Personality, delinquency, and criminal recidivism

This study explores the relationship between PEN profiles, delinquency, and recidivism in young offenders. According to Eysenck, personality is based on three basic Dimensions: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism (PEN-model). Eysenck states that delinquents score high on all three dimensions. A group of young male offenders in a juvenile detention center in The Netherlands were studied to test Eysenck's hypothesis, which was partially confirmed. From a cluster analysis it appear that only a small group of offenders had high scores on all three PEN dimensions. Finally, it was concluded that the PEN profiles were not able to differentiate between recidivists and nonrecidivists.     

Decision making and learning while taking sequential risks

A sequential risk-taking paradigm used to identify real-world risk takers invokes both learning and decision processes. This article expands the paradigm to a larger class of tasks with different stochastic environments and different learning requirements. Generalizing a Bayesian sequential risk-taking model to the larger set of tasks clarifies the roles of learning and decision making during sequential risky choice. Results show that respondents adapt their learning processes and associated mental representations of the task to the stochastic environment. Furthermore, their Bayesian learning processes are shown to interfere with the paradigm's identification of risky drug use, whereas the decision-making process facilitates its diagnosticity. Theoretical implications of the results in terms of both understanding risk-taking behavior and improving risk-taking assessment methods are discussed.     

Personality factors in the Eysenck personality questionnaire

Hierarchical factor analyses were carried out on raw scored EPQ data yielded from two samples of subjects, a Gallup adult quota sample of 1198 subjects and 406 university undergraduates. Each sample was split by sex providing six data sets for analysis. Results at the second order level clearly indicated the recovery of practically all the E, N and L items as three distinct factors, P item recovery differed among males and females. Adult female and student female subject groups did not show clear recovery of a substantial majority of P items. Although P, as a factor, did not appear recognisably in the male student sample, this was interpreted as being due either to the low subject: variable ratio and/or to the low subject number (N=171) and its resultant lack of definition of initial P item variance. The P factor appeared most strongly as a second order in the total Gallup, total student, and male Gallup sample.     

Personality and demographic differences in the perceived risks of potentially timid driving behaviours

Timid driving behaviours can be described as overly cautious and hesitant driving behaviours. Little research has examined behaviours that potentially resemble timid driving and how these behaviours are perceived by other drivers. This is despite the potential for these behaviours to be perceived in a way that leads to angry and aggressive retaliatory behaviours in some drivers (e.g., in anger-prone drivers). We conducted an online survey examining the perceived road safety risks of several behaviours that could potentially result from timid driving and their relationships with driver personality (trait anxiety, trait driving anger), behaviour (anxious driving, angry driving), and demographic (age, gender, annual mileage) background. Drivers (N = 439, M_age = 49.41 ± 5.59 years, aged 18–89) perceived excessively cautious and unpredictable braking behaviours as posing moderate levels of risk. Multiple linear regression analyses also indicated higher perceived risks of slow and excessively cautious behaviours in older, male, and anger prone drivers. No meaningful associations were found between driver characteristics and the risks of unpredictable braking behaviours. These results suggest that safety campaigns to reduce aggressive behaviour may benefit from targeting the perceptions of other drivers’ behaviours.     

Personality and sexual risk taking: a quantitative review

Findings from a quantitative review of the empirical research literature on normal personality and sexual risk taking are reported. The review focuses on domains identified in major models of normal personality representing the psychobiological and taxonomic perspectives. Focal sexual risk-taking behaviors were number of partners, unprotected sex, and high-risk sexual encounters (e.g., sex with a stranger). A comprehensive search produced 53 studies relevant to the review. A striking feature of the results is the paucity of research on domains of normal personality and sexual risk taking for all domains other than sensation seeking, which accounted for 64% of the effect sizes. The preponderance of studies (81%) took the psychobiological perspective and were published since 1990 (75%). Among the substantive findings were effects for sensation seeking, impulsivity, and agreeableness on all sexual risk-taking behaviors considered. Additionally, there were effects on specific behaviors for neuroticism and conscientiousness. The implications of these findings for future research on normal personality and sexual risk taking are discussed.     

Personality from a realist’s perspective: Personality traits, criminal behaviors, and the externalizing spectrum

Reviews ways in which the author’s program of research has been influenced by Tellegen’s (1991) conceptualization of personality traits as both real and biologically based entities. Analyses of longitudinal-epidemiological data on personality and criminal behavior indicate that personality measures and measures of criminal behavior can be conceived of as indicators of a latent, stable propensity to act in an unconstrained manner. In addition, an unconstrained personality style, substance dependence, and antisocial behavior can be modeled as indicators of a highly heritable propensity towards “externalizing” or acting-out behaviors, with environmental factors playing a key role in determining the specific way in which this general, heritable externalizing propensity is expressed. Such research outlines the value of concepts from personality psychology in understanding consequential behaviors in the population at large.     

Personality factors and cervical premalignancy

The purpose of the study was to attempt a discrimination between stages of cervical premalignancy in terms of the four Eysenckian dimensions. It consisted of a quasi-prospective design applied to the presumed continuum of cervical premalignancy. The Ss were 88 women addressed by a physician or self-addressed for Pap smear examinations. Prior to the Pap smear they completed a demographic questionnaire and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire providing scores of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and lie (L). By the Pap smear results there were four groups of women: healthy, suffering from vaginal or cervical inflammations, suffering from human papillomaviruses (HPV), and suffering from dysplasias or cervical intraepithelial neoplasms (CIN). ANOVA and discriminant analyses showed that the Eysenckian dimensions discriminated correctly with above chance significance between the groups, mainly between the healthy and inflammatory, on the one hand, and the HPV and CIN, on the other hand (on the basis of N and E scores), and less well between the healthy and inflammatory (on the basis of L scores), and least between the HPV and CIN (on the basis of P scores). As expected, in the healthy and inflammatory groups as compared with the HPV and CIN groups, N and P scores were higher whereas E and L scores were lower. The results indicate the correspondence between physiological and psychological characteristics and suggest especially the alternating relation between neuroticism and physical pathology.     

Personality factors and somatic symptoms

This study investigates the association between self-reported somatic complaints (GSCL, Giessen Symptom Check List), medically evaluated global health and coping style (MBHI, Millon Behavior Health Inventory), current emotions (TESI, Tension Effort Stress Inventory), subjective well-being, and mental absorption (ABS, Tellegen Absorption Scale). The MBHI basic coping scales denoted introversive, sociable, confident, and respectful were negatively correlated with the GSCL, while the inhibited and the sensitive scales were positively correlated with the GSCL. The forceful and the cooperative scales were uncorrelated with symptoms. All the psychogenic attitude scales were firmly positively associated with reported somatic complaints. Mental absorption was weakly positively associated with the GSCL. Current emotions were firmly positively and negatively related to symptom report. Medically assessed health status was almost uncorrelated with the MBHI scales, current mood, well-being, and absorption. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality factors in relation to violent crimes

The personalities of a group of 54 persons (51 men and 3 women), imprisoned for the perpetration of violent crimes, were evaluated. The results were then compared to a normative group. This study considers personality factors and dimensions on three levels: (a) Basic factors: the "Big Five", (b) Personality disorders and clinical syndromes, (c) Personality dimensions related to personal wellbeing and social adaptation said to define a psychologically healthy individual. The results of the study show that it is not possible to define a basic personality profile for this group of violent delinquents based on the "Big Five" factors. It is, however, possible to find two habitual patterns of behaviour if the Millon Model (1990) is applied. These two behaviour patterns and attitudes towards life situations will be named "Dependent with compulsive traits" and "Psychopath tendencies". Both relate to indicators of mental health.     

Instrumental and disinhibited financial risk taking: Personality and behavioural correlates

Risk taking, including that within the financial domain, is often considered to represent a unidimensional personality trait. This paper considers the relatively unexplored construct of instrumental financial risk taking: a class of behaviours that while inherently risky, are entered into with a greater degree of consideration than more impulsive or disinhibited forms of risk taking. Participants (N = 1043) completed a novel questionnaire assessing instrumental and disinhibited financial risk taking as part of a battery including measures of: sensation-seeking, impulsivity, psychopathic personality traits and real life financial outcomes. Correlations revealed a divergent pattern of relationships supporting the utility of characterising these different forms of financial risk. Scores on the novel instrument are shown to explain more than 10% of the variance in the use of riskier, more productive savings products, over and above the influence of demographics and financial status.     

A case law survey of the Personality Assessment Inventory: examining its role in civil and criminal trials

Although professional surveys suggest that the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) is a popular instrument among forensic and correctional psychologists, relatively little is known about the specific types of legal cases in which it is applied, the particular types of questions it is used to address, or the extent to which its admissibility has been at issue in court cases. Using a comprehensive legal database, we surveyed all published U.S., Canadian, European, and Australian criminal and civil cases in which the PAI was administered. The PAI appears to be introduced by examiners in a wide variety of civil (e.g., child custody, personal injury) and criminal (e.g., insanity, competence) cases to aid in the assessment of a broad range of psychopathology. Additionally, the PAI seems to be used frequently to assess questions concerning potential dissimulation and response styles. Surprisingly, the admissibility of the PAI into evidence was never at issue in any of the cases reviewed.     

Personality factors as predictors of pathological gambling

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between different personality variables and pathological gambling (PG). The NEO-FFI and measures of impulsivity and sensation-seeking were administered to a sample of pathological gamblers (n = 90) and to a contrast group of non-pathological gamblers (n = 66) matched on sex and age. Gender, age, education level and the personality variables were entered into crude and adjusted logistic regression analyses with PG-status as the dependent variable. The results showed that educational level and all personality variables were significant predictors of PG in the crude analyses, however only four of the 12 significant predictor variables (Neuroticism, Openness, Impulsivity, and need for Stimulus Intensity) remained significant in the adjusted analysis. All predictor variables accounted for 71% of the variance in PG-status. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.