Tim Bogg

Conscientiousness and Health Across the Life Course

This article provides an overview of the role conscientiousness plays in the health process over the life course. The authors describe their research on the underlying structure of conscientiousness and how conscientiousness predicts social environmental factors and health behaviors that have a known relationship to health and longevity. The authors then show that conscientiousness continues to develop in young adulthood, midlife, and even potentially in old age. Finally, they show that the life paths and health behaviors that are associated with health are also associated with changes in conscientiousness across the life course.

The case for conscientiousness: evidence and implications for a personality trait marker of health and longevity.

PurposeRecent initiatives by major funding agencies have emphasized translational and personalized approaches (e.g., genetic testing) to health research and health management. While such directives are appropriate, and will likely produce tangible health benefits, we seek to highlight a confluence of several lines of research showing relations between the personality dimension of conscientiousness and a variety of health-related outcomes.MethodsUsing a modified health process model, we review the compelling evidence linking conscientiousness to health and disease processes, including longevity, diseases, morbidity-related risk factors, health-related psychophysiological mechanisms, health-related behaviors, and social environmental factors related to health.ConclusionWe argue the accumulated evidence supports greater integration of conscientiousness into public health, epidemiological, and medical research, with the ultimate aim of understanding how facilitating more optimal trait standing might foster better health.

A lexical investigation of the lower-order structure of conscientiousness

A principal components analysis of lexically derived trait adjectives was performed to investigate the lower-order factor structure of conscientiousness (N=1675). A solution with eight substantive components fit the data best and showed good reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. The eight components were labeled reliability, orderliness, impulse control, decisiveness, punctuality, formalness, conventionality, and industriousness. The relevance of the structure to previous lexical research and existing personality inventories is discussed.

Not all conscientiousness scales change alike: a multimethod, multisample study of age differences in the facets of conscientiousness.

Previous research has shown that traits from the domain of conscientiousness tend to increase with age. However, previous research has not tested whether all aspects of conscientiousness change with age. The present research tests age differences in multiple facets of conscientiousness (industriousness, orderliness, impulse control, reliability, and conventionality) using multiple methods and multiple samples. In a community sample (N = 274) and a representative statewide sample (N = 613) of 18- to 94-year-olds, self-reported industriousness, impulse control, and reliability showed age differences from early adulthood to middle age, whereas orderliness did not. The transition into late adulthood was characterized by increases in impulse control, reliability, and conventionality. In contrast, age differences in observer-rated personality occurred mainly in older adulthood. Age differences held across both ethnicity and levels of socioeconomic status.

Mechanisms of health: Education and health-related behaviours partially mediate the relationship between conscientiousness and self-reported physical health

The personality trait of conscientiousness is an important predictor of health and longevity. The present research examined how conscientiousness, in combination with educational attainment and health-related behaviours, predicted self-reported physical health across adulthood. These relations were investigated in two studies, one using a large, representative sample of Illinois residents (N = 617) and the other using a community sample with a multi-method assessment of conscientiousness (N = 274). Across both studies, structural path analyses provided evidence for a model wherein conscientiousness predicted health, in part, through its relationship to both educational attainment and health-related behaviours. The findings suggest conscientiousness predicts health through a diverse set of mechanisms including, but not limited to, educational attainment and health-related behaviours.

De‐investment in work and non‐normative personality trait change in young adulthood

The present study investigated the relationship between experiences of de‐investment in work and change in personality traits in an 8‐year longitudinal study of young adults (N = 907). De‐investment was defined as participating in activities that run counter to age‐graded norms for acceptable behaviour. De‐investment in work was operationalised with a measure of counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs), which included actions such as stealing from the work place, malingering and fighting with co‐workers. CWBs were used to predict changes in personality traits from age 18 to age 26. Consistent with hypotheses, greater amounts of CWB was associated with changes in the broad trait domains of negative emotionality and constraint. Copyright

Decision making in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): Anterior cingulate cortex signals loss aversion but not the infrequency of risky choices

The inferior frontal gyrus/anterior insula (IFG/AI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are key regions involved in risk appraisal during decision making, but accounts of how these regions contribute to decision making under risk remain contested. To help clarify the roles of these and other related regions, we used a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Lejuez et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 75–84, 2002) to distinguish between decision-making and feedback-related processes when participants decided to pursue a gain as the probability of loss increased parametrically. Specifically, we set out to test whether the ACC and IFG/AI regions correspond to loss aversion at the time of decision making in a way that is not confounded with either reward-seeking or infrequency effects. When participants chose to discontinue inflating the balloon (win option), we observed greater ACC and mainly bilateral IFG/AI activity at the time of decision as the probability of explosion increased, consistent with increased loss aversion but inconsistent with an infrequency effect. In contrast, we found robust vmPFC activity when participants chose to continue inflating the balloon (risky option), consistent with reward seeking. However, in the cingulate and in mainly bilateral IFG regions, blood-oxygenation-level-dependent activation decreased when participants chose to inflate the balloon as the probability of explosion increased, findings that are consistent with a reduced loss aversion signal. Our results highlight the existence of distinct reward-seeking and loss-averse signals during decision making, as well as the importance of distinguishing between decision and feedback signals.

Reduced cognitive ability in alcohol dependence: examining the role of covarying externalizing psychopathology.

Reduced executive cognitive ability is associated with alcohol dependence (AD) and other comorbid externalizing disorders. Working memory capacity, short-term memory, conditional associative learning, and intelligence were assessed in a sample (N = 477) with variation in lifetime histories of externalizing problems (conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, substance problems); this included a subsample (n = 285) with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis of AD. Individuals with both AD and a history of childhood conduct disorder (CCD) scored lower on cognitive measures compared to those with AD and no history of CCD. Structural equation models showed that reduced ability in all cognitive domains was predicted by a latent externalizing factor reflecting covariation among lifetime problems with alcohol, drugs, childhood conduct, and adult antisocial behavior and was not uniquely related to any one problem. Further, for those with AD, the externalizing factor was associated with reductions in all the domains of cognitive ability. The results suggest that the reduced executive cognitive ability observed in AD individuals is partly accounted for by a general latent externalizing factor rather than alcohol-related problems per se.

Cognitive control links alcohol use, trait disinhibition, and reduced cognitive capacity: Evidence for medial prefrontal cortex dysregulation during reward-seeking behavior.

BACKGROUND Guided by the prediction of response-outcome theory of cognitive control (Alexander and Brown, 2010a), the present study examined reward-seeking medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity as a common neuro-functional marker of excessive alcohol consumption, trait disinhibition, and reduced cognitive capacity; all of which have shown consistent patterns of covariation in previous psychometric research (e.g., Bogg and Finn, 2010). METHODS A sample of 18-23-year-old university students with a heterogeneous prevalence of alcohol dependence was assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while completing a version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Lejuez et al., 2002). A follow-back typical weekly alcohol consumption interview, self-report measures of trait disinhibition and IQ, and a complex span working memory task also were administered. RESULTS Correlational region-of-interest analyses showed greater typical weekly alcohol consumption, greater trait disinhibition, and lower IQ were associated with greater reductions in mPFC activity during reward-seeking behaviors (successive inflation choices). The results also showed greater typical weekly alcohol consumption, greater trait disinhibition, and lower IQ were associated with greater increases in mPFC activity during reward-seeking outcomes (successive successful inflation outcomes). No significant relations with the measure of working memory were found. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest mPFC activity during risk/reward appraisal and performance monitoring is a common neuro-functional feature of co-varying expressions of excessive alcohol consumption, trait disinhibition, and lower IQ.

Externalizing Psychopathology and Behavioral Disinhibition: Working Memory Mediates Signal Discriminability and Reinforcement Moderates Response Bias in Approach-Avoidance Learning

Research has suggested that reduced working memory capacity plays a key role in disinhibited patterns of behavior associated with externalizing psychopathology. In this study, participants (N = 365) completed 2 versions of a go/no-go mixed-incentive learning task that differed in the relative frequency of monetary rewards and punishments for correct and incorrect active-approach responses, respectively. Using separate structural equation models for conventional (hit and false alarm rates) and signal detection theory (signal discriminability and response bias) performance indices, distinct roles for working memory capacity and changes in payoff structure were found. Specifically, results showed that (a) working memory capacity mediated the effects of externalizing psychopathology on false alarms and discriminability of go versus no-go signals; (b) these effects were not moderated by the relative frequency of monetary rewards and punishments; (c) the relative frequency of monetary rewards and punishments moderated the effects of externalizing psychopathology on hits and response bias for go versus no-go responses; and (d) these effects were not mediated by working memory capacity. The findings implicate distinct roles for reduced working memory capacity and poorly modulated active approach and passive avoidance in the link between externalizing psychopathology and behavioral disinhibition.