Personality and self-reported health: matching predictors and criteria

Personality predictors of self-reported health and health behaviours were compared at two levels of personality measurement, the trait and the dimension level for 350 undergraduate participants (mean age: 19 years). We hypothesized that when the level of measurement of the predictors matched the level of measurement of the criteria, the strongest relationships would be obtained. Our results provide some support that: (1) personality dimensions are better predictors of general measures of health and health behaviour than personality traits are; and (2) personality traits are better predictors of specific measures of health and health behaviour than personality dimensions are. The usefulness of matching predictors and criteria in clarifying the nature of the health and personality link are discussed.