vary personality. A person diagnosed with a disease
across studies as to what may be normative may also acquire a new social identity and a
developmental trends for this age group. One new social role: the “sick” role (Goffman, 1990).
study showed decreased conscientiousness and When a person becomes a “cancer patient,” a
increased agreeableness in those ages 61–99 “diabetic,” or he or she “has the flu,” the person
years, termed the “dolce vita” effect (Marsh, must change aspects of his or her lifestyle and
Nagengast, & Morin, 2013), whereas others be treated differently by others because of this
have not obtained similar results (Allemand, new identity. The person may come to see him-
Zimprich, & Hendriks, 2008; Soto et al., 2011). or herself differently as a result. It seems highly
These days, old age, if defined as over age 60, plausible, therefore, to expect some personality
may last for several decades, and studies that in- change as a consequence of illness.

s
clude the oldest-old may yield different results Literature and real life abound with examples

es
from those that do not. of illness affecting people’s lives and, by exten-
Personality change in old age has been related sion, their personalities. I enjoy Jane Austen’s

Pr
to health outcomes. Mroczek and Spiro (2007) novels, and my favorite is Persuasion. One of
related changes in neuroticism to mortality the more dramatic moments in the book is when
risk among older men in the Normative Aging Louisa Musgrove impetuously jumps off a wall,

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Study. At the beginning of the study, their par- surprising her gallant companion, who fails to
ticipants ranged in age from 43 to 91 years, catch her. She suffers a fairly serious concus-

lfo
and they were followed for 12 years. Changes sion. During her convalescence, she falls in love
in neuroticism were modeled as growth trajec- with a thoughtful, poetry-loving young man

ui
tories, which provide a measure of the trait’s with a tendency toward melancholy. Prior to her
initial level and change over time. They found accident, she was not much of a reader or a deep
G
that the men with the highest initial levels of thinker. How could these two fall in love? We
neuroticism in combination with the highest in- are told they fell in love over poetry. He was
e
creases in neuroticism had the highest mortality a constant presence during her recovery and
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risk. Studying octogenarians, Mõttus, Johnson, doubtless taught her to appreciate the poetry he
Starr, and Deary (2012) investigated personality loved. Not much more explanation is offered,
change for all the Big Five traits in the ninth de- but we can fill in the blanks. The injury may
19

cade, measured over two assessments from ages have left her frightened, chastened even, as well
81 to 87. Unlike Mroczek and Spiro’s study, as weak, confused, and in pain. In this suscepti-
20

emotional stability (i.e., neuroticism) remained ble state, she underwent a change of values and
stable over the two assessments, whereas the perhaps a reappraisal of her life to date. Doubt-
remaining Big Five traits declined. Declines less, in the future, she would see her accident as
©

in conscientiousness were associated with de- a key turning point in her autobiography.
clines in physical fitness. As people live longer A more contemporary and real-life illustra-
but not necessarily healthier lives, understand- tion of the life-changing impact of illness was
ht

ing the association between personality change provided by Laura Hillenbrand, author of a
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and health change in the oldest-old is becoming best-selling book about an initially unpromis-
increasingly relevant. ing race horse called Seabiscuit, who eventually
yr

became American Horse of the Year in 1938. In

a New Yorker Personal History article, she gave
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Health Change and Personality a vivid account of the sudden onset of chronic
fatigue syndrome and its subsequent effects on
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It may be intuitively easier to believe that her life (Hillenbrand, 2003). She had to make
changes in health lead to personality change, enormous compromises to accommodate this
than to believe that changes in personality lead debilitating illness. She dropped out of college
to changes in health. Stressful life events appear and rarely left the house. For years, she was un-
to have effects on aspects of personality, such able to travel in a car because of severe vertigo.
as making a person more neurotic (Riese et al., In the broader sense of personality as the com-
2014), and the onset of a life-changing disease is bination of traits, motives/goals, and autobiog-
surely one kind of major stressful event. Illness raphy, this illness led to dramatic changes and
leads to multiple changes with potential to alter was a major event in her personal narrative.
personality. The experience of having a disease A challenge for studying the effects of ill-
affects a person’s biology, which may affect their ness on personality is that, ideally, personality
 28. Personality Development and Health 497

should be measured prior to the onset of illness, and had more fun. I would say she succeeded,
as well as afterward. A retrospective report of so some of us can indeed make intentional per-
personality before the illness is likely to be less sonality changes.
accurate than measures obtained before the ill- A question that is difficult to answer, how-
ness occurred. Fortunately, some recent stud- ever, is whether personality change is the result
ies have collected these measures. A study of or cause of behavior change (Hudson & Fraley,
young adults in Finland demonstrated that the 2015). Landmark life events necessitate behav-
onset of a chronic illness by age 20, or between ior changes that over time may become consoli-
ages 20 and 23, was related to increased neu- dated in the form of trait change and change in
roticism from ages 20 to 23 (Liekas & Salme- identity (Roberts & Jackson, 2008). Alterna-
la-Aro, 2015). In addition, those who were di- tively, life events may impose new roles and so-

s
agnosed with a chronic disease by age 20 had cial identities that require changes in traits and

es
greater increases in conscientiousness between behaviors (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007). These
ages 20 and 23 than those with no such diag- contrasting mechanisms of trait change have

Pr
nosis. This study suggests that disease onset in been described, respectively, as bottom-up (i.e.,
emerging adulthood, which is already a time of behavior-driven) versus top-down approaches
considerable personality change, may have both (i.e., trait-driven), (Magidson, Roberts, Colla-

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negative and positive consequences for person- do-Rodriguez, & Lejuez, 2014).
ality change. Increases in neuroticism may be A health event is one motivator of behavior

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the result of health-related anxiety and vigilant change that may lead to bottom-up trait change.
disease monitoring, whereas increases in con- An accident, or the onset of a serious chronic

ui
scientiousness may be the result of improved illness, can be a powerful wake-up call to adopt
health behavior leading to changes in self-per- a healthier lifestyle. In my work on illness be-
G
ception. A study of older participants drawn liefs among people with type 2 diabetes, it was
from three large-scale cohort studies, spanning not uncommon for people to say that the onset
e
young adulthood to old age, found that consci- of this disease made them take better care of
Th

entiousness decreased after the onset of chronic themselves (Hampson, Glasgow, & Toobert,
illness (Jokela, Hakulinen, Singh-Manoux, 1990). Leading a healthier lifestyle as a result of
& Kivimäki, 2014). In contrast to these stud- their illness might have had a bottom-up effect
19

ies, using data from the Baltimore Longitudi- of increasing their level of conscientiousness.
nal Study of Aging, which includes multiple There is evidence for this kind of personality
20

assessments of personality and disease over change. Healthy living at baseline, particular-
time, Sutin, Zonderman, Ferrucci, and Terrac- ly higher levels of physical exercise and more
ciano (2013) observed that personality remained modest alcohol consumption, was associated
©

largely unchanged in response to disease onset. with positive trait change, including increased
Based on the limited research so far, it is not conscientiousness, over the subsequent 4 years
clear whether illness onset is linked to changes in a nationally representative sample of Aus-
ht

that deviate from or enhance the pattern of nor- tralian adults (Allen, Vella, & Laborde, 2015).
ig

mative trait development for a particular age. In Even more marked effects might be observed
addition, there is still much to discover about when healthy living is prompted by a change in
yr

the effects of specific illnesses on trait change. health status.

It is also possible to change personality using
op

a top-down approach that aims to change per-

Intentional Personality Change sonality traits, and therefore behavior. Psy-
C

chotherapeutic interventions have been shown

Personality change is assumed to be triggered to be associated with trait changes on the Big
by a number of influences, including biological Five, such as extraversion and neuroticism (for
maturation, the influence of social milestones reviews, see Chapman, Hampson, & Clarkin,
such as going to college, and events such as 2014; Magidson et al., 2014; Roberts et al.,
disease onset (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007). 2017). Top-down trait change, aided by an in-
Most people would like to change some aspect tervention to help with implementing intentions
of their personality (Hudson & Roberts, 2014). I to change, has also been demonstrated with un-
have an acquaintance who told me she decided dergraduates (Hudson & Fraley, 2015).
as a teenager to change from being an introvert Intentional personality change includes
to an extravert because extraverts were happier changing goals and motivations, as well as
498 V. A p p l i c at i o n s a n d I n t e g r at i o n s

traits. Agency, the capacity to consciously shape stable period of life during adulthood. Person-
the direction of one’s life, is an essential human ality change also predicts health change, and
quality that is not adequately addressed in trait health change predicts personality change. The
research (Heckhausen et al., 2010). To maxi- implication of these findings is that at any time
mize success in life, it is necessary not only in life, it may be valuable to attempt personal-
to choose goals wisely and pursue them vigor- ity change in the health-enhancing direction.
ously, but also to know when it is time to let go. However, childhood seems to be an especially
Heckhausen and colleagues identify two kinds promising time to encourage the development
of control that are involved in successful devel- of greater conscientiousness through actions
opment. Primary control processes are directed such as school-based interventions and parental
at changing one’s world to bring the environ- modeling.

s
ment into line with one’s wishes. For example, Nevertheless, it is important not to paint an

es
an older woman may choose to move to a se- overly straightforward picture of the association
nior-living community when she finds she no between personality development and health,

Pr
longer wishes to have the responsibilities of in- and what it implies. As we have seen, while
dependent living. Secondary control processes many studies suggest that personality assessed
(motivation) support primary control by helping at one point in life predicts later health, these

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one to stay committed to a goal in the face of observations are only suggestive of a causal re-
challenges, for example, by seeking social sup- lation, and much remains to be learned about

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port from others. It is important to take a lifes- the mechanisms that underlie this association,
pan perspective when studying human agency especially when considered developmentally.

ui
because goals change with age. Among older As personality and health develop and change
adults, it is necessary to disengage from goals over time, the processes relating the two are also
G
that were more relevant in youth. For those with changing. While we have begun to study these
chronic illness, goals must be modified to adapt changes, more longitudinal data with multiple
e
to limitations (Saajanaho et al., 2016). Primary measures are needed, as well as sophisticated
Th

control strategies are associated with better analytic techniques to reach a better under-
health outcomes, less depression, and less func- standing of these complex associations. Until
tional disability (Heckhausen et al., 2010), and we have a more complete grasp on mechanisms
19

conflict between primary and secondary pro- of personality and health over the lifespan, we
cesses leads to poorer health outcomes (Hamm, should proceed cautiously with interventions
20

Chipperfield, Perry, Heckhausen, & Mack- intended to improve health by changing person-
enzie, 2014). These findings suggest that the ality.
agentic aspects of personality are important for The focus on personality development and
©

health. Supporting the development of adaptive change across the lifespan now prevalent in trait
primary control strategies and the motivation to research contradicts our personal experience of
stay committed to one’s health-related goals are a fairly consistent sense of self over time. Our
ht

ways in which we can stay on more healthful personal narratives, or autobiographical selves,
ig

trajectories. may be punctuated by major turning points that

reflect marked changes in our lives, but we are
yr

probably not so aware of more modest changes

Summary and Conclusions in ourselves over time. We may under- or over-
op

estimate the degree of actual change. Consider

At the beginning of this chapter, I suggested a classic study in which participants were asked
C

that a greater understanding of the relation to recall how well adjusted they were 25 years
between personality development and health earlier, when they were 19 years olds (Woodruff
would provide insights into how we might be & Birren, 1972). The investigators were fortu-
able to alter our health trajectory. As we have nate enough to have the self-ratings of adjust-
seen, although personality development contin- ment from their participants when they were
ues across the lifespan, some personality traits, 19 to compare with the 25-year retrospective
particularly conscientiousness, measured at ratings. They found a discrepancy: Participants
one point in life predict later health. This holds remembered themselves as being less well ad-
true for personality measured during life stages justed at 19 than they had described themselves
characterized by more change (i.e., childhood, at the time. They recalled more self-change than
youth, and old age), as well as the relatively was apparently the case, perhaps to be consistent
 28. Personality Development and Health 499

with their personal narratives of becoming ma- matic complaints, and disease: Is the bark worse than
ture adults. Despite the evidence that childhood the bite? Journal of Personality, 55, 299–316.
personality appears to direct people onto path- Edmonds, G. W., Goldberg, L. R., Hampson, S. E., &
ways to later health outcomes, it seems unlikely Barckley, M. (2013). Personality stability from child-
hood to midlife: Relating teachers’ assessments in
that people would accurately recall their level
elementary school to observer- and self-ratings 40
of conscientiousness as children or attribute years later. Journal of Research in Personality, 47,
their health at midlife to this childhood trait (al- 505–513.
though this would be an interesting question to Ferguson, E., & Bibby, P. A. (2012). Openness to ex-
research). While the stories that we live by may perience and all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis
not be completely accurate, they provide mean- and requivalent from risk ratios and odds ratios. British
ing and coherence (McAdams, 1993). Findings Journal of Health Psychology, 17, 85–102.

s
from studies of personality development and Friedman, H. S., Tucker, J. S., Schwartz, J. E., Tomlin-

es
health, such as those reviewed here, may pro- son-Keasey, C., Martin, L. R., Wingard, D. L., et al.
vide insights that people can incorporate into (1995). Psychosocial and behavioral predictors of

Pr
longevity: The aging and death of the “termites.”
their autobiographies and perhaps use to make
American Psychologist, 50(2), 69–78.
desired changes in their lives. Friedman, H. S., Tucker, J. S., Tomlinson-Keasey, C.,
As this chapter has illustrated, the majority of

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Schwartz, J. E., Wingard, D. L., & Criqui, M. H.
research on personality development and health (1993). Does childhood personality predict longev-
has been focused on traits, ignoring the agentic

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ity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
and autobiographical aspects of the self. Trait 65(1), 176–185.
research has revealed some remarkable find- Goffman, E. (1990). The presentation of self in every-
ings about the relation between personality and
ui
day life. London: Penguin Books.
health outcomes across the lifespan. Neverthe- Hagger-Johnson, G., Sabia, S., Nabi, H., Brunner, E.,
G
less, a more complete understanding of how Kivimaki, M., Shipley, M., et al. (2012). Low con-
scientiousness and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular
personality change is related to health may be
e
and cancer mortality over 17 years: Whitehall II co-
achieved if personality researchers go beyond
Th

hort study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 73,

traits. By incorporating the subjective experi- 98–103.
ence of growing and changing over the lifespan, Hamm, J. M., Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., Heck-
we may achieve a more complete picture of the hausen, J., & Mackenzie, C. S. (2014). Conflicted
19

relation between personality and health. goal engagement: Undermining physical activity
and health in late life. Journals of Gerontology B:
20

Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69(4),

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 533–542.
Hampson, S. E. (2012). Personality processes: Mecha-
Preparation of this chapter was supported by Grant
©

nisms by which personality traits “get outside the

No. R01AG020048. I am grateful to Patrick L. Hill skin.” Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 315–339.
for his comments on an earlier draft. Hampson, S. E., Edmonds, G. W., Goldberg, L. R.,
ht

Barckley, M., Klest, B., Dubanoski, J. P., et al.

(2016). Lifetime trauma, personality traits, and
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