Search

The aim of the study is to test a model specifying the relations between personality traits, war-related traumas, PTSD and depression, as well as the measurement aspects of the model. This study was carried out in hospital on 400 male participants. Five-Factor Model of personality was complemented by a recently proposed trait Disintegration representing proneness to psychotic-like experiences/behaviors in the general population. The proposed model had excellent fit, despite its complexity. The results show that PTSD or depression symptoms after traumas are largely related to the number of traumas, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Disintegration, and their different configurations and quantities. Disintegration turned out to be one of the most important dispositional correlates of depression and PTSD, but also of trauma exposure.

Since the origins of psychology, curiosity has occupied a pivotal position in the study of motivation, emotion, and cognition; and disciplines as far-ranging as biology, economics, robotics, and leadership. Theorists have disagreed about the basic tenets of curiosity; some researchers contend that the rewards arise when resolving ambiguity and uncertainty whereas others argue that being curious is an intrinsically pleasurable experience. Three studies were conducted to consolidate competing theories and isolated bodies of research. Using data from a community survey of 508 adults (Study 1), 403 adults on MTurk (Study 2), and a nationally representative household survey of 3,000 adults (Study 3), we found evidence for five distinct factors: Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, Social Curiosity, and Thrill Seeking - forming The Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale (5DC). Each factor had substantive relations with a battery of personality, emotion, and well-being measures. Taking advantage of this multidimensional model, we found evidence for four distinct types of curious people in Study 3 referred to as The Fascinated (28% of sample), Problem Solvers (28%), Empathizers (25%), and Avoiders (19%). Subgroups differed in their passionate interests, areas of expertise, consumer behavior, and social media use; challenging an assumption that there is a homogenous population to be discriminated on a single dimension from incurious to very curious. With greater bandwidth and predictive power, the 5DC offers new opportunities for research on origins, consequences, life outcomes, and intervention strategies to enhance curiosity.

A representative cohort of six-year old children from the Swiss general population (n ≈ 1200) was assessed in 2006 and re-assessed in 2009 with informant-ratings of personality and externalizing psychopathology. Mean levels of neuroticism (d = 0.80) and to a lesser extent agreeableness (d = 0.37) declined considerably over time on a population-level, but differential stability was high (r range = 0.71–0.95). Age 6 trait-score and trait-change over time in agreeableness related significantly to age 9 externalizing pathology. Path analysis additionally provided evidence for bidirectional covariance between several personality traits and externalizing psychopathology and there were some prospective influences of age 6 psychopathology on subsequent personality change. Differential stability of personality is high, but marked trait-change occurs and is relevant as it prospectively relates to externalizing psychopathology.

We examined the association between personality and level and change in reasoning ability in a population-based sample of older adults (62–68 years) using a three-year annual follow-up longitudinal study design (HEARTS; N = 3851). Personality traits were measured using the Mini-IPIP scale and reasoning using a short form of Raven’s Matrices. Findings from a structural equation model, controlling for age, education, and sex, revealed that higher levels on extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism were associated with lower reasoning ability (βs: −0.17 to −0.09). Higher levels of openness were associated with better reasoning (β: 0.16). We found no association with rate of change. This evidence replicates previous findings demonstrating that personality traits are associated with individual differences in cognition among older adults.

Our study applies a person-centered approach to the HEXACO model of personality using latent profile analysis (LPA). While the traditional variable-centered approach assumes that the relations among variables within a population are homogenous, the person-centered approach identifies subgroups within samples that have similar scores on several variables of interest, in this case, the six factors of personality. Data from two independent samples were collected at a large North American university. The results of LPA revealed five distinct and interpretable profiles that replicated and were found to be consistent across both samples. We discuss how our findings attest to the meaningfulness of personality profiles, and suggest additional ways in which a person-centered approach might be applied in personality research.

Social behaviours have been proposed to follow circadian patterns across the course of the day, but empirical support is mixed. As a within-subject test of circadian effects on everyday behaviour, we conduct an experience-sampling study with a near-representative population of 285 Americans (7405 observations). Prosocial behaviour and empathy were both somewhat more frequent in the morning (d = 0.08). However, these non-linear patterns only described morning-type participants; evening-types had consistent (and lower) rates of prosocial behaviour and empathy across time-of-day. These patterns were explained by morning-types reporting more social opportunities earlier in the day. These findings suggest that small, within-subject diurnal effects on social behaviour occur in daily life, and that some circadian effects may be driven by situation selection.

A large body of literature has examined how personality traits relate to political attitudes and behavior. However, like many studies in personality psychology, these investigations rely on Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (WEIRD) samples. Whether these findings generalize to minority populations remains underexplored. We address this oversight by studying if the observed correlations between personality traits and political variables using WEIRD respondents are consistent with that observed using immigrant minorities. We use the Immigrant panel (LISS-I panel) in the Netherlands with data on first- and second-generation immigrants from Western and non-Western countries. The results indicate that the association between personality and political outcomes are, with few exceptions, highly similar for immigrant minorities compared to the general population.

An increasing number of studies point to normative changes in personality occurring during adulthood. We examined age group differences and longitudinal changes in approach-avoidance sensitivities across adulthood using a population-based sample of younger, midlife, and older adults (N = 7468) assessed on three occasions over an 8 year interval. Younger adults reported higher approach sensitivity (assessed using BAS-Drive and BAS-Reward subscales) relative to midlife and older adults. Approach sensitivity tended to decline between Times 1 and 3 for all age groups. Cross-sectional age differences were not evident for avoidance sensitivity at Time 1 (assessed using the BIS); however there was evidence for different patterns of change in avoidance over time across the age groups. Results are discussed in the context of lifespan developmental perspectives on self-regulation of emotion and behaviour. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Third culture kids (TCKs) are the children of parents who live abroad in foreign countries. In this study we examined a population of US TCKs (N = 170) who have repatriated back to the US. We studied the factors that led TCKs to positive and less positive repatriation outcomes, including a focus on the variables of authoritarianism, acculturative balance, and positive affect. Multiple repatriations (i.e., parents moving back to the US between jobs) was related negatively to positive affect in men, and increased levels of authoritarianism in women. On the other hand, postings to multiple countries decreased authoritarianism for both women and men. TCKs who seemed comfortable balancing living abroad and in the US reported both good relationships with their parents and positive affect. Because they live in multicultural environments, TCKs are an important demographic to study in a rapidly globalizing world.

Hope is a higher-order cognitive construct that encompasses the belief in one’s ability to accomplish personal goals. Hope has been conceptualised as consisting of two constructs – Pathways (the individual’s perceived means available to achieve goals) and Agency (belief in ones ability to succeed in using the identified Pathways). This study aimed to validate a measure of hope, the Dispositional Hope Scale (DHS: [Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigman, S. T., et al. (1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 570–585]) in a large sample of traumatic injury survivors (N = 1025). The findings support the psychometric properties of the scale, as well as the two-factor structure of Agency and Pathways, in this population. This study provides support for the use of the DHS as a measure of hope in traumatised populations.

To determine whether stigmatizing attitudes towards HIV/AIDS are associated with personality traits, and whether these associations are generalizable across two cultures, we administered the English and the brief Russian version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, a standardized measure of a comprehensive model of personality traits, together with items assessing HIV stigmatization. We hypothesized that stigmatization would be associated chiefly with low Openness to Experience. Self-reports and observer ratings of personality and self-reports of HIV attitudes were collected from volunteers recruited by research assistants. HIV stigmatization was more pronounced in Russia than in the United States, but it was similarly related to personality traits, chiefly low Openness to Experience, a variable associated with other forms of prejudice, and low Agreeableness, suggesting a lack of altruism and sympathy. HIV stigmatization is especially likely to be a problem with people, and in cultures, low in Openness to Experience.

Many researchers have found evidence of an association between creativity and the predisposition to mental illness. However, a number of questions remain unanswered. First, it is not clear whether healthy creatives have a milder loading on schizotypal traits than people who suffer serious psychopathology, or whether they have an equal loading, but other mediating characteristics. Second, most of the existing research has concentrated on artistic creativity, and the position of other creative domains is not yet clear. The present study compares schizotypy profiles using the O-LIFE inventory in a large sample of poets, artists, mathematicians, the general population, and psychiatric patients. Poets and artists have levels of unusual experiences that are higher than controls, and as high as schizophrenia patients. However, they are relatively low on the dimension of introvertive anhedonia. Mathematicians are lower than controls on unusual experiences. The results suggest that artistic creatives and psychiatric patients share a tendency to unusual ideas and experiences, but creative groups are distinguished by the absence of anhedonia and avolition. Moreover, different domains of creativity require different cognitive profiles, with poetry and art associated with divergent thinking, schizophrenia and affective disorder, and mathematics associated with convergent thinking and autism. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

We used the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to assess the degree of narcissism among celebrities. Results indicate that celebrities are signiWcantly more narcissistic than MBA students and the general population. Contrary to Wndings in the population at large, in which men are more narcissistic than women, female celebrities were found to be signiWcantly more narcissistic than their male counterparts. Reality television personalities had the highest overall scores on the NPI, followed by comedians, actors, and musicians. Further, our analyses fail to show any relationship between NPI scores and years of experience in the entertainment industry, suggesting that celebrities may have narcissistic tendencies prior to entering the industry.

The Measure of Mental Anticipatory Processes (MMAP) is a questionnaire measuring patterns of mental preparation that are productive (plan rehearsal and problem analysis) and unproductive (stagnant deliberation and outcome fantasy) in coping with future stressful events. In a series of psychometric studies, the four subscales demonstrated acceptable structural validity, internal consistency, temporal stability (Studies 1 and 2), and convergent and divergent validity with concurrent measures of recurrent thought processes, emotion regulation, problem-solving, and mental health (Study 3). In Study 4, three subscales predicted quality of repetitive thought and psychological adjustment in response to a naturalistic, personally relevant stressful life transition. Stagnant deliberation and outcome fantasy predicted change in depression symptoms in an at-risk population.

Basic advances in social cognition have not fully translated into similar advances for personality assessment. In this study, we evaluated whether an integrated social cognitive approach to personality assessment (i.e., one that employs an idiographic assessment of a multi-faceted self-system, priming procedures, and reaction time tasks) could be applied to assess a social cognitive personality system at the individual level in a particularly challenging population: cigarette smokers. This integrative approach was necessary to detect the idiosyncratic content and contextualized structure of the three self-schemas (smoker self-schema, abstainer ideal possible self, abstainer ought possible self) that composed this social cognitive personality system. Priming different self-structures enhanced reaction times to contextually bound self-referent information. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for social cognitive theories of personality and personality assessment.

In two studies we examine the association between a person’s pattern of defense use, assessed by a new measure called the Defense-Q, and their adaptive behavior. We compare each person’s Defense-Q profile to a theoretical Adaptive Defense Profile (ADP) to obtain an ADP similarity score. In Study 1 we show in a student sample that ADP similarity scores are positively related to observed empathy and competence and negatively to hostility. In Study 2 we demonstrate in a population-based community sample that ADP similarity scores are positively related to nurse’s ratings of competence and nutritional based weight control programs and negatively related to hostility, depression, alcohol use, and weight control through the use of pills. These results suggest that defense use is related to adaptive behavior in a theoretically consistent manner, and that the Defense-Q shows promise as an observer-based instrument to assess defenses.

Object relations theories posit that a child's relationship with caregivers has implications for subsequent relationships. Object relations refer to mental representations of relationships. Longitudinal data and Westen's (1993) methodology were employed to investigate questions related to (a) child-rearing antecedents of adult object relations in a nonclinical population, (b) temporal stability of adult object relations, and (c) construct validation. A multivariate effect of child-rearing variables on adult object relations was found, and significant univariate effects were nearly all in the predicted direction. Temporal stability (across 10 years) of adult object relations received tentative support. Object relations correlated positively with interpersonal functioning and physical health, but these correlations tended to be nonsignificant. A positive relationship between object relations and psychological health was not found.

Two samples of subjects (a sample of undergraduate students and a sample from the general population) filled out the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974) and the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae, 1985). The results showed an acquisitive self-monitoring pattern associated with Extraversion and Openness to Experience, and a defensive self-monitoring pattern associated with Neuroticism. These results support previous research which has identified two styles of self-presentation (acquisitive vs. defensive) and confirm the usefulness of the NEO-PI as a broad instrument for research in personality.

The relationships among identity, defense mechanisms, and self-esteem, demonstrated in a previous study (Cramer, 1995), were investigated again using different measures and a different subject population. Consistent with the previous findings, there was a clear relationship between identity crisis and the use of defense mechanisms; the use of defenses was found to be a linear function of the degree of crisis associated with the identity status. In addition, as in the earlier study, the Achieved and Foreclosed personalities were both associated with positive self-regard, while the noncommitted personalities (Moratorium and Diffusion) were related to low self-esteem.

The process by which persons appear to combine content and intonation to form an impression of a speaker's friendliness may be a function of sex and the analytical techniques used to evaluate the models. Sixty subjects (half male, half female) from the campus population were asked to rate the content, tone, and total message of short sentences from male speakers. Analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to evaluate Linear, Multiplicative, Minimum, and Maximum models. Responses were essentially linear, although the multiplicative component was significant in some results, and the Minimum model received some support for males. More weight was given to tone than content, especially by females and for inconsistent messages. Idiographic analysis proved superior to normative analysis, and the ignored content method provided greater reliability and explanation than previously used filtered speech.

Several recent studies have found that while the behavior of normal weight individuals is primarily determined by internal cues, the behavior of the obese is chiefly controlled by external or environmental cues. The present study sought to generalize this finding to the self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Specifically, it was predicted that obese persons would tend to be high in the self-monitoring of their expressive behavior while individuals of normal weight would tend to monitor their expressive behavior to a lesser extent. This hypothesis was strongly supported. The findings are discussed both in terms of further extending the Schachterian model and in terms of the obese as a deviant population.

A pair of related experiments examined the relationship of functional similarity (i.e., the degree of similarity between two interactants in assessing mutually known others on personal construct dimensions) to interpersonal attraction. In Experiment I, 10 previously unacquainted college students of both sexes participated in 10 hours of dyadic disclosure exercises over a 5-week period. As predicted, members of high functional similarity dyads evidenced greater attraction to one another than did members of low functional similarity dyads. Experiment II investigated the relationship of functional similarity to level of acquaintance (i.e., friends, nominals) and type of assessment (i.e., physical, interactional, psychological) in a 2 × 3 factorial design. As hypothesized, “friendship” pairs of male undergraduates displayed greater functional similarity than did “nominal” pairs from the same population, particularly at the deeper level of “psychological” assessment. Results are discussed in relation to classical conditioning (D. Byrne, In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology , Vol. 4. New York. Academic Press, 1969), affect-reinforcement ( G. L. Clore, In S. W. Duck (Ed.), Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction . New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) and information processing ( I. Ajzen, In S. Duck (Ed.), Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction , New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) models of interpersonal attraction, and are interpreted as supporting and extending (S. Duck's Theory and practice in interpersonal attraction , New York/London: Academic Press, 1977) filtering theory of friendship formation.

Two revisions of the Rotter I-E scale for use with highly religious subjects were developed and validated. As predicted, the Christian fundamentalist subjects were found to be significantly more internal in orientation with the Rotter I-E scale than with the two revised forms. Validation efforts revealed that the Rotter I-E scale and the Levenson Scale were highly valid measures of locus of control in a general population. However, it is suggested that the religious revision of the Rotter I-E scale be used with individuals with strong religious belief systems. Projective and significant-other methods for measuring locus of control were found to be less valid measures than the self-report indices. Finally, the effects of mono-operation bias in construct validation efforts were highlighted.

Previous research has demonstrated that people are more likely to attribute a stranger's behavior to external causes if that behavior is common in a given population than if it is relatively unique (the consensus rule). It was proposed in the present paper that another and perhaps simpler rule is available for causal attributions for an acquaintance's behavior, such that more external attributions are made as the behavior becomes increasingly inconsistent with extant impressions of the target (the goodness-of-fit rule). It was found that the goodness-of-fitrule, but not the consensus rule, was used in the attribution of causality for acquaintances when the behavior could be made to fit with extant impressions. When the behavior was completely inconsistent with extant impressions, both consensus and goodness-of-fit rules were used, such that the most external attributions were made in the poor fit/high consensus condition.

A questionnaire about thoughts and ideas during sexual activity was returned by 51 females and 50 males in a random sample of college undergraduates. A high response rate (91%) and the similar sexual experience of male and female respondents make possible a strong conclusion about the college population sampled: Males are thinking more about past experiences and current behavior, while females are thinking more of imaginary experiences. This difference occurs for thoughts during masturbation as well as for thoughts during heterosexual activity. It appears that females prefer a different kind of sexual fantasy than males, rather than being generally less interested in sexual fantasy as claimed by Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gebhart (Sexual behavior in the human female, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1953 ).

Current knowledge of people's death cognition is not as extensive as that of death attitudes. To fill this gap, two studies were conducted to enhance understanding of what people believe about events after death. In the first phase of Study 1, 285 respondents described what they believed to be the consequences of dying. The statements were edited and compiled into a questionnaire, which was rated by 1185 youths. Following a factor analysis, five components of death cognition were extracted. These were (1) Buddhist and Taoist Belief, (2) Just World Belief, (3) Naturalistic Belief, (4) Immortal Soul Belief, and (5) Protestant Belief. Some of these beliefs were associated with age and/or religious orientation of the school attended. In Study 2, another group (N = 1625) of teenagers were sampled from the secondary school population in Hong Kong. Their responses to the questionnaire were again subjected to a factor analysis. Results replicated those of Study 1, and indicated that the componential model of death cognition has much generality. Death cognition was found to be somewhat related to the religious orientation of the school attended and the respondent's gender. Academic achievement also appeared to be a correlate. The role of culture in the formation of death cognition was noted.

A questionnaire about the frequency and effects of different thoughts during heterosexual activity was returned by 66 females and 75 males in a random sample of college undergraduates and graduate students. A high response rate (91%) was obtained, and the male and female respondents were shown to be generally similar in sexual experience. Frequency data confirmed an earlier study of the same population in finding that, during sexual activity, males think more about past sexual experiences and ongoing behavior, while females think more about imaginary experiences. Effects data indicated that these frequency differences occur because females use fantasy more than males to increase arousal, to decrease anxiety about sexual activity, to compensate for less-than-ideal sexual experience, and to enhance even a satisfactory experience. Males, in contrast, use thoughts of real experience more often than females to increase arousal and to control and direct sexual activity.

In this study three hypotheses regarding the role of heterosocial anxiety in contraceptive behavior were evaluated. It was hypothesized that heterosocial anxiety would be inversely related to (a) willingness to initiate discussion about birth control, (b) the effectiveness of each partner's communication about birth control matters, and (c) use of more effective contraceptive methods. These hypotheses were assessed in a sample of college women for both their first experiences of intercourse and for their recent sexual experiences with subsequent partners. Tests of the incremental effects of two heterosocial anxiety factors when controlling for several covariates showed the following results. For a woman's first intercourse experience, general heterosocial anxiety was inversely correlated to when birth control was discussed, male partner's communication effectiveness, and use of more effective contraceptive methods. For recent intercourse experiences, general heterosocial anxiety was inversely correlated to who initiated discussion about birth control and male partner's communication effectiveness, while contraceptive task anxiety was inversely correlated to use of more effective contraceptive methods in a couple's subsequent sexual relations but not their initial sexual encounter. Results are discussed relative to the social anxiety literature and for limitations that restrict conclusions about the degree of influence that social anxiety may exert on contraceptive behavior.

Population differences exist in personality and sexual behavior such that, in terms of restraint, Orientals > whites > blacks. This ordering is predicted from an evolutionary theory of r K reproductive strategies in which a tradeoff occurs between gamete production and parental care. Literature is reviewed on differences between the three groups in rate of ovulation, intercourse frequencies, sexual attitudes, developmental precocity, size of genitalia, secondary sexual characteristics, and biologic control of behavior that accord with this formulation. Novel analyses of data from the Institute for Sex Research are also carried out, indicating that American blacks, compared to American whites, are more precocious and less restrained. Their parents were younger when they were born, had more children, and had an earlier mortality. Blacks left home earlier, experienced a variety of premarital, marital, and extramarital sexual events earlier, had a greater number of premarital and extramarital partners, had a greater frequency of marital intercourse, used fewer contraceptives, and had a greater incidence of pregnancy, at a faster rate. The men had larger penises, at a different angle of erection, and maintained intromission longer, while the women had shorter menstrual cycles, more periodicity of sexual response, and a greater number of orgasms per act of coitus. Whites varied their sexual activity more, both with spouses and with prostitutes, although blacks consorted with prostitutes more frequently. Finally, blacks had a shorter duration of marriage and more permissive sexual attitudes.