WHY DO WE ALL PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY AGE DIFFERENTLY? Part 2
We have discussed emotions, feelings and mood in our previous two parts articles. Personality traits on the other hand are controversial. The “big five” personality traits were developed from 1980 onward by prominent psychologists as a part psychological trait theory to describe and measure individual differences in personality. These personality traits include openness to experience, consciousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Of course, there are no objective criteria to separate for sure, these diverse types of personality traits. One could have combination of personality traits, depending on the time, circumstances, moods, and place.
Personality traits are genetically determined and do not change much when we get old. Even though neuroticism has become a degrading term in common language, a little neuroticism is good for us. This personality types tend to be intelligent, humorous, have more realistic but often cynical expectations, drive, and consciousness. They take fewer risk, and they have a strong need to help others. At the other end of the scale, a person who is high in neuroticism tends to easily experience negative, self-defeating neurotic traits (emotional instability), such as anxiety, negativity, and depression.
Intelligence too is genetically determined but also is strongly influenced by the environment. Studies done on the identical twins who were raised in different home environments have shown that during child development period parenting, educational support, availability of learning resources, nutrition, and health care are all contribute to intelligence.
Intelligence has been defined in many ways by experts. Intelligence is elevated level of mental capacity to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to comprehend complex problems, to learn quickly and to learn from experience.
There is no single type general “g” intelligence but many types of intelligence are directed to specific areas such as musical, linguistic, mathematical- logical, painting, artistic sect and more.
From functional stand points there are two main types of intelligence:
1 – Crystalized intelligence (CI)
CI is an individual’s ability to use learned knowledge and experience. CI is frequently taught in schools. Learning the alphabet and how to read, learning mathematics and solving math problems are good examples of CI.
2 – Fluid intelligence (FI)
FI is the ability to think critically and flexibly about new situations and problems. FI can be directed towards any problems at hand, whereas CI can only be applied to similar situations.
Aging most commonly brings on a decline in fluid intelligence.
A recent interesting study by research psychologists have shown that certain aspects of personality traits might be able to compensate for this decline. Researchers, after examining 90 000 international participants, found out that verbal fluency was lower among those with higher neuroticism scores, and highest among individual with personality traits of openness, consciousness, and extroversion (Psychology Today, September 2022).
So, emphasizing and encouraging the positive aspects of personality traits, through reading, creative writing, discussing and participating in live events should became very important. We should always remember the saying, “either use it, or lose it.”
