Personality : Stress, Coping, Adjustment and Health

In the adjustment domain of personality psychology, focuses here defers from the other domains. The other 5 domains discusses the collection of specific explaination of personality that causes individual personality differences. In this domain, we focus on adjustment because personality help us adjust to the daily demands and challenges of life. Major themes of this domain is physical and mental health. We will look into the the models of personality-illness connection and stress. Stress, the subjective feeling that is experienced by individuals produced by uncontrollable or even threatening events. However, stress is not in the even or situation but rather in how people choose to respond towards a particular situation.

INTERACTIONAL MODEL
Suggest that events that occurs in people's lives relies on personality factor of an individual on the ability to cope and personality effects on how people respond to an event. It is called interactional model because it talks of the relationship on how personalities moderate between stress and illness. Example of such relationship is when a student gets sick when exam approaches and happens particularly during stressful moments. Although we are exposed daily to microbes, it is believed that in the personality that determines how vunerable we are to falling sick. The student falls sick because of staying up too late because of anxiety, refusing to sleep, and does everything that prevents recovery unconsciously.

TRANSACTIONAL MODEL
The transactional model can be termed as the more complex and realistic model developed out of the interactional model. It serves three potential effects:
1. it can influence coping(as in interactional model)
2. it can influence how an individual appraise and interprets an event
3. it can influence the event and situation itself(outcomes of a personality)
In effect, this model views on how a person's interpretation of an event. Remember, earlier I mentioned that a stressful situation or event is not the event itself but rather how it's being interpreted as. For instance, when getting stuck in traffic, some people finds it a major frustration and responds with worry, stress, and anxiety but another person might look at it as an opportunity to relax, self-reflection time, listening to music, etc... .

This is how a personality plays a role in the interpretation of an event and also how personality can impact and event itself. People also creates situation through choice and actions, such as personalities that evokes situation. In other words, events doesn't just influence people, people too, influence events in a reciprocal manner. In contrary to interactional model, personality does not directly influence relationship between stress and illness but rather affects indirectly through promoting health degrading behaviours.

PREDISPOSITION MODEL
A model which stands differently that the previous 2 models. The other models are variations of the same themes but this model talks about the personality and illness are expressions of an underlying predispostion such as genetics. An example would be, enhanced sympathetic nervous system reactivity may be the cause of illness, behaviours, and emotions that makes a person neurotic. However, not much systematic study conducted on this model but there are associations found between illness and personality linked through underlying predisposition. Genetics may also likely be the cause of people developing drug addiction.

On a final note, we look at the illness model behaviour. It's not a model per se, but more of a model of illness behaviour. It's a degree which personality influences a person's perception to bodily sensations and interprets the sensations as illness. Illness behaviours are related to actual illness and sometimes, made believe illness. Due to personality, some people may try to fight illness by force but others, a simple bodily sensation may cause a person to take actions like visiting the physician although there's really nothing wrong with them. In this case, symptoms are normally more towards self-reports in illness behaviours. These however, are determined by a person perceives and labels their bodily sensations.

Looking at the models in this domain, we can now understand better how our personalities are related to our health and the importance of adjusting and coping with illness. It provokes us to ask ourselves questions, such as, "Am I really sick or just overly sensitive?" or "Is my personality affecting my work habits?". With that, we can work to tweak aspects of our lives to a personal well-being improvement. :)