Personality traits and cognitive styles as risk factors for serious suicide attempts among young people.

The contribution of a series of measures of personality and/or cognitive style to serious suicide attempt risk in young people was examined in a case-control study. Individuals making suicide attempts had elevated odds of hopelessness, neuroticism, introversion, low self-esteem, impulsiveness, and external locus of control. When allowance was made for intercorrelations between these measures, hopelessness, neuroticism, and external locus of control remained significant risk factors for serious suicide attempt; self-esteem, extraversion, and impulsiveness were not significantly associated with suicide attempt risk. Nonsignificant findings were explained by the presence of substantial correlations between these measures and measures of hopelessness, neuroticism, and external locus of control.     

Personality Change in the Oldest‐Old: Is It a Matter of Compromised Health and Functioning?

The present longitudinal study investigates continuity and change in the personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism among the oldest‐old. Overall disease load, self‐rated health, functional capacity, impaired vision and hearing, self‐reported cognitive impairment, and measured cognitive status were tested for their role as potentially relevant late‐life predictors of personality change. The sample consists of 408 individuals aged 80–98 in the Swedish OCTO‐Twin Study who completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory at four measurement occasions during a 6‐year period. Growth curve analyses revealed an age‐related linear decrease in extraversion and stability in neuroticism. More extraverted individuals were more educated and perceived their health and cognition as better. Notably, only hearing impairment was found to be related to a steeper age‐related decline in extraversion. A life span developmental model focusing on health‐related changes can improve our understanding of personality change in late life.     

Personality development in old age relates to physical health and cognitive performance: Evidence from the Berlin Aging Study II

We examine how late-life personality development relates to overall morbidity as well as specific performance-based indicators of physical and cognitive functioning in 1,232 older adults in the Berlin Aging Study II (aged 65–88 years). Latent growth models indicated that, on average, neuroticism and conscientiousness decline over time, whereas extraversion and openness increase and agreeableness remains stable. Higher morbidity and worse grip strength were associated with higher neuroticism. Lower grip strength was further associated with lower openness, attenuated increases in extraversion, decreases in agreeableness and accelerated declines in conscientiousness. Moreover, those with poor perceptual speed reported higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness. We also found age- and gender-differential associations between physical health and cognitive performance with levels of and changes in personality.     

Personality dimensions and subjective well-being

This work examines the association between personality dimensions (extraversion and neuroticism) and subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is associated both with extraversion and neuroticism, and currently, neuroticism is generally considered the more important. A total of 368 students from the University of Rovira i Virgili completed the Extraversion and Neuroticism subscales of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck, Eysenck, and Barrett, 1985), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin, 1985), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen, 1988). Regression analyses revealed the personality variable of neuroticism as one of the most important correlates of subjective well-being. Regression analyses also showed that 44% of the variance of subjective well-being was accounted for by neuroticism, whereas extraversion only explained 8% of the variance.     

情绪调节在特质与情绪间中介效应模型的年龄差异

研究采用EPQ、ERQ及PANAS收集了青年、中年及老年三个年龄组共870份有效数据, 分析了认知重评和表情抑制在外倾和神经质与正负情绪之间中介效应及发展模型差异。主要结果：(1)外倾−正情绪, 神经质−负情绪之间存在高相关。(2)与青年组和老年组比, 中年组的神经质与负情绪的相关最弱。(3)三个年龄组的认知重评在神经质与负情绪之间都存在显著的中介效应, 中介效应值在中年组为最强。(4) 表情抑制在外倾与正负情绪之间显著的中介效应仅出现在中年组。研究分析, 认知重评和表情抑制是减弱特质−情绪之间密切度的有效调节机制。     

Personality change influences mortality in older men

Previous studies have indicated that high neuroticism is associated with early mortality. However, recent work suggests that people's level of neuroticism changes over long periods of time. We hypothesized that such changes in trait neuroticism affect mortality risk. Growth-curve parameters (levels and slopes) that quantified the trajectories of neuroticism change over 12 years were used to predict 18-year risk of mortality among 1,663 aging men. Proportional hazards models were used to estimate mortality risk from level and slope parameters, controlling for objective and subjective health, depression, and age. Although a parallel analysis of extraversion showed no significant effects, level and slope of neuroticism interacted in their effect on mortality. Men who had both a high average level of neuroticism and an increasing level of neuroticism over time had much lower survival than men without that combination. These findings suggest that it is not just the level of personality traits, but their direction of change, that is related to mortality.     

Personality and Memory in Old Age

We examined the impact of personality on episodic memory performance in a sample of 287 healthy adults aged 68-95 years. Extraversion and neuroticism were assessed with a standardized personality inventory. Episodic memory was assessed with an everyday task. Results from regression analyses controlling for the effects of age, gender, and education show that higher extraversion and lower neuroticism are associated with higher episodic memory performance. In addition, the strength of the correlations between neuroticism and episodic memory declined with increasing age in a male sub-sample, revealing an interaction between age and neuroticism.     

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.     

Personality from a controlled processing perspective: An fMRI study of neuroticism,extraversion, and self-consciousness

Although neuroticism has been central to most theories of personality, self-reported neuroticism has had limited success in predicting expected behavioral outcomes. The reason for this may be due, in part, to the imprecision of self-reports. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between neural correlates of control systems and neuroticism, extraversion, and self-consciousness. In response to an oddball task, neuroticism was associated with increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) reactivity, typically associated with discrepancy detection, whereas extraversion and self-consciousness were associated with lateral and medial frontoparietal networks, respectively, typically associated with task-focused (lateral) or self-focused (medial) controlled processes. We also examined whether the neural measure of neuroticism would predict a relevant behavioral outcome better than self-reports would. Interoceptive accuracy, an outcome associated with neuroticism, was better accounted for by dACC reactivity (r ²=.74) than by self-reported neuroticism (r ²=.16), suggesting that neural reactivities may provide a more direct measure of personality than self-reports do.     

青少年人格、人口学变量与主观幸福感的关系模型

采用分层随机抽样的方法,抽取了379名中学生和大学生样本,在多元相关分析的基础上,结合文献分析,采用结构方程建模技术,探讨了我国青少年学生人口学变量、人格维度和主观幸福感(SWB)的结构关系。结果表明,人口学变量中的年级和经济状况变量既与SWB有直接的关系,又通过大五人格中的神经质维度或外倾性维度对SWB有间接的效应,其中,经济状况对主观幸福感的正面效应较大,而性别和城乡变量则仅通过神经质和外倾性对SWB有微弱的间接效应;大五人格维度中,宜人性与SWB没有显著关系,开放性和严谨性通过神经质或外倾性与SWB存在间接效应,神经质和外倾性则对SWB有较强的直接预测力;结构方程模型验证了人格、人口学变量与SWB的这种关系。     

The interactive effect of neuroticism and extraversion on the daily variability of affective states

The interaction between neuroticism and extraversion is thought to predict affective variability. In this study, neuroticism and extraversion were assessed with questionnaires, and affects were measured by experience sampling, with five daily assessments over 2 weeks. Affective variability was studied within a three-dimensional affective space whose three axes were oriented along the main affective dimensions: positive affect, negative affect, and activation. Quantile regression mixed-effects models allowed predicting zones in which affective states were most likely to occur according to personality. Beyond the well-known effect of personality on affect level, high neuroticism and/or high extraversion were accompanied by heightened affective variability. Results were interpreted as potentially reflecting positive feedback loops oriented toward negative affect for neuroticism, and toward positive affect and activation for extraversion.     

Personality and Olfactory Sensitivity

Even though perceptional abilities have repeatedly been found to be associated with certain personality styles (e.g., extraversion), such connections were reported sparsely for the olfactory modality. Two studies were carried out to investigate the relationship between olfactory sensitivity and 12 personality dimensions (including extraversion and neuroticism). In the first study, single olfactory measurements were compared to repeated measurements. In the second study, twins were recruited as subjects to also examine the heredity of olfactory sensitivity. The results indicate that neuroticism is a stronger predictor for olfactory sensitivity than extraversion. Repeated measurements seem to be necessary to obtain valid data on olfactory performance.     

Personality trait change and life satisfaction in adults: The roles of age and hedonic balance

This paper examines whether changes in personality traits influenced life satisfaction (LS). This involved investigating whether these associations were moderated by age and mediated by hedonic balance (i.e., positive and negative affect). Participants included 11,104 Australian adults aged 18–79 years, with data available from two time points (baseline and 4-year follow up). Latent difference score modeling indicated that increased neuroticism was associated with lower LS, whereas increased extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were associated with higher LS. These relationships were moderated by age, and were less evident in older adults. Hedonic balance partially mediated the relationships between change in neuroticism and extraversion with LS. These findings provide important insights into longitudinal associations between personality change and LS.     

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.     

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.     

An investigation of cognitive test performance across conditions of silence,background noise and music as a function of neuroticism

The present study investigates the role of trait neuroticism on cognitive performance under distraction. Seventy participants were given a personality test and then undertook a number of different cognitive tasks in silence, in the presence of popular music and in background noise. It was predicted that performance on a general intelligence test, a test of abstract reasoning, and a mental arithmetic task would be adversely affected by background sounds. It was predicted that neuroticism would be negatively correlated with performance on the mental arithmetic task but only when the individuals were working in the presence of background sound. Stable vs. unstable participant's performance on a mental arithmetic task during noise was significantly higher as predicted. The results provided partial support for the hypotheses and are discussed with respect to previous findings in the literature on personality (particularly introversion–extraversion) and distraction on cognitive task performance. Limitations are noted.     

Be yourself,believe in yourself,and be happy: Self‐efficacy as a mediator between personality factors and subjective well‐being

Strobel, M., Tumasjan, A. & Spörrle, M. (2011). Be yourself, believe in yourself, and be happy: Self‐efficacy as a mediator between personality factors and subjective well‐being. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 52, 43–48. Research has shown close connections between personality and subjective well‐being (SWB), suggesting that personality traits predispose individuals to experience different levels of SWB. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that self‐efficacy is related to both personality factors and SWB. Extending previous research, we show that general self‐efficacy functionally connects personality factors and two components of SWB (life satisfaction and subjective happiness). Our results demonstrate the mediating role of self‐efficacy in linking personality factors and SWB. Consistent with our expectations, the influence of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness on life satisfaction was mediated by self‐efficacy. Furthermore, self‐efficacy mediated the influence of openness and conscientiousness, but not that of neuroticism and extraversion, on subjective happiness. Results highlight the importance of cognitive beliefs in functionally linking personality traits and SWB.     

Stability and change in genetic and environmental components of personality in old age

Stability and change in the mean levels and sources of variation in personality was examined. A sample of 149 monozygotic and 202 dizygotic twin pairs over 80 years were studied three times with a 2-year interval between measurement occasions. The Eysenck Personality Inventory to measure extraversion and neuroticism was used. Linear mixed models and Cholesky variance decomposition were carried out (age, gender and mortality controlled). High mean level stability was found in extraversion and neuroticism. Mortality was related to lower scores in extraversion and higher scores in neuroticism. In extraversion and neuroticism, genetic effects were moderate. Though no new genetic contributions emerged over time, significant new environmental effects were found over time. Controlling for mortality slightly increased genetic effect in extraversion.     

Do humor styles matter in the relationship between personality and subjective well‐being?

The primary goal of this research was to examine the role of humor styles in the relationships between personality (extraversion and neuroticism) and two components of subjective well-being: life satisfaction and affective well-being. The sample consisted of 225 young adults, with mean age 23.61 years. Results indicated that the relationship between both extraversion and neuroticism and satisfaction with life could be partially explained by the mediating role of self-enhancing humor. Additionally, affiliative humor proved to be a partial mediator of the relationship between neuroticism and affective well-being. The findings of this research suggested that adaptive humor styles might be one of the mechanisms linking personality and subjective well-being.