Interaction Of Personality And Life Events On Undergraduate Mental Symptoms

ObjectivePresently most of psychologists agreed that behaviors were caused by the interaction of personality and environment.It is no doubt that both internal personality and external environment are important causes of mental health.This research tries to study 'the interaction of each personality factor and the single life event on mental symptoms' to support the hypothesis that the happening of mental symptoms was caused by the conflict of internal personality and external environment, and distill the highly dangerous personality factors of college students, then provide scientific evidence for the mental health education and prevention of college students.MethodsThe investigation was conducted among 873 students averaged 18.84±3.16 years in a certain medical university in Guangdong Province. 848 valid questionnaires were returned and completed,up to 97.14%in validity.Among the subjects,375 were male students,taking up 44.22% and 473 were female students,taking up 53.20%.Corresponding tools were applied to evaluate mental symptoms, personality factors and life events.Symptom Checklist 90(SCL-90) was used to evaluate mental symptoms;self-edited life events questionnaire was used to survey the status of life events.The evaluation of personality factors was conducted with corresponding questionnaire based on the following different personality theories:1.Revised Eysenck personality questionnaire was employed to evaluate neuroticism and extraversion in Eysenck's Biological Theory;2.Factors of security and self-esteem in Maslow's Hierarchical Theory of Needs were evaluated by the checklists of security and self-esteem;3.Self-consistency and congruence in Rogers Self Theory was evaluated by the checklist of self- consistency and congruence;4.Factors of positive and negative coping in Coping Theory were evaluated by the checklist of trait coping style; 5.The factor of life meaning in Existence Analysis Theory was evaluated by the checklist of purpose-in-life;6.The factor of self-efficiency in Social Cognition Theory was evaluated by the checklist of general self-efficiency;7.The factor of internal-external locus of control in Social Learning Theory was evaluated by the checklist of internal-external locus of control.Database was set up with Foxpro 6.0 and data was input and then statistics analysis was conducted with SPSS 11.5,by the way of independent-sample T test and variance analysis.Results1.Through the life events research of a medical university of Guangzhou,we find that the common types of major life events include: interpersonal communication,selection campaign,sexual problems, learning pressure,adaption to environment and family conflicts.The types of interpersonal communication,sexual problems,learning pressures,and environment adaption are in a high frequency,and the types of selection campaign and family conflicts are in the lower frequency.2.The effect of life events on mental symptoms 2.1 Life events like sexual dreams,masturbation,good impression to the opposite sex,watching pornographic films,failing in the expected rewards or election,participating in the election,being the election winner,being elected or selected for the student leaders and maladjustment to the climate have no significant effect on mental symptoms(P＞0.05);2.2 Life events like sexual fantasies,the election loss,too heavy leaming burden,being unsatisfied with the profession,can not concentrate on listening to the lectures,study plan can not be implemented,examination results is not expected,disputing with classmates,being misunderstood,discrimination or cold-shouldered by the people,being sorry to the others,being under one roof with hated person,often in a crowded environment,often in a noise environment, the environment interfere with learning,in contradiction with their families,being difficult to communicate with their parents,the divorce of their parents,and dispute of other family members have a significant impact on mental symptoms(P＜0.05),and make the mental symptoms worse.3.Interaction of personality factors and life events has a significant impact on mental symptoms(P＜0.05),as follows: 3.1 Extraversion versus failing in the expected rewards or election, participating in the election;3.2 Neuroticism versus masturbation,too heavy learning burden, and dispute of other family members;3.3 Security versus good impression to the opposite sex, examination results is not expected,discrimination or cold-shouldered by the people and maladjustment to the climate;3.4 Self-consistency and congruence versus good impression to the opposite sex,often in a noise environment,in contradiction with their families and dispute of other family members;3.5 Positive coping versus in contradiction with their families;3.6 Negative coping versus being misunderstood,discrimination or cold-shouldered by the people,maladjustment to the climate,in contradiction with their families and being difficult to communicate with their parents;3.7 Life meaning versus discrimination or cold-shouldered by the people,often in a crowded environment;3.8 General self-efficiency versus examination results is not expected;3.9 Internal-external locus of control versus disputing with classmates,being sorry to the others,maladjustment to the climate and often in a crowded environment.Conclusions1.Interaction of personality factors according to different personality theories and life events has a significant impact on mental symptoms,supporting hypothesis 'the happening of psychological symptoms were caused by the conflict of internal personality and external environment'.2.College major life events include six types:interpersonal communication,selection campaign,sexual problems,learning pressure, adaption to environment and family conflicts.The types of interpersonal communication,sexual problems,learning pressures,and environment adaption are the most common.3.The five personality factors——security,self-consistency and congruence,life meaning general self-efficacy and coping style——and the most common college life events have a significant interaction on mental symptoms,these factors can be considered as the important goal of college students' mental education and prevention.4.We can evaluate the level of these important personality factors of college students,and then make the mental education and prevention according to their levels.