Showing papers on "Big Five personality traits published in 1995"

A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure.

Abstract: A theory was proposed to reconcile paradoxical findings on the invariance of personality and the variability of behavior across situations. For this purpose, individuals were assumed to differ in (a) the accessibility of cognitive-affective mediating units (such as encodings, expectancies and beliefs, affects, and goals) and (b) the organization of relationships through which these units interact with each other and with psychological features of situations. The theory accounts for individual differences in predictable patterns of variability across situations (e.g., if A. then she X, but ifE then she Y), as well as for overall average levels of behavior, as essential expressions or behavioral signatures of the same underlying personality system. Situations, personality dispositions, dynamics, and structure were reconceptualized from this perspective. The construct of personality rests on the assumption that individuals are characterized by distinctive qualities that are relatively invariant across situations and over time. In a century of personality research, however, abundant evidence has documented that individual differences in social behaviors tend to be surprisingly variable across different situations. Although this finding has been interpreted as evidence against the utility of the personality construct, we show that it need not be and, on the contrary, that this variability reflects some of the essence of personality coherence. When personality is conceptualized as a stable system that mediates how the individual selects, construes, and processes social information and generates social behaviors, it becomes possible to account simultaneously for both the invariant qualities of the underlying personality and the predictable variability across situations in some of its characteristic behavioral expressions. In this article, we begin with a review of recent empirical data demonstrating that individuals are characterized not only by stable individual differences in their overall levels of behavior, but also by distinctive and stable patterns of behavior variability across situations. These findings invite a new conception of personality in which such patterns of variability are seen not as

Domains and Facets: Hierarchical Personality Assessment Using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory

Abstract: Personality traits are organized hierarchically, with narrow, specific traits combining to define broad, global factors. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992c) assesses personality at both levels, with six specific facet scales in each of five broad domains. This article describes conceptual issues in specifying facets of a domain and reports evidence on the validity of NEO-PI-R facet scales. Facet analysis-the interpretation of a scale in terms of the specific facets with which it correlates-is illustrated using alternative measures of the five-factor model and occupational scales. Finally, the hierarchical interpretation of personality profiles is discussed. Interpretation on the domain level yields a rapid understanding of the individual interpretation of specific facet scales gives a more detailed assessment.

A contrarian view of the five-factor approach to personality description.

Abstract: The 5-factor approach (FFA) to personality description has been represented as a comprehensive and compelling rubric for assessment. In this article, various misgivings about the FFA are delineated. The algorithmic method of factor analysis may not provide dimensions that are incisive. The "discovery" of the five factors may be influenced by unrecognized constraints on the variable sets analyzed. Lexical analyses are based on questionable conceptual and methodological assumptions, and have achieved uncertain results. The questionnaire version of the FFA has not demonstrated the special merits and sufficiencies of the five factors settled upon. Serious uncertainties have arisen in regard to the claimed 5-factor structure and the substantive meanings of the factors. Some implications of these problems are drawn.

Temperamental Qualities at Age Three Predict Personality Traits in Young Adulthood: Longitudinal Evidence from a Birth Cohort

Abstract: In an unselected sample of over 800 subjects we studied whether behavioral styles at age 3 are linked to personality traits at age 18. We identified 5 temperament groups (labeled Undercontrolled, Inhibited, Confident, Reserved, and Well-adjusted) based on behavioral ratings made by examiners when the children were 3. These groups were reassessed at 18, and their personality styles were measured with the self-report Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Results pointed to continuities across time. As young adults, Undercontrolled children scored high on measures of impulsivity, danger seeking, aggression, and interpersonal alienation; Inhibited children scored low on measures of impulsivity, danger seeking, aggression, and social potency; Confident children scored high on impulsivity; Reserved children scored low on social potency; and Well-adjusted children continued to exhibit normative behaviors.

Personality, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior.

Abstract: The personality dimensions agreeableness and conscientiousness were hypothesized to account for commonly shared variance between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Findings from 99 employees in the United Kingdom and the United States indicate that these two dimensions do indeed account for substantial variance in satisfaction and that conscientiousness also accounts for unique variance in one dimension of OCB. Satisfaction accounts for unique variance in OCB not explained by either of these personality dimensions. No evidence was found for differences in main or moderated effects in the U.K. and U.S. samples.

Personality as a Predictor of College Performance

Abstract: Total SAT score, average grade earned in high school, and 32 personality variables are examined via forward multiple regression analyses to identify the best combination for predicting GPA in a sample of 201 psychology students. Average grade earned in high school enters first, accounting for 19% of the variance in GPA. Self-control enters second, and SAT third; these account for 9% and 5% of the variance, respectively. No other predictors accounted for substantial portions of variance. This pattern of results converges with findings reported by other investigators using other measures of personality. It was recommended that the global trait of self-control or conscientiousness be systematically assessed and used in college admissions decisions.

Trait explanations in personality psychology.

Abstract: Recent debates on the status of contemporary trait psychology (Pervin, 1994) have revived old questions about the role of traits in the explanation of behavior: are traits mere descriptions of beha...

The Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5): Constructs and MMPI-2 Scales.

Abstract: The Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5; A. R. Harkness & J. L. McNulty, 1994) is a dimensional descriptive system for personality and its disorders. Replicated rational selection was used to generate Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989)-based scales for the PSY-5. The scales are Aggressiveness, 18 items; Psychoticism, 25 items; Constraint, 29 items; Negative Emotionality/ Neuroticism, 33 items; and Positive Emotionality/Extraversion, 34 items. In three clinical samples with Ns of 328, 156, and 1,196; a college sample with an N of 2,928; and MMPI-2 normative samples with an N of 2,567, alphas ranged from.65 to.88. For 838 college students who had also completed Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), correlations between PSY-5 scales and corresponding MPQ superfactors were as follows: Constraint, r =.57, p < .01; Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism, r =.72, p <.01; and Positive Emotionality/Extraversion, r =.62, p <.0.1 PSY-5 Aggressiveness correlated r =.59, (p <.01) with MPQ Aggression. PSY-5 Psychoticism correlated r =.61 (p <.01) with MPQ Alienation

Personality and mortality after myocardial infarction.

Abstract: Previous research showed: a) emotional distress is a risk factor for mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) and b) emotional distress is linked to stable personality traits. In this study, we examined the role of these personality traits in mortality after MI. Subjects were 105 men, 45 to 60 years of age, who survived a recent MI. Baseline assessment included biomedical and psychosocial risk factors, as well as each patient's personality type. After 2 to 5 (mean, 3.8) years of follow-up, 15 patients (14%) had died. Rate of death for patients with a distressed personality type (11/28 = 39%) was significantly greater than that for patients with other personality types (4/77 = 5%) (p < .0001). Patients with this personality type tend simultaneously to experience distress and inhibit expression of emotions. Low exercise tolerance, previous MI (p < .005), anterior MI, smoking, and age (p < .05) were also associated with mortality. A logistic regression model including these biomedical factors had a sensitivity for mortality of only 27%. The addition of distressed personality type in this model more than doubled its sensitivity. Of note, among patients with poor physical health, those with a distressed personality type had a five-fold mortality risk (p < .005). Consistent with the findings of other investigators, depression (p < .005), life stress, use of benzodiazepines (p < .01), and somatization (p < .05) were also related to post-MI mortality. These psychosocial risk factors were more prevalent in the distressed personality type than in the other personality types (p < .001-.05). Multiple logistic regression indicated that these psychosocial factors did not add to the predictive value of the distressed personality type. Hence, an important personality effect was observed despite the low power. This suggests that personality traits may play a role in the detrimental effect of emotional distress in MI patients.

Prosocial Behavior and Caring in Adolescence: Relations to Self-Understanding and Social Judgment

Abstract: The relation of self-understanding and moral judgment to dedicated prosocial behavior is investigated. Participants were African-American and Latin-American adolescents who had been nominated by community leaders for having demonstrated unusual commitments to care for others or the community (care exemplars). The care exemplars, and matched comparison adolescents, were extensively interviewed over the course of 4-6 sessions in order to elicit self-understanding, moral judgment, and implicit personality theories. The care exemplars were more likely than the comparison adolescents to: (1) describe themselves in terms of moral personality traits and goals, (2) view themselves as having closer continuity to their pasts and futures, (3) think of themselves as incorporating their ideals and parental images, and (4) articulate theories of self in which personal beliefs and philosophies are important. There were no differences between the care exemplars and the comparison adolescents in developmental stages of moral judgment nor in the abstractness of their implicit personality theories.

Evolution, the Five-Factor Model, and Levels of Personality

Abstract: This article interprets the five-factor model as subsuming variation in normative, species-typical systems with adaptive functions in the human environment of evolutionary adaptedness. It is argued that the evolutionary logic of personality systems is apparent in the patterning of mean sex differences in personality. Personality systems are conceptualized as evolved motivational systems with an affective core. The evolved motive dispositions at the core of personality anchor a hierarchy of levels of cognitive and behavioral functioning aimed at attaining or avoiding the affective states central to these personality systems. Personality systems are seen as often in dynamic conflict within individuals and as highly compartmentalized in their functioning between settings. While variation in personality consists of a range of viable strategies for humans, extremes on these systems tend to be maladaptive, although in at least some cases individuals who approach the maladaptive extremes of individual variation may be viewed as engaging in high-risk evolutionary strategies. Within this wide range of viable strategies, personality variation functions as a resource environment for individuals in the sense that personality variation is evaluated according to the interests of the evaluator.

Solid ground in the wetlands of personality: a reply to Block.

Abstract: The five-factor model (FFM) of personality offers a structural organization of personality traits in terms of 5 broad factors. J. Block's (1995) critique of the FFM failed to recognize the utility of a trait taxonomy and the intent of research designed to test the 5-factor hypothesis. In a number of instances he omitted reference to empirical evidence that addresses concerns he raised; this evidence shows strong support for the FFM beyond the lexical and questionnaire traditions he reviews. Many of his suggestions for improving the quality of personality research are valuable, but are likely to be more fruitful when used in conjunction with established knowledge about the structure of personality traits: the FFM.

Relative importance of personality and general mental ability in managers' judgments of applicant qualifications.

Abstract: Eighty-four managers who make hiring decisions in 1 of 6 occupations representative of J. L. Holland's (1973) 6 job typologies (medical technologist, insurance sales agent, carpenter, licensed practical nurse, reporter, and secretary) rated 39 hypothetical job applicants on 2 dependent variables, hirability and counterproductivity. Applicants were described on the Big Five personality factors (Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and on general mental ability. Results showed that general mental ability and conscientiousness were the most important attributes related to applicants' hirability and that Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness were the most important attributes related to counterproductivity. In most respects, these results mirror meta-analytic reviews of validity studies, thereby confirming hypotheses.

Childhood conscientiousness and longevity: Health behaviors and cause of death.

Abstract: Previous research showed that conscientiousness (social dependability) in childhood predicted longevity in an archival prospective cohort study of bright children first studied by Terman in the 1920s (H. S. Friedman et al., 1993). Possible behavioral mechanisms for this robust association are now examined by gathering cause of death information and by considering the possible mediating influences of drinking alcohol, smoking, and overeating. Survival analyses (N = 1,215) suggest that the protective effect of conscientiousness is not primarily due to accident avoidance and cannot be mostly explained by abstinence from unhealthy substance intake. Conscientiousness may have more wide-ranging effects on health-relevant activities.

Personality and patient adherence: Correlates of the five-factor model in renal dialysis

Abstract: The five-factor taxonomy of personality traits has received increasing attention in the literature regarding personality correlates of health outcomes and behaviors. We examined the association of the five NEO Five-Factor Inventory dimensions to medical regimen adherence in a sample of 72 renal dialysis patients. Results indicated that Conscientiousness (Dimension III) is a five-factor trait significantly associated with adherence to the medication regimen. No other NEO-FFI dimension was significantly associated with patient adherence.

Extraversion: A “Hidden” Personality Factor in Coping?

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests a larger role for personality determinants of the coping response than has been traditionally held. In the two studies presented here, we examined the influence of personality on the use of social support and other coping strategies in samples of undergraduate students. The first study surveyed a range of coping responses to naturally occurring stressors and found that Extraversion was related to social support seeking, optimism (identified as germane to coping in prior research) was related to problem solving, and both dispositions were negatively related to avoidance. The second study used an experimental approach and multiple personality measures to correct for possible methodological problems in the first. Extraversion again proved to be associated with help seeking; moreover, this relationship accounted for that of another disposition, self-esteem--a construct considered crucial in the literature. The utility of personality variables, particularly Extraversion, in predicting and explaining the choice of a coping strategy is discussed.

Major depression and the five-factor model of personality

Abstract: The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) was administered to a sample of unipolar, nonpsychotic depressed outpatients receiving pharmacotherapy. Fifty-seven patients were assessed on two occasions—at treatment entry (Time 1) and 3 months following initiation of treatment (Time 2). The Neuroticism (N) and Extraversion (E) dimension scores were altered by the depressive episode, whereas the Openness (O), Conscientiousness (C), and Agreeableness (A) dimensions were not altered. The N dimension for the recovered patients at Time 2 was at least 1 standard deviation above that of a normative sample, suggesting that N may be a predisposing factor for major depression. E was the best predictor of treatment outcome.

The prejudiced personality revisited: Personal need for structure and formation of erroneous group stereotypes.

Abstract: Two studies explored the relation between personal need for structure (PNS) and a reasoning process through which stereotypes may form. Participants viewed information about the performance of group members on intelligence-related tasks and then indicated their inference strategies and impressions of the groups. Results indicated that high-PNS participants were more likely than low-PNS participants to form erroneous group stereotypes. Individual differences in attributional complexity and need for cognition also predicted stereotype formation under some conditions. The effects of PNS and other cognitive personality variables were weakened under conditions in which participants believed that they would have to justify their impressions publicly. Discussion focuses on processes underlying the relation between PNS and stereotype formation and on relations among personality, social context, and social inference

Effects of Epistemic Motivations on the Use of Accessible Constructs in Social Judgment

Abstract: Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the use of primed constructs to interpret target information will be increased under high need for closure and decreased under high need to avoid closure. Supporting this hypothesis, Experiment I found that subjects high in need for closure (induced by increasing cognitive load) were more likely to characterize an ambiguous target in terms of primed traits. Subjects high in need to avoid closure (induced by stressing the importance of impression accuracy) were less likely to characterize the target in terms of primed traits. Experiment 2 found that subjects high in dispositional need for closure were more likely to characterize the target in terms of primed traits than subjects low in dispositional need for closure. By grouping subjects based on individual differences in need for closure, Experiment 2 provides convergent validity for the hypothesis and rules out alternative interpretations for the results of Experiment 1.

Effects of Self-Presentation Strategies on Personality Profiles and their Structure

Abstract: To examine the claim that self presentation distorts the structure of personality dimensions, 370 subjects were asked to respond as job applicants to a measure of the Big Five personality traits and two measures of socially desirable responding (SDR): Self-Deceptive Enhancement and Impression Management. They were randomly assigned to respond using one of seven strategies: fake the best possible candidate, fake good without arousing suspicion, play up your good points, respond honestly, be modest, fake bad without arousing suspicion, fake worst. The SDR scales and the Big Five were highly intercorrelated under all strategies except honest responding. Further analyses suggested that the high intercorrelations were due to outliers, not to a true convergence of dimensions. It was concluded that self presentation can either inflate or deflate intercorrelations among evaluative scales. Self presentation in individuals was best diagnosed by the Impression Management and Conscientiousness scales.

Do interpersonal traits predict affect? A comparison of three models.

Abstract: Predictions from interpersonal traits to affect were examined in the context of 3 models. In the global trait model, traits were used to predict affect aggregated over a 20-day period. In the situational congruence model, traits were used to predict affect in trait-relevant situations. In the behavioral concordance model, the co-occurrence between behaviors and affect was examined for individual participants, and then traits were used to predict the degree to which behavior and affect co-occurred. No support was found for the global trait and situational congruence models. Support was found for the behavioral concordance model for 3 of the 4 traits. Individuals high on agreeableness and quarrelsomeness experienced pleasant affect when they engaged in behaviors concordant with their traits. Individuals high on agreeableness, quarrelsomeness, and dominance experienced unpleasant affect when they engaged in behaviors opposite to their traits.

Personality and the inheritance of smoking behavior: a genetic perspective.

Abstract: In contrast to the extensive research effort to understand the genetic contribution to alcoholism risk, there has been little research directed at understanding genetic influences on smoking behavior. Data from large twin studies in Scandinavia and Australia are consistent with a major genetic influence on the probability that an individual will become a smoker (“initiation”) and will persist in the smoking habit once smoking has started (“persistence”). We use data from the 1988/1989 follow-up survey of the Australian NH&MRC twin panel to determine to what degree personality measures (Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire—Revised) and attitudinal and sociodemographic variables (social and political conservatism, education, religious involvement) might account for genetic or environmental influences on smoking. While we find significant phenotypic associations between these variables and smoking, these are too modest to account for much of the genetic variance. Possible mechanisms by which this genetic variance may arise are discussed.

Symptoms of psychological distress predict 7-year mortality.

Abstract: As part of the Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS), 6096 adults from a representative sample of community residents completed a standardized questionnaire which elicited psychiatric symptoms--the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) of Goldberg (1972). Their survival status at 7 years was determined, and 474 had died. Respondents whose GHQ score was above the conventional threshold (4/5), used when screening for psychiatric disorder, were 60% more likely to die over the 7-year interval than respondents whose GHQ score was below threshold (risk ratio 1.64 for men and 1.58 for women). The differences were statistically significant for both sexes when the effects of age, physical disorder, social class and smoking behaviour were taken into account. Personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion) were not related to mortality, neither was self-reported difficulty in sleeping. However, a low subjective rating of one's general health was associated with increased mortality. We explored a range of cut-points and found reliable effects for both sexes at all cut-points from 3/4 to 6/7. Possible differences related to natural versus unnatural causes of death were explored and found not to explain the results. The findings from this general population study confirm that is is not only psychiatric disorders, but also psychiatric symptoms, which are associated with subsequent mortality, and thereby reinforce the importance of appropriate intervention to alleviate these symptoms.