Stress-Prone and Stress-Resistant Personalities

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Stress-Prone and Stress-Resistant Personalities

• Chapter 6

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• When I was 25, I got testicular cancer and
  nearly died. I dont know why I am still alive. I
  can only guess. I have a tough constitution and
  my profession taught me how to compete against
  long odds and big obstacles.
  
• Lance Armstrong

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Personality

• Personality is thought to be comprised of
  several
• traits
• characteristics
• behaviors
• expressions
• moods
• feelings as perceived by others

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Personality

• The complexity of ones personality is thought to
  be shaped by
• genetic factors
• family dynamics
• social influences
• personal experiences

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Personality and Stress

• How we deal with stress is due in large part to
  our personalities, yet regardless of personality,
  we each exhibit many inner resources to use in
  the face of stress.
• New behaviors can be learned and adopted to aid
  in this coping process.
• We do not have to be passive victims to stress.

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Stress-Prone Personalities

• These personalities do not cope with stress well
• Type A personality
• Codependent personality
• Helpless-Hopeless personality

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Type A Behavior

• Time urgency
• Polyphasia (multitasking)
• Ultra-competitiveness
• Rapid speech patterns
• Manipulative control
• Hyperaggressiveness and free-floating hostility

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Codependent Personality

• Ardent approval seekers
• Perfectionists
• Super-overachievers
• Crisis managers
• Devoted loyalists
• Self-sacrificing martyrs
• Manipulators
• Victims
• Feelings of inadequacy
• Reactionaries

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Helpless-Hopeless Personality

• Poor self-motivation
• Cognitive distortion where perception of failure
  repeatedly eclipses prospects of success
• Emotional dysfunction
• External locus of control of reinforcing behavior

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Stress Resistant Personalities

• These personalities cope with stress well
• Hardy Personality
• Survivor Personality
• Type R Personality

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The Hardy Personality

• (Based on the work of Maddi and Kobasa)
• Three characteristics noted in those who cope
  well with stress
• Commitment (invests oneself in the solution)
• Control (takes control of a situation, doesnt
  run from it)
• Challenge (sees opportunity rather than the
  problems)

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Survivor Personality Traits

• A person who responds rather than reacts to
  danger/stress
• Bi-phase traits (left and right brain skills)
• Proud but humble
• Selfish but altruistic
• Rebellious but cooperative
• Spiritual but irreverent
• Considered optimists and good at creative problem
  solving

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Type R personality (sensation seekers)

• Zuckerman (1971) identified the sensation-seeking
  personality, as those people who seek thrills and
  sensations but take calculated risks in their
  endeavors they appear to be dominated by an
  adventurous spirit.

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Self-EsteemThe Bottom-Line Defense

• Practices of high self-esteem
• Focus on action
• Living consciously
• Self-acceptance
• Self-responsibility
• Self-assertiveness
• Living purposefully

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Characteristics of High Self-Esteem

• Connectedness (support groups)
• Uniqueness (special qualities)
• Empowerment (uses inner resources)
• Role Models or Mentors (has others to look up to)
• Calculated Risk Taking (not motivated by fear)