The significance of time spent in answering personality inventories.

Rankings of electronic sales engineers with respect to success in sales were correlated with ratios of time spent on inventories over time spent on all tests. The highest correlations were sales inventories as related to total time on all tests. The hypothesis that more time would be spent on sales personality and sales interest inventories was supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlates of hypnotic susceptibility.

An attempt was made to relate hypnotic susceptibility to the following: an inventory of subjective nonhypnotic personal experiences, attitudes and opinions toward and interest in hypnosis, environmental and social perceptions, 5 Guilford-Martin personality scales, and measures of response styles. The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility was administered to 80 male and 97 female college students who had previously taken the questionnaires. The results and conclusions were generally negative. Judging from the present results and those in previous studies, hypnotic susceptibility is not closely related to available personality inventories or measures of "social and environmental perceptions" and probably not to measures of subjective nonhypnotic personal experiences. An S's previous hypnotic experience, attitude toward hypnosis, and expectations regarding his own hypnotizability do appear to influence his susceptibility. (40 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The validity of an "indecision" score for prediction of proficiency of foremen.

"An 'indecision' score was obtained by counting the number of '?' responses to items in the Guilford personality inventories STDRC, Gamin, and Personnel Inventory. The three scores showed an average intercorrelation of .80, indicating that they measure much the same trait or traits. A combination of these three scores correlated +.14 and -.09 with a rating of proficiency of foremen in an industrial plant, whereas a significant negative correlation had been predicted. While the indecision score indicates something stable about individuals, it needs to be factor analyzed to be understood… " (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Within-group norming and other forms of score adjustment in preemployment testing.

Various forms of score adjustment have been suggested and used when mean differences by gender, race, or ethnicity are found using preemployment tests. This article examines the rationales for score adjustment and describes and compares different forms of score adjustment, including within-group norming, bonus points, separate cutoffs, and banding. It reviews the legal environment for personnel selection and the circumstances leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. It examines score adjustment in the use of cognitive ability tests, personality inventories, interest inventories, scored biographical data, and physical ability tests and outlines the implications for testing practice of various interpretations of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality measurement, faking, and detection: An assessment method for use in personnel selection.

Usual methods for personality assessment have been found unsuitable for use in personnel selection contexts. An alternative method of item construction and of scoring key and detection scale development for personality inventories is proposed. Results of a double cross-validation study based on 456 male Ss using 3 newly developed forced-choice inventories indicate that (a) over 90% of the test performance can be correctly identified as self-report or faked, (b) mean score profiles under the 2 conditions for the 5 personality variables under study are virtually congruent and variances under the faking condition are uniformly smaller, (c) validities against peer-nomination criteria are in the moderate range for all 5 variables and (d) Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 reliabilities between .83 and .92 were obtained. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive personality: Reliability, validity, and relation to dysthymia.

The reliability and validity of K. Schneider's (1958) construct of depressive personality was evaluated in a sample of 177 outpatients, who were administered structured diagnostic and family history interviews, an extensive battery of inventories, and a 6-mo follow-up assessment. The criteria for depressive personality had moderate to good interrater reliability, internal consistency, and test–retest stability, and the assessment of depressive personality traits was not influenced by patients' clinical states. In addition, preliminary support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the depressive personality construct was obtained. Although there were significant relations between the depressive personality and diagnoses of dysthymia from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) and DSM-III—Revised (DSM-III—R), the depressive personality was not entirely subsumed by existing mood disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurement of guilt in females by self-report inventories.

Developed forced-choice and true-false guilt inventories for females from a sentence-completion measure of guilt for 3 subcategories of guilt: sex-guilt, hostility-guilt, and morality-conscience. A multitrait-multimethod matrix and a factor analysis based on the responses of 62 females to the 3 measures of 3 aspects of guilt provided evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. The measures of guilt are not significantly correlated with 2 measures of social desirability and are factorially dissimilar from responses given under instructions to make a favorable impression. The inventories measure the personality disposition of guilt rather than the feeling state of guilt. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A general device versus more specific devices for selecting car salesmen.

2 trial forms of a salesman selection instrument each containing 145 biographical, personality, interest and attitude items were item analyzed to develop both a general and 6 specific (types of car sold) keys. A third form used items surviving the item analysis. "It was concluded that the more elaborate procedure of developing specific keys… did not result in any significant improvement in validity compared with… a single key for car salesmen in general." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of cytotoxic entorhinal lesions and electrolytic medial septal lesions on the acquisition and retention of a spatial working memory task

This study assesses how social desirability affects responses in clinical self-report inventories. Six hundred items gathered from four normal personality questionnaires were adapted to devise a pre-experimental personality questionnaire (pre-EMHQ). Results obtained from administering Ko's Mental Health Questionnaire (KMHQ) and the pre-EMHQ to separate samples were the proportion of individuals answering "true" to each item (i.e., P(t)) and the social desirability scale value (i.e., SDSV) of each item. The Experimental Mental Health Questionnaire (EMHQ) was established from the pre-EMHQ by closely matching the P(t)s and the SDSVs of the two questionnaires. Administering the KMHQ and the EMHQ concurrently to another sample provided results for factor analysis and other statistical analyses. The SDSVs and the P(t)s for each of the KMHQ items certainly displayed a linearly increasing relation. The two sets of corresponding subscales also correlated significantly. By applying the polynomial regression analysis, the tendency to score might be expressed as a quadratic function of SDSVs. Two iterative principal-factor analyses of the two sets of subscales each resulted in two factors, and Factor 1 is similar in both the KMHQ and the EMHQ. In brief, social desirability plays a critical role in affecting responses in a clinical self-report inventory. The factors involved and suggestions proposed will be of value for further research.     

Toward an interactionist taxonomy of personality and situations: An integrative situational—dispositional representation of personality traits.

This article has 2 goals: first, to present and test a hierarchical representation of personality that jointly incorporates both situational and personality (e.g., Big Five) factors into a trait conception, and second, to explicate the dimensions along which situations differ in their effect on responses, providing the conceptual and empirical groundwork for the development of a joint taxonomy of traits and situations. A study of the effects of situational differences on trait self-reports indicated that conscientiousness and agreeableness can be represented hierarchically, with lower levels jointly constrained by both personality content and situational breadth. This representation establishes a methodological framework allowing for the explanation of the ways that situations interact with personality to affect responses. Implications of this representation for personality theory and prediction to and from personality inventories are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego control and criminal behavior.

Contends that the personality assessment literature using deviant and antisocial S populations contains an interesting anomaly—that persons representing major criminal offense categories can be only weakly distinguished from one another by using standard scales of the best conventional inventories (e.g., the MMPI and the California Psychological Inventory). This may reflect the fact that existing inventories are designed principally to predict maladjustment or social competence, and most criminal groups tested are found to be equally maladjusted and socially immature. The construct of ego control is not strongly related to adjustment or competence, but rather appears to underlie preference for different life-styles and occupations. The present article demonstrates the ability of ego control to distinguish between the offense categories of murder and drug related crimes. A sample of 59 murderers (20–50 yrs) was found to score significantly higher than a group of 56 drug offenders (19–29 yrs) on a rudimentary measure of ego control. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal study of the genetics of personality

A longitudinal twin study was conducted to determine whether personality traits with significant heritability in adolescence remain so in adulthood. A subsample of a group of twins who had been administered in Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the California Psychological Inventory in adolescence was readministered the same two inventories 12 years later. The subsample was found to be representative of the sample from which it was drawn. Different patterns of significantly heritability were found for the two ages studied: Several personality traits demonstrated evidence of significant heritability in either adolescence or adulthood, while others demonstrated evidence of significant heritability at both ages. In addition, genetic influences on the change from adolescence to adulthood were found for several personality traits. The results raise important questions for the interpretation of twin research and the understanding of genetic influences on personality development.     

Scoring procedure, performance factors, and magnitude of sex differences in spatial performance

The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate the influence of procedural factors on the magnitude of sex differences in a test of spatial ability. Two hundred and seven females and 155 males were administered the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) under timed and untimed conditions. Four different scoring procedures were used: total score, ratio of correct responses to the number of items attempted, score out of 24, and score out of 48. Significant sex differences were obtained in the timed condition but not in the untimed condition. Results also revealed that the magnitude of sex differences was reduced when a ratio score was used. Analysis of the pattern of responses provided insights into the causes of sex differences on the MRT. Results are interpreted in terms of their implications for research on sex differences in spatial ability.     

The impact of NEO PI-R gender norms on the assessment of personality disorder profiles.

Many personality assessment inventories provide gender-specific norms to allow comparison of an individual's standing relative to others of the same gender. In some cases, this means that an identical raw score produces standardized scores that differ notably depending on whether the respondent is male or female. Thus, an important question is whether unisex-normed scores or gender-normed scores more validly assess personality. Gender-normed and unisex-normed scores from the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were examined in a large clinical sample, using 2 measures of personality disorder as validating criteria. Gender-normed scores did not obtain significantly higher correlations. In fact, for 2 personality disorders (antisocial and narcissistic), gender-normed scores yielded significantly lower correlations, suggesting that personality disorder pathology relates most closely to one's absolute level of a personality trait, rather than one's standing relative to others of the same gender. Ramifications of this finding for personality research and clinical assessment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal-external control and social-political activism: A test of the dimensionality of Rotter's internal-external scale.

Reexamined the issue of the usefulness of the internal-external concept in understanding commitment to social-political action and evaluated the empirical intactness of Rotter's Internal-External (I-E) Control Scale. 85 female and 81 male university students, 66 of whom belonged to campus social-political action groups, completed several personality inventories including the I-E measure and Kerpelman's Political Activity scale. 3 scores were derived from the I-E instrument, 1 based on responses to all 23 items. The other 2 scores were based, respectively, on responses to the political or world events stems and to the nonpolitical stems identified by H. Mirels as forming independent item domains. The 2 item clusters from the I-E scale were uncorrelated. Political commitment was predicted by scores on the political I-E items (p     

Comparative effect of L-CCG-I, DCG-IV and gamma-carboxy-L-glutamate on all cloned metabotropic glutamate receptor subtypes

We examined the different personality dimensions between depression and anxiety with Cloninger's seven-factor model of temperament and character. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), which measures four temperament and three character dimensions of Cloninger's personality theory (125-item short version), the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were administered to 223 Japanese students. With hierarchical regression analysis, the SDS score was predicted by scores of Harm-Avoidance, Self-Directedness, and Self-Transcendence, even after controlling for the STAI score. The STAI score was predicted by scores of Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness, even after controlling for the SDS score. More importance should be attached to these dimensions of character because they might contribute to both depression and anxiety.     

Frame-of-reference effects on personality scale scores and criterion-related validity.

Increased use of personality inventories in employee selection has led to concerns regarding factors that influence the validity of such measures. A series of studies was conducted to examine the influence of frame of reference on responses to a personality inventory. Study 1 involved both within-subject and between-groups designs to assess the effects of testing situation (general instructions vs. applicant instructions) and item type (work specific vs. noncontextual) on responses to the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1989). Results indicated that a work-related testing context and work-related items led to more positive responses. A second study found differences in the validity of a measure of conscientiousness, depending on the frame of reference of respondents. Specifically, context-specific items were found to have greater validity. Implications for personnel selection are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faking in a vocational classification situation.

An interest and a personality inventory were administered to a total of 773 United States Navy aviation recruits. "The experiment provided a favorable opportunity for faking to manifest itself and it was not observed to any appreciable extent." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional personality repertoire as cause of behavior: Specification of personality and interaction principles.

Attempted to specify the concept of personality and how it determines an individual's experience, learning, and behavior. The Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values was administered to 471 undergraduates. The 62 Ss with high and low scores on the Religious Values subtest then participated in a task requiring them to first either physically push away or pull toward them words related to transportation or religion and then rate the words on 7-point pleasant–unpleasant scales. A 3-way interaction among personality type, direction of movement required, and word type was predicted. Ss with religious values experienced stimuli in an emotional sense, differently than Ss with the opposite trait. The approach–avoidance behavior of these 2 personality types differed as a function of their emotional responses. The present approach is a unifying attempt to link behavioral concerns with traditional concerns of personality and personality measurement. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)