Personality similarity and friendship.

Using the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, "personality similarity or similarity of affect needs and of ways of expressing and receiving affect" was found to be a significant factor in interpersonal attraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity and friendship: A follow-up study.

This study repeated the procedures of an earlier study (see 35: 2117) that showed similarity of objectively measured (Edwards Personality Preference Schedule) personality characteristics to be a significant correlate of friendship. Experiment I tested the repeatability of this finding with a similar sample (college freshmen) and the results again supported the similarity principle. Experiment II tested the generalizability of the earlier finding. The procedures were applied to a different population (college seniors), and the results failed to confirm the similarity hypothesis. Personality differences between freshmen and seniors can be viewed as a function of increased social and emotional maturity on the part of seniors (Izard, 1962). Perhaps the more "mature" person has less need to see his personality characteristics reflected in his friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The complementarity of personality needs in friendship choice.

Theoretical (Murray, Rogers) and empirical (Winch, et al.) data suggested that friendship involves a "complementary relationship of mutual need satisfaction." Edwards and Allport-Vernon scores and their intercorrelation did not confirm this hypothesis. The configuration of needs of friends as they were in actuality (their own performance on the tests) and as they were phenomenally experienced (predicted performance of friends) showed no consistent similarity or dissimilarity, although there was a minor trend for friends to be perceived as possessing similar traits as oneself and actually to be slightly similar to Ss in values held. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal attraction and personality: What is attractive--self similarity, ideal similarity, complementarity or attachment security?

Little is known about whether personality characteristics influence initial attraction. Because adult attachment differences influence a broad range of relationship processes, the authors examined their role in 3 experimental attraction studies. The authors tested four major attraction hypotheses--self similarity, ideal-self similarity, complementarity, and attachment security--and examined both actual and perceptual factors. Replicated analyses across samples, designs, and manipulations showed that actual security and self similarity predicted attraction. With regard to perceptual factors, ideal similarity, self similarity, and security all were significant predictors. Whereas perceptual ideal and self similarity had incremental predictive power, perceptual security's effects were subsumed by perceptual ideal similarity. Perceptual self similarity fully mediated actual attachment similarity effects, whereas ideal similarity was only a partial mediator. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Similarity and assumed similarity in personality reports of well-acquainted persons.

The authors obtained self- and observer reports of personality from pairs of well-acquainted college students. Consistent with previous findings, results of Study 1 showed strong cross-source agreement for all 6 HEXACO personality factors (rs ≈ .55). In addition, the authors found modest levels of similarity (r ≈ .25) between dyad members' self-reports on each of 2 dimensions, Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience. For these same 2 factors, dyad members' self-reports were correlated with their observer reports of the other dyad member (r ≈ .40), thus indicating moderately high assumed similarity. In Study 2, Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience were the 2 personality factors most strongly associated with the 2 major dimensions of personal values, which also showed substantial assumed similarity. In Study 3, assumed similarity was considerably stronger for close friends than for nonfriend acquaintances. Results suggest that assumed similarity for Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience reflects a tendency to overestimate one's similarity to persons with whom one has a close relationship, but only on those personality characteristics whose relevance to values gives them central importance to one's identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived similarity and the projection of similarity: The influence of valence.

Some of the implications of Heider's concept of balance were investigated using 104 students as Ss. Based upon their responses to the Revised Allport-Vernon Scale of Values, partially completed test booklets were prepared incorporating different degrees of similarity to each Ss' original answers. The Ss were required to complete them in the way the hypothetical person had. The results confirmed the hypotheses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and alcohol use: An ecological momentary assessment study of outpatients with borderline personality disorder.

Alcohol use may be viewed as an attempt (albeit maladaptive) to regulate negative emotional states. We examined associations between both negative and positive affects and alcohol use in outpatient women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD; n = 74), a prototype of emotional dysregulation, as well as a psychiatric control group of women with current depressive disorder (major depressive disorder/dysthymic disorder [MDD\DYS]; n = 50). Participants completed randomly prompted reports of mood and alcohol use up to six times a day over a 28-day period using electronic diaries. Mean levels of either positive or negative affects did not distinguish between drinkers and nondrinkers in either diagnostic group. However, levels of both negative and positive affects were positively associated with alcohol use at the momentary level in BPD drinkers. More robust findings were obtained with respect to within-person affective variability, which was related to alcohol use in multiple ways. BPD drinkers showed higher within-person variability for most negative affects than BPD nondrinkers; MDD\DYS drinkers in general showed less within-person variability than MDD\DYS nondrinkers for negative affects. Multilevel lagged analyses for BPD drinkers indicated that alcohol use was positively related to variability in all affects, concurrently, but fewer significant effects of affect variability on the next day's drinking or significant effects of alcohol use on the next day's affect variability were observed. Among MDD\DYS drinkers, we observed more significant associations between affect variability on next day's alcohol use and of alcohol use on next day's affect variability. We discuss theoretical and methodological issues relevant to these findings as well as implications for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling emotion processes in borderline personality disorder: Physiological and self-reported assessment of biological vulnerability, baseline intensity, and reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli.

This study investigated M. Linehan’s (1993) theory that individuals meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) have high biological vulnerability to emotion dysregulation, including high baseline emotional intensity and high reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. Twenty individuals with BPD, 20 age-matched individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (SAD), and 20 age-matched normal controls (NCs) participated in 2 separate emotion induction conditions, a standardized condition, and a personally relevant condition. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), skin conductance response (SCR), and self-report measures were collected throughout the experiment. BPD participants displayed heightened biological vulnerability compared with NCs as indicated by reduced basal RSA. BPD participants also exhibited high baseline emotional intensity, characterized by heightened SCR and heightened self-reported negative emotions at baseline. However, the BPD group did not display heightened reactivity, as their physiological and self-reported changes from baseline to the emotion inductions tasks were not greater than the other 2 groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life satisfaction.

The authors examined the interplay of personality and cultural factors in the prediction of the affective (hedonic balance) and the cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB). They predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and that the relation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture. As a consequence, they predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is also moderated by culture. Participants from 2 individualistic cultures (United States, Germany) and 3 collectivistic cultures (Japan, Mexico, Ghana) completed measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, hedonic balance, and life satisfaction. As predicted, Extraversion and Neuroticism influenced hedonic balance to the same degree in all cultures, and hedonic balance was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. The influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on life satisfaction was largely mediated by hedonic balance. The results suggest that the influence of personality on the emotional component of SWB is pancultural, whereas the influence of personality on the cognitive component of SWB is moderated by culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical considerations in treatment of personality dysfunction: Using evidence, principles, and clinical judgment.

Clinical work with clients suffering from personality disorders can be among the most challenging for psychologists. These clients may have a wide range of clinical presentations, and many practitioners may lack the specialized training needed to provide successful treatment to these clients. Clinicians are faced with several challenges in making treatment decisions that are ethically informed and based on available research findings. Because of the relative dearth of evidence-based treatments for these clients, clinicians are encouraged to use a cost–benefit analysis approach when weighing the benefits versus disadvantages of specific interventions and treatment approaches. Recommendations for effective and ethical treatment of clients with personality dysfunction are provided that are based on an empirically grounded framework. Three expert commentators provide insights into the state-of-the-art of clinical work with these clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My head says yes but my heart says no: Cognitive and affective attraction as a function of similarity to the ideal self.

The authors hypothesized that similarity to the ideal self (IS) simultaneously generates attraction and repulsion. Attraction research has suggested that a person likes individuals who are similar to his or her IS. Social comparison research has suggested that upward social comparison threatens self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, attraction to a partner increased and then decreased as the partner became more similar to and then surpassed the participant's IS. In Experiment 2, the cognitive and affective components of attraction increased and decreased, respectively, as the partner approached and surpassed the participant's IS to the extent that the dimension of comparison was meaningful and participants anticipated meeting their partner. Similarity to the IS generates opposing cognitive and affective reactions when the self-evaluative threat of upward comparison intensifies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A personality trait model for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM): The challenges ahead.

Replies to comments (see record 2010-13810-004), (see record 2010-13810-005), (see record 2010-13810-006), (see record 2010-13810-007) on the original article Personality traits and the classification of mental Disorders: Toward a more complete integration in DSM–5 and an empirical model of psychopathology by Robert F. Krueger and Nicholas R. Eaton (see record 2010-13810-003). We were sincerely flattered to discover that John Gunderson, Michael First, Paul Costa, Robert McCrae, Michael Hallquist, and Paul Pilkonis provided commentaries on our target article. In this brief response, we cannot hope to discuss the myriad points raised by this august group. Such a task would be particularly daunting given the diversity of the commentaries. Indeed, the diversity of the commentaries provides a kind of “metacommentary” on the state of personality and psychopathology research. That is, the intellectual diversity contained in the commentaries underlines the substantial challenges that lie ahead of us, in terms of articulating a model of personality and psychopathology with both scientific validity and clinical applicability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring students' perceptions of faculty competence in professional psychology: Development of the Perceived Faculty Competence Inventory.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 5(2) of Training and Education in Professional Psychology (see record 2011-09655-004). There were errors in Table 1 and Table 4. In Table 1, the factor loading of “-22.00” in Column 4 should have read “-22” In Table 4, under “Variance” in the “Program level PFCI” row, “.00” is not a significant value and therefore should not have asterisks after it.] This paper documents the development of a measure designed to assess doctoral students' perceptions of the professional competence of faculty in clinical, counseling, and school psychology. Study 1 yielded 33 items via principal components analysis that accounted for over 72% of the variance in the data across 5 domains: (a) Professionalism/Ethics; (b) Clinical Supervision; (c) Research; (d) Multicultural Competence; and (e) Advising/Mentoring. A confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 provided support for the construct validity of the 5-factor model. Multilevel modeling was also used in Study 2 to demonstrate concurrent validity as aggregated group-level scores on the Perceived Faculty Competence Inventory were shown to explain significant variation in individual-level counselor and research self-efficacy. Implications for training and research in professional psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the eye of the beholder: Reply to Wilson and Shadish (2006) and Radin, Nelson, Dobyns, and Houtkooper (2006).

H. B?sch, F. Steinkamp, and E. Boller's (see record 2006-08436-001) meta-analysis, which demonstrated (a) a small but highly significant overall effect, (b) a small-study effect, and (c) extreme heterogeneity, has provoked widely differing responses. After considering D. B. Wilson and W. R. Shadish's see record 2006-08436-002) and D. Radin, R. Nelson, Y. Dobyns, and J. Houtkooper's see record 2006-08436-003) concerns about the possible effects of psychological moderator variables, the potential for missing data, and the difficulties inherent in any meta-analytic data, the authors reaffirm their view that publication bias is the most parsimonious model to account for all 3 findings. However, until compulsory registration of trials occurs, it cannot be proven that the effect is in fact attributable to publication bias, and it remains up to the individual reader to decide how the results are best and most parsimoniously interpreted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting relationship and life satisfaction from personality in nationally representative samples from three countries: The relative importance of actor, partner, and similarity effects.

Three very large, nationally representative samples of married couples were used to examine the relative importance of 3 types of personality effects on relationship and life satisfaction: actor effects, partner effects, and similarity effects. Using data sets from Australia (N = 5,278), the United Kingdom (N = 6,554), and Germany (N = 11,418) provided an opportunity to test whether effects replicated across samples. Actor effects accounted for approximately 6% of the variance in relationship satisfaction and between 10% and 15% of the variance in life satisfaction. Partner effects (which were largest for Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability) accounted for between 1% and 3% of the variance in relationship satisfaction and between 1% and 2% of the variance in life satisfaction. Couple similarity consistently explained less than .5% of the variance in life and relationship satisfaction after controlling for actor and partner effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

MCMI-II personality traits and symptom traits in parents of children with selective mutism: A case-control study.

The etiology of selective mutism (SM) in children is unknown but is regarded as multifactorial. SM is frequently associated with social anxiety and language disorder or delay. The present study addresses SM and social anxiety as a familial phenomenon by comparing self-reported personality traits and symptom traits (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory; T. Millon, 1987) in parents of 50 SM children with control parents. Personality and symptom traits reflecting social anxiety are also explored separately in the parents of SM children with and without a comorbid communication disorder. The results confirm SM and social anxiety as a familial phenomenon. Assessment and treatment planning should take this into account. The family data also suggest different family transmissions of SM and social anxiety in the SM group with and without a comorbid communication disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective personality and the content of emotional social support: Coping in organizations.

This field study extended previous research by simultaneously examining the influence of affective personality on 4 dimensions of emotional social support and job burnout. Furthermore, the dimensions of emotional social support were examined as to their differential effects on the components of burnout. Results suggest that affective personality characteristics are associated with emotional social support as well as burnout dimensions. Results also indicate that some types of emotional social support appear to guard against burnout, whereas other types appear to contribute to the burnout experience. These findings suggest that types of emotional social support may have different personality antecedents and that distinct dimensions of social support have differential consequences in regard to burnout. Suggestions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily stress, coping, and well-being in parents of children with autism: A multilevel modeling approach.

This study used a repeated daily measurement design to examine the direct and moderating effects of coping on daily psychological distress and well-being in parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Twice weekly over a 12-week period, 93 parents provided reports of their daily stress, coping responses, and end-of-day mood. Multilevel modeling analyses identified 5 coping responses (e.g., seeking support, positive reframing) that predicted increased daily positive mood and 4 (e.g., escape, withdrawal) that were associated with decreased positive mood. Similarly, 2 coping responses were associated with decreased daily negative mood and 5 predicted increased negative mood. The moderating effects of gender and the 11 coping responses were also examined. Gender did not moderate the daily coping?mood relationship, however 3 coping responses (emotional regulation, social support, and worrying) were found to moderate the daily stress?mood relationship. Additionally, ASD symptomatology, and time since an ASD diagnosis were not found to predict daily parental mood. This study is perhaps the first to identify coping responses that enhance daily well-being and mitigate daily distress in parents of children with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Type D personality and the development of PTSD symptoms: A prospective study.

Psychological trauma and prolonged stress may cause mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Pretrauma personality is an important determinant of posttraumatic adjustment. Specifically, trait neuroticism has been identified as a risk factor for PTSD. Additionally, the combination of high negative affectivity or neuroticism with marked social inhibition or introversion, also called Type D personality (Denollet, 2000), may compose a risk factor for PTSD. There is no research available that examined pretrauma Type D personality in relation to PTSD. The present study examined the predictive validity of the Type D personality construct in a sample of Dutch soldiers. Data were collected prior to and 6 months after military deployment to Afghanistan. Separate multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the predictive validity of Type D personality. First, Type D personality was defined as the interaction between negative affect and social inhibition (Na × Si). In a second analysis, Type D was defined following cutoff criteria recommended by Denollet (2000). Results showed that negative affectivity was a significant predictor of PTSD symptoms. Social inhibition and the interaction Na × Si did not add to the amount of explained variance in postdeployment PTSD scores over the effects of childhood abuse, negative affectivity, and prior psychological symptoms. A second analysis showed that Type D personality (dichotomous) did not add to the amount of explained variance in postdeployment PTSD scores over the effects of childhood abuse, and prior psychological symptoms. Therefore, Type D personality appears to be of limited value to explain development of combat-related PTSD symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)