Showing papers on "Big Five personality traits published in 1989"

Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model.

Abstract: Using data from 4 waves of an Australian panel study, this study offers a dynamic account of relations between personality, life events, and subjective well-being (SWB). Members of the Victorian Quality of Life panel study were interviewed 4 times: in 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987. The initial sample size was 942; 649 respondents remain. The study shows that very stable personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience) predispose people to experience moderately stable levels of favorable and adverse life events and moderately stable levels of SWB. However, contrary to the implications of previous research (Costa & McCrae, 1980, 1984), life events influence SWB over and above the effects of personality. A dynamic equilibrium model is outlined, in which each person is regarded as having "normal" equilibrium levels of life events and SWB, predictable on the basis of age and personality. Only when events deviate from their equilibrium levels does SWB change. Unusually favorable events enhance SWB; unusually adverse events depress it. The dynamic equilibrium model is compared with 3 alternatives: personality models, adaptation level models, and models that treat life events as being wholly exogenous.

Personality as traits.

Abstract: 2. Please take a look at the personality traits in the right column and tick the traits that describe you. □ Dependable □ Well-organized □ Responsible □ Good selfcontrol □ High achiever □ Cautious □ Spoilt □ Objective □ Demanding □ Conscientious □ Independent □ Self-confident □ Reliable □ High achiever □ Serious □ Supporter of law and order □ Humorous □ A perfectionist □ Patient □ Disorganized □ Introvert □ Dependent □ Diligent □ Irresponsible □ Spoilt □ Impatient □ Uncomplicated □ Outgoing □ Creative □ A negotiator □ Shy and quiet □ Calm □ Even-tempered □ Competitive □ Easygoing □ Friendly □ A peace-maker □ A people-pleaser □ A great listener □ Responsible □ Bossy □ Intimidating □ Competent □ Studious □ Extrovert □ Messy □ Amiable □ Picky 3. Are there any other personality traits you have but cannot find on the list above? Please write them in the right column.

Reinterpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality.

Abstract: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI, Myers & McCaulley, 1985) was evaluated from the perspectives of Jung's theory of psychological types and the five-factor model of personality as measured by self-reports and peer ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI, Costa & McCrae, 1985b) Data were provided by 267 men and 201 women ages 19 to 93 Consistent with earlier research and evaluations, there was no support for the view that the MBTI measures truly dichotomous preferences or qualitatively distinct types, instead, the instrument measures four relatively independent dimensions The interpretation of the Judging-Perceiving index was also called into question The data suggest that Jung's theory is either incorrect or inadequately operationalized by the MBTI and cannot provide a sound basis for interpreting it However, correlational analyses showed that the four MBTI indices did measure aspects of four of the five major dimensions of normal personality The five-factor model provides an alternative basis for interpreting MBTI findings within a broader, more commonly shared conceptual framework

The structure of interpersonal traits: Wiggins's circumplex and the five-factor model.

Abstract: Using a sample of 315 adult men and women, self-reports on Wiggins's revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales were jointly factored with self-reports, peer ratings, and spouse ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory to examine the relations between the two models. Results suggest that the interpersonal circumplex is defined by the two dimensions of Extraversion and Agreeableness, and that the circular ordering of variables is not an artifact of response biases or cognitive schemata. Circumplex and dimensional models appear to complement each other in describing the structure of personality, and both may be useful to social psychologists in understanding interpersonal behavior.

Just a Mirage: The Search for Dispositional Effects in Organizational Research

Abstract: There has been renewed interest in dispositional explanations of individual behavior in organizations. We argue that this new stream of dispositional research is flawed both conceptually and methodologically, and we suggest several theoretical and empirical improvements. We conclude by discussing the costs of a dispositional perspective for both organizations and organizational participants.

Five robust trait dimensions: development, stability, and utility.

Abstract: Interest has grown in recent years in a five-factor model for the organization of personality characteristics. A brief history of the development of this model is given. It is evident that the model is very general, across variations in raters and ratees and across languages. There is also evidence that the structure of personality inventories reflects this model. Although most of the studies that have demonstrated the model have utilized either self-report inventories or have relied on ratings, there is clear evidence that both ratings and inventories are importantly related to actual behavior. A longitudinal study of children's personality traits is reported. Evidence for the five-factor model is examined, including data for the stability over time of characteristics organized in terms of the model. One trait of particular focus in this study has been Factor 3, often interpreted as Conscientiousness but here referred to as Will to Achieve because of its high correlations with formal measures of educational achievement. Studies indicate that this dimension is responsible for much of the variance in achievement left unexplained by aptitude measures.

Conceptions of Personality Disorders and Dimensions of Personality

Abstract: Differing conceptions of personality disorders inherent in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Personality Disorder Scales and the Personality Adjective Checklist were evaluated within the context of the circuraplex model of interpersonal behavior and the 5-factor model of personality in a sample of 581 university students'. Conceptions of personality disorders were strongly and clearly related to dimensions of normal personality traits. Although the circumplex model illuminated conceptions of some of the disorders, the full 5-factor model was required to capture and clarify the entire range of personality disorders. Implications of these findings are discussed with reference to (a) personality disorders and personality traits and (b) suggestions for assessment of personality disorders.

Some determinants of factor structures from personality-trait descriptors.

Abstract: Three determinants of the factor structures of personality traits are investigated. The 1st, selection of variables, was controlled by using 57 bipolar scales, selected to be representative of common trait terms. In analyses of 7 data sets, variants of the "Big Five" factors were always found. Factor similarities were very strong for the 3 largest factors, which were transformed into general evaluation and 2 descriptive dimensions. As a 2nd determinant, judgments about real people were compared with judgments about the conceptual relations among traits. Factor structures based on the 2 types of judgments are similar, but those based on conceptual judgments tend to be simpler. The 3rd determinant involved the degree of restriction of the sample to evaluatively homogeneous targets. Restriction of range reduced the size of all factors, especially Factor II. Findings from previous studies are integrated within this framework.

Temperamental Contributions to Social Behavior.

Abstract: About 15% of Caucasian children in the second year of life are consistently shy and emotionally subdued in unfamiliar situations, whereas another 15% are consistently sociable and affectively spontaneous. A majority of the children in these two groups retain these profiles through their eighth year. In addition, the two groups differ in physiological qualities that imply differential thresholds in limbic sites, especially the amygdala and the hypothalamus, suggesting that the two temperamental groups are analogous to closely related strains of mammals. However, the behavioral profiles of the children are influenced in a major way by environmental conditions existing during the early years of life. The word temperament is used by most, but not all, behavioral scientists to refer to those psychological qualities that display considerable variation among infants and, in addition, have a relatively, but not indefinitely, stable biological basis in the organism's gcnotype, even though the inherited physiological processes mediate different phenotypic displays as the child grows. It is reasonable to suggest that some of the temperamental differences among children are analogous to the biobehavioral differences among closely related strains of dogs, cats, or monkeys (Adamec & Stark-Adamec, 1986; Clarke, Mason, & Moberg, 1988). The temperamental qualities that are most obvious to contemporary American parents, and that are investigated most often by psychologists, include irritability, smiling, motor activity, and adaptability to new situations. These qualities are popular, in part, because they have implications for the ease with which parents can socialize their infant. It is not clear at the moment how many temperamental qualities will be discovered; it certainly will be more than 6, but hopefully less than 60. We will have to wait for history's answer. Inhibited and Uninhibited Chi ld ren Steven Reznick, Nancy Snidman, and I, together with Cynthia Garcia-Coll, Wendy Coster, Michcle Gersten, and many others in our laboratory, have been studying two categories from the larger set of temperamental qualities (Garcia-Coll, Kagan, & Reznick, 1984; Kagan, Reznick, Clarke, Snidman, & Garcia-Coll, 1984; Kagan, Reznick & Snidman, 1987, 1988; Kagan, Reznick, Snidman, Gibbons, & Johnson, 1988; Reznick et al., 1986). The original behavioral referent for each of the qualities was the response profile of 20to 30-month-old children when they were in unfamiliar situations. Some children consistently become quiet, vigilant, and restrained while they assess the situation and their resources before acting. Others act with spontaneity, as though the distinctions between familiar and novel situations were of minimal psychological consequence. The situations that best reveal these two qualities in young children are encounters with unfamiliar children or adults, perhaps because other people are the most frequent basis for categorizing most settings as unfamiliar. Of course, it is rare to find a large number of children who are consistently shy and affcctively restrained or outgoing and spontaneous regardless of the social context. There is, however, a small group of children (my colleagues and I estimate it to be about 10% to 15%) who usually bring one or the other of these behavioral styles to new situations. We call the shy children inhibited and the sociable children uninhibited. Our current studies of inhibited and uninhibited children trace their beginnings to an early collaboration with Howard Moss, which was summarized in 1962 in the book entitled Birth to Maturity (Kagan & Moss, 1962). A large group of families was participating in the Fels Institute's longitudinal project, which began in the early 1930s. The children in these families were observed from birth to adolescence in their homes, the Institute's nursery school, and their own school settings, and they were tested and interviewed regularly. Moss rated each child on a set of variables for consecutive, chronological epochs, using as evidence the extensive corpus of information available on each subject. I was in another room interviewing these same subjects, who were then in their 20s, and administering a relevant battery of tests, but I was unaware of the early information Moss was reading. It is of interest that the most important discovery of the Fels study was that the only psychological quality preserved from the first three years of life through adulthood was the characteristic we now call behavioral inhibition, although we called it passivity in 1962. Although Moss and I suggested that this predisposition might be a partial function of biological variables, the Zeitgeist during the early 1960s was not prepared to award much formative power to temperamental factors. Unfortunately, our faith in a temperamental interpretation of these data was not suf668 April 1989 • American Psychologist Copyright 1989 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0003-066X/89/$00.75 Vol. 44, No. 4, 668-674 ficiently strong, and neither of us pursued this phenomenon. In a later collaboration, Richard Kearsley, Philip Zelazo, and I enrolled Chinese-American and Caucasian infants from similar social class backgrounds in a longitudinal study of the effect of day care across the period from 3 to 29 months of age. We noted in our 1978 monograph, called In fancy (Kagan, Kearsley, & Zeiazo, 1978), that although the effect of day care on the children was minimal, the Chinese infants, whether attending our day care center or raised only at home, were, relative to the Caucasians, more subdued, shy, and fearful when they met unfamiliar adults or children, and they cried more intensely when their mothers left them for a brief separation. In addition, the Chinese children consistently showed more stable heart rates than the Caucasians during the laboratory episodes. This association implied a biological basis for the inhibition among the Chinese children. The unexpected association between shy, timid behavior and a minimally variable heart rate provoked me to pursue this phenomenon more directly. Cynthia Garcia-Coll and Nancy Snidman, in independent dissertation research, selected from large samples of young Caucasian children (aged 21 months for Cohort 1 and 31 months for Cohort 2) those who were either consistently shy and fearful (behaviorally inhibited) or sociable and fearless (uninhibited) when they encountered unfamiliar people or objects in unfamiliar laboratory rooms. They had to screen over 400 children in order to find 54 consistently inhibited and 53 consistently uninhibited children, about 15% of the children screened, with equal numbers of boys and girls in each group. These children have been seen on three additional occasions; at the last assessment at 71/2 years of age, there were 41 children in each of the two cohorts---a loss of about 20% of the original sample. In each of the assessments, the children were observed in different situations. Usually the assessments inc ludeda testing session with a female examiner and, on a different day, a play situation with an unfamiliar child of the same age and sex. At 51/2 years of age the aggregate index included observations of the child's behavior in his or her school setting (Gersten, 1986). Details of the procedures can be found in previously published articles (see Garcia-Coll et al., 1984; Kagan et al., 1988, Reznick et Editor's note. This article was originally presented as a Distinguished Scientific Contributions award address at the meeting of the American Psychological Association in Atlanta in August 1988. Award-based manuscripts appearing in the American Psychologist are scholarly articles based in part on earlier award addresses presented at the APA convention. In keeping with the policy of recognizing these distinguished contributors to the field, these submi.~sioas are given special consideration in the editorial selection process. /a~thor's note. The research for this article was SUPl~rted by the John D. and Catherine 1\". MacArthur Foundation. I thank J. Steven Reznick, Nancy Suidman, Jane Gibbons, and Maureen O. Johnson for their contributions. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jerome g~a~ , Delgtrtment of Psychology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138. al., 1986; and Snidman, 1984). We computed aggregate indexes of inhibition at each age, based on the child's tendency to be quiet, shy, and emotionally subdued in each of the different contexts. The indexes of inhibition at 71/2 years were based on behavior in two laboratory situations. The first was a play situation involving 7 to 10 unfamiliar children of the same age and sex. The two critical variables were number of spontaneous comments to the other children or supervising adults and proportion of time spent standing or playing apart from any other child in the room during the free-play intervals. The second assessment context was an individual testing session with an unfamiliar female examiner who did not know the child's prior status. The two critical variables were latency to the sixth spontaneous comment to the examiner and the total number of spontaneous comments over the 90-minute session. The aggregate index of inhibition represented the average standard scores for the indexes from the two assessment situations. The intercoder reliabilities for these behavioral variables coded from videotapes were above 0.90. Preservation of Behavior There was moderate but significant preservation of the inhibited and uninhibited behavioral styles from the first assessments, at either 21 or 31 months, through 71/2 years of age. The correlation between the original index of inhibition (21 months for Cohort 1 and 31 months for Cohort 2) and the aggregate index at 71/2 years was .67 (p < .001) for Cohort 1 and .39 (p < .01) for Cohort 2. About three fourths of the children in each cohort retained their expecte

Structural convergence of mood and personality: Evidence for old and new directions.

Abstract: Using factor analytic techniques, extensively researched 2-dimensional models of mood structure (Watson & Tellegen, 1985) and personality structure (H. J. Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) w e r e examined for their degree of convergence. As hypothesized, it was shown that extraversion and positive affect share a common dimension in combined mood-personality space and that neuroticism and negative affect together define the 2nd dimension of this space. Significantly, this finding held whether mood was assessed as a state or a trait. The circumplex structure of trait and state mood was also assessed, providing strong support for most octants of the Watson and Tellegen model. Finally, scales of state mood, trait mood, and personality were assessed and differentiated according to theoretical expectations. Implications for research based on a unified map of the 2-dimensional personality-mood space were elucidated.

Strangers' Ratings of the Five Robust Personality Factors: Evidence of a Surprising Convergence With Self-Report

Abstract: Attempted to replicate and extend the results of Passini and Norman (1966), who found surprising evidence ofconver~nt validity (i.e., significant correlations with the targets' self-ratings) in strangers' judgments of 5 broad personality factors. In the current study, 250 previously unacquainted Ss were run in small, same-sex groups of various sizes. Ss rated both themselves and their fellow group members on the same set of 20 bipolar trait scales used by Passini and Norman. Consistent with previous research, significant self-peer agreement correlations were obtained for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Ratings of Agreeableness also sho~xt significant convergent validity when a sufficient number of peers rated the target. More generally, self-peer agreement correlations tended to rise as the number of peer raters increased. Possible explanations for the validity of strangers' trait ratings are discussed.

Why I Advocate the Five-Factor Model: Joint Factor Analyses of the NEO-PI with Other Instruments

Abstract: Although the five-factor model of personality originated in studies of natural language, recent research suggests that it can encompass dimensions of individual differences derived from many of the major schools of personality psychology. This chapter summarizes empirical evidence of the convergence of all these lines of theory and research on the five-factor model, and illustrates the validity of the factors across different instruments and observers and their stability over decades of adult life. These appear to be compelling reasons to adopt the model as a framework for the comprehensive description of personality.

Effects of extraversion and neuroticism on experimental pain, clinical pain, and illness behavior.

Abstract: The effects of 2 personality traits, extraversion and neuroticism, on experimental and clinical pain were characterized in a group of myofascial pain dysfunction (MPD) patients. Extraverts did not differ from introverts in visual analogue scale (VAS) sensory or VAS affective ratings of graded 5-sec nociceptive temperature stimuli (43–51°C) nor in VAS sensory-VAS affective relationships related to their clinical pain. However, high extravert patients scored lower on affective inhibition (Pilowsky Illness Behavior Questionnaire; IBQ) compared to low extravert patients. This result is consistent with previous suggestions that extraverts inhibit overt expressions of suffering less than do introverts. High neurotic patients did not differ from low neurotic patients in their VAS sensory ratings of either experimental or clinical pain. Their VAS affective ratings of both types of pain were marginally higher as compared to low neurotic patients. As hypothesized, high neurotic score patients gave higher VAS ratings of emotions related to suffering and scored higher on items related to affective disturbance on the IBQ as compared to low neurotic score patients. Overall, the results indicate that the personality traits of neither extraversion nor neuroticism affect sensory mechanisms of nociceptive processing but appear to exert their influence by means of cognitive processes related to the ways in which people constitute the meanings and implications of pain.

Personality, stress, and injuries in professional ballet dancers

Abstract: Twenty-nine soloist and principal dancers (mean age, 29.08 years) from America's two most celebrated ballet companies were administered questionnaires measuring personality (API), occupational stress (OES), strain (PSQ), and coping mechanisms (PRQ), and injury patterns. The results revealed that male dancers demonstrated significantly more negative personality traits and psychological distress than female dancers or men in the general population. In addition, physical stress and personality traits, characteristic of the "overachiever," distinguished injured dancers. It is suggested that classical ballet's emphasis on the ballerina may be at odds with a masculine identity in male dancers. Furthermore, the qualities that lead to success in this profession may contribute to injuries if carried to an extreme.

Rater bias in the EASI temperament scales: a twin study.

Abstract: Under trait theory, ratings may be modeled as a function of the temperament of the child and the bias of the rater. Two linear structural equation models are described, one for mutual self- and partner ratings, and one for multiple ratings of related individuals. Application of the first model to EASI temperament data collected from spouses rating each other shows moderate agreement between raters and little rating bias. Spouse pairs agree moderately when rating their twin children, but there is significant rater bias, with greater bias for monozygotic than for dizygotic twins. MLE's of heritability are approximately .5 for all temperament scales with no common environmental variance. Results are discussed with reference to trait validity, the person-situation debate, halo effects, and stereotyping. Questionnaire development using ratings on family members permits increased rater agreement and reduced rater bias. In trying to establish the origins of individual differences in temperament and personality, the family provides an important and unique source of information. Within this setting, family members are able to observe one another's behavior across extended time periods and a wide variety of situations. However, there are a number of issues concerning the accuracy of measurement in such a setting that must be considered before substantive conclusions can be drawn about the influences on individual differences. A major difference between personality measurement in adults and in young children is that adult personality measurement is usually based on a self-report questionnaire, and juvenile personality is typically assessed by another rater, often a parent. Each of these methods of personality assessment has measurement difficulties; some of these problems are common to both forms of measurement, and others are specific to one or the other. In family studies of personality, the associations between these two types of measure are obtained and compared. The use of twins or adoptees allows the estimation of genetic and environmental influences on individual differences. Before such data can be interpreted, the limitations posed by the measurement techniques need to be established. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how data from families containing twin children can be used to quantify some of the influences on personality measures and consequently can provide more sensitive and complete estimates of the influences on individual differences in personality. The accuracy of measures of personality has recently been reviewed by Funder (1987). He has argued for the need to establish a systematic account of social judgments in everyday situations outside the laboratory. In this context, the emphasis should be on whether judges agree with one another rather than on sources of error in social judgments, as is more often the case

Personality and conditioning: a test of four models.

Abstract: Fbur experiments were conducted to test hypotheses derived from 4 alternative models of individual differences in instrumental conditioning. A standard go-no-go discrimination learning task was used in each of the 4 experiments. The results indicate that individual differences in performance of this discrimination are more consistently and strongly associated with impulsivity and anxiety than with extraversion and neuroticism. In each of the experiments, high anxiety hindered the learning of a go-no-go discrimination more among high impulsive Ss than among low impulsive Ss, and in 2 of the experiments high anxiety actually facilitated learning among low impulsive Ss. These findings are incompatible with Eysenck's and Gray's hypotheses regarding extraversion but are not inconsistent with Newman's. Aspects of these results do support Spence's and Gray's models of anxiety and instrumental conditioning. However, both of these models were contradicted by other trends in the data. A modification of Gray's model of impulsivity and anxiety that emphasizes the role of expectancies was proposed to fit these data.

The premorbid personality of patients with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract: A total of 85 patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease have been tested for characteristic premorbid personality features. In three different studies with varying test methods patients consistently appeared more introverted, depressed, rigid and inflexible than age-matched controls. It is suggested that together with impairment of conceptual shift and mental slowing found in early stages of Parkinson’s disease these premorbid personality traits might represent early signs of brain dopaminergic dysfunction.

DSM-III Personality Disorder in Obsessive-Compulsive Study Volunteers: A Controlled Study

Abstract: Twenty-one patients (6 men, 15 women) with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were each compared with two age-and sex-matched community controls for DSM-III personality measures using the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire (PDQ), a self-report instrument. Seven (33.3%) obsessive–compulsive patients and five (11.9%) control subjects met criteria for at least one personality disorder. Obsessive–compulsive patients were significantly more likely than controls to manifest dramatic cluster–histrionic, borderline, narcissistic, and antisocial–personality disorders or traits (odds ratio = 10, p >.05), particularly borderline personality. Mean PDQ scores for dramatic cluster and anxious cluster personality traits were significantly higher for patients than for community controls. This study demonstrates a higher prevalence of dramatic cluster personality disorders in obsessive–compulsive patients than age- and sex-matched community controls, but no increase in DSM-III compulsive personality.