HEALTH ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR: IS PERSONALITY A MISSING LINK?

Courtney Seavey (Doreen Arcus), Department of Psychology

Attitudes are not always good predictors of action. When people’s attitudes toward helping behavior are assessed using surveys and questionnaires, for example, the results are only modestly linked with observations of those same people’s reactions to a staged event in which another person requires assistance. Similarly, individual’s attitudes toward the importance of healthy diet and adequate exercise are not always associated with eating well or keeping fit; however the factors associated with that disassociation are not well understood. The current study was designed to investigate whether expressed health attitudes would be related to observed food choices in ways that varied with aspects of personality. Participants were asked to complete a health survey and an assessment of shyness, and then invited to take snacks on their way out of the testing room. These results tested the hypothesis that the link between the endorsement of a healthy lifestyle would be related differently to snack choice for more introverted individuals who engage more self-monitoring of social behavior compared with the more extraverted participants.

Seavey, C. (2002). Health Attitudes and Behavior: Is personality a missing link? Poster presented at the Annual Student Research Symposium, University of Massachusetts Lowell, April.