Sunday, April 14, 2013

Your Personality & How It Affects Your Stress Level


Personality & Stress
by: Matt Stuart

What to know:
          Did you know that your personality type has an effect on your stress level and stress management abilities?  Research shows that there is a direct correlation between personality and stress.  According to an article by Columbia University suggests that “Our framework specifies that personality may affect exposure to stressful events, reactivity to those events, or both” (Niall & Adam). So how does your personality affect your stress levels? Well, as we all know, everybody is different.  But, among all of our differences there are enough traits that have allowed researches to categorize people into just a few different categories.  The first of these classifications is Type A, B, and C personalities. For the sake of this post, Type A personalities will be the focus. The most stressful type of personality is Type A personalities. A Type A personality person would be your classic over-workers that need things to be done as soon as possible.  They are highly competitive, aggressive, and ambitious.  These are reasons why Type A people are often prime candidates for stress and stress-related illnesses (MCB Hawaii). These types of people are very good at a lot of things but, stress management tends to be one of those things that they are not that good at. All of these things are reasons why they are highly productive but, they are also the same reasons that their stress levels tend to be elevated quite often.  The nature of having traits like being highly ambitious doesn’t allow them to slow down and relax.  Also coupling ambition with being competitive often leads to insecurity and over working yourself, leading to higher stress levels. These elevated stress levels can lead to stroke and heart disease.  Beyond the health risks associated with stress, it also has an effect on the workplace. For example, it is like you are the star player for a sports team and you feel like you’re doing all that you can but your team keeps losing.  The highly competitive nature of your personality and stressful situations can make for a potentially hostile work environment. Not to worry, there are many ways to relieve your stress levels ranging from breathing exercises to taking a few days off of work.  US News says that “exercise and meditation are two ways to help keep stress at bay” (Mann. 2012).  However, not every stress relieving activity is conducive to every person’s personality.  For people that are highly competitive and ambitious people, those Type A personalities, something as simple as listening to music as they work can lower stress levels. Research shows that listening to music as you work relieves stress. Also, while Type A people are workaholics, taking an hour or two out of the day to exercise can drastically lower their stress. 

What to take away
          Your personality can have a direct effect on your stress level.  It can also effect that way that you cope with and relieve that stress.  Most ambitious and competitive people get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the workplace that they forget to take some time to relax. Forgetting to relieve your stress can lead to various health issues.  In a workplace environment high levels of stress lead to an unhappy and potentially hostile workplace for everybody, especially when you have multiple stressed out people. Research has shown that Type A people tend to be more stressed because they of their competitive and ambitious nature.  So, if there is anything that I want you to take away from this it is that no matter what type of personality you have, it is important to take a few minutes away from the busyness of everyday life to lower your stress level.


References


Mann, D. (2012, August 12). Stress, a 'Type A' Personality May Boost Stroke Risk - US News and World Report. Health News Articles - US News Health. Retrieved April 15, 2013, from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/08/30/stress-a-type-a-personality-may-boost-stroke-risk

Niall , B., & Adam, Z. (n.d.). A framework for studying personality in the stress process . Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/~nb2229/docs/bolger-zuckerman-jpsp-1995.pdf
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)