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Showing papers on "Personality published in 1989"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a dynamic account of relations between personality, life events, and subjective well-being is presented, where each person is regarded as having "normal" equilibrium levels of life events and SWB, predictable on the basis of age and personality.
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.

1,131 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The personality traits in the right column and tick the traits that describe you are: Dependable, well-organized, responsible, conscientious, self-confident, honest, and self-control as mentioned in this paper.
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.

1,084 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that reduced central serotonergic function is present in a subgroup of patients with major affective and/or personality disorder and is associated with history of suicide attempt in patients with either disorder, but with impulsive aggression in Patients with personality disorder only.
Abstract: • Dysfunction of the central serotonergic system has been variously associated with depression and with suicidal and/or impulsive aggressive behavior. To evaluate central serotonergic function in relation to these variables, prolactin responses to a singledose challenge with fenfluramine hydrochloride (60 mg orally), a serotonin releasing/uptake-inhibiting agent, were examined in 45 male patients with clearly defined major affective (n = 25) and/or personality disorder (n 20) and in 18 normal male control patients. Prolactin responses to fenfluramine among all patients were reduced compared with responses of controls. Reduced prolactin responses to fenfluramine were correlated with history of suicide attempt in all patients but with clinician and selfreported ratings of impulsive aggression in patients with personality disorder only; there was no correlation with depression. These results suggest that reduced central serotonergic function is present in a subgroup of patients with major affective and/or personality disorder and is associated with history of suicide attempt in patients with either disorder, but with impulsive aggression in patients with personality disorder only.

1,081 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: 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, but correlational analyses showed that the four MBTI indices did measure aspects of four of the five major dimensions of normal 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

904 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: 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.
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.

852 citations


BookDOI
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: A.A. Pervin and R.R. Peterson as mentioned in this paper discussed the role of goal categories in the representation of social knowledge and the self-identification process of persons in relationships.
Abstract: Contents: L.A. Pervin, Goal Concepts in Personality and Social Psychology: A Historical Perspective. A. Bandura, Self-Regulation of Motivation and Action Through Internal Standards and Goal Systems. R.A. Emmons, The Personal Striving Approach to Personality. N. Cantor, C.A. Langston, Ups and Downs of Life Tasks in a Life Transition. R.A. Wright, J.W. Brehm, Energization and Goal Attractiveness. H. Markus, A. Ruvolo, Possible Selves: Personalized Representations of Goals. B.R. Schlenker, M.F. Weigold, Goals and the Self-Identification Process: Constructing Desired Identities. T.W. Lee, E.A. Locke, G.P. Latham, Goal Setting Theory and Job Performance. D.R. Peterson, Interpersonal Goal Conflict. J. Trzebinski, The Role of Goal Categories in the Representation of Social Knowledge. S.J. Read, L.C. Miller, Inter-Personalism: Toward a Goal-Based Theory of Persons in Relationships. L.A. Pervin, Goal Concepts: Themes, Issues, and Questions.

801 citations


Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The "model" represents the bridge between theory and data, by translating the "semantic" components of a theory into "syntactic" definitions so that the rules of logical and mathematical inference can be used to deduce new predictions about the results of empirical studies.
Abstract: ideas about causation are crystalized in a model for the statistics that can be derived from data on various sets of relatives. The "model" represents the bridge between theory and data, by translating the "semantic" components of a theory (Torgersen, 1958) into "syntactic" definitions so that the rules of logical and mathematical inference can be used to deduce new predictions about the results of empirical studies. Without such a quantitative model, it is impossible to know, for example, what parent-offspring correlation to expect from a knowledge of the correlations between twins. The model forces us to look more closely at the data by making us expect particular quantitative patterns. If these patterns occur then we may conclude that our model receives some support; if they clearly do not then our model is obviously wrong and some better alternative must be found. Figure 4 .1 summarizes the place of the model in diagramatic form. It is convenient to distinguish two important parts of the modeling process: model building and model fitting. The stage of model building consists in deciding how the causes of variation can be expressed in a mathematical form. The stage of model fitting consists of estimating the parameters of a model and deciding whether it fits the actual data. Each is considered separately. Elaboration/Decision Model f i t t ing Model building Experimental design Figure 4.1 The place of the model in the analysis of individual differences. 4. Introduction to Model Fitting 47 4 . 2 M O D E L BUILDING The way in which models are developed will become clearer by looking at the examples in the following chapters. However, we do not begin building models for personality differences in a vacuum. W e are guided by the cumulative experience of quantitative and behavioral genetics over the last eighty years. M a n y of the most informative studies have been conducted in plants and animals, which are far more amenable to genetic and environmental manipulation than man. This body of research suggests some of the broad features that models for human differences may encounter. 4 . 2 . 1 Genotype and phenotype The first basic distinction that we need to make is that made originally by Johannsen (1909) between genotype and phenotype. He observed that certain kinds of differences were transmissible between generations and could be modified b y selection within a population derived by crossing and recrossing pure breeding-strains. O n the other hand, even though pure breeding-strains were not uniform for many characteristics, such withinstrain differences could not be transmitted to subsequent generations or modified by selection. The discrimination between transmissible differences that were available to artificial selection and differences that were neither transmissible nor selectable led to the distinction between those characteristics of the organism that were expressed and measurable (the "phenotype") and those that influenced the phenotype but were capable of alteration b y selective breeding (the "genotype"). This basic idea can be represented by a (linear) model in which the phenotype of the zth individual (P,), expressed as a deviation from the average value of the population, is the sum of a "genotypic effect" G, and an environmental effect Thus Pi = G , +£,• (4 .1) Since we can only measure the phenotype of an individual directly, there is an infinite number of genetic and environmental effects that can satisfy the equation for each individual, so that neither the genetic nor the environmental effects can be identified statistically for any individual and there would be as many equations like (4 .1) as there are individuals in a sample. However, if genetic and environmental effects are independent (see Section 4 .2 .3 below) the phenotypic variance VP is the sum of the variances of the genetic effects G and the environmental effects E:

664 citations


Book
01 Sep 1989
TL;DR: Buss and Cantor as mentioned in this paper compiled the innovative research of twenty-five young, outstanding personality psychologists to represent the recent expansion of issues in the fields of cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, and sociology.
Abstract: Research in the field of personality psychology has culminated in a radical departure. The result is Personality Psychology: Recent Trends and Emerging Directions. Drs. Buss and Cantor have compiled the innovative research of twenty-five young, outstanding personality psychologists to represent the recent expansion of issues in the fields. Advances in assessment have brought about more powerful methods and the explanatory tools for extending personality psychology beyond its traditional reaches into the areas of cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, and sociology. This volume represents a significant landmark in the psychology of personality.

538 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The four personality outcomes classified by Marcia's idenltity status paradigm are conceptualized in terms of three styles of per sonial verb-oblem solvilng atid decision making.
Abstract: The four personality outcomes classified by Mar-cia 's idenltity-status paradigm are conceptualized in terms of three styles of per sonial pr-oblem solvilng atid decision making: (a) An Information...

509 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: 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.
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.

481 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
Rena L. Repetti1
TL;DR: On high spouse-support evenings, work overload was associated with increased social withdrawal and less expression of anger, and by facilitating their stressed partner's social withdrawal, supportive spouses may buffer the effects of minor daily stressors.
Abstract: This article examines daily variability in 2 marital behaviors, social withdrawal and the expression of anger, as a function of daily taskload at work. Thirty-three air traffic controllers (ATCs) and 27 wives completed surveys on 3 consecutive days. Subjective and objective indicators of daily workload (air traffic volume and visibility at the airport) were related to the couples' descriptions of the ATCs' behavior after work. Despite a positive association between withdrawal and anger, workload seemed to influence these 2 behaviors in opposite ways. On high spouse-support evenings, work overload was associated with increased social withdrawal and less expression of anger. Social withdrawal may help an aroused individual return to a baseline emotional and physiological state. By facilitating their stressed partner's social withdrawal, supportive spouses may buffer the effects of minor daily stressors. People usually think of behavior in close relationships as being determined by stable personality and situational variables. However, as everyone in a close relationship knows, there is substantial day-to-day variability in a couple's behavior. These variations and the factors that influence them are often overlooked in psychological research. Some of the variability in marital interaction may be due to conditions that an employed person faces at work each day. The study reported here addresses two questions: How do married people behave when they return home after a stressful day at work, and how does a spouse's behavior influence the employee's delayed response to job-related stress? A growing body of research investigates the relation between an individual's habitual experiences at work and typical patterns of social interaction within the family (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1982; Hoffman, 1985; Piotrkowski, Rapoport, & Rapoport, 1987). Much of the literature has focused on a spillover model, which proposes that psychological responses to work, such as gratification or emotional depletion, carry over into the home (Piotrkowski, 1979). Almost all of the relevant studies have examined job stress as an individual difference variable. Using between-subjects designs, investigators have found that

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 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.
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.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the structure and content of the 83 parent attitude questionnaires published from 1899 through 1986 designed to quantify variations in parental attitudes and, presumably, parental behavior and found that one suspected source of problems with the instruments, the use of vague and ambiguous items, was confirmed in a study of mothers' reactions to one survey.
Abstract: Describes historical use of surveys to assess parents' global child-rearing attitudes and reviews the structure and content of the 83 parent attitude questionnaires published from 1899 through 1986 designed to quantify variations in parental attitudes and, presumably, parental behavior. Inspection of the surveys' psychometric properties reveals marginally acceptable levels of reliability and questionable validity. One suspected source of problems with the instruments, the use of vague and ambiguous items, was confirmed in a study of mothers' reactions to one survey. In addition to instrument errors, conceptual problems associated with assumptions about the structure of parental attitudes and how attitudes relate to parental behavior are discussed. Alternative methods for assessing parental social cognitions and individual differences in parents are advocated. One of the oldest and most important questions in psychology concerns the role the environment plays in the development of an individual. At least in the opening scenes of ontogeny, parents are generally recognized to be the protagonists and the family to be the "primary arena" for socialization (Maccoby, 1984). Parents have frequently been implicated as principal causal agents in their children's behavioral, emotional, personality, and cognitive development. This influence is achieved through a variety of active and passive, reactive and nonreactive processes (Baumrind, 1980; Radke-Yarrow & Zahn-Waxler, 1986; Scarr

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Low emotional strength, increased interpersonal dependency, and increased thoughtfulness were associated with first onset of depression among older subjects, while age was a significant predictor of first onset, both alone and in interaction with personality measures.
Abstract: • This is a report on personality traits associated with the first onset of major depression in a sample of high-risk subjects. The subjects are the first-degree relatives, spouses, and their controls of patients with affective disorders. None of these subjects had any history of mental disorder as of their initial evaluation. In the subsequent six years, 29 subjects had a first onset of major depression. These first onset subjects were compared with 370 subjects who continued to be free of illness during the six-year follow-up. Personality traits were assessed at the initial evaluation (ie, before the onset of depression in subjects with first onset) by means of scales from five self-report inventories. Lower emotional strength and resiliency significantly differentiated the first onset from the never ill group; overall differences were not found on measures of interpersonal dependency or extraversion. Age was a significant predictor of first onset, both alone (younger age predicted first onsets) and in interaction with personality measures. Among younger subjects (17 to 30 years of age), personality variables did not significantly discriminate between the two comparison groups. Among older subjects (31 to 41 years of age), however, decreased emotional strength, increased interpersonal dependency, and increased thoughtfulness were associated with first onset of depression.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors conclude that the development of Borderline Personality Disorder is more strongly associated with exposure to chronically disturbed caretakers than prolonged separations from these same adults and a history of abuse rather than aHistory of neglect.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Life Orientation Test is virtually indistinguishable from measures of neuroticism, and previously reported findings using this scale are perhaps more parsimoniously interpreted as reflecting neuroticism rather than optimism.
Abstract: Found in two studies that the Life Orientation Test (LOT) had limited discriminant validity relative to measures of neuroticism. Furthermore, although previous correlations of the LOT with measures of symptom reports and coping behaviors were replicated, these correlations were eliminated when neuroticism was controlled. In contrast, the correlations of symptoms and coping with neuroticism remained significant when LOT scores were controlled. Thus, the LOT is virtually indistinguishable from measures of neuroticism, and previously reported findings using this scale are perhaps more parsimoniously interpreted as reflecting neuroticism rather than optimism. These findings are discussed in terms of existing support for models of optimism and self-control and general methodological issues in studies of personality and health.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined whether men and women do differ in evaluations of their life as a whole, and found that women report greater happiness and life satisfaction than men, while men report greater negative affect.
Abstract: This article reviews all published studies reporting tests for sex differences in well-being. Women were found to report greater happiness and life satisfaction than men. This sex difference was explained in terms of men's and women's social roles: The female (vs. male) gender role specifies greater emotional responsiveness. Furthermore, past role-related experiences provide women with appropriate skills and attitudes. Women's (vs. men's) greater well-being was also found to hold for married but not unmarried Ss: For both sexes the married state (vs. unmarried) was associated with favorable well-being, but the favorable outcomes proved stronger for women than men. Given that most Ss were married, the overall sex difference in well-being can be attributed to Ss' marital status. These findings were discussed in the context of prior research on sex differences in negative well-being. Research on subjective social indicators has demonstrated that one's objective life circumstances do not necessarily correspond to one's personal experience of well-being. The fact, then, that men and women in our society differ in terms of a variety of biological, personality, and situational factors may or may not result in sex differences in subjective quality of life. This article examines whether men and women do differ in evaluations of their life as a whole. The inquiry is limited to consideration of data on positive welbbeing and excludes findings on negative affect and psychological symptomatology. This is because positive and negative affect appem; under some circumstances, to be uncorrelated (Diener, Larson, Levine, & Emmons, 1985; Wart, Barter, & Brownbridge, 1983). I Reports of positive wen-being are best interpreted as indicators of positive domains of experience, separate from negative aspects of one's life circumstances. Prior research on sex differences in subjective life quality has focused almost exclusively on negative affect and psychological symptomatology. Consequently, most theories in this area are tailored to explain the occurrence of men's and women's poor well-being. This work, and the data on which it is based, is presented as a frame of reference for interpreting sex differences in positive well-being. First, we consider what is represented by judgments of wellbeing. Philosophers and psychologists have debated this question at length (see, e.g., Diener's, 1984, impressive review of the

Journal ArticleDOI
Jerome Kagan1
TL;DR: For example, this paper found that 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.
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



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The demographic correlates and frequency of Axis I disorders in individuals with each specific PD were examined, and all but histrionic and passive-aggressive PDs had distinctive profiles.
Abstract: • Seven hundred ninety-seven first-degree relatives of normal controls and patients with a variety of psychiatric disorders were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality Disorders. Slightly more than one sixth of the sample received a personality disorder (PD) diagnosis, and of those with a PD, almost one fourth had more than one. The most prevalent diagnoses were mixed, passive-aggressive, antisocial, histrionic, and schizotypal PD. The demographic correlates and frequency of Axis I disorders in individuals with each specific PD were examined, and all but histrionic and passive-aggressive PDs had distinctive profiles.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Findings support previous findings suggesting that different schizotypy scales relate to different underlying aspects of schizophrenia and indicate that psychotic traits are distributed along at least three dimensions.
Abstract: Fourteen published scales of psychotic traits or symptoms (measuring various delusional states, magical ideation, perceptual aberration, disposition towards hallucination, hypomanic personality, schizotypal personality, borderline personality and anhedonia) were combined with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to form a Combined Schizotypal Traits Questionnaire (CSTQ) which was administered to 180 normal subjects. Two factor analyses were carried out on the scale scores. The first analysis excluded symptom scores derived from the Delusions Symptoms States Inventory of Foulds and Bedford and yielded a three-factor solution which appeared to measure traits relating to (i) positive psychotic symptomatology; (ii) negative psychotic symptomatology; and (iii) aspects of schizotypy involving social anxiety and cognitive disorganization. The Foulds scales were included in the second analysis which yielded a four-factor solution. The first three factors were similar to those obtained from the first analysis; the fourth factor seemed to measure an asocial component of schizotypy. This last factor was mainly accounted for by the P scale from the EPQ. These results support previous findings suggesting that different schizotypy scales relate to different underlying aspects of schizophrenia. The findings also indicate that psychotic traits are distributed along at least three dimensions.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relationship between specific personality variables and job performance in a sample (N= 43) of accountants and found that three personality scales (orientation towards work, degree of ascendancy, and degree and quality of interpersonal orientation) are significantly related to important aspects of job performance.
Abstract: It is suggested that personality variables are significant predictors of job performance when carefully matched with the appropriate occupation and organization. The present study investigates the relationship between specific personality variables and job performance in a sample (N= 43) of accountants. The results indicate that even with the effects of cognitive ability taken into account, three personality scales (orientation towards work; degree of ascendancy; and degree and quality of interpersonal orientation) are significantly related to important aspects of job performance. It is suggested that the overall validity of selection strategies might be improved with the addition of measures of relevant personality dimensions when appropriately matched to an occupation and organization.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, 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.
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.

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that creativity has to do with the production of new ideas, and that its study rightly falls within the domain of cognitive psychology, but it involves a type of cognition that seems only to occur within a matrix of associated motivational, attitudinal, and personalogical traits.
Abstract: Because creativity has to do with the production of new ideas, one might think that its study rightly falls within the domain of cognitive psychology. Of course, creativity involves cognition, but it involves a type of cognition that seems only to occur within a matrix of associated motivational, attitudinal, and personalogical traits. Thus, to understand creativity, the person as a whole must be considered. Because of this, theories about the creative process have traditionally been personality theories rather than purely cognitive theories. In 1949, Guilford (1950) pointed out that we did not know enough about creativity. We can never know too much about the creative personality, but we certainly know more than I could hope to cover in this chapter. For more information, the reader may consult the reviews of the literature by Dellas and Gaier (1970), Wallach (1970), Stein (1974), Taylor and Getzels (1975), and Barron and Harrington (1981).

Book ChapterDOI
01 Aug 1989
Abstract: The popular literature on careers advises individuals to take charge of their situations – to be active agents in shaping their work environments and career opportunities. We believe you will improve your effectiveness and your sense of yourself as a person 300% if you can learn to think (or if you already think) of yourself as an active agent helping to mould your own present environment and your own future, rather than a passive agent, waiting for your environment to mould you. (Bolles 1980:74) You have to take over the management of your own job-hunt or career-change, if it is to be successful. (Bolles 1988:43) You can create opportunity for the future by putting yourself in charge of your career. Your initial commitment is to take full control of your actions. (Greco 1975:19) In contrast, a major school of thought in the academic literature on careers, the socialization literature, views individuals as much more passive and malleable. Often, individuals are portrayed as if they join the organization practically as lumps of clay, ready to be shaped by all those around them, from co-worker to supervisor to mentor. As mainly receivers of influence, individuals attempt to “learn the ropes” in the organization, modeling not only their behaviors but also their attitudes on those who appear to be successful participants: Like a sculptor's mold, certain forms of socialization can produce remarkably similar outcomes no matter what individual ingredients are used to fill the mold. (Van Maanen and Schein 1979:231) To be fair, we recognize that the academic literature does not totally ignore the individual in its treatment of careers.