Relations between the Big Five personality traits and dispositional coping in Korean Americans: Acculturation as a moderating factor

The current study examined the individual and joint effects of the Big Five personality traits and acculturation on coping styles. Using the proposed framework of McCrae ( 22 2001), the relations among these variables were evaluated at the intracultural level to exploit previously unexplored within‐culture variability for an unstudied Asian American group (Korean Americans). This approach emphasizes the unique expression of specific personality traits in a single culture. A community sample of Korean Americans completed measures of the Five‐Factor Model of Personality (NEO‐PI‐R; Costa & McCrae, 13 1992), coping (Brief COPE; Carver, 7 1997), and acculturation (SL‐ASIA; Suinn, Ahuna, & Khoo, 40 1992). The results primarily showed statistically significant relations between the Big Five personality traits and coping. Neuroticism was positively related to indices of emotion‐focused coping (emotional support) and avoidance (substance abuse, behavioural disengagement, venting, self‐blame); Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness were positively related to indices of problem‐focused (active coping, planning) and emotion‐focused coping (positive reframing, humour, acceptance); and Agreeableness was positively associated with active coping and humour. Acculturation was only significantly (and positively) associated with venting. Significant Acculturation×Big Five personality traits interactions were found, however. For individuals high in acculturation, both Neuroticism and Openness were positively related to indices of avoidance coping. Moreover, for individuals low in acculturation, a negative relationship was found between Conscientiousness and venting. These results show that there is considerable within‐culture variation for the dimensions of the Five‐Factor Model of Personality, coping styles, and acculturation in this largely bicultural sample. Moreover, the amount of variation and its directionality among the target study variables is similar to that typically found in Caucasian American samples. Finally, the stronger relations found between the dimensions of personality and coping styles (relative to the relations found between acculturation and coping styles) suggests that personality traits rather than acculturation may be more important clinically when profiling patients and developing treatment plans.     

Psychopathic Traits in Adolescence and the Five Factor Model of Personality

The present study aimed to expand work on psychopathic traits and the Five Factor Model (FFM; Costa and McCrae 1992). The associations between the three factors of psychopathy and personality traits—assessed by means of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI, Andershed et al. 2002) and the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R; Costa and McCrae 1992)—were explored in a community sample of 152 male adolescents and young adults. The unique relations of each YPI subscale with the NEO domains/facets were examined by computing partial correlations controlling for the scores on the other two YPI psychopathy subscales. The YPI Callous/Unemotional dimension exhibited negative associations with Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness. The YPI Impulsive/Irresponsible factor was positively associated with Extraversion and negatively with Conscientiousness. The YPI Grandiose/Manipulative factor displayed positive associations with Openness and Conscientiousness. We discuss the implications of the differential associations of the three psychopathy factors with the Five Factor domains/facets for theories of the etiology of psychopathy.     

Matters of conscience and conscientiousness: the place of ego development in the Five-factor model

The Five-factor model (FFM; Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1990) and Loevinger's (1994) theory of ego development are two active research traditions that are often construed as incompatible approaches to the study of personality. For example, each theory proposes a different view of the concept of conscientiousness. Loevinger argued that FFM conscientiousness, which emphasizes attributes such as order, self-discipline, and achievement striving, lacks a moral component and is more similar to the conformist stage in her theory. To investigate these claims, we administered the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT; Hy & Loevinger, 1996) to 120 university students on 2 separate occasions. Together, the five traits of the FFM significantly predicted item sum scores from the WUSCT (multiple R = .54). Unique linear relationships of Openness to Experience and Agreeableness with ego level demonstrated that the two theories proposed similar constructs. We argue that these two FFM dimensions have conceptual relevance to the cognitive and interpersonal aspects of the ego development construct. We draw further connections between these FFM dimensions, ego development, and human values.     

Personality trait development from age 12 to age 18: longitudinal,cross-sectional,and cross-cultural analyses

Three studies were conducted to assess mean level changes in personality traits during adolescence. Versions of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992a) were used to assess the 5 major personality factors. A 4-year longitudinal study of intellectually gifted students (N = 230) was supplemented by cross-sectional studies of nonselected American (N = 1,959) and Flemish (N = 789) adolescents. Personality factors were reasonably invariant across ages, although rank-order stability of individual differences was low. Neuroticism appeared to increase in girls, and Openness to Experience increased in both boys and girls; mean levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were stable. Results extend knowledge of the developmental curve of personality traits backward from adulthood and help bridge the gap with child temperament studies.     

White Racial Identity Statuses and NEO Personality Constructs: An Exploratory Analysis

This study investigated the relationship between White racial identity development as proposed by J. E. Helms (1995) and the personality constructs Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Participants were 105 White college students (55 women and 50 men) who were administered the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. E. Helms & R. T. Carter, 1993), the NEO Five‐Factor Inventory (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and the New Racism Scale (C. K Jacobson, 1985). Results indicated that White racial identity was differentially related to several personality constructs and aversive racism. Implications for future White racial identity research are discussed.     

A Rigorous Test of the Fit of the Circumplex Model to Big Five Personality Data: Theoretical and Methodological Issues and Two Large Sample Empirical Tests

Our objective was to apply the rigorous test developed by Browne (1992) to determine whether the circumplex model fits Big Five personality data. This test has yet to be applied to personality data. Another objective was to determine whether blended items explained correlations among the Big Five traits. We used two working adult samples, the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample and the Professional Worker Career Experience Survey. Fit to the circumplex was tested via Browne's (1992) procedure. Circumplexes were graphed to identify items with loadings on multiple traits (blended items), and to determine whether removing these items changed five-factor model (FFM) trait intercorrelations. In both samples, the circumplex structure fit the FFM traits well. Each sample had items with dual-factor loadings (8 items in the first sample, 21 in the second). Removing blended items had little effect on construct-level intercorrelations among FFM traits. We conclude that rigorous tests show that the fit of personality data to the circumplex model is good. This finding means the circumplex model is competitive with the factor model in understanding the organization of personality traits. The circumplex structure also provides a theoretically and empirically sound rationale for evaluating intercorrelations among FFM traits. Even after eliminating blended items, FFM personality traits remained correlated.     

Sawyer's review of artists all

This study explored the extent to which ideational behavior (IB; Runco, Plucker, &; Lim, 2000–2001), an indicator of creativity, is related to established individual differences in personality traits (Five Factor Model or FFM; Costa &; McCrae, 1992 Costa , P. T. , &; McCrae , R. R. ( 1992 ). Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NEO Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual . Odessa , FL : Psychological Assessment Resources . [Google Scholar]), fluid (gf) and intelligence (IQ). A total of 158 (112 female) college students from British and American universities took part in this study. Bivariate correlations showed that IB was significantly associated with Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness (negatively), and gf. Hierarchical regression analysis showed personality to be a better predictor of IB than was intelligence. Cognitive ability measures only accounted for 4% of the variance in IB, whereas the Big Five superfactors explained an additional 22% of the variance (with gender explaining a further 3%). Furthermore, selected personality facets of Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, explained the largest amount of variance in IB, namely 35%. Results are discussed with regard to the theoretical implications of the taxonomic place of IB in the wider realm of individual differences constructs.     

SELF-MONITORING AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PERFORMANCE

This study examined the hypothesis that self-monitoring moderates the relationship between Big Five personality traits and interpersonal performance. The findings from a sample of 102 employed Executive MBA students reveal that when self-monitoring was high the relationships between 3 of the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience) and supervisory ratings of interpersonal performance were attenuated. These effects were replicated using peer ratings of interpersonal performance for Extraversion and Emotional Stability but not for Openness to Experience. Further, as expected, self-monitoring did not moderate the relationships between personality traits and supervisory or peer ratings of task performance. Implications for future research in the area of personality and other motivational theories are discussed.     

Depression and Openness to Experience

The relation between depression and Openness to Experience was examined. Self-report measures of personality traits (Revised NEO Personality inventory; Costa & McCrae, 1992a) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; and Inventory to Diagnose Depression; Zimmerman, 1994) were administered to 143 undergraduate participants from the following 3 groups: current depression (n = 46), past depression (n = 50), and never-depressed controls (n = 47). Depressed participants exhibited significantly higher scores than nondepressed controls on two facets of Openness (Aesthetics and Feelings). Openness to Experience was also found to account for a significant proportion of the variance in depression scores, beyond the variance accounted for by Neuroticism and Extraversion. The facet of Openness to Aesthetics appeared to be most strongly related to depression scores, and the facet of Openness to Fantasy was implicated as a moderator of the relation between Extraversion and depression.     

Long-term stability in the Big Five personality traits in adulthood

This study investigated the stability of the Big Five personality traits in adulthood from age 33 to 42. Participants (89 men, 103 women) were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. The results showed that the mean‐level of Neuroticism decreased whereas the mean‐level of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness increased from age 33 to 42. The Structural Equation Modeling analyses revealed both gender differences and similarities in the rank‐order stability of the Big Five: Neuroticism and Extraversion were more stable in men than in women, whereas Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were as stable in men as in women. Stability coefficients for the Big Five personality traits across 9 years were moderate to high, ranging from 0.73 to 0.97 in men and from 0.65 to 0.95 in women. The highest gender‐equal stability was found for Openness to Experience and the lowest for Conscientiousness.     

Openness to Experience,Intellect, and Cognitive Ability

An instrument designed to separate 2 midlevel traits within each of the Big Five (the Big Five Aspect Scales [BFAS]) was used to clarify the relation of personality to cognitive ability. The BFAS measures Openness to Experience and Intellect as separate (although related) traits, and refers to the broader Big Five trait as Openness/Intellect. In 2 samples (N = 125 and 189), Intellect was independently associated with general intelligence (g) and with verbal and nonverbal intelligence about equally. Openness was independently associated only with verbal intelligence. Implications of these findings are discussed for the empirical and conceptual relations of intelligence to personality and for the mechanisms potentially underlying both Openness/Intellect and cognitive ability.     

Attachment dimensions and the big five personality traits: Associations and comparative ability to predict relationship quality

Several studies have explored associations between measures of adult attachment style and the Big Five personality traits or factors, but the studies have not included current dimensional measures of attachment style (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) or the most complete (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and frequently used (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) measures of the Big Five. Moreover, most studies after Shaver and Brennan’s (1992) have not compared attachment style and Big Five measures as predictors of relationship quality. Here, we summarize past research and report two studies comparing Brennan et al.’s two-dimensional measure of attachment style with the BFI and NEO-PI-R measures of the Big Five. There are consistent and theoretically meaningful associations between the attachment-style and personality trait measures, but attachment-style dimensions still predict relationship quality better than measures of the Big Five. Implications are discussed.     

Using the FFM to conceptualize psychopathy: a test using a drug abusing sample

The present study examined whether psychopathy can be understood as a constellation of traits from the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Using a prototype matching approach, we examined the ability of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) to represent psychopathy in a sample of 297 male and female known crack cocaine abusers. Importantly, we examined the convergence and divergence between FFM psychopathy and other personality disorders assessed using the FFM. FFM psychopathy was correlated with self-reports of antisocial behavior, drug use, risky sex, and externalizing and internalizing disorder symptoms. As expected, there was overlap in the relations between psychopathy and several Cluster B personality disorders, but there were also important points of divergence. These results further extend the nomological network of FFM psychopathy and provide additional support for considering psychopathy a constellation of personality traits from a general model.     

Cross-cultural replication of the five-factor model and comparison of the NEO-PI-R and MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales in a Dutch psychiatric sample

The authors investigated cross-cultural replicability of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality as represented by the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) in a sample of 423 Dutch psychiatric patients. Also, NEO-PI-R domain scales were compared with the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5; A. R. Harkness & J. L. McNulty, 1994) scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 2002). Principal-components analysis with procrustean rotation confirmed the hypothesized structural similarity of the present sample with the U.S. normative factor scores. All of the hypothesized relations between NEO-PI-R and PSY-5 scales were confirmed. The results provide evidence for cross-cultural replicability of the FFM and for validity of the NEO-PI-R and PSY-5 constructs in the psychological assessment of psychiatric patients.     

Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure.

The authors argue that a new six-dimensional framework for personality structure--the HEXACO model--constitutes a viable alternative to the well-known Big Five or five-factor model. The new model is consistent with the cross-culturally replicated finding of a common six-dimensional structure containing the factors Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), eExtraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O). Also, the HEXACO model predicts several personality phenomena that are not explained within the B5/FFM, including the relations of personality factors with theoretical biologists' constructs of reciprocal and kin altruism and the patterns of sex differences in personality traits. In addition, the HEXACO model accommodates several personality variables that are poorly assimilated within the B5/FFM.     

An alternative to the search for single polymorphisms: toward molecular personality scales for the five-factor model

There is growing evidence that personality traits are affected by many genes, all of which have very small effects. As an alternative to the largely unsuccessful search for individual polymorphisms associated with personality traits, the authors identified large sets of potentially related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and summed them to form molecular personality scales (MPSs) with from 4 to 2,497 SNPs. Scales were derived from two thirds of a large (N = 3,972) sample of individuals from Sardinia who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and were assessed in a genomewide association scan. When MPSs were correlated with the phenotype in the remaining one third of the sample, very small but significant associations were found for 4 of the 5e personality factors when the longest scales were examined. These data suggest that MPSs for Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (but not Extraversion) contain genetic information that can be refined in future studies, and the procedures described here should be applicable to other quantitative traits.     

Personality prototypes in eating disorders based on the Big Five model

A three factor model of personality pathology was investigated in a clinical sample of 335 female eating disordered patients. Cluster analysis of the Big Five NEO-FFI scales (Costa & McCrae, 1992) yielded three distinct personality profiles, which were consistent with previous studies: (1) a resilient/high functioning cluster with no clinical elevations on the NEO-FFI scales; (2) an undercontrolled/emotionally dysregulated cluster with elevated scores on the Neuroticism scale and low scores on Conscientiousness and Agreeableness; (3) an overcontrolled/constricted cluster showing high scores on Neuroticism and Conscientiousness and low scores on Openness to Experience. Comparing the three personality prototypes with respect to Axis I and Axis II disorders,resilients reported systematically less clinical and personality problems than both undercontrollers and overcontrollers. Compared to the latter, undercontrollers showed more impulsive personality features and behaviors. Finally, cluster membership was not clearly associated with eating disorder subtypes, suggesting that there is considerable variance in personality features and/or pathology within the various eating disorder categories.     

Relation between alexithymia and the five-factor model of personality: a facet-level analysis

The relation between alexithymia and both the domain and the facet level of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality was examined in a sample of 101 university students by using the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992c). Consistent with the alexithymia construct, the TAS-20 was positively correlated with Neuroticism (N) and negatively correlated with Extraversion (E) and Openness (O), whereas no significant relations were found with Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C). Analysis of the lower order traits (i.e., facets) of the FFM revealed that depression for N; positive emotions and assertiveness for E; feelings and actions for O; altruism, tender-mindedness, and modesty for A; and competence for C predicted alexithymia. These results support the uniqueness of the alexithymia construct, which is represented by a cluster of traits across the dimensions and facets of the FFM.     

Comparative validity of the Shedler and Westen Assessment Procedure-200

A predominant dimensional model of general personality structure is the five-factor model (FFM). Quite a number of alternative instruments have been developed to assess the domains of the FFM. The current study compares the validity of 2 alternative versions of the Shedler and Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200) FFM scales, 1 that was developed on the basis of items identified by J. Shedler and D. Westen (2004) and 1 that used items identified by R. R. McCrae, C. E. Lokenhoff, and P. T. Costa (2005). The comparative validity of both measures was examined in a sample of persons who evidenced personality-related problems in living (N = 94). The McCrae et al. Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Openness scales were superior to their respective Shedler and Westen scales. Both research teams developed comparably valid Extraversion and Conscientiousness scales. Implications of the results for future SWAP-200 research are discussed.     

Relation of the Big Five to Biodata and aspects of the self

Two studies examined McCrae and Costa’s system model of personality. Their model suggests the Big Five should have relatively strong associations with life history (measured in Study 1 by Biodata) and with Self-Concept (measured in Study 2 by various Self questionnaires). Study 1—210 participants (143 females) completed Bipolar Big Five Markers and a Biodata inventory. Factor Analyses confirmed the Big Five and revealed seven viable Biodata factors. Multiple regression revealed that most Biodata factors were predicted well by 2 or more Big Five traits. Study 2—199 participants (125 females) completed Bipolar Big Five Markers and an omnibus Self inventory consisting of six previously developed scales. Factor Analyses confirmed the Big Five and revealed eight viable Self factors. Multiple regression revealed that the Self factors were also predicted fairly well by two or more Big Five traits.Both studies found relatively strong associations between the Big Five and the Biodata and Self factors, which lends support to McCrae and Costa’s system model of personality. A consistent pattern of both a primary and secondary trait as joint predictors of Biodata and Self factors suggests that these areas are systematically influenced by multiple traits rather than only single traits.