Extraversion,neuroticism, psychoticism and self-reported delinquency: Evidence from eight separate samples

Eight separate samples of high school and university students (Total N = 410) in Britain and Canada were used to test predictions from Eysenck's theory that delinquents should be high scorers on scales of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Self-report paper- and pencil-questionnaire measures of both personality and delinquency were administered under conditions that ensured anonymity. The evidence showed clear support for a relationship between high delinquency scores and high scores on both extraversion and psychoticism. These relationships held up across diverse samples and different ways of analyzing the data. No support was found for a relationship between delinquency scores and the dimension of neuroticism.     

The mediating role of values between personality and religiosity

The aim of this work was to examine the relationships between Eysenck’s personality traits (psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism), Schwartz’s values, and religiosity. To this purpose a sample of Italian teenagers (N = 343; mean age 15.43, SD = 1.023) were asked to fill out a battery of questionnaires and, a structural equation model was tested, where the mediating role of Schwartz’s values between personality traits, and religiosity was accurately analysed. Results showed that all personality traits considered had relevant direct and/or indirect effects on religious experience, mediated by values.     

Personality dimensions and religiosity among Kuwaiti Muslim college students

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between Eysenck’s personality dimensions and religiosity. A sample of 227 Kuwaiti Muslim undergraduates completed the Arabic versions of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Muslim Attitude towards Religiosity Scale. Men obtained significantly higher mean scores on psychoticism than did their female counterparts and the effect size was medium. Religiosity significantly correlated with psychoticism (negative) and lie (positive) among men and women. In addition, religiosity significantly correlated with extraversion (positive) and neuroticism (negative) in women. The only predictor of religiosity was low psychoticism in men and women. The results were discussed in the light of religion of Islam. Most results of the present study reflect previous findings using participants from other religions.     

A new approach to Eysenck's theory of criminality

Studies examining Eysenck's theory of criminality by contrasting delinquent and non-delinquent groups have produced equivocal results. Some studies have shown criminals to score higher, as the theory predicts, on psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion, whilst other studies have not. The current study examines the theory from a new approach by using cluster analysis to demonstrate the heterogeneity of personality types in delinquent sample (N =100) and in a comparison group (N = 100).Four personality types were found in each group. Two personality types which were present in the delinquent sample were not found in the comparison group. The first type consisted of individuals scoring high on neuroticism and extraversion whilst the second type consisted of individuals scoring high on psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. These types appeared to be consistent with Eysenck's theory of criminality.     

On the relationship between personality and time estimation

The influence of basic dimensions of personality, such as extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism, on estimation of time still appears to be unclear. Therefore, in the present study the relationship between Eysenck's basic dimensions of personality and time estimation was investigated in 34 male Ss. After filling in the short version of a German adaptation of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised, Ss were required to reproduce target durations ranging from 5 to 40 sec. As a measure of performance, reproduction ratio scores, representing directional errors, and absolute error scores were computed. Correlational analyses revealed no indication of a linear relationship between neuroticism and time estimation. However, there was a tendency for extraverts to overestimate time and to make less accurate time judgments relative to introverts. Furthermore, Ss with higher psychoticism scores were less prone to overestimation of time intervals and showed better accuracy of temporal reproductions than Ss with lower psychoticism scores.     

Personality and accident liability: are extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism related to traffic and occupational fatalities?

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, and road traffic fatalities in a data set of 34 nations. In addition to traffic fatalities per 100,000 vehicles, work-related fatalities were included in the study. Results showed that extraversion had a positive relation to the number of traffic fatalities whereas neuroticism correlated negatively with road fatalities. Occupational fatalities were strongly related to deaths on the roads but not to personality dimensions. Countries with high extraversion scores had more traffic fatalities than countries with moderate or low extraversion scores. The need for well-designed studies investigating the link between personality factors and traffic accident liability via driver behaviour was expressed.     

Religion and mental health among Hindu young people in England

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mental health and attitude toward their religious tradition among a sample of 330 young people attending the Hindu Youth Festival in London. The participants completed the Santosh–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire which provides measures of neuroticism and psychoticism. The data indicated that a more positive attitude toward Hinduism was associated with lower psychoticism scores but unrelated to neuroticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate higher levels of religiosity with poorer mental health among young people within the Hindu community.     

Compliance and personality: the vulnerability of the unstable introvert

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship of compliance with Eysenck's three personality dimensions: psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism. Three groups of participants (prison inmates, college students, and university students) completed the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). As predicted, compliance correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion in all groups, whereas for psychoticism the correlation was positive among the prison inmates, negative for college students, and non‐significant for university students. A quadrant analysis according to Eysenck's original two‐dimensional framework (neuroticism–stability and introversion–extraversion) showed that compliance was highest among unstable introverts and lowest among stable extraverts. The findings are discussed in relation to recent work on person‐type approaches. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of EPI and psychoticism scales with measures of the five-factor model of personality

The need for a comprehensive model of personality traits acceptable to the entire community of personality researches has often been acknowledged. In this article, two such models are compared. Eysenck scales measuring neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism and lie are correlated with self-report and peer-rating measures of the five-factor model—neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness—in a sample of adult men and women. Findings suggest that: (1) neuroticism and extraversion factors from the two systems match well; (2) sociability and impulsivity are distinguishable traits, but both fall within the broad domain of extraversion; (3) the EPI L scale measures aspects of several substantive traits rather than a response bias; (4) openness to experience is not well-represented in the Eysenck system; and (5) psychoticism corresponds most closely to the low poles of agreeableness and conscientiousness.     

Social dissimulation,perceived competence and personality

The Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975) was completed by 129 boys (mean age 10 yr 10 months: SD = 4 months) and 119 girls (mean age 10 yr 11 months; SD = 3 months) from Belfast. Belfast boys' and girls' scores were significantly (P < 0.001) higher than the English standardisation data on psychoticism and extraversion, but their mean scores for neuroticism and the lie scale were remarkably similar. Belfast boys display significantly different intercorrelations in comparison with (i) the standardisation data—neuroticism/psychoticism (P < 0.01) and lie scale/neuroticism (P < 0.05)—and (ii) Belfast girls—neuroticism/psychoticism (P < 0.05). Psychoticism appears to play a highly salient role in Belfast boys' self-construals. Most of these pupils (n = 189) also completed the Perceived Competence Scale for Children (PCSC) (Harter, 1982). The PCSC minimises social dissimulation: the highest positive correlation with the lie scale being (r = 0.1). Correlations with the domains of the PCSC display the saliency of extraversion for girls' self-perceived physical competence and general competence, and for boys' self-perceived social competence, and the saliency of neuroticism for girls' self-perceived social competence.     

Extraversion,Neuroticism, and Psychoticism as Measured by Eysenck's Inventories in Iran

Summary

This paper presents results obtained with a slightly modified version of the Persian form of the EPI (PEPI) which also included Eysencks' recently published psychoticism scale. Subjects were 1009 Iranian secondary school graduates (768 boys and 241 girls) aged between 18 and 20 years taking the Pahlavi University entrance examination. Retesting of a small group of subjects under ordinary conditions showed little distortion of the mean scores that might be attributed to the highly competitive test situation. The test retest reliability of the scales over a five-month period, however, was undesirably low, except for the N-scale. The P-scale was found to correlate positively with neuroticism. Iranian female subjects had scored higher than their male counterparts on neuroticism but lower on both extraversion and psychoticism. In comparison with British norms, Iranian subjects had scored higher on both N and P scales, the difference on the latter being particularly striking. These findings are discussed in the light of earlier findings with the PEPI and some tentative explanations for the observed national differences are suggested.     

Neuroticism and extraversion are associated with amygdala resting-state functional connectivity

The personality traits neuroticism and extraversion are differentially related to socioemotional functioning and susceptibility to affective disorders. However, the neurobiology underlying this differential relationship is still poorly understood. This discrepancy could perhaps best be studied by adopting a brain connectivity approach. Whereas the amygdala has repeatedly been linked to neuroticism and extraversion, no study has yet focused on the intrinsic functional architecture of amygdala-centered networks in relation to both traits. To this end, seed-based correlation analysis was employed to reveal amygdala resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and its associations with neuroticism and extraversion in 50 healthy participants. Higher neuroticism scores were associated with increased amygdala RSFC with the precuneus, and decreased amygdala RSFC with the temporal poles, insula, and superior temporal gyrus (p < .05, cluster corrected). Conversely, higher extraversion scores were associated with increased amygdala RSFC with the putamen, temporal pole, insula, and several regions of the occipital cortex (p < .05, cluster corrected). The shifts in amygdala RSFC associated with neuroticism may relate to the less-adaptive perception and processing of self-relevant and socioemotional information that is frequently seen in neurotic individuals, whereas the amygdala RSFC pattern associated with extraversion may relate to the heightened reward sensitivity and enhanced socioemotional functioning in extraverts. We hypothesize that the variability in amygdala RSFC observed in the present study could potentially link neuroticism and extraversion to the neurobiology underlying increased susceptibility or resilience to affective disorders.     

Adaption-Innovation and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Psychosocial factors that may influence subjective well-being were examined. A random sample of 581 Chinese adults living in a metropolitan Taiwanese city completed questionnaires concerning demographic variables, personality traits, life stress, and social support. The results of multivariate analyses indicated that (a) extraversion and social support were related to better mental health, whereas neuroticism and stress were related to poorer mental health; (b) older age, better education, and social support were related to higher life satisfaction, whereas neuroticism and stress were related to lower life satisfaction; and (c) older age, extraversion, and social support were related to higher happiness, whereas neuroticism was related to lower happiness.     

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF PERSONALITY: EGYPTIAN AND ENGLISH CHILDREN*

679 Egyptian boys and 696 girls completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, translated into Arabic. Factor comparisons were moderately high for extraversion and social desirability but weak for neuroticism and psychoticism. Suitable item substitution produced a scoring key resulting in adequate reliabilities with the exception of a somewhat low reliability for the boys on extraversion and low reliabilities on psychoticism for both sexes. Sex differences on means of the dimensions were as usual, boys scoring higher than girls on extraversion and psychoticism, but lower on neuroticism and social desirability. Moreover, on comparing Egyptian with English means, using scales of items in common only, the English boys and girls scored higher than their Egyptian counterparts on extraversion but significantly lower on social desirability. British boys scored higher on psychoticism than did Egyptian boys but British girls scored lower than Egyptian girls.     

Perceived religious support for problem gambling: does church doctrine influence help-seeking?

The Eysenck Personality Profiler was completed by 400 undergraduate students together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data confirm the main conclusion of several previous studies by demonstrating that there is no significant relationship between the personality dimension of neuroticism and religiosity. The analyses go beyond previous studies by examining the relationships between religiosity and the seven component parts of neuroticism separately. These analyses demonstrate a significant positive correlation between religiosity and guilt, a significant negative correlation between religiosity and unhappiness, and no significant correlation between religiosity and low-self esteem, anxiety, dependency, hypochondriasis, or obsessiveness.     

The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individual's personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life.     

Probing Canadian Prejudices: A Preliminary Objective Survey

Personality correlates of S s indicating suicidal intent have been found to be different from those of normals in a direction indicative of possible psychopathology. To test the cross-cultural relevance of this hypothesis, three samples of male and female students were administered Eysenck's extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism inventory: 209 Iranian and 128 Turkish university students and 101 Iranian high school students. S s were classified into “suicidal” and “normal” groups in each sample by means of a self-rating scale of suicideintent. Comparison of scores showed that irrespective of nationality and age, suicidals scored higher on neuroticism and psychoticism but lower on extraversion than their normal counterparts. Results suggest that personality correlates of suicidal tendency are rather similar despite differences in age and cultural background.     

Personality and attitudinal correlates of healthy and unhealthy lifestyles in young adults

Abstract

The relationship between healthy lifestyle and personality and attitudinal variables was analyzed with data collected from 809 men and 996 women aged 18–30 years in England, Belgium, Finland and Norway as part of the European Health and Behaviour Survey. A health practices index was constructed on the basis of performance of sixteen behaviours including smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, sleep time and a variety of dietary and preventive practices. Scores on the health practices index were higher in women than men, but in both sexes the index was normally distributed. Consistently healthy practices were positively correlated with extraversion and optimism, and negatively associated with neuroticism, psychoticism and chance locus of control beliefs. These effects were maintained after controlling for social desirability, but together accounted for only a modest proportion of the variance in the health practices index. The results are discussed in relation to the factors characterising health conscious and unhealthy lifestyles.     

Personality and Religion Among Music Students

A sample of 422 students attending courses in eleven departments or colleges of music completed the short form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and measures of prayer and church attendance. In comparison with the population norms, both male and female music students recorded significantly higher scores on the extraversion scale and significantly lower scores on the psychoticism scale. The data confirm that psychoticism is the dimension of personality fundamental to individual differences in religiosity.     

The relationship between Eysenck's personality dimensions and Bem's masculinity and femininity scales revisited

A sample of 86 male and 93 female students in Wales completed the short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The data indicate that high scores on the scale of masculinity are associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism, but unrelated to either psychoticism or the lie scale, while high scores on the scale of femininity are associated with low psychoticism, high neuroticism and high lie scale scores, but unrelated to extraversion.