Showing papers in "European Journal of Personality in 1993"

Children's temperament in the US and China: similarities and differences

Abstract: We report the results of research investigating temperamental characteristics of children in the People's Republic of China and the US using a parent-report instrument, the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ), defining temperament as individual differences in emotional, motoric, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation. Subjects were 624 6- to 7-year-old children, from Shanghai and the north-western region of the US. The 15 CBQ scales were factored for both samples, employing a principal axis factor analysis with an oblique rotation. Our findings indicated considerable similarity of factor structure in the two cultures, obtaining three factors labelled Surgency, Negative Affect, and Attentional Self-Regulation or Effortful Control. Differences across cultures were also found, with Surgency and Effortful Control scores being relatively higher than Negative Affect in the US sample and Negative Affect being relatively higher than Surgency and Effortful Control in the Chinese sample. Gender differences were also found to vary across cultures. Our findings are congruent with a view of underlying cultural similarities in temperamental variability across these cultures, influenced over time by the children's culturally varied experience.

Factorial validity of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale

Abstract: The 20‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐20) was developed in previous research to measure a general dimension of alexithymia with three inter correlated factors. These three factors reflect dist...

Early emotional instability, prosocial behaviour, and aggression: some methodological aspects

Abstract: The internal consistency of Emotional Instability, Prosocial Behaviour, and Aggression scales was examined in elementary school children aged between 7 and 10 years. Multiple informants (self-report, teacher rating, mother rating, and peer nomination) were obtained on the above three dimensions. Relationships between the scales were first examined within the single informant frame of reference and then between informants. The concurrent validity was assessed using sociometric measures (popularity, rejection, social impact, and social preference) and the Achenbach and Edelbrock Child Behavior Checklist (teacher and parent form). The results confirm the internal validity of the three scales measuring emotional instability, prosocial behaviour, and aggression in child self-report, teacher rating, and mother rating. The use of self-report measures seems promising within the multiple informant strategy of research on child behaviour. Correlational results show satisfactory concurrent validity for the three scales, especially for teacher rating and peer nomination. The strict relation between emotional instability and aggression poses problems of discriminant validity which need to be further investi gated.

Optimism, perceived control over stress, and coping

Abstract: To examine the ability of the expectancy-based personality dimensions dispositional optimism and perceived control over stress to predict the ways in which people characteristically attempt to cope with stress, 420 undergraduate students completed the Life Orientation Test (LOT; Scheier and Carver, 1985), a measure of perceived control over stress, and the dispositional version of the COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier and Weintraub, 1989). The results revealed a modest but reliable positive correlation between optimism and the perceived control measure. Principal-components analysis of the COPE revealed a factor structure which was generally in accord with prior research. Optimism was positively correlated with active coping and positive reinterpretation, and negatively correlated with focusing on and venting of emotion. Perceived control over stress was negatively correlated with behavioural disengagement. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The Formal Characteristics of Behaviour‐Temperament Inventory (FCB‐TI): theoretical assumptions and scale construction

Abstract: A psychometric study has been conducted with the aims of revising the structure of temperament as postulated by the Regulative Theory of Temperament (RTT) and of constructing an inventory which corresponds to the RTT. A starting point for the study was the assumption that temperament refers to formal attributes of behaviour expressed in energetic and temporal characteristics. About 600 items covering 12 characteristics were generated. A study based on linguistic and itemmetric analysis allowed us to reduce the number of items representing the 12 characteristics to a 381-item pool. This set of items served as the basis for distinguishing the temperamental traits and for constructing the inventory: the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour–Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI). A thorough psychometric study and factor analysis of data obtained from over 2000 subjects (both genders, aged from 15 to 80 years) allowed us to distinguish six temperamental traits which have the status of first-order factors. Among them, four–Sensory Sensitivity, Endurance, Emotional Reactivity, and Activity–refer to the energetic aspect of behaviour and two–Briskness and Perseverance–refer to the temporal characteristics. The FCB-TI has satisfactory psychometric characteristics, including Cronbach alpha and stability measures. Studies have shown that the six FCB-TI scales are replica across samples and refer to robust temperament dimensions.

Hardiness and sense of coherence and their relation to negative affect

Abstract: This study attempted to determine the degree to which measures of health proneness and measures of negative affect represent two distinct, although related, constructs. In addition, it examined the relation between Antonovsky's salutogenic construct of sense of coherence (SOC) and Kobasa's health proneness construct of hardiness. Five health proneness and three negative affect measures were filled out by 164 male patients with coronary heart disease. The pattern of correlations between these measures and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that although the measures of health proneness are negatively related to measures of negative affect, these two sets of measures and the constructs to which they are related can be differentiated from each other. However, SOC was found to be less independent of negative affect than was hardiness.

The development of an Autonomy scale based on recent insights into gender identity

Abstract: The concept of autonomy has a long history, not only in psychology, but also in philosophy. In this article, the concept is discussed in relation to gender and mental health. The criticisms of several authors with regard to the classical psychological concept of autonomy are reviewed. Also, some recent theoretical developments which start from a psychoanalytical perspective are discussed. Then the reader is introduced to the construction of a new Autonomy scale that takes the criticism mentioned into account and connects with new insights into gender identity. Two studies are presented in which the structure of the scale, as well as it validity and reliability, is investigated. The Autonomy scale appears to measure consistently three aspects: Self-awareness, Sensitivity to Others, and Capacity for Managing New Situations. Reliability and validity are satisfactory. Furthermore, in a third study the factor structure found in Studies 1 and 2 was cross-validated in a more heterogeneous, adult sample. This cross-validation was also done across the sexes. It is concluded that the Autonomy scale is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the new autonomy concept in various populations. Secondly, the scale seems to fill the gap that is left open by more classically oriented autonomy (and dependence) scales by measuring Sensitivity to Others, an important aspect of femininity and thus for female identity.

A taxonomy‐oriented study of Russian personality‐trait names

Abstract: This is the first English report of the procedures and findings from a project whose aim is the development of a computerized thesaurus of Russian personality-descriptive terms as a special instrument for providing computer-based test interpretations. Our empirical analyses were carried out in two waves: in 1983–1984, we examined the relations among 1530 trait–descriptive terms; and in 1986–1987, we examined the rela tions among 1650 such terms. Our present Russian personality lexicon includes 2090 trait terms, of which 68 per cent are adjectives and 32 per cent are nouns. Here, we present some findings from both cluster analyses and factor analyses of these Russian terms and show that our findings are rather concordant with those of Goldberg (1990), using English trait adjectives. Finally, we discuss a computer–based system that could provide a convenient tool for studying cross-language similarities and differences in personality lexicons.

Personality traits and job characteristics as predictors of job experiences

Abstract: This study investigates the relationships of personality traits and job characteristics (predictors) with job experiences (criteria) in a sample of job incumbents working in a broad variety of occupations. Subjects were 181 job applicants, who participated in a personnel selection procedure carried out by a Dutch staffing organization. As a part of this procedure, subjects completed a number of personality questionnaires. Personality scale scores were factor-analysed, and four orthogonal trait dimensions were identified: Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Sensation Seeking, and Achievement Motivation. Between l½ and 2 years after the selection, subjects rated their current jobs on four job characteristics dimensions, namely dynamicity, autonomy, external–internal, and structure. At the same time, they completed a questionnaire measuring job experiences, namely job satisfaction, job-induced tension, propensity to leave the job, and self-appraised performance. The results indicated that personality traits had several significant and hypothesized longitudinal effects on the job experience criteria. Personality contributed to the prediction of the criteria even when the effects of job characteristics were taken into account. No significant Personality X Job Characteristics interactions were found, although subgroup analysis revealed a number of interesting differences among the various categories of occupations. For example, Sensation Seeking predicted job strain and propensity to leave, especially in highly structured and not very autonomous jobs. It is concluded that work experiences are clearly determined by person and job characteristics, although in an additive rather than in an interactional way.

Do extraverts ‚like to laugh’︁?: An analysis of the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ):

Abstract: This study was an attempt to determine whether the degree of laughing in a variety of situations is related to Extraversion. In order to measure smiling and laughing, the Situational Humor Response...

Measuring epistemic authority: studies of politicians and professors

Abstract: Two studies assessed the perception of epistemic authority (denoting a source of information which has a determinative influence on the acquisition of knowledge) by means of a scale (Epistemic Auth...

Coping under experimental threat: Observable and cognitive correlates of dispositional monitoring and blunting:

Abstract: In order to investigate the relation between dispositional coping style and actual coping behaviour under threat, 53 undergraduate psychology students anticipated a mild stressor (bloody slides) in Part I of the experiment. Observable behaviour turned out to be unrelated to dispositional monitoring and blunting as measured by the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS; Miller, 1987) and the Threatening Medical Situations Inventory (TMSI; van Zuuren and Hanewald, 1993). However, when cognitions were also taken into account, some significant correlations emerged with the MBSS as well as with the TMSI. In Part II (N = 40), intrusive thinking after exposure to the experimental stressor was related to dispositional coping style. High monitors, as compared with low monitors (moderate monitors excluded) were found to elaborate the stressful experience in a more diffuse and extended way.

The 3DPT dimensions S, E, and N: A critical evaluation of Eysenck's Psychoticism model

Abstract: In this article a critical evaluation is given of Eysenck's Psychoticism model. It is argued that in this model two sub‐models can be distinguished, which, contrary to Eysenck's presentation, canno...

Person organization with a memory set: are spontaneous trait inferences personality characterizations or behaviour labels?

Abstract: Recent research on impression formation has demonstrated that perceivers can categorize the action of target actors in terms of the traits that those behaviours represent, and that they do so in a spontaneous fashion, with neither the intent of categorizing nor the awareness of categorizing. This has resulted in a discussion about what these inferences refer to. Are they simple summaries of the behaviour without implications for the personalities of the people enacting those behaviours, or are they inferences about the target's disposition? The current experiment uses a procedure from the person memory literature to establish that these inferences are in fact references to the qualities of the target actors. Set size effects demonstrate that perceivers are organizing their inferred traits in person nodes; the person serves as the superordinate cue to which inferences are attached. This not only provides evidence that inferences formed spontaneously refer to the personality characteristics of the target, but also provides the first evidence of person organization under simple instructions to memorize stimulus information. The implications of the richness of the target information for spontaneously forming person inferences and for person organization in general are discussed.

Personal and environmental factors contributing to parenting stress among employed and nonemployed women

Abstract: Over the past 20 years, significantly more women have returned to the workforce after the birth of their child Despite gains made by the second women's movement and attendant socio‐political chang

Cognitive strategies in coping with expedition stress

Abstract: Expeditions provide a valuable opportunity for studying processes of coping with a stressful situation. An expedition to India organized by the British Schools Exploring Society has already been reported as being accompanied by positive changes on self-report personality scales. This paper is concerned with detailed cognitive coping measures completed throughout the 6 weeks of the expedition. It needs to be noted that the results relate to young adults and to those who provided detailed coping information; the generalizability of the result is a matter for future research. The expedition presented a mixture of physical and social stresses. Men enjoyed the physical experience more than women, but women enjoyed the social experience more than men. There was generally greater reliance on personal resources than on social support in coping with stress. This was particularly true for men in coping with physical stress and women in coping with social stress. In general, the physical stresses had been better anticipated than the social ones. Positive reformulations were much more widely used as coping strategies than avoidance/resignation strategies, especially so for physical stresses. However, use of avoidance/resignation strategies was the better predictor of outcome, with those who used them being least likely to show positive personality change as a result of the expedition. The results are related to current research on stress and coping.

General intelligence, temperament, and the Matching Familiar Figures Test

Abstract: To investigate the relationship between general intelligence g and temperament, highly intelligent 10‐year‐old children (N = 151) were compared with classmates of the same gender and socio‐economic...

Factors in teachers' ratings of schoolchildren: Heymans' data reconstructed by modern standards

Abstract: In this article we re-analyse the data that Heymans and Wiersma collected on pupils from secondary schools, about 80 years ago. The main interest is in the structure of the adolescence data set in terms of modern standards and understood against the background of recent findings. More specifically, one question is whether the Heymans data can be understood in terms of the framework of the Big Five structure of personality traits. To that end, principal components analysis and multiple group analysis were performed. The general conclusion from these analyses is that the adolescence data are best described by a two-dimensional structure. Another more specific research question is to what extent Heymans' own three dimensions can be detected in the data set. With emphasis on a small number of criterion items, used by Heymans to identify the three dimensions, a three-factor solution was inspected for this purpose. The conclusion from this analysis is that the three Heymans dimensions cannot unequivocally be identified in the adolescence data set.

Impulsivity in the eye of the beholder: an analysis of teachers' concepts of impulsive and reflective behaviour

Abstract: The aim of this research was to investigate teachers' perception of the concept of impulsivity and its relation to the concept of reflectivity. Teacher rating scales for both concepts were constructed by means of the prototype method (Study 1). ft appeared that impulsivity refers to social behaviour, whereas reflectivity is more cognitive in character. A Principal Components Analysis (Study 2) showed that the item pools for impulsive and reflective behaviour account for separate components. ft is concluded that impulsivity and reflectivity as perceived by teachers are not two extremes of one dimension, but refer to different behavioural domains: social and cognitive.

Stable individual differences in situation‐behaviour, construct‐behaviour, and goal‐behaviour relations

Abstract: This study starts from a cognitive-social-learning conceptualization of the contribution of static person by situation interaction to overt behaviour variance. Individual differences in the relation between, on the one hand, situational variation in behaviour and, on the other hand, situational variation in objective situational characteristics, situational variation in construed situational characteristics, and situational variation in goals-in-situations were systematically investigated. Thirty-six first-year psychology students had to freely generate and briefly describe 20 interpersonal situations that they had encountered during the last year. Afterwards, they had to rate each situation for four basic behavioural continua, eight supplied objective situational characteristics, eight supplied constructs, and eight supplied goals. Correlational analysis revealed many stable individual differences, not only in degree, but also in direction (sign) of situation-behaviour, construct–behaviour, and goal–behaviour relations. These relational variables could be reduced to seven relational factorial dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Psychological correlates of the three variables in the Strelau Temperament Inventory

Abstract: Most of the validational studies concerning the Strelau Temperament Inventory (STI) have focused on the Strength of Excitation scale and on a limited number of domains. This study was designed to examine the STI validity in new domains or with new tools, emphasizing the contribution of each of the three STI scales. We focused on health orientation and behaviour, stress susceptibility, emotional reactions, life events, and personal problems. The subjects were 91 healthy adults of both genders. Also information about smoking (health behaviour), white blood cell count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (physiological stress measures) was available. Regression and discriminant analyses showed that the STI scales were related neither to smoking nor to the Cognitive Orientation of Health but only to three of its components. Furthermore, the STI scales were related to the verbal but not to the physiological stress measures; and to the negative emotions but hardly to the positive ones. Finally, they were related to measures of life events and personal problems. The relations were mostly modest but broadened the validational basis of the STI, indicating that, although all three scales have to be considered, each has a unique contribution.

Studies on temperament in Russia: After Teplov and Nebylitsyn

Abstract: In this paper a review of studies on temperament in Russia conducted during the last two decades is presented. Special attention has been given to the linkage between the theoretical background of modern Russian psychology and the main tendencies in the development of Russian studies on temperament. Three main trends are discussed: the traditional trend referring to the classic (Pavlovian) approach, the behavioural one based on modern conceptions in behavioural sciences, and the personological approach which postulates a holistic (‚integral’) view on human individuality. Finally, the interrelationships between the main trends in research on temperament are considered.

Children's need for approval and achievement motivation: an interactional approach

Abstract: This study examined the effects of children's need for approval (nApp) and a situational variable-frequency of expectancy statements-on children's achievement cognitions and behaviour. We replicated the Dweck and Gilliard (1975) paradigm, but also mea sured children's nApp. Ninety fifth grade boys and girls stated expectancies either prior to each trial, prior to the first and last trials, or prior to the last trial only. We found that although high and low nApp children lowered their expectancies after failure, high nApp children lowered them less than low nApp children. In contrast, persistence was influenced only by the frequency of expectancy statements and not by children's nApp. The results are discussed in the context of the interactional point of view in personality psychology.

Genes and Environment in Personality Development. John C. Loehlin. Sage, Newbury Park, CA. (Individual Differences and Development Series 2), 1992, 144 pp

Abstract: Human behavioural genetics (or shorter psychogenetics) has actually split into two branches: Mendelian genetics and biometrical statistics, founded by Galton. Mendel’s gene concept has been extended to compromise biochemical and molecular genetics; it offers an empirically well-founded theory with great explanatory power; hence it proved to be potentially much deeper than the biometrical approach. For many psychologists the Mendelian approach remains restricted to qualitative traits, and the biometrical approach to quantitative characters. Since psychometric measurements are essentially quantitative characters and biochemistry is no branch of psychology, the biometrical approach seems to be the only appropriate one, for some psychologists, in psychogenetics. Loehlin’s book takes the biometrical approach, and his small monograph is, despite its claim in the title, only indirectly concerned with genes and contributes nothing to the discovery of genes. But if you do not need to know new information about the biochemical background of human behaviour and if you are satisfied with the correlational statistics of personality constructs, you will find this a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction. In the tradition of Galton’s paradigm, Loehlin shows how information on the genetic component (the heritability) of human diversity can be gained by comparison of relatives, especially by the models of twin and adoption designs. Loehlin has the gift for taking the most difficult concepts of biometrical statistics and presenting them clearly and concisely. Beginning with a careful introduction to model-fitting methods which are used to summarise biometrical findings and make inferences, Loehlin examines the relative statistical contributions of genes (in an abstract sense) and environment to the dimensions of personality and personality change over time. ‘A person coming to this topic with information from, say, textbooks of 10 years ago, which were based on the specialized reviews of 13 years ago, which were in turn based on the studies of 15-plus years ago, . . . may be surprised at how little progress has been made on some points.’ This self-critical statement by Loehlin underlines the contrast between his field and the rapid and fascinating progress made by the human (Mendelian) genome project alone during the last three years. Therefore, anybody interested in psychogenetics, should not restrict his readings to biometric monographs, but should be encouraged to become acquainted, for example, with textbooks on behaviour genetics, such as those by M. T. Tsuang and S. V. Faraone (1990) or (in German) P. Propping (1989) or the small and excellent monograph by F. Von Schilcher (1988). With such a broad outlook no student will run the risk of understanding biometrical genetics as a kind of Ptolomaic system, but will see the merits of both approaches.