Associations of personality traits with physical activity and sedentary behavior were observed in a study conducted at the Gerontology Research Center and the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä. Individuals characterized by high conscientiousness and extraversion are more likely to accumulate longer periods of both physical activity and sedentary behavior, whereas individuals who have higher scores in neuroticism tend to interrupt their sedentary behavior more often. The study followed the personality traits of the same individuals when they were 33, 42, 50, and 61 years old.
It formed personality profiles, representing unique combinations of the personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness. The results are published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity . "We identified five personality trait profiles: resilient, brittle, overcontrolled, undercontrolled and ordinary," says research director Katja Kokko.
In previous research based on the same data, personality profiles have been linked to self-assessed health. "Individuals who belonged to the resilient profile had the highest level of self-assessed health whereas those with a brittle profile had the lowest level of self-assessed health." The study combined, for the first time, data on personality trait profiles with device-based metrics of daily physical activity and sedentary behavior measured at age 61.