"The structure of phenotypic personality traits": Comment.

Comments on L. R. Goldberg's (see record 1993-17546-001) historical summary of research into the global traits of personality. It is asserted that he failed to mention R. B. Catell's (1956) original discovery of these dimensions. The Big Five factors discussed by Goldberg are said to line up fairly well with Catell's 2nd-order Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The structure of phenoytypic personality traits": Comment.

Comments on L. R. Goldberg's (see record 1993-17546-001) account of the Big Five taxonomy as scientific taxonomy of personality traits. It is argued that the Big Five taxonomy lacks the essential features of scientific theory; there is little concern with personality theory, with making testable deductions, and with demonstrating that the personality factors fit in with the results obtained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of phenotypic personality traits.

Traces the development of the Big-Five factor structure, whose growing acceptance by personality researchers has profoundly influenced the scientific study of individual differences. The roots of this taxonomy lie in the lexical hypothesis and the insights of Sir Francis Galton, the prescience of L. L. Thurstone, the legacy of Raymond B. Cattell, and the seminal analyses of E. C. Tupes and R. E. Christal. Paradoxically, the present popularity of this model owes much to its many critics, each of whom tried to replace it but failed. In reaction, there have been a number of attempts to assimilate other models into the 5-factor structure. Lately, some practical implications of the emerging consensus can be seen in such contexts as personnel selection and classification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further comments toward a dimensional classification of personality disorder.

Responds to the comments by H. N. Garb (see record 2007-19520-012) and A. M. Ruscio (see record 2007-19520-013) on the current authors' original article "Plate tectonics in the classification of personality disorder: Shifting to a dimensional model" (see record 2007-01685-001). Unable to respond to all of Garb's and Ruscio's concerns given space limitations, the current authors attempt to respond to key points regarding their article on integrating the classification of personality disorder with a dimensional model of general personality structure. These points include: clinical judgments; feasibility; communication; thresholds; and validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The personality structure of affect.

We examined the organization of individual differences in pleasant affect, unpleasant affect, and six discrete emotions. We used several refinements over past studies: a) systematic sampling of emotions; b) control of measurement error through the use of latent traits; c) multiple methods for measuring affect; d) inclusion of only affects that are widely agreed to be emotions; e) a statistical definition of "independence"; and f) a focus on the frequency and duration of long-term affect. There was strong convergence between the two pleasant emotions (love and joy) and between the four unpleasant emotions (fear, anger, sadness, and shame). The results indicated, however, that individual differences in the discrete emotions cannot be reduced to positive and negative affect. The latent traits of pleasant and unpleasant affect were correlated –.44, and a two-factor model accounted for significantly more variance than a one-factor model. This finding indicates that long-term pleasant and unpleasant affect are not strictly orthogonal, but they are separable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of personality capabilities.

Wallace (1966) proposed that personality be construed as a set of abilities. Rather than assessing typical performance, as in trait ratings, he recommended assessing an individual's ability to perform social behaviors. We have elaborated this notion by distinguishing between personality abilities and capabilities. In this article we focus on the capability, that is, the ease with which an individual can display a certain category of social responses. A capability X is assessed with self-reports of (a) likelihood of performing X when perceived to be required, (b) perceived difficulty in performing X, (c) anxiety in performing X, and (d) tendency to avoid performing X. In Study 1 we examined the relations among six measures of 16 interpersonal behaviors in the context of the interpersonal circumplex. The four capability-related measures were shown to be measuring something distinct from the two trait measures. Unlike trait measures, which showed a circular structure in two dimensions, capability measures exhibited a positive manifold structure (i.e., no negative intercorrelations). The first two orthogonal factors were interpreted as Hostility and Nurturance, which are normally bipolar opposites on trait measures. The only dimension to remain bipolar was introversion–extraversion. In Study 2, the nomological network of the capability measures was shown to be consistent with the theoretical construct. For example, high self-esteem and interpersonal control were associated with almost all of the interpersonal capabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further comments on the internal structure of the MMPI.

The Shure and Rogers findings are examined in relation to other studies in which the factor structure of the MMPI basic scales obtained with actual data is compared to the structure based merely on item overlap among the scales. There is no direct experimental evidence that spurious correlations yield a "built-in" factor structure that is the direct cause of the structure obtained with experimental Ss in the 10 MMPI basic clinical scales. A more concervative interpretation of the Shure and Rogers findings is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dopamine and the structure of personality: Relation of agonist-induced dopamine activity to positive emotionality.

Modern trait theories of personality include a dimension reflecting positive emotionality (PE) based on sensitivity to signals of incentive-reward. In animals, responsivity within an emotional system analog of PE is dependent on brain dopamine (DA) activity. To determine whether human PE trait levels are also associated with central DA, effects of a specific DA D? receptor agonist were assessed in 23 Ss who were widely distributed along the trait dimension of PE. The degree of agonist-induced reactivity in 2 distinct central DA indices was strongly and specifically associated with trait levels of PE, but not with other personality traits. The results suggest that the trait structure of personality may be related to individual differences in brain DA functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Some comments on the goals and direction of neuropsychology": Correction to editorial.

Reports an error in "Some comments on the goals and direction of Neuropsychology" by Nelson Butters (Neuropsychology, 1993[Jan], Vol 7[1], 3-4). In this editorial, the name of the National Academy of Neuropsychology was misspelled. This was due to an incorrect change by the printer at a late stage in production, after the proofs were properly reviewed by the Editor. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-10622-001.) This editorial discusses this first issue of Neuropsychology which was published under the official logo of the American Psychological Association (APA) and represents a major milestone for a rapidly growing discipline dedicated to the study of brain-behavior relationships in humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and vocational interests: The relation of Holland's six interest dimensions to five robust dimensions of personality.

Relations between interest-based personality dimensions from J. L. Holland's (1985) theory of vocational personalities and 5 robust factors of personality (R. R. McCrae and O. P. John; see record 1993-01496-001) were examined. Results for 479 male and 246 female US Navy trainees imply that the 6 theoretical scales of the Vocational Preference Inventory and 20 scales of the NEO Personality Inventory share 2–4 significant factors. Social and Enterprising vocational preferences were positively correlated with Extraversion; Investigative and Artistic preferences were positively correlated with Openness; and Conventional preferences were correlated with Conscientiousness. Examinations of correlations for instruments with scales that are assumed to represent facets of 5 general personality factors usually supported these interpretations. Despite their regularity, the vocational–personality correlations were too low to suggest that either form of assessment is a dependable substitute for the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"People's reactions to nuclear war": Comment.

With respect to S. T. Fiske's (see record 1987-21635-001) review of research into the perceived threat of nuclear war, it is argued that the perceived likelihood of nuclear war is underestimated, while the perceived likelihood of personal survival is overestimated. This was borne out by a survey of 496 Ss. Additional studies have shown that the threat of nuclear war has had an effect on individuals' future plans as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of personality factors in a Canadian context: I. Marker structure in personality questionnaire items.

Constructed a 100-item personality questionnaire by adapting 67 marker items from S. B. Sells, R. G. Demaree, and D. P. Will and 10 from Eysenck in order to see whether restructured items would reappear as factors in item factor analysis. The questionnaire was administered to 329 undergraduates and the data factor analyzed by principal axis and rotated by varimax. The following factors were identified: emotional stability, sociability, conscience, shyness, relaxed composure, impulsiveness, individual tolerance, considerateness, group tolerance, physical prowess, energy, trust vs. suspicion, group affiliation, rhathymia, and paranoid sensitivity. The attempted replication was reasonably clear-cut, showing 44 out of 77 markers in an appropriate position and suitably marked by salients greater than .30. The implication is that certain widely used personality questionnaires, not based on item analysis of the most stringent kind but on prior item groupings, should be carefully reevaluated. Comparisons are drawn between the factors obtained in independent item-factoring and it is concluded that the method holds considerable promise for the replicable measurement of personality structure. (French summary) (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A field study of job applicants' reactions to personality and cognitive ability testing.

Eighty job applicants were screened through 1 of 3 job-selection conditions depending on the job for which they were applying: interviews only; interviews plus a personality inventory (the NEO Personality Inventory); or interviews, personality inventory, and cognitive ability testing. Applicants' reactions were generally favorable in all conditions but were significantly less positive in the interview plus personality test condition. The condition of a battery of both personality and ability tests (in addition to the interview) was perceived as positively as the no-test control condition. These results suggest that personality inventories can be included in employee-selection procedures without creating adverse reactions among job applicants as long as they are used in conjunction with ability tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between personality structure, structure of word meaning, and cognitive ability: A study of cultural mechanisms of personality.

Native-born Estonian men (N=912), 17-68 years old, participated in a study on relationships between personality characteristics, dominant structure of word meaning ("everyday concepts" thinking or "scientific concepts" thinking), and level of cognitive ability. Individuals who primarily used everyday concepts thinking or who possessed relatively low levels of cognitive ability did not reveal a coherent Big Five personality structure, whereas individuals who primarily used scientific concepts thinking or possessed high levels of cognitive ability did. Thus, personality may be shaped by a cultural factor--word meaning structure. Earlier studies, which seem to support the idea that Big Five personality structure is a biologically determined human universal, suffer from serious sampling problems and insufficient data analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implications for psychology: Reply to comments.

Replies to the comments of D. E. Leary (see record 1986-07955-001), S. A. Mulaik (see record 1986-07961-001), D. N. Robinson (see record 1986-07966-001), and W. L. Stroud (see record 1986-07976-001) on the earlier presentation of the present authors (see record 1984-00037-001) about the new philosophy of science. The present authors are pleased with what they have been able to communicate and discuss what they feel has been misunderstood. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relating the Tellegen and five-factor models of personality structure.

With 575 college students, the relationship between A. Tellegen's (1985) personality model, assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and the Big Five model, operationalized by P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory, was investigated. Correlations and joint factor analyses indicated that the MPQ constructs could be well-organized under the Big Five model, and the NEO constructs could be well-organized under the Tellegen higher-order dimensions (plus Absorption). Tellegen's higher-order dimensions relate to components of the Big Five hierarchically: Negative Emotionality encompasses Big Five Neuroticism and Agreeableness, Positive Emotionality encompasses Extraversion and the surgent aspect of Conscientiousness, and Constraint encompasses the controlled aspect of Conscientiousness and much of Openness to Experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feedback motivation and reactions to personality interpretations that differ in favorability and accuracy.

Personality feedback based on participants' actual test scores was systematically varied in terms of accuracy and favorability and presented to subjects for the purpose of comparing reactions to the various types of feedback information. Responses to the self-relevant information were related to individual differences in the recipient's general level of desire for personal feedback. For most subjects, ratings of feedback accuracy showed stronger endorsement for positive over negative feedback, and for accurate over inaccurate feedback. Raters who exhibited high levels of desire for feedback, however, did not discriminate between favorable and unfavorable accurate feedback, or between accurate and inaccurate favorable feedback. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the reliability of personal endorsements for results derived from psychological testing devices and (b) potential for personal adjustment indicated by higher levels of desire for personal feedback. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attributes: Replicated factor structure in peer nomination personality ratings.

A rationale and procedures for the development of a taxonomic basis for personality research and theory construction are outlined. Some prior research efforts in this area are briefly reviewed and evaluated. Results of a series of studies are presented which employed primarily groups of university male Ss who varied in length and intimacy of previous associations. Data were obtained using peer nomination rating methods. These analyses yielded clear and consistent evidence for the existence of 5 relatively orthogonal, easily interpreted personality factors. Behavioral correlates of selected patterns of scores on these factors are briefly discussed and suggestions are made concerning subsequent research efforts warranted by these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)