Personality and Mental Health

Diathesis-Stress Models

diathesis = inherent vulnerability to develop an illness (personality trait)

stress = increase the risk of developing an illness

haslam (2007): metaphorically, diatheses make people brittle and life stress delivers the blows that make them crack

stress and diatheses interact which cause increased risk of developing MHP

relationships (haslam, 2007)

linear = each increase in diathesis increases risk of MHP

exponential = rate gets bigger with each increase in diathesis

step-change = initial increases in diathesis don't increase risk until critical point is reached and there is a very large increase in risk

difficulties in identifying a personality diatheses

could be several diatheses per disorder which interact with each other but also interact diferently with stress both increasing risk of MHP

there may be protective factors which buffer the effects of either stress or diatheses

diatheses may be differentially sensitive to certain types of stressors (specific vulnerability hypothesis)

specific vulnerability hypothesis (blatt & zuroff, 1992): someone with personality type X is more sensitive to the stress of being unemployed than bullying whereas its the opposite for personality type Y

Personality Diatheses for Depression

types of diatheses

female

relative with depression

death of a parent in childhood

lack of soial support

stressors

divorce

unemployment

physical illness

most extensively researched diatheses (haslam, 2007)

high autonomy

high dependency

self-critical personality style

pessimistic explanatory style

anxious attachment, exaggerated need for others guidance and approval

fears separation and abandonment

congruent stressors = interpersonal conflict, loss, rejection and separation

compulsive self reliance

aversion to being controlled or dependent on others

congruent stressors = personal failures

excessive concern with own levels of achievement

perfectionism, unreasonably high standards for self and prone to punishing self-evaluations

congruent stressors = negative life events they feel responsible for

excessive levels of guilt and self criticism

enduring and unlikely to change

explain negative events according to stable and global causes

congruent stressors = negative life events that could be attributed to stable, global causes

SVH (abela et al., 2012)

high autonomy/self-critical are focussed on achievement so sensitive to achievement related stressors

high dependency focussed on relationships so sensitive to relationship related stressful events

when faced with their domain congruent stressor individuals are more at risk for depression, however domain incongruent associated with lower risk of depression

mixed results to support this hypothesis

causes for inconsistencies

little focus on proective factors

too much focus on individual stress level relative to group

researcher cannot classify stressful events for each individual (spill over effects)

more powerful to use idiographic designs to track stress across the lifetime

study

participants = 140 children aged 6-14yrs with one parent with depression

measures

childrens depressive experiences questionnaire (dependency & self-crit)

self-esteem questionnaire

childrens depression inventory

childrens hassles scale

method

1y telephone calls

every 6 weeks completed depression inventory and hassles scale

aims

ability of dependency and self-crit to predict depression

effect of increased amout of total stress

role of self-esteem as a protective factor

findings

self-criticism didn't effect depression

highest rates of depression were found in high D and low SE especially in high stress period however, SE acts as a buffer for depression

Schizotypy

meehl's model (1962, 1990)

SZ genes (DNA)

schizotaxia (CNS abnormalities)

szhizotypy (personality diathesis)

stressors

schizotypic disorders (e.g. paranoid personality disorders)

endophenotypes (SZ like symptoms e.g. WM problems)

kwapli et al. (2013)

534 UG completed wisconsin schizotypy scales

2 parts of schizotypy

positive schizotypy

negative schizotypy

perceptual aberration and magical ideation

mood disorders and substance abuse

SZ spectrum disorders

physical and social anhedonia

schizoid traits and lower relationship closeness

SZ spectrum disorders

SVH

pos schizotypy most sensitive to chaotic environment e.g. frequent home moves

neg schizotypy most sensitive to bio/physical stressors e.g. birth complications

schizotypy and creativity

overinclusive thinking/biosociation in SZ engage cognitive processes enabling people to generate interesting novel and creative ideas

ando et al. (2014)

actors and comedians scored higher than normal controls on online schizotypy scales

comedians scored higher than actors for 3 subscales

mason et al. (2015)

online recruitment of 294 poets compared with normal group

18.37% met diagnostic criteria for slef-reported bipolar

highest level of schizotypy for avant garde poets