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Experiment 1 unexpectedly found sex differences in evaluative gender stereotypes (only men associated male with potency and only women associated female with warmth). Experiment 2 dramatically reduced sex differences in gender-potency judgments when measures were redesigned to avoid implying that potency was positive (the concepts, strong and weak, were represented by evaluatively matched words; e.g., destroy vs. feeble, loud vs. quiet, and mighty vs. gentle). Experiment 3 tested the hypothesis that these sex differences were in the service of self-esteem but found no correlation between own-gender-favorable stereotyping and implicit self-esteem. Rather, participants showed a correlation between linking self to the favorable potency trait and linking own gender to that trait. Experiment 4 confirmed the correlation between implicit self-concept and gender stereotype using the contrast between potency and warmth for the implicit stereotype measure. In concert, results suggest that people possess implicit gender stereotypes in self-favorable form because of the tendency to associate self with desirable traits.

One of the most important goals and outcomes of social life is to attain status in the groups to which we belong. Such face-to-face status is defined by the amount of respect, influence, and prominence each member enjoys in the eyes of the others. Three studies investigated personological determinants of status in social groups (fraternity, sorority, and dormitory), relating the Big Five personality traits and physical attractiveness to peer ratings of status. High Extraversion substantially predicted elevated status for both sexes. High Neuroticism, incompatible with male gender norms, predicted lower status in men. None of the other Big Five traits predicted status. These effects were independent of attractiveness, which predicted higher status only in men. Contrary to previous claims, women's status ordering was just as stable as men's but emerged later. Discussion focuses on personological pathways to attaining status and on potential mediators.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between personality characteristics and alcohol consumption. Using a general population of young and generally healthy men and women, the focus was not on alcoholism but on the full scope of alcohol consumption, including abstinence and moderate levels of consumption. Modification of the relation between personality and alcohol consumption by gender, age and type of beverage was investigated. Method: The population consisted of 483 (259 female) subjects from the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study; they were aged 13 to 32 years over the 20-year course of the study, during which span measurements were taken between two and seven times. The longitudinal relation between five subscales of the Dutch Personality Inventory (DPI) and alcohol consumption were assessed with generalized estimating equations. Results: Low prevalence of heavy alcohol consumption was found in this population. Abstinence from alcohol was more common among subjects who scored higher on Social Inadequacy, Rigidity and Self-sufficiency subscales. The amount of alcohol consumed was higher in drinkers who scored low on Rigidity and Social Inadequacy. Gender, age and type of alcoholic beverage modified some of the found relationships (e.g., adult women who scored high on Dominance were more likely to be the firmer wine drinkers). No significant relationships were found between alcohol consumption and the DPI Inadequacy subscale. Conclusions: Alcohol consumption was associated with lower scores on Social Inadequacy, Rigidity and Self-sufficiency. (J Stud. Alcohol 62: 494-500, 2001), THE SEARCH FOR etiologic factors of alcohol use is a rapidly developing scientific research field. Characteristics of personality may play a central role in the development of alcohol use and [...]

'Perceived control' describes individuals' generalized beliefs about their abilities to influence their life courses and circumstances. Most research concerning this construct has viewed perceived control as a developmentally acquired, stable personality characteristic. Others argue that perceived control is determined by current social stares, with more privileged social positions contributing to increased control over life circumstances. This study analyzes data from the Virginia Twin Registry to determine the independent contributions of genetics, shared environment, and nonshared environment, including adult roles and statuses, on women's perceived control. Findings from latent variable twin models suggest that there are modest but significant effects of shared environment and genetics on perceived control but that the majority of individual variation in perceived control is due to nonshared environmental factors on perceived control among adult women. Analyses of measured individual-level variables indicate significant effects from education, income, earnings, marital quality, age, and single-parent status:

The present research investigated how individual differences in Extraversion and Agreeableness affect cooperation in an experimental resource dilemma. Manipulated feedback indicated either that the common resource was being used at a sustainable rate or that it was being rapidly depleted. As predicted, Extraversion was generally negatively related to cooperation, whereas Agreeableness was generally positively related to cooperation. Whereas individuals high in Extraversion and individuals low in Agreeableness were unresponsive to feedback regarding collective resource use, individuals low in Extraversion and individuals high in Agreeableness exercised more self-restraint when the common resource was severely threatened. Exploratory analyses revealed neither interactive effects of Extraversion and Agreeableness nor effects of individual differences in Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect. Together, these results highlight the importance of individual differences in Extraversion and Agreeableness in social dilemma settings.

This study provides a comprehensive investigation into whether social desirability alters the factor structure of personality measures. The study brought together 4 large data sets wherein different organizational samples responded to different personality measures. This facilitated conducting 4 separate yet parallel investigations. Within each data set, individuals identified through a social desirability scale as responding in an honest manner were grouped together, and individuals identified as responding in a highly socially desirable manner were grouped together. Using various analyses, the fit of higher order factor structure models was compared across the 2 groups. Results were the same for each data set. Social desirability had little influence on the higher order factor structures that characterized the relationships among the scales of the personality measures.

In a comparative analysis of Poland and Ukraine, we extend the often-confirmed hypothesis that the substantive complexity of work in paid employment substantially affects (and is affected by) fundamental dimensions of personality. The extended hypothesis encompasses not only the complexity of work, whether in paid employment or in the household, but even the complexity of activities of the unemployed and pensioners. We hypothesize that the complexity of activities in any important realm of life is substantially related to personality. We test this hypothesis under conditions that pose a particularly exacting test--conditions of radical social change. We find that complexity of activities in all these realms is substantially and significantly related to intellectual flexibility, self-directedness of orientation, and a sense of well-being or distress for both men and women. The consonance of these findings with those of earlier longitudinal and simulated longitudinal analyses of the complexity of work and personality strongly implies that the relationships of the complexity of activities and personality are similarly reciprocal, even if the activities are not ordinarily thought of as 'work.'

This research tested 6 models of the independent and interactive effects of stable personality traits on each partner's reports of relationship satisfaction and quality. Both members of 360 couples (N = 720) completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire and were interviewed about their relationship. Findings show that a woman's relationship happiness is predicted by her partner's low Negative Emotionality, high Positive Emotionality, and high Constraint, whereas a man's relationship happiness is predicted only by his partner's low Negative Emotionality. Findings also show evidence of additive but not interactive effects: Each partner's personality contributed independently to relationship outcomes but not in a synergistic way. These results are discussed in relation to models that seek to integrate research on individual differences in personality traits with research on interpersonal processes in intimate relationships.

The present article applies Cobb's original formulation of the social support construct and elaborates a theoretical and empirical framework employing the interpersonal circumplex model that has proved useful for elucidating concepts and measures from a variety of research traditions. In a series of studies, 1,040 undergraduate students completed self-report questionnaires indicating their likelihood of performing various support actions. A circumplex structure was obtained that was both substantively and structurally auspicious and that provided a taxonomic framework within which 12 extant social support subscales and 15 personality characteristics were clarified. The Support Actions Scale Circumplex (SAS-C) assesses a broad range of social support behavior including both the potentially protective and deleterious effects of interpersonal transactions.

Descriptive models of social response attempt to identify the conceptual dimensions necessary to define and distinguish various types of influence. Building on previous approaches, the authors propose a new response model and demonstrate that a minimum of 4 dimensions is necessary to adequately provide for such influence phenomena as conformity, minority influence, compliance, contagion, independence, and anticonformity in a single model. In addition, the proposed model suggests 5 potential types of response that have not been previously identified. These new types suggest directions for future research and theoretical development. Selected empirical evidence is reviewed in support of the validity and integrative power of the proposed model.

We draw a distinction between defensive and predatory forms of aggression, and how these forms relate to basic neuropsychological systems, especially the Fight-Flight-Freeze-System (FFFS; putatively related to defensive aggression), and the Behavioural Approach System (BAS; putatively related to predatory aggression). These systems may help further to account for proximal brain processes and personality influences in the context of sex differences. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X09990434

Indirect tactics of image management are self-presentational techniques that manage information not about oneself but about one's associations. Prior work has documented several indirect techniques, such as 'basking' in the reflected glory of another's success and 'blasting' the accomplishments of one's rival. The present research found evidence for another indirect image management tactic: 'boosting,' wherein an individual confronted with a personal connection to another, especially a negative other, elevates aspects of the other's character. In the first study, subjects who became aware that they were born on the same day and month as a maligned historical figure (Rasputin, the 'Mad Monk of Russia') significantly softened their view of his negativity. This was the case even though they thought that no one else knew of the birthdate connection, suggesting that the tactic was performed for reasons of private rather than public regad. A second study replicated these findings regardless of whether subjects encountered the birthdate connection before or after reading about Rasputin's negative traits. The results are interpreted in terms of the balance theory concept of unit connections.

This study investigates a mechanism by which individual differences in person perception evolve in the real world. Previous research has demonstrated that in order to maintain a positive self-image, people assign generally greater weight to traits representing their strong points as compared to traits representing their shortcomings; this effect has been labeled the self-image bias. Using an unobtrusive measure of centrality, the present study shows how the centrality of 'computer skills' increased (over a semester) for students receiving a high grade in an introductory computer science course, whereas it (slightly) decreases for students receiving a low grade. This effect was shown to be specific, that is, limited to computer skills (and related mathematical skills).

THE CONCEPT of a persona has so many resonances for GLBT life that we can only scratch the surface, as it were. For persona is all about surfaces, appearances, masks--identities [...]

An examination of the extent to which personality and individuals affect politics. An attempt is made to understand the extent to which an individual, such as a Napoleon or a Lenin, can create the environment and the society they are in and the extent to which the individual is a product of the society and is merely serving to gently steer it in one direction or another.