Changes in women’s interpersonal styles across the menstrual cycle

Past research suggests that women alter their behaviors during periods of high fertility to attract mates. Consistent with this notion, the current research examined the interpersonal style, as defined by the interpersonal circumplex, men tend to find most attractive in potential mates and the change in women’s interpersonal styles across the menstrual cycle. In Study 1, a sample of 101 single men reported the interpersonal style they found most attractive in a potential mate. In Study 2, a sample of 86 women reported their interpersonal styles during each day of their menstrual cycle. Results indicated that men tended to prefer mates who were interpersonally warm and that women tended to become more interpersonally warm during periods of high fertility.     

How women's sexual orientation guides accuracy of interpersonal judgements of other women

This research examines how women's sexual orientation guides the accuracy of judgements of other women. One hundred ten judges (67 straight and 43 lesbian women) watched videotapes of 9 targets (4 straight and 5 lesbian) and made judgements about the targets' thoughts, emotions, personality, and sexual orientation. Accuracy scores were created for each judge by comparing judgements to criterion data gathered about targets. Straight judges were significantly more accurate at judging thoughts and marginally more accurate at judging emotions compared to lesbian judges. There were no significant differences in judging personality. Straight targets' thoughts and personality were more easily assessed than lesbian targets' while lesbians' emotions were more easily judged than straight targets'. Lesbian judges were more accurate at judging sexual orientation regardless of their tendency to categorize women as lesbian compared to straight judges. Findings support past research on the accurate perception of sexual orientation and contribute to understanding how sexual orientation guides person perception.     

The darker side of accommodating others: Examining the interpersonal structure of maladaptive constructs

To better understand the greater prevalence of depression among women, compared to men, we explored the darker side of accommodating others by examining where maladaptive relational constructs fit within a general structural framework provided by the interpersonal circumplex and 5-factor model of personality. Participants were four samples of undergraduate students (Ns = 302–2070) who completed questionnaires. Results indicated two clusters of maladaptive items: Submission with Connection and Submission without Connection. In general, the most maladaptive relational constructs were concentrated in the first cluster and were located in the low agency, low communion region of the interpersonal circumplex.     

The five factor model of personality and alexithymia: A meta-analysis

The main objective of the study was to examine the relationship between the Five Factor Model of Personality and alexithymia. Data were collected from 25 studies, which included 30 independent samples, 1384 effect sizes, and 7440 participants. All analyses were conducted with random effects models. Greater neuroticism and lower extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were associated with higher cognitive alexithymia. Greater neuroticism and openness to experience were linked to lower affective alexithymia. Additionally, age moderated the relationship between the Five Factor Model of Personality and cognitive alexithymia, in that the association between neuroticism and alexithymia became stronger with age whereas the relations of extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness with alexithymia became weaker with age.     

The Five Factor Model of personality and social support: A meta-analysis

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to evaluate the relation between the Big Five personality traits and social support.MethodData for the meta-analysis were collected from 72 studies, which included 84 independent samples, 624 effect sizes, and 37 678 participants.ResultsLower neuroticism and higher extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were associated with greater perceived availability of social support. Higher extraversion was related to greater perceived received social support. The personality traits-social support relationship was stronger for samples reporting perceived availability of social support from many people than it was for samples reporting perceived availability of social support from concrete people.ConclusionThe study extends current knowledge on the associations between personality traits and social support.     

Comparing Five Sets of Five‐Factor Model Personality Disorder Counts in a Heterogeneous Sample of Psychiatric Patients

The research agenda for DSM‐5 emphasizes the implementation of dimensional trait models into the classification of personality disorders (PDs). However, because assessment psychologists may still want to recover the traditional DSM‐IV categories, researchers developed a count technique that uses sums of selected Five‐Factor Model facets to assess the DSM‐IV PDs. The presented study examined the convergent and divergent validity of different linear combinations of trait facets to describe specific DSM‐IV PDs in a heterogeneous clinical sample (N = 155) with sufficient prevalence of all PDs, using semi‐structured interviews to obtain all diagnostic information, and comparing alternative counts from five different sources for each PD. The results show that none of the schizotypal, antisocial, and dependent counts succeeded in combining good convergent with adequate divergent validity. However, the original counts could be optimized for five of the seven remaining PDs by using alternative Five‐Factor Model prototypes. The diagnostic and taxonomic implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Taking religion to heart: the relationship between the Five Factor Model and the New Indices of Religious Orientation among religious students

The relationship between religious orientation and personality has been investigated using several different measures and diverse samples. As part of a larger study, 114 undergraduate students were given the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) to include only those participants who were considered religious. The final sample of 80 participants were given the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO). Based on the results of the bivariate correlations, higher levels of intrinsic religious orientation were associated with greater Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Multivariate analyses further revealed that Agreeableness was the most important personality variable when predicting intrinsic and quest religious orientations, with higher levels of Agreeableness predicting greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. While lower levels of Neuroticism predicted greater intrinsic orientation, higher levels of Neuroticism predicted greater quest orientations. Higher Conscientiousness predicted greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

A spherical conceptualization of personality traits

This research utilizes the geometric structure of the two‐dimensional Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC), and adds the Five‐Factor Model (FFM) dimension of conscientiousness to create a three‐dimensional spherical model of personality; the interpersonal sphere (IPS). A sample of 250 participants was initially used to select items that conformed to the geometric locations of 26 different characteristics on the IPS. A separate sample of 251 participants confirmed the geometric structure of these characteristic measures using randomization tests. To demonstrate an application of this three‐dimensional model, the IPS was employed as a geometric taxonomy to map various personality constructs. The combined sample of 501 participants was used to cartographically locate 164 scales from the NEO Personality Inventory, (NEO‐PI‐R), the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and the Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI‐R) onto the IPS. The spherical conception of traits provided by the three‐dimensional IPS is discussed as both an extension of the FFM and the two‐dimensional IPC. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mindfulness tempers the impact of personality on suicidal ideation

The Five Factor Model (FFM) domains of neuroticism and extraversion have consistently been related to suicidal ideation, such that individuals high in neuroticism or low in extraversion are at greater risk for suicidal thinking. The relationship between mindfulness and suicidal thoughts has not been empirically investigated in relation to personality. However, mindfulness has been shown to moderate the relationship between neuroticism and depression (Barnhofer, Duggan, & Griffith, 2011). The current study examined the relationship of the FFM domains, mindfulness, and suicidal ideation, and tested whether mindfulness would moderate the relationship between FFM domains and suicidal thinking. Results indicated that mindfulness weakened the relationship between neuroticism and suicidal ideation. Additionally, a strong negative relationship between suicidal ideation and extraversion was present at low levels of mindfulness. The possible importance of incorporating mindfulness practices in the prevention of suicidal thinking is discussed.     

“Hit Me, Maybe, One More Time”: Brief measures of impulsivity and sensation seeking and their prediction of blackjack bets and sexual promiscuity

We sought to construct an efficient, reliable, and valid self-report measure of impulsivity and sensation-seeking. We used item response theory to identify the 8 best items (ImpSS-8) from the 19-item Impulsivity and Sensation-Seeking Scale (Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993; Study 1). The ImpSS-8 interacted with a manipulated ego threat to predict blackjack bets: in a weak situation (no ego threat), individual differences were strong (a positive ImpSS-8-bets relationship); in a strong situation (ego threat), individual differences were weak (no relationship; Study 2). The ImpSS-8’s 4-item impulsivity and sensation-seeking subscales related differentially to the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (Study 2) as well as trait measures of openness and conscientiousness, hostility and physical aggression, and sexually promiscuous attitudes and timing (Study 3).     

Religion and the five factor model of personality: An exploratory investigation using a Canadian university sample

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation of religion, defined in terms of religious affiliation, religious involvement and religious orientation, to the five factor model of personality as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised using a religiously heterogeneous sample of 1129 Canadian university students. Results indicate that NEO-PI-R Agreeableness and Conscientiousness domains are significantly related to and affected by religion as measured across all three operationalizations of the construct used, though some sex differences were observed. Contrary to expectation, Neuroticism was found to differ as a function of religious affiliation with persons, particularly females, reporting No Religion obtaining significantly higher scores than those persons reporting a formal religious institution for their affiliation. Findings involving Extraversion were also inconsistent with hypotheses; Extraversion did not significantly relate to any form of religion measured. Openness was found to be largely unassociated with religion except for a significant negative correlation with a measure of extrinsic religious orientation. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings in relation to existing literature and Eysenck's hypothesis that religiousness is a function of conditionability and tender-minded attitudes. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also overviewed.     

The relationship between the Five‐Factor Model personality traits and peptic ulcer disease in a large population‐based adult sample

The current study examined the relationship between the Five‐Factor Model personality traits and physician‐confirmed peptic ulcer disease (PUD) diagnosis in a large population‐based adult sample, controlling for the relevant behavioral and sociodemographic factors. Personality traits were assessed by participants themselves and by knowledgeable informants using the NEO Personality Inventory‐3 (NEO PI‐3). When controlling for age, sex, education, and cigarette smoking, only one of the five NEO PI‐3 domain scales – higher Neuroticism – and two facet scales – lower A1: Trust and higher C1: Competence – made a small, yet significant contribution (p < 0.01) to predicting PUD in logistic regression analyses. In the light of these relatively modest associations, our findings imply that it is certain behavior (such as smoking) and sociodemographic variables (such as age, gender, and education) rather than personality traits that are associated with the diagnosis of PUD at a particular point in time. Further prospective studies with a longitudinal design and multiple assessments would be needed to fully understand if the FFM personality traits serve as risk factors for the development of PUD.     

Psychopathy and the Five Factor Model in a Noninstitutionalized Sample: A Domain and Facet Level Analysis

The relationship of primary and secondary psychopathic dispositions as measured by the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy (LSRP) Scales to NEO-PI-R domain and facet scales of the Five Factor Model (FFM) was examined in a sample (N = 463) of young adults. Previous investigations were extended by (1) addressing the relationship of higher- (i.e., domain) and lower-order (i.e., facet) FFM traits to primary and secondary psychopathy in noninstitutionalized persons, in an attempt to validate hypotheses by T. A. Widiger and D. R. Lynam (1998); (2) examining sex differences in FFM traits in relation to these two psychopathic dispositions; and (3) lending further evidence for the validity of the LSRP. LSRP primary psychopathy was marked by low Agreeableness whereas LSRP secondary psychopathy was characterized by high Neuroticism, low Agreeableness, and low Conscientiousness. Although few sex differences were found between primary and secondary psychopathy, findings support the use of NEO-PI-R domain and facet scales in the identification of personality disorder.     

Values in action scale and the Big 5: An empirical indication of structure

Within this study we used self-report measures completed by 123 undergraduate students from an Australian university to investigate the validity of Peterson and Seligman’s [Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P (2004). Character strengths and virtues. New York: Oxford.] classification system of 24 character strengths and six virtues. We also looked at how the 24 character strengths relate to the Five Factor Model of personality and to a measure of social desirability. Using a second order factor analysis of the 24 character strengths, we found that these 24 character strengths did not produce a factor structure consistent with the six higher order virtues as proposed by Peterson and Seligman [Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P (2004). Character strengths and virtues. New York: Oxford.]. Instead, the 24 character strengths were well represented by both a one and four factor solution. Patterns of significant relationships between each of the 24 character strengths, the one and four factor solutions and the Five Factor Model of personality were found. The results have implications for [Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P (2004). Character strengths and virtues. New York: Oxford.] classification.     

Relating momentary affect to the five factor model of personality: A Japanese case1

Abstract: This article shows that fundamental aspects of the structure of momentary affect are similar in Japanese and Canadian societies. We developed questionnaire scales in Japanese in four different formats for assessing self-reported momentary affect. Scales can be scored for dimensions defined by Feldman Barrett and Russell (1998 ), Thayer (1996 ), Larsen and Diener (1992 ), and Watson and Tellegen (1985 ). We administered these newly developed affect scales and NEO five-factor inventory ( Costa & McCrae, 1992 ) to a sample of 450 Japanese respondents. The affect scales were found to be psychometrically sound and to be interrelated, as found with English-speaking Canadians. Dimensions could be integrated into a two-dimensional affective space. Personality correlated with momentary affect, though not in the same pattern as found in Canada.     

The Five Factor Model in personnel selection: Measurement equivalence between applicant and non-applicant groups

This study investigates the measurement equivalence of a Five Factor measure of personality between applicant and non-applicant samples. The Big Five Questionnaire-2 was administered in two samples: A group of volunteers (n = 903), who completed the test for research purposes, and a group applying for jobs, who completed the test during hiring procedures (n = 401). Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis on item composites was conducted to test for the equivalence of factor covariance and mean structures of twenty facets of the Five Factors. Item-level analyses were carried out through analysis of variance to further examine the issue of measurement invariance. Findings suggested that personality facets have the same measurement unit across applicants and non-applicants, while a lack of equivalence was found in the origin of the scales. Similar results were found at the item-level. Implications for personality assessment are advanced and discussed.     

A latent profile analysis of the Five Factor Model of personality: Modeling trait interactions

Interactions among the dimensions of the Five Factor Model (FFM) have not typically been evaluated in mental health research, with the extant literature focusing on bivariate relationships with psychological constructs of interest. This study used latent profile analysis to mimic higher-order interactions to identify homogenous personality profiles using the FFM, and also examined relationships between resultant profiles and affect, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and coping efficacy. Participants (N = 371) completed self-report and daily diary questionnaires. A 3-profile solution provided the best fit to the data; the profiles were characterized as well-adjusted, reserved, and excitable. The well-adjusted group reported better psychological functioning in validation analyses. The reserved and excitable groups differed on anxiety, with the excitable group reporting generally higher anxiety than the reserved group. Latent profile analysis may be a parsimonious way to model personality heterogeneity.