Premorbid personality indicators of schizophrenia-related psychosis in a hypothetically psychosis-prone college sample

Bolinskey, P. K. & Gottesman, I. I. (2010). Premorbid personality indicators of schizophrenia-related psychosis in a hypothetically psychosis-prone college sample. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 68–74.
Research into psychosis proneness has established the Chapman Psychosis Proneness Scales (CPPS), certain personality disorders, certain response patterns on the MMPI-2, and social withdrawal as being valid indicators of liability. The current study extends our understanding of premorbid indicators of schizophrenia-related psychosis (SRP) by examining whether individuals identified as hypothetically psychosis prone (HPP) by virtue of their CPPS scores also show differences on other premorbid indicators of SRP. Results indicate that HPP individuals evidence more deviancy in the schizophrenic direction. By providing additional construct validity for the CPPS and other endophenotypic indicators of premorbid processes, strategies for understanding the development of SRP are enhanced.     

The face of personality: Adaptive inferences from facial cues are moderated by perceiver personality and motives

Humans have historically been interested in understanding stable individual differences in behavioral tendencies, often referred to as personality traits. Recent work suggests that between‐person personality variability may be adaptive insofar as certain variations in personality constellations facilitate survival and reproduction across various types of groups and ecological niches. While past research has demonstrated that personality can be accurately inferred from self‐reports, other‐reports, and targets' past behavior, we discuss a more contemporary, yet understudied, means of personality inference: facial structure. We summarize research on personality traits that can be accurately inferred from facial structure, as well as how aspects of individuals' own personality, chronically accessible motives, and acutely activated goals lead to preferences for facially communicated personality that would aid in the satisfaction of these goals (e.g., higher need to belong predicts a stronger preference for faces whose structure communicates greater extraversion). We also discuss limitations of current approaches to understanding the relationship between perceiver personality and motives and their relation to perceptions of facially communicated personality as well as fruitful directions for future research.     

Airless Worlds: The Traumatic Sequelae of Identification with Parental Negation

In this paper I propose the phrase “living in an airless world” to characterize the intrapsychic situation when a child has grown up in circumstances of extreme parental negation (non-recognition). Of the two major dynamics Ferenczi identified as the sequelae of early trauma—“identification with the aggressor” and “splitting of the personality” (dissociation)—the latter has received far more attention in the relational literature than the former. I seek to correct that imbalance by examining in depth the phenomenon of identification with the other’s response to the self—especially its most toxic form, identification with parental negation. Airless world syndrome involves a kind of identificatory bondage to the internalized negating other which is disabling to the senses of self and personal agency and impairs the capacities to think, feel in an integrated way, separate and grieve. Consequently, for patients living in airless worlds, the central unconscious need and preoccupation is to convert their actual parents into true parents who will finally recognize their subjective experience and needs, thereby allowing them, for the first time, psychically to breathe. This understanding, in turn, has implications for how we think about the analytic field in relation to the patient’s developmental, parent-child field. The therapeutic implications of this model are described and illustrated with three clinical examples.     

Exploring Personality with the Interpersonal Circumplex

The interpersonal circumplex can serve as both companion and guide for those interested in exploring the interpersonal domain of personality. This article offers a relatively nontechnical overview of the model and its various applications in the study of personality. I begin by defining the interpersonal circumplex, its structure and in what sense it is 'interpersonal'. As part of that, I will briefly consider how circumplex measures of personality, such as the Interpersonal Adjective Scales, are typically evaluated for fit to the model. I will next describe applications of the model for exploring both the idiographic (person-centered) and nomothetic (variable-centered) realms of personality. In person-centered research, the circumplex leads to useful ways of summarizing the basic interpersonal features of a given individual. In variable-centered research, the circumplex can help elucidate the essential interpersonal meaning of personality constructs such as traits, problems, and motives. To explain how the circumplex can help us explore personality – idiographically and nomothetically – I will draw on a variety of studies, including several recent studies that extend the model in new ways.     

Does personality moderate the relationship between stress and health behavior? Expanding the nomological network of the five-factor model

The present study tested the hypothesis that personality would moderate the stress to health behavior relationship. Using a community sample, 706 adults (Mean age = 37 years) were administered a set of five-factor model adjective rating scales, measures of stress and distress (i.e., negative life stress, physical symptom intensity, negative mood), health behaviors, as well as a demographic questionnaire. Using hierarchical multiple regression, Openness to Experience, Extraversion, and Neuroticism were found to moderate the stress to health behavior relationship. Supplementary analyses were conducted to determine if the five-factors would also moderate a life event to distress relationship. While several main effects were found, Conscientiousness was found to buffer the stress to distress connection. The factors that may influence both moderator models, suggestions for integration, and future research are discussed.     

Religion in the Psychology of Personality: An Introduction

This article presents an overview of this special issue of the Journal of Personality on religion in the psychology of personality. I begin with a brief historical overview in which I highlight the discrepancy between the vision of early personologists and how religion is handled today within the field of personality. I then consider how contemporary research and theory can profit by incorporating religious and spiritual constructs and processes. As personality psychologists purport to study the whole person, the relative neglect of religiousness in the current literature is a serious omission that precludes a comprehensive understanding of the person.     

Personality Science, Self-Regulation, and Health Behavior

In their paper, Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) present a thorough analysis of self-regulatory behavior, understood as the most genuine expression of the agentic and purposive nature of human beings. Therefore, we can expect that research on personality could shed light on our understanding of self-regulatory processes and behavioral expressions. With this aim, Cervone et al. have carried out an updated analysis of personality psychology theory and research, resuming the debate between variable and person-centered approaches, and commenting on the contributions the Knowledge-and-Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA) can make to the design of idiosyncratic tools and strategies for personality assessment and to the understanding of the role of the personality system in different contexts of applied psychology, such as health, clinical and industrial/organisational psychology. Here, I would like to examine two topics, to which Cervone et al. pay substantial attention in their paper: self-regulation and personality dynamics, and the role of personality science in addressing central questions in health psychology.     

It’s in your nature: a pluralistic folk psychology

I suggest a pluralistic account of folk psychology according to which not all predictions or explanations rely on the attribution of mental states, and not all intentional actions are explained by mental states. This view of folk psychology is supported by research in developmental and social psychology. It is well known that people use personality traits to predict behavior. I argue that trait attribution is not shorthand for mental state attributions, since traits are not identical to beliefs or desires, and an understanding of belief or desire is not necessary for using trait attributions. In addition, we sometimes predict and explain behavior through appeal to personality traits that the target wouldn’t endorse, and so could not serve as the target’s reasons. I conclude by suggesting that our folk psychology includes the notion that some behavior is explained by personality traits—who the person is—rather than by beliefs and desires—what the person thinks. Consequences of this view for the debate between simulation theory and theory theory, as well as the debate on chimpanzee theory of mind are discussed.     

Discontinuities,side steps,and finding a proper place: an autobiographical account

In this invited autobiography, I present an account of some influential events and experiences in my life that led me eventually, after some false starts, to a career in personality assessment psychology. The psychological research and applied areas (self-report personality assessment and cross-cultural research) with which I have been identified for over 40 years can, however, be seen in early interests, although their impact and their direction were not always apparent at the time of occurrence. Several people who were influential in my career development are noted and a number of important collaborators who helped sustain my efforts in personality assessment research and practice over the years are highlighted.     

Statisticism in personality psychologists’ use of trait constructs: What is it? How was it contracted? Is there a cure?

‘Statisticism’ is meant to characterize a way of thinking in psychology that invests virtually boundless trust in the aptness of statistical concepts and methods to reveal the ‘lawfulness’ of human psychological functioning and behavior. In the article, I discuss how statisticism came to infect the thinking of mainstream 20th century personality investigators and how – if at all – the discipline might be cured. Unfortunately, mainstream thinking within the sub-discipline of personality psychology has long sanctioned an understanding of the statistical findings issuing from studies of individual differences in personality traits that is faithful to neither of the so-called ‘frequentist’ or ‘subjectivist’ traditions. Instead, such findings are widely regarded as a scientifically acceptable warrant for claims to knowledge about objective states of affairs existing for individuals within the samples one has studied. I suggest that the prospects for eradicating dubious fruits of this form of statisticism will hinge importantly on (a) the ability of theoretically and philosophically-oriented psychologists to re-instill within the discipline a healthy respect for the power of conceptual analysis more generally, and, following this, (b) concern within the discipline for the fact that the deep and abiding conceptual problem described above in fact does exist.     

A General and Maladaptive Personality Perspective on Youth Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms

Based on Krueger's (2005) conceptual model of the personality-psychopathology relationship, this study examines how personality predicts different youth obsessive–compulsive symptoms, comparing the relative contribution of general and maladaptive personality traits. Three-hundred forty-four adolescents provided self-reports on an obsessive–compulsive scale, and their mothers rated their child's general and maladaptive personality. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that personality differentially predicts obsessive–compulsive symptomatology, and that the relative significance of general versus maladaptive personality predictors differs across various forms of obsessive–compulsive pathology. The results are discussed in terms of the value of including both general and maladaptive personality measures in the assessment of early obsessive–compulsive difficulties.     

Mapping the Landscape of Personality in Childhood and Adolescence

From infancy, children vary in their typical emotions and behaviors, and by the middle of childhood, children have richly differentiated personalities. In this paper, I review the personality differences that youths exhibit from early childhood through adolescence, using a three-part taxonomy developed by (McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. American Psychologist, 2006; 61, 204–217). First, children exhibit a dispositional signature, including first temperament traits and later the Big Five personality traits, which show some consistency across situations and over time. Second, youths display characteristic adaptations that are more specific to particular life contexts; these include mental representations, strategies, and goals. Third, adolescents form personal narratives, stories about their lives that reflect and shape their identities. I describe the differences youths exhibit in these three domains and situate these differences in the context of overall development in childhood and adolescence. New work on youths’ personalities can serve as the foundation for future lifespan perspectives on personality development.     

Self-monitoring personality at work: a meta-analytic investigation of construct validity

The validity of self-monitoring personality in organizational settings was examined. Meta-analyses were conducted (136 samples; total N = 23,191) investigating the relationship between self-monitoring personality and work-related variables, as well as the reliability of various self-monitoring measures. Results suggest that self-monitoring has relevance for understanding many organizational concerns, including job performance and leadership emergence. Sample-weighted mean differences favoring male respondents were also noted, suggesting that the sex-related effects for self-monitoring may partially explain noted disparities between men and women at higher organizational levels (i.e., the glass ceiling). Theory building and additional research are needed to better understand the construct-related inferences about self-monitoring personality, especially in terms of the performance, leadership, and attitudes of those at top organizational levels.     

Masculine/feminine: A personological perspective

How might our expanding knowledge of gender contribute to a deeper understanding of personality? This paper offers a personological perspective for considering the import of contemporary work, and focuses on the ten substantive papers included in this issue of the Journal of Personality An agenda for our future inquiry is proposed that includes (a) revising our ideology of science in a postpositivist era, (b) recognizing the complexity of personality as a domain distinguished from “human being theory,” (c) developing richer and more comprehensive personality theory, and (d) studying persons over time The papers reported in this issue contribute in various ways to the enrichment of personological understanding     

Adult attachment to transitional objects and borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by tumultuous, unstable personal relationships, difficulty being alone, and an inability to self-soothe. This may explain why patients with BPD tend to develop strong attachments to transitional objects such as stuffed animals. Research in hospital settings has linked the use of transitional objects to the presence of BPD. Using a nonclinical community sample (N = 80) we explored the link between attachments to transitional objects and various aspects of personality pathology, as well as to childhood trauma, and parental rearing styles. People who reported intense current attachments to transitional objects were significantly more likely to meet criteria for a BPD diagnosis than those who did not; they also reported more childhood trauma, rated their early caregivers as less supportive, and had more attachment problems as adults. Heavy emotional reliance on transitional objects in adulthood may be an indicator of underlying pathology, particularly BPD.     

3~4岁幼儿创造性人格与气质的交叉滞后分析

以幼儿创造性人格倾向教师评定问卷、儿童气质教师评定问卷作为研究工具,对287名3岁和4岁组幼儿进行为期一年的追踪研究,考察幼儿气质与创造性人格的发展变化情况,以及幼儿气质与其创造性人格之间的关系。结果发现：随着时间的发展,幼儿气质对其创造性人格有显著影响。幼儿的情绪性、活动性、反应性及专注性均能够显著正向预测其创造性人格,而幼儿的社会抑制性则能够显著负向预测其创造性人格。     

UNTANGLING FALSE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING ATHEISM AND HEALTH

Abstract In the past decade, the cognitive science of religion has worked to find an evolutionary explanation for supernatural belief. The explanations are convincing, but have created the stereotype that atheism is unnatural. In a similar way studies linking religious belief and health have vilified atheism as unhealthy. But belief is too complex, health is too nuanced, and the data are too varied to draw such a generalization. Catherine Caldwell‐Harris has developed a psychological profile to understand nonbelief as an expected outcome of individual difference and therefore natural. In a similar manner I argue that we should study the relationship between belief and health through the lens of individual differences. This approach is especially promising given recent research which indicates personality fully accounts for the relationship with well‐being previously attributed to belief. This approach has the added benefit of neutralizing the conversation by understanding atheism as the healthy expression of a natural personality.     

Personality Science and Self-Regulation: Personal Projects as Integrative Units

Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori (2006 ) make a strong case for enhancing theoretical coherence in the study of self-regulation by examining recent advances in personality science. I extend their line of argument, reframe their philosophical reminders and strategically shift their suggestions. My goal is to provide an augmented base from which personality science and self-regulation research and practice can derive mutual benefit. Consensus seems to be emerging that personality science can be usefully conceptualised as a multi-tier structure, each floor of which focuses on different units of analysis. I focus on Tier I (trait units) and Tier II (PAC units (personal action constructs)). I suggest that Tier II is the home of both the social cognitive theorists and social ecological theorists and that they seem to have colluded to ignore each other. I use Cervone et al.'s timely article as a stimulant to do some renovation work on this floor. Focusing on personal projects I suggest that they provide an integrative function for personality science that augments the contributions of their close neighbors doing CAPS and KAPA research. By some minor renovations we find ourselves able to speak to the narrative theorists in the loft above and even to the trait theorists below. The resulting conversational potential, I suggest, is salutary for both personality science and the study of self-regulation.     

Are anxiety and depression just as stable as personality during late adolescence? Results from a three-year longitudinal latent variable study

Although considerable evidence shows that affective symptoms and personality traits demonstrate moderate to high relative stabilities during adolescence and early adulthood, there has been little work done to examine differential stability among these constructs or to study the manner in which the stability of these constructs is expressed. The present study used a three-year longitudinal design in an adolescent/young adult sample to examine the stability of depression symptoms, social phobia symptoms, specific phobia symptoms, neuroticism, and extraversion. When considering one-, two-, and three-year durations, anxiety and personality stabilities were generally similar and typically greater than the stability of depression. Comparison of various representations of a latent variable trait-state-occasion (TSO) model revealed that whereas the full TSO model was the best representation for depression, a trait stability model was the most parsimonious of the best-fitting models for the anxiety and personality constructs. Over three years, the percentages of variance explained by the trait component for the anxiety and personality constructs (73-84%) were significantly greater than that explained by the trait component for depression (46%). These findings indicate that symptoms of depression are more episodic in nature, whereas symptoms of anxiety are more similar to personality variables in their expression of stability.