Correlates of Coping Styles

Five hundred participants completed a short, ten-item measure of coping along with measures of self-esteem, intelligence, belief in a just world (BJW) and conspiracy theories (CT). The scale factored into four recognisable coping styles labelled socio-emotional, cognitive, internalisation and distraction. Correlations showed all factors were related to self-esteem and trait optimism. Regressions onto each factor indicated that self-esteem was the most consistent factor being associated positively with all factors, except internalisation. Younger females with low self-esteem tended to use socio-emotional coping, optimists with high self-esteem cognitive coping, younger, less optimistic people with low self-esteem internalisation and high self-esteem, less intelligent people with BJW distraction as a coping strategy. Implications and limitations are acknowledged.

Correlates of Self-Assessed Wellness

Background: This study was concerned with correlates of self-assessed health and wellness on ten dimensions including emotional, financial and physical health. All 10 self-ratings loaded on one factor with high internal reliability. Method: In all 506 adult participants, completed short measures of the bright side, Big Five traits (TIPI) and a short measure of the dark side, personality disorders (PID-5-BF). Results: Correlations and regressions suggested that wellness was related to sex, education and religious beliefs as well as four of five bright- and dark-side traits. Being Sanguine was most positively, and Choleric most negatively, associated with subjective wellness. Detachment and Negative Affect were the highest dark-side correlates. The final regression suggested that over a third of the variance in subjective wellness could be explained by four bright- and two dark-side factors. Conclusions: Personality factors, especially instability and negative affectivity, play a crucial role in all aspects of wellness. Implications and limitations are acknowledged.

Mental health literacy and the anxiety disorders

Context: This study set out to investigate the mental health literacy (MHL) about eight anxiety disorders (ADs), using vignette methodology. Methods: In all 317 British Adult participants completed a questionnaire with vignettes describing eight anxiety disorders including OCD, PTSD, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobias, Social Phobia, Separation Anxiety Disorder, GAD and Panic Disorder. Recognition, beliefs about treatments and perceived life adjustment (happiness, success at work) of specific people with these disorders were assessed. Results: Literacy levels varied across anxiety disorders, with high recognition of OCD (64.67%), but very poor for panic disorder (1.26%), GAD (2.84%) and separation anxiety disorder (5.99%). There were few significant effects of vignette gender on literacy levels. MHL for most anxiety disorders was relatively low;particularly panic disorder, GAD and separation anxiety disorder. Social Phobics were judged as least happy and adjusted and agoraphobics least successful at work and would benefit most from psychological help. Conclusions: Overall recognition of the anxiety disorders was poor. Beliefs about adjustment and treatment varied widely as a function of each disorder. Implications of the research for education of the public and limitations of this research are considered.

Childhood Hearing Impairment, Gender, and Trait Neuroticism as Independent Predictors of the Occurrence of Hearing Problems in Adulthood

This study explored psychological, biomedical, and social factors in childhood and adulthood associated with the occurrence of self-reported hearing problems in adulthood. In total, 4828 participants with complete data on parental social class at birth, childhood hearing impairment measured at age 7 years and cognitive ability accessed at age 11 years, educational qualifications obtained at age 33 years, the Big-Five-Factor personality traits measured at age 50 years, current occupational levels and self-reported hearing problems at age 54 years were included in the study. Logistic regression analysis showed that among all the factors examined childhood hearing impairment and trait neuroticism as well as gender were the significant and independent predictors of hearing problems in adulthood.

Coping with Covid

Aim and Objective: What determines how people coped with the challenges of adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and requirements? In four studies, conducted in 2021, groups of European adults (N>1800) noted how they had personally coped with Covid-19. Method: In each study, participants reported on their age, sex and education, their political and religious beliefs, as well as giving self-ratings and completing a number of standard tests on such things as their personality, intelligence and belief in conspiracy theories. Results: In the first study, sex, self-esteem, optimism and intelligence were significant predictors of self-assessed coping. In the second study, only optimism and emotional stability were significant predictors. In the third study, sex, optimism, self-esteem and ratings of change were related to coping. In the fourth study, self-esteem was the only significant predictor. Discussion: The results suggest that optimistic, better adjusted people, with higher self-esteem claim to be better copers. Age, education as well as political and religious beliefs and many personality measures were not related to self-reported coping with Covid-19. Implications for targeting those who require most help were discussed, and limitations were acknowledged.

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Lifestyle Factors Affecting Laypeople’s Allocation of a Scarce Medical Resource

This study investigates how lifestyle factors affect laypeople’s allocation of a scarce medical resource and explores cross-cultural differences in ethical decision-making between the UK, France and Switzerland. A total of 193 participants completed an online questionnaire in which they had to rate the profiles of 16 hypothetical patients in terms of priority for access to kidney dialysis. Each profile was a unique combination of the following lifestyle factors: smoking behaviour, alcohol consumption, weight and amount of physical activity. As predicted, it was found that non-smokers were favoured over smokers, moderate drinkers over heavy drinkers, normal weight patients over obese patients and frequent exercisers over infrequent exercisers. However, contrary to our predictions, no cross-cultural differences were evident. The potential impact of these findings with respect to the formulation of guidelines for allocating scarce medical resources is discussed.

Modern Health Worries and the Personality Disorders: Two Studies Using Different Measures

This paper reports on two studies using different measures of both Modern Health Worries (MHW) and the Personality Disorders (PDs) to establish the relationship between the two concepts. Study 1 used the PID-5 which is a measure of maladaptive personality traits and the extended 40 item MHW scale. Study 2 used the original 28 item measure of MHW and PDs as measured by the Coolidge Axis-II Inventory—Short Form: SCATI. In study 1 a regression on the total MHW scale accounted for 14% of the variance: those who scored higher on Antagonism and Negative Affect had higher MHW scores. In the study 2 regressions showed four variables consistently related to MHW: sex (females with higher scores), optimism, political beliefs (left wing liberals with higher scores) and those with Cluster B personality disorders (dramatic, overly emotional, erratic). There was enough overlap in the two studies to conclude that various PDs mainly from Cluster B (Moving Against others) were modestly related to MHW as predicted. Limitations and implications are considered.

Personal Correlates of Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

The aim of the study was to examine some overlooked individual difference (demography, ideology, ability) correlates of attitudes to being vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine. Six hundred and sixteen adults were asked about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The relationship between demographic (age, sex, education), ideology (political and religious beliefs), intelligence (cognitive ability) and attitudes to vaccination (acceptance, hesitancy, rejection) was examined. Correlations and regressions indicated that vaccine hesitancy and rejection were associated primarily with intelligence and political beliefs as well as mental illness history, as well as religious beliefs. Effect sizes were however small. Limitations are acknowledged.