As researchers seek to understand individual differences in peoples psychological resilience to life stressors, personality traits have emerged as important predictors of sustained well-being in the face of adversity. Most research on personality traits has been conducted in healthy, well-adjusted samples and little is known about vulnerable populations. We are interested in traits that characterize people living with HIV, and compare them to the general population. We are interested in subjective health perceptions and vulnerabilities. In a recent study we examined the influence of personality traits on mean levels and age trends in four single-item measures of self-rated health: General rating, comparison to age peers, comparison to past health, and expectations for future health. Community-dwelling participants (N=1,683) completed 7,474 self-rated health assessments over a period of up to 19-years. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses, age-associated declines differed across the four health items. Across age groups, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, low extraversion, and low openness were associated with worse health ratings, with notable differences across the four health items. Furthermore, high neuroticism predicted steeper declines in health ratings involving temporal comparisons. We consider theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms behind associations among personality traits and self-rated health In separate studies we have examined the role of personality in inflammation, and we found that high neuroticism and low conscientiousness are related to IL-6, CRP, and withe blood cell counts. This research highlight the relation of psychological traits with inflammatory markers and are relevant to disease progression.
