Dimensions of temperament and depressive symptoms: Replicating a three-way interaction

High negative emotionality (NE), low positive emotionality (PE), and low self-regulatory capacity (i.e., effortful control or EC) are related to depressive symptoms and furthermore, may moderate one another’s relations to such symptoms. Indeed, preliminary evidence suggests they may operate in a three-way interaction (Dinovo & Vasey, 2011), but the replicability of that finding remains unknown. Therefore, we tested this NE × PE × EC interaction in association with depressive symptoms in 5 independent samples. This interaction was significant in 4 of the 5 samples and a combined sample and approached significance in the fifth sample. In contrast, the NE × PE × EC interaction was unrelated to general anxious symptoms and thus may be specific to symptoms of depression. Implications, directions for future research, and limitations are discussed.     

Personality as a predictor of the objective and subjective impact of sleep deprivation

Although, impairments following sleep deprivation have been clearly demonstrated in the literature, researchers have found a wide range of individual variation in response to sleep deprivation. The relationship between personality and the subjective and objective impact of sleep deprivation was examined using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Stanford Sleepiness Scale, Sleep Hygiene Index, Profile of Mood States, an oddball reaction time test, a multi-task cognitive performance battery (SynWin), and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised. Subjects (14 males, 14 females, mean age 20.5) were sleep deprived for 28–35 h and during this time were allowed access to self-reported typical amounts of tobacco, caffeine, and food. Post sleep deprivation: (a) higher neuroticism scores were related to participants feeling sleepier, experiencing more mood disturbance, and performing inferiorly on a behavioral task; (b) subjects scoring as introverts showed more compromised behavioral performance compared to extraverts. The authors suggest that potential moderating variables of the relationship between personality and sleep deprivation such as stimulant use, food intake, and socialization warrant further investigation.     

Associations between personality traits, physical activity level, and muscle strength

Associations among personality as measured by the Five Factor Model, physical activity, and muscle strength were assessed using data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (N = 1220, age: mean = 58, SD = 16). General linear modeling with adjustment for age, sex, race, and body mass index, and bootstrapping for mediation were used. We found neuroticism and most of its facets to negatively correlate with strength. The extraversion domain and its facets of warmth, activity, and positive-emotions were positively correlated with strength, independent of covariates. Mediation analysis results suggest that these associations are partly explained by physical activity level. Findings extend the evidence of an association between personality and physical function to its strength component and indicate health behavior as an important pathway.     

Social indicators as indexes of neuroticism and extraversion

Lynn and Hampson (1975) and recently Lester (2000) suggested that national level of extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) could be assessed by using certain national indicators like suicide and divorce rates. In this study, Lynn and Hampson’s (1975) and Lester’s (2000) models were assessed by using 1990s data. Although Lynn and Hampson’s original N and E factors correlated with EPQ N (r=0.48) and E (r=0.60) scores as hypothesised, the factor structure did not recur in the 1990s data. Factor analysis supported Lester’s (2000) model of N and E. However, the factor loadings for EPQ N and E were rather modest (0.49 for N and 0.36 for E). It was concluded that more research with larger datasets and new social indicators are needed before social indicators could replace the EPQ in comparisons of national characteristics of nations.     

Forgiveness and mental health variables: Interpreting the relationship using an adaptational-continuum model of personality and coping

The present paper uses an adaptational-continuum model of personality, based on Ferguson’s (2001) health psychology model integrating Eysenck personality factors and coping style, to provide a context for examining the relationship between forgiveness and mental health. Three hundred and twenty respondents completed measures of personality, coping style, forgiveness (forgiveness of self, others, likelihood, presence of positive forgiveness, absence of negative forgiveness), general health, stress, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. Among respondents, all measures of forgiveness, bar one, load negatively on a neuroticism-coping factor. The remaining measure of forgiveness (presence of positive forgiveness) loaded on an extraversion-coping factor. The relationship of the neuroticism-coping-forgiveness factor was associated with poorer mental health, suggesting forgiveness is associated with better mental health within the context of this personality-coping factor. Significant positive relationships were found between the extraversion-coping-forgiveness factor and two measures of positive mental health outcomes (positive affect and life satisfaction) suggesting forgiveness is associated with some aspects of mental health within the context of this personality-coping factor. The present findings suggest that forgiveness, or failure to forgive, can be conceptualised within an adaptational-continuum model of personality.     

The Relations of Effortful Control and Impulsivity to Children's Sympathy: A Longitudinal Study

The relations of children's (n = 214 at Time 1; M age = 6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related to high sympathy. Teacher-reported impulsivity was generally modestly negatively related to measures of teacher-reported sympathy for boys, and a decline in impulsivity was linked to boys’ sympathy. Some findings suggested a positive association between impulsivity and children's self-reported sympathy. EC, especially when reported by teachers, was more often a unique predictor of sympathy than was impulsivity. Results generally support the argument that sympathetic individuals, especially boys, are high in EC and that EC is a more consistent predictor of sympathy than impulsivity.     

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.     

Agreeableness and the self-regulation of negative affect: Findings involving the neuroticism/somatic distress relationship

In the temperament literature, agreeableness has been theoretically linked to effortful control. Further, research in this area has suggested that effortful control may play a broad role in moderating temperament-based tendencies toward negative affect. The present three studies, involving a total of 300 undergraduate participants, sought to extend this perspective to the adult literature by examining potential interactions between agreeableness and neuroticism in predicting reported somatic symptoms. Although such symptoms have been linked to neuroticism, they are not characteristic of the interpersonal concerns linked to agreeableness. Nevertheless, all studies found that agreeableness and neuroticism interacted to predict somatic symptoms such that high levels of agreeableness decoupled the relationship between neuroticism and somatic distress. These findings indicate a broad role for agreeableness in the self-regulation of neuroticism-linked distress.     

Infant characteristics and parental engagement at the transition to parenthood

Positive engagement activities support children's adaptive development and new parents are encouraged to be highly engaged with infants. Yet, fathers’ engagement is widely understudied and maternal engagement quantity is frequently overlooked. Our study contributes to growing knowledge on associations between infant temperament and parental engagement by testing transactional and moderation models in a recent sample of first-time parents when infants were 3, 6, and 9 months old. Stringent longitudinal, reciprocal structural equation models partially confirmed an engagement “benefit”. Mothers’ engagement marginally contributed to their children's gains in effortful control from 3 to 6 months regardless of child gender. Further, mothers’ engagement reduced infant negative affect from 6 to 9 months regardless of child gender. Mothers’ ratings of infant negative affect were gendered; mothers’ ratings of infant negative affect increases more from 3 to 6 months for boys. Fathers’ engagement was contextually sensitive; child gender moderated the link between negative affect and engagement from 6 to 9 months, such that fathers became more engaged with boys whom they rated higher on negative affect; there was no effect for daughters. Finally, we found that effortful control moderated associations between negative affect and maternal engagement; mothers’ engagement increases from 3 to 6 months were greater for children initially rated lower in effortful control. Implications for future research and parenting education and support services are discussed.     

Early individual differences in temperamental reactivity and regulation: implications for effortful control in early childhood

This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that early temperament is associated with later effortful control. Fear reactivity and object orientation was assessed in a sample of 53 children at 8, 12, and 16 months during a stranger-approach paradigm and at 4.5 or 5.5 years on a battery of effortful control tasks. A latent growth curve analysis was used to model change in reactivity and object orientation across infancy and the prediction of each on later effortful control. Infants who increased in fear reactivity were significantly more likely to show poor performance on effortful control tasks in early childhood. Findings are discussed with respect to the importance of examining early temperamental precursors that contribute to the development of regulation.     

A personality profile of Mount Everest climbers

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised was administered to a group of climbers (N=39) who were attempting to summit Mount Everest. The personality profiles for these climbers were characterized by higher scores on the Extraversion (sociability) and Psychoticism (toughmindedness) scales and lower scores on the Neuroticism (anxiety) scales than for the normative sample. This profile is consistent with the pattern typically observed for athletes and notably for higher achieving athletes.     

Preschoolers' effortful control and negative emotionality, immediate reactions to disappointment, and quality of social functioning

Relations among effortful control/low negative emotionality, immediate reactions in a situation that usually calls for the masking of disappointment (i.e., the use of display rules), and social competence/adjustment were investigated for 78 preschool children (mean age=4.87 years). Parents, teachers, and peers rated children on negative emotionality and/or effortful control as well as on social competence/adjustment. Children who were rated by parents and teachers as high on effortful control/low on negative emotionality expressed fewer immediate verbal/gestural indicators of disappointment in the presence of an unfamiliar adult and were perceived by their parents, teachers, and peers as socially competent and well adjusted. The pattern of findings was consistent with the view that children's immediate verbal/gestural reactions to disappointment partially mediated the relations between effortful control (as reported by parents) and social competence/adjustment.     

Emotional reactivity and self-regulation in relation to personality disorders

Associations of both reactive and regulative temperamental features with personality disorders (PDs) are investigated in a sample of 162 normal controls and 89 psychiatric inpatients. Reactive and regulative temperamental features were assessed by means of the BIS/BAS Scales and the Attentional Control Scale. Dimensional PD scores were obtained by using the ADP-IV. All PDs were characterized by low levels of effortful control, cluster C PDs by high BIS and cluster B PDs by high BAS. For several PDs, BIS and effortful control interacted: BIS was only related to severe PD pathology if effortful control was low. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.