Personality and individual differences in responses to aggression triggering events among prisoners and non-prisoners

This paper examines the relationships between individual differences in situational triggers of aggressive behaviors (STAR) and the FFM personality traits. The investigation, conducted among Polish male and female offenders and students, revealed different relationships across samples. Among students, higher sensitivity to frustration and provocation was related to higher Neuroticism and lower Agreeableness and sensitivity to provoking situations to lower Openness to Experience. Among prisoners, however, lower Agreeableness was negatively linked to being more sensitive to provocation. Furthermore, the study found sex differences in STAR scales in the student sample but not the prisoners’ sample.     

Trajectories of Big Five Personality Traits: A Coordinated Analysis of 16 Longitudinal Samples

This study assessed change in self-reported Big Five personality traits. We conducted a coordinated integrative data analysis using data from 16 longitudinal samples, comprising a total sample of over 60 000 participants. We coordinated models across multiple datasets and fit identical multi-level growth models to assess and compare the extent of trait change over time. Quadratic change was assessed in a subset of samples with four or more measurement occasions. Across studies, the linear trajectory models revealed declines in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness. Non-linear models suggested late-life increases in neuroticism. Meta-analytic summaries indicated that the fixed effects of personality change are somewhat heterogeneous and that the variability in trait change is partially explained by sample age, country of origin, and personality measurement method. We also found mixed evidence for predictors of change, specifically for sex and baseline age. This study demonstrates the importance of coordinated conceptual replications for accelerating the accumulation of robust and reliable findings in the lifespan developmental psychological sciences. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Role of Cognitive Style in the Link Between Genes and Political Ideology

There is growing interest in how genes affect political beliefs. To better understand the role of genes in politics, we examine the relationship between cognitive style (the need for cognition, the need for cognitive closure) and various measures of political attitudes (issue‐based ideology, identity‐based ideology, social ideology, economic ideology, authoritarianism, and egalitarianism). We show, for the first time, that the need for cognition and the need for cognitive closure are heritable and are linked to political ideology primarily, perhaps solely, because of shared genetic influences; these links are stronger for social than economic ideology. Although prior research demonstrated that Openness to Experience shares genetic variance with political ideology, we find that these measures of cognitive style account for distinct genetic variance in political ideology. Moreover, the genetic Openness‐ideology link is fully accounted for by the need for cognition. This combination of findings provides a clearer understanding of the role of genes in political beliefs and suggests new directions for research on Big Five personality traits and ideology.     

人格测验的参照情境效应

人格测验的参照情境效应是指,在一般人格测验的基础上,设置某种特定的参照情境,进而使测验的效标关联效度得以提高的现象。在过去十余年里,参照情境效应的考察重心从早期的效度证据搜集逐渐转向内部机理的探讨。研究者试图通过参照情境与效标的逻辑关联、参照情境的被试间变异及被试内变异来解释现象背后的测量学原理。在构念层面则提出“人格和角色认同层级模型”,以此说明参照情境效应的人格机制问题。然而,该主题的探索尚处于初始阶段,未来研究可从参照情境的操作范式、参照情境效应的调节机制等方面继续寻求突破。     

Personality traits as moderators of the associations between deployment experiences and PTSD symptoms in OEF/OIF service members

Abstract

This investigation examined traits from the five-factor model of personality as moderators of the associations of combat and aftermath of battle experiences with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 214 National Guard/Reserve service members deployed to operations enduring and Iraqi freedom. Extraversion significantly moderated the associations of both combat experiences and aftermath of battle experiences with PTSD severity, with associations weakening as levels of extraversion increased. The relation between aftermath of battle experiences and PTSD was also moderated by the other four personality factors, with the relation being weaker at higher levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, and lower levels of neuroticism. These results suggest that personality traits may impact individual responses to war trauma, particularly war-related experiences that are not directly threatening to one's safety (i.e., aftermath of battle events vs. actual combat events). Although this investigation was cross-sectional, these findings indicate that personality traits are an important risk/resiliency factor to consider in people's responses to traumatic events.     

Do Affiliative and Autonomous Styles Relate to Peer Relational Victimization and Aggression?

This study considers whether established depressogenic personal styles based on Beck’s theory of autonomy and sociotropy relate to peer relational victimization and aggression. A diverse emerging adult sample was administered a computer-based survey. Latent profile analysis revealed affiliative, autonomous, and more balanced personal styles. Autonomous and affiliative style participants reported greater peer relational aggression than balanced style participants. Peer relational victimization mediated autonomous style differences in peer relational aggression. Additionally, peer relational victimization mediated the affiliative style difference in peer relational aggression among males and depressed females. Finally, the effect of peer relational victimization on relational aggression was greatest among depressed affiliative and depressed autonomous adults. Results highlight the potential that personal styles relate to depression risk pathways for peer relational victimization and aggression.     

The Value of Children to Hong Kong Chinese Parents

Married adults (N = 720) between 30 and 60 years old responded to the 12-item Chinese Value of Children Scale (Shek, Lam, Tsoi, & Lam, 1993). Although the respondents generally agreed that children contribute to parents' own personal growth, spousal relations, family happiness, and family wholeness, a majority also perceived that parenthood was associated with increased financial burden and personal sacrifice. In contrast to the heavy emphases on the traditional Chinese values of security and posterity, these Hong Kong Chinese parents did not seem to emphasize such values strongly. Results also showed that the Chinese fathers tended to perceive parenthood as more positive and less burdensome than the Chinese mothers did.     

Weber's Protestant Ethic Revisited: An African Case

McClelland (1961) has argued that the values implicit in Weber's (1930) so-called Protestant ethic lead individuals to a concern with achievement. In order to investigate whether introduction of a Protestant ideology into a non-Western society was associated with an orientation toward achievement, East African Quaker Abaluyia were compared with non-Quaker Abaluyia on a battery of tests. The findings indicated that Quakers emphasized education, held realistic beliefs about the behaviors bound up with success in their sociocultural system, exhibited health patterns similar to those of educated individuals in developing countries, and had been exposed in childhood to socialization practices that downplayed physical punishment. These results, although consistent with the Weber-McClelland formulation, were relatively sparse in relation to the total number of comparisons undertaken.