Showing papers on "Personality published in 1990"

The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization

Abstract: Organizational commitment has been conceptualized and measured in various ways. The two studies reported here were conducted to test aspects of a three-component model of commitment which integrates these various conceptualizations. The affective component of organizational commitment, proposed by the model, refers to employees' emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organization. The continuance component refers to commitment based on the costs that employees associate with leaving the organization. Finally, the normative component refers to employees' feelings of obligation to remain with the organization. In Study 1, scales were developed to measure these components. Relationships among the components of commitment and with variables considered their antecedents were examined in Study 2. Results of a canonical correlation analysis suggested that, as predicted by the model, the affective and continuance components of organizational commitment are empirically distinguishable constructs with different correlates. The affective and normative components, although distinguishable, appear to be somewhat related. The importance of differentiating the components of commitment, both in research and practice, is discussed.

An alternative "description of personality": the big-five factor structure.

Abstract: In the 45 years since Cattell used English trait terms to begin the formulation of his "description of personality," a number of investigators have proposed an alternative structure based on 5 orthogonal factors. The generality of this 5-factor model is here demonstrated across unusually comprehensive sets of trait terms. In the first of 3 studies, 1,431 trait adjectives grouped into 75 clusters were analyzed; virtually identical structures emerged in 10 replications, each based on a different factor-analytic procedure. A 2nd study of 479 common terms grouped into 133 synonym clusters revealed the same structure in 2 samples of self-ratings and in 2 samples of peer ratings. None of the factors beyond the 5th generalized across the samples. In the 3rd study, analyses of 100 clusters derived from 339 trait terms suggest their potential utility as Big-Five markers in future studies.

Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality

Abstract: Data from three normal samples were used to examine links between personality disorder scales and measures of the five-factor model of personality. In the first study, self-reports, spouse ratings, and peer ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), a measure of the five basic factors of personality, were correlated with MMPI personality disorder scales in a sample of 297 adult volunteers. In the second study, self-reports on the NEO-PI were correlated with Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-I) scales in a sample of 207 adults; self-reports on the MCMI-II were examined in a sample of 62 students. Results generally replicated the findings of Wiggins and Pincus (1990), suggesting that the five-factor model encompasses dimensions of both normal and abnormal personality. Distinctions between the MMPI, MCMI-I, and MCMI-II scales are examined in light of the model, and suggestions are made for integrating traditional personality trait models with psychiatric conceptions of disorder.

Personality in adulthood

Abstract: Now in a revised and expanded second edition, this influential work argues for the enduring stability of personality across adult development. It also offers a highly accessible introduction to the five-factor model of personality. Critically reviewing different theories of personality and adult development, the authors explain the logic behind the scientific assessment of personality, present a comprehensive model of trait structure, and examine patterns of trait stability and change after age 30, incorporating data from ongoing cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The second edition has been updated throughout with the authors' new findings, ideas, and interpretations, and includes a new chapter on cross-cultural research. It culminates in an additional new chapter that presents a comprehensive theory of personality grounded in the five-factor model.

Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-Focused Approach

Abstract: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often receive mental health treatment. trial of schema-focused therapy vs transference-focused psychotherapy. the borderline personality disorder study of cognitive therapy (BOSCOT) trial. A schema-focused approach to group psychotherapy for outpatients. ABSTRACT This article presents the Schema Therapy (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003) approach to the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Schema therapy draws on the cognitive-behavioral, attachment, psychodynamic, and emotion-focused Article: Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. Jeffery Young (1990) developed Schema Therapy to treat personality disordered Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema Focused Approach.

Personality, affect, and behavior in groups.

Abstract: Building from an attraction-selection-attrition framework (Schneider, 1987) and the socialization literature, this study views personality, affect, and behavior as group-level phenomena

Adolescent drug use and psychological health: A longitudinal inquiry.

Abstract: The relation between psychological characteristics and drug use was investigated in subjects studied longitudinally, from preschool through age 18. Adolescents who had engaged in some drug experimentation (primarily with marijuana) were the best-adjusted in the sample. Adolescents who used drugs frequently were maladjusted, showing a distinct personality syndrome marked by interpersonal alienation, poor impulse control, and manifest emotional distress. Adolescents who, by age 18, had never experimented with any drug were relatively anxious, emotionally constricted, and lacking in social skills. Psychological differences between frequent drug users, experimenters, and abstainers could be traced to the earliest years of childhood and related to the quality of parenting received. The findings indicate that (a) problem drug use is a symptom, not a cause, of personal and social maladjustment, and (b) the meaning of drug use can be understood only in the context of an individual's personality structure and developmental history. It is suggested that current efforts at drug prevention are misguided to the extent that they focus on symptoms, rather than on the psychological syndrome underlying drug abuse.

Functional and dysfunctional impulsivity: personality and cognitive correlates.

Abstract: The 3 studies reported here were designed to clarify the nature of the personality trait of impulsivity. Two types of impulsivity were distinguished. Dysfunctional impulsivity is the tendency to act with less forethought than most people of equal ability when this tendency is a source of difficulty; most previous work on impulsivity appears to have focused on this trait. Functional impulsivity, in contrast, is the tendency to act with relatively little forethought when such a style is optimal. The present work indicates that these two tendencies are not highly correlated and that they bear different relations both to other personality traits and to the manner in which certain basic cognitive processes are executed. Language: en

The psychosocial etiology of adolescent drug use: a family interactional approach.

Abstract: The purpose of this monograph was to propose a framework, family interactional theory, for explaining the psychosocial aspects of adolescent drug use. Three themes are stressed: (a) the extension of developmental perspectives on drug use, (b) the elucidation of family (especially parental) influences leading to drug use, and (c) the exploration of factors that increase or mitigate adolescents' vulnerability to drug use. We present a developmental model with two components; the first deals with adolescent pathways to drug use, and the second incorporates childhood factors. The model was tested in two studies: one cross-sectional study of 649 college students and their fathers, and one longitudinal study of 429 children and their mothers. The subjects were given self-administered questionnaires containing scales measuring the personality, family, and peer variables outlined in the model. The results of each study supported the hypothesized model, with some differences between parental influences. We also found that individual protective factors (e.g., adolescent conventionality, parent-child attachment) could offset risk factors (e.g., peer drug use) and enhance other protective factors, resulting in less adolescent marijuana use. Implications of the findings for prevention and treatment, future research, and public policy are discussed.

Coping as a personality process: a prospective study.

Abstract: The study tested the proposition that coping is personality in action under stress. Using a stressful medical school entrance examination, the study examined (a) whether neuroticism emerged in coping patterns over time and (b) whether the influence of neuroticism on coping accounted for changes in anxiety and examination performance. Fifty premedical students reported their coping efforts at 35 days before, 10 days before, and 17 days after the examination. They provided daily reports of anxiety for 35 days surrounding the examination. Neuroticism influenced coping efforts and increases in daily anxiety under stress. Two types of coping, wishful thinking and self-blame, explained over half the relationship between neuroticism and increases in preexamination anxiety. Consistent with previous research, neither neuroticism nor specific coping efforts influenced examination performance.

Socioeconomic status differences in vulnerability to undesirable life events.

Abstract: Previous research has documented consistently that persons holding low-socioeconomic status (SES) positions are more strongly affected emotionally by undesirable life events than are their higher-status counterparts. Two types of resources have been implicated in this differential vulnerability: financial resources and a broader class of coping resources, including social support and resilient personality characteristics. We present an analysis that disaggregates measure of life events and of SES to identify which events and which components of SES are most important for understanding differential vulnerability. We document that the lower-SES vulnerability persists across all types of personal events. In addition, we find that differential vulnerability is not confined to income but extends to education and occupational status as well. On the basis of these patterns, we conclude that differential vulnerability reflects more than a simple economic reality. Previous research offers speculative evidence that status differences in past and current social environments may explain differential vulnerability, especially through their effects on the socialization of resilient personality characteristics. We propose future research that could help to evaluate the validity of these speculations.

From thought to behavior: "Having" and "doing" in the study of personality and cognition.

Abstract: In recent years, much progress has been made by those advocating the trait perspective in personality in explicating an underlying dispositional structure to individual differences, to the attributes individuals \"have. \"' A cognitive perspective on personality can complement this description, providing a view of what Allport called the \"'doing\" side of personality, by focusing on how these dispositions are cognitively expressed and maintained in social interaction. This perspective shows how individuals interpret life tasks of work, play, intimacy, power, and health, in light of their most accessible schemas, envisaging alternative future selves, and devising cognitive strategies to guide behavior in relevant situations. Strategic problem solving typically has its benefits and its costs because an effective solution to one life problem often creates other new problems. Therefore, a central question about the adaptiveness of personality is raised by this approach. To what extent, under what circumstances, and through what channels do individuals work to modify their schemas, tasks, and strategies in light of experience? A structural approach to personality can indicate much about basic stabilities, and an emphasis on the \"doing\" side can contribute knowledge of the mutability of personality. Personality is something and personality does something . . . . The adjustments of men contain a great amount of spontaneous, creative behavior toward the environment. Adjustment to the physical world as well as to the imagined or ideal world--both being factors in the \"behavioral environment\"--involves mastery as well as passive adaptation. --Allport, 1937, pp. 48-50 Our great advantage over all other social animals is that we possess the kind of brain that permits us to change our minds. We are not obliged, as ants are, to follow genetic blueprints for every last detail of our behavior. Our genes are more cryptic and ambiguous in their instructions: Get along, says our DNA, talk to each other, figure out the world, be useful, and above all keep an eye out for affection. --Thomas, 1984, pp. 7 For quite some time now the dominant force in personality psychology, trait psychology, has been concerned with the structural basis of individual differences, that is, with Allport's (1937) \"having\" side of personality. There have been substantial and important advances in the taxonomic efforts to chart the major and stable dimensioas on which people can be said to differ (e.g., McCrae & Costa, 1987; Norman, 1963). We are also much closer than ever before to explicating genetic and biological bases for important differences in temperament, sociability, and the other \"big five\" personality factors (e.g., Tellegen et al., 1988). These advances are encouraging also because they pave the way for increasing attention to questions about how these individual differences are expressed and maintained in social interaction across the life course (Caspi, Bern, & Elder, 1989). Accordingly, there has been lately more and more emphasis in personality research on process (Larsen, 1989). In this trend, theorists are taking three complementary tacks to elucidating both the \"having\" and the \"doing\" sides of personality. First, such theorists have proposed \"middle level\" units of analysis--units that take an individual's standing on abstract dispositions of sociability or openness to experience and the like and give concrete form to their diverse expressions (Briggs, 1989). These middle level units of personality description are explicitly contextualized, with dispositional categories like impulsivity or sociability defined in terms of the if-then contingencies of specific situations (e.g., Wright & Mischel, 1987). Second, theorists have proposed mechanisms that selectively maintain and bolster these individual differences; mechanisms, for example, of \"selection, evocation, and manipulation\" that underlie person × environment transactions (Buss, 1987). Finally, theorists have paid increased attention to processes of change in dysfunctional behavior and in \"normal\" personality during life transitions (e.g., Stewart & Healy, 1985). I propose that a cognitive approach to personality has the potential to be especially useful at this juncture. It provides useful constructs and methods in the analysis of personality differences as they are diversely expressed and maintained in situ. It brings to this enterprise a central concern with cognitive mechanisms that can mediate the mapping of abstract dispositions onto specific outcomes; with processes that selectively give form to the blueprint of individuals' personalities. By explicating these processes of translation (and of construction) a cognitive June 1990 • American Psychologist Cop/right 1990 by the American Psychological Assoctation, Inc. 0003-066X/90/$00.75 Vol. 45, No. 6, 735-750 735 approach underscores the dynamic, transactional development of personality. By recognizing the power of intelligent beings to think in novel ways about themselves and others, it acknowledges a potential for creative adjustment that Allport and Thomas both claimed as central human virtues. In short, this perspective complements the trait approach and fits well with an ever-increasing attention to the \"doing\" side of personality expression and maintenance, and of personality growth. \"Having\" and \"Doing\" in Personality Julian Rotter (1954), in his seminal book Social Learning and Clinical Psychology, set the stage for current cognitive approaches to personality. He conceptualized outcomes as behavioral choices that individuals make in the light of their interpretations of situations and of likely reinforcements. For instance, in arguing against simple forms of reductionism in personality, he used examples of the following sort: Consider three individuals' different responses to the problem of low blood sugar, differences that follow from the individual meanings they give to the event. One person perceives the situation as under his or her control and directly confronts the problem by eating granola and running a mile several times a week; another decides that the problem is here to stay but that he or she can \"make the best of it\" by getting more rest and boosting energy with chocolate; and yet a third refuses to see it as a problem at all, pushing until all his or her reserves are depleted. Whereas one might reasonably contrast the adaptive responding of the first two persons with the destructive denial of the third, Rotter would be more likely to emphasize the differences between the first two, even though they both take an active response to the situation. He implored personality psychologists to pay less attention to where people begin and end and to accord at least equal weight to the differing ways in which they get there, that is, the strategies that move people from some interpretation of the situation toward their goals. Rotter did not intend to present a model of conscious choice, but he did say that people made choices, however automatically, by construing situations, tasks, or problems in particular ways, and he thought that those construals formed the basis for important behavioral differences that should not be ignored. Rotter's Ohio State colleague, George Kelly (1955), Preparation of this article was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (BNS 8718467 to Nancy Cantor and Julie K. Norem, and BNS 8411778 to Nancy Cantor and Harold Korn). I wish to thank several of my colleagues and students for their many helpful comments: David Buss, William Fleeson, James Hilton, John E Kihlstrom, Christopher A. Langston, Hazel Markus, Michael Morris, Julie K. Norem, Richard Nisbe~t, Christopher Peterson, Claude Steele, Abigail J. Stewart, Lynne Sutherland, and Sabrina Zirkel, as well as the editor and anonymous reviewers. Nancy G. Exelby provided invaluable technical assistance. Portions of these analyses and ideas were presented recently at the August 1989 meeting of the American Psychological Association in New Orleans. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nancy Cantor, Institute for Social Research, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248. provided a powerful and complementary analysis of the individual as a naive scientist, busy anticipating events in the light of personal constructs about the self and the social world. Kelly articulated two fundamental and enduring cognitive assumptions. First, he placed the interpretive process at the very center of his account of individual differences: People differ because they anticipate events in unique ways which, in turn, channel their behavioral responses. Feelings, thoughts, actions, and reactions in a situation follow from those initial anticipations, those meanings with which an event is infused. Second, and equally important, Kelly posited constructive alternativism, the potential for alternative interpretations of similar events, either by two people in one situation or even by the same person in repeated encounters with an event or task. Individuals' constructs firmly channel their behavioral responses; however, the rich diversity of those constructs preserve considerable flexibility in personality functioning. The Rotter-Kelly analysis has all of the central features of a cognitive approach. The challenge for current cognitive-personality psychology is to increasingly reveal and specify those processes that represent an individual's active attempts to understand the world, to take control, and to reach personal goals. At the heart of this approach is a strong respect for the power of cognition to generate choice or create freedom. Individuals overcome stimulus control at least in part by giving their own meanings to events, by cognitively transforming situations. In this sense, the work of Walter Mischel, one of Kelly's proteges, on children's strategies for delay of gratification provides a prototypic illustration: Y

Distress and restraint as superordinate dimensions of self-reported adjustment: a typological perspective.

Abstract: Individual differences in distress and restraint have recently been validated as two superordinate dimensions of social-emotional adjustment (Weinberger, 1989). In two samples (N1 = 139; N2 = 136) of university students, scores on these dimensions were jointly used to define six higher order personality styles: reactive, sensitized, oversocialized, undersocialized, self-assured, and repressive. To evaluate this typology, group differences were investigated on 28 measures within seven domains related to adjustment: self-expression, emotional control, proneness to personality disorders, physical illness, self-concept, neurotic symptoms, and impulse gratification. One-way multivariate analyses of variance revealed significant group differences within each domain. Univariate analyses revealed significant differences on 26 of the 28 measures and marginally significant differences on the remaining 2. A large number of nonadditive patterns consistent with a priori group descriptions corroborated the utility of a person-centered, typological approach. The data also provided an empirically derived, prototypic description of each adjustment style.

International Marketing and National Character: A Review and Proposal for an Integrative Theory:

Abstract: The author discusses the concept of national character—the idea that the people of each nation have a distinctive, enduring pattern of behavior and/or personality characteristics. He examines the c...

Where are the commonalities among the therapeutic common factors

Abstract: There is little convergence or empirical research on factors shared by diverse psychotherapies. We reviewed 50 publications to discern commonalities among proposed therapeutic common factors. The number of factors per publication ranged from 1 to 20, with 89 different commonalities proposed in all. Analyses revealed that 41 % of proposed commonalities were change processes; by contrast, only 6% of articulated commonalities were client characteristics. The most consensual commonalities across categories were development of a therapeutic alliance, opportunity for catharsis, acquisition and practice of new behaviors, and clients' positive expectancies. The frequency of selected commonalities is presented and directions for future research are outlined. Mental health professionals have long observed that disparate forms of psychotherapy share common elements or core features (Goldfried & Newman, 1986; Thompson, 1987). As early as 1936, Rosenzweig, noting that all forms of psychotherapy have cures to their credit, invoked the famous Dodo Bird verdict from Alice in Wonderland, "Everybody has won and all must have prizes," to characterize psychotherapy outcomes. He then proposed as a possible explanation therapeutic common factors, including psychological interpretation, catharsis, and the therapist's personality. In 1940, Watson reported the results of a meeting held to ascertain areas of agreement among psychotherapy systems (Sollod, 1981). The participants, including such diverse figures as Saul Rosenzweig, Alexandra Adler, Frederick Allen, and Carl Rogers, concurred that support, interpretation, insight, behavior change, a good therapeutic relationship, and certain therapist characteristics were common features of successful psychotherapy approaches (Watson, 1940).

Project a validity results: the relationship between predictor and criterion domains

Abstract: A predictor battery of cognitive ability, perceptual-psychomotor ability, temperament/personality, interest, and job outcome preference measures was administered to enlisted soldiers in nine Army jobs. These measures were summarized in terms of 24 composite scores. The relationships between the predictor composite scores and five components of job performance were analyzed. Scores from the cognitive and perceptual-psychomotor ability tests provided the best prediction of job-specific and general task proficiency, while the temperament/personality composites were the best predictors of giving extra effort, supporting peers, and exhibiting personal discipline. Composite scores derived from the interest inventory were correlated more highly with task proficiency than with demonstrating effort and peer support. In particular, vocational interests were among the best predictors of task proficiency in combat jobs. The results suggest that the Army can improve the prediction of job performance by adding non-cognitive predictors to its present battery of predictor tests.

Validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised: Comparison With Two Structured Interviews

Abstract: The authors gave the self-report Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire--Revised (PDQ-R) to 87 applicants for inpatient treatment of severe personality psychopathology and, blind to these results, diagnosed personality disorders in the applicants by using the Personality Disorder Examination and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders. The PDQ-R was not a substitute for a structured interview assessment of axis II disorders because many of its diagnoses were false positives. Its high sensitivity and moderate specificity for most of the axis II disorders suggest, however, that it is an efficient instrument for screening patients with DSM-III-R personality disorders.

Routine activities and crime: an analysis of victimization in canada *

Abstract: From Kennedy, L.W., and Forde, D.R. (1990). Routine activities and crime: An analysis of victimization in Canada. Criminology, 28, 137-152.Miethe, Stafford, and Long (1987) have suggested that there are strong interaction effects between demographic characteristics of victims and certain routine activities that occur at night and away from home, but only for victims of property crime. This same pattern does not appear for victims of violent crime, they maintain, because unlike property crime, violent crime often involves interpersonal conflict and disagreement and is therefore spontaneous. Using data from the Canadian Urban Victimization Survey, which contains detailed measures of routine activities not available in the9.1 Abstract 217 9.2 Introduction 218 9.3 Review of Literature 218 9.4 The Study 220 9.5 Measures of Crime 220 9.6 Individual Characteristics 221 9.7 Group Characteristics 222 9.8 Findings 2229.8.1 Impact of Individual-Level Characteristics and Routine Activities on Victimization 2229.8.2 Impact of Urban Structure on Routine Activities and Victimization 2259.9 Discussion and Conclusions 229U.S. study by Miethe and colleagues, this study finds contrary evidence that suggests that personal crime is contingent on the exposure that comes from following certain lifestyles. This is particularly true for certain demographic groups, particularly young males. The findings are considered in the light of the literature focusing on the interaction between situation and personality and the importance of the resulting conflict styles in promoting or reducing the opportunity for crime in certain settings and under certain conditions.

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Individual Differences: The Three Major Dimensions of Personality

Abstract: This article deals with the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in the three major dimensions of personality (Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) Twin studies indicate, and family studies confirm within limits, the strong genetic determination of these and many other personality factors, additive genetic variance accounting for roughly half the total phenotypic variance On the environmental side, shared family environment plays little or no part, all environmental effects being within-family Assortative mating, important in the formation of social attitudes, has little impact on personality Dominance may be important for Extraversion Epistasis (emergenesis) may account for the comparative low values of dizygotic (DZ) twins' correlations Evidence for differential heritability of traits is present, but not very strong It is concluded that behavioral genetics forms a vital part of the psychological understanding of the causes of individual differences in personality

Characteristics of the Opinion Leader: A New Dimension

Abstract: This study empirically examined the role of a personality trait, public individuation, in furthering our understanding of opinion leadership. Relevance of this new psychological dimension, and past findings on characteristics of opinion leaders are discussed. Discriminant analysis revealed that, in addition to personal involvement and product familiarity, public individuation was the only other variable which was important in distinguishing opinion leaders from non-leaders. Risk preference, open-mindedness, and mass media exposure, though correlated with opinion leadership, were not found to be important predictors of opinion leadership. Implications for advertisers are discussed.

Psychological and psychophysiological effects of shift work

Abstract: The psychophysiology of shift work is mainly related to circadian rhythmicity and sleep-wake phenomena. Individuals on a rotating three-shift or similar system work the night shift at the low phase of circadian rhythm. On retiring to bed in the morning they fall asleep rapidly but are prematurely awakened by their circadian rhythm and exhibit severe sleepiness and reduced performance capacity. In connection with the morning shift the circadian psychophysiology makes it difficult to fall asleep as early as needed during the preceding night. Around 0400 to 0500, when the individuals should rise, they have difficulties awakening because of the sleep loss and the circadian rhythm, which at that point is at its lowest. Subsequently, day work is characterized by sleepiness and reduced performance. It should be emphasized that it does not seem possible to improve one's ability to adjust over time, even with permanent night work. Older age and "morningness" personality are related to higher than average problems in adjusting.