Research shows that the personality traits such as intelligence, extraversion, and conscientiousness, positively influence an individual’s longevity. Such research provides a foundation for associating personality with health, but a focus on longevity alone leaves out the potential role of antecedents such as health goals and behaviors. Newly-studied traits may also contribute to such health behaviors, such as personal intelligence. Personal intelligence is someone’s ability to reason about their own and other’s personalities. I hypothesize that high personal intelligence will increase the likelihood of health goal achievement through use of personality to help goal success. In this study, I will collect data on college students and measure: (a) personal intelligence, (b) health goals, which ask participants to state their goals and challenges, and (c) goal achievement, measured two weeks later so as to follow their progress. After data collection concludes, I will use factor analysis to analyze the goal achievement questionnaire and use correlation and regression to statistically test if personal intelligence influences health goal achievement. The significance of this research is in its potential application to people’s well-being. Imagine if doctors could give a personality survey at the beginning of a patient’s first appointment and then based on their personality they could see if someone MIGHT need more help with their health improvements. My study contributes to this body of research to continue to uncover which personality traits are consequential to health.
