Some Personality Predictors of Tolerance to Human Diversity: The Roles of Openness,Agreeableness, and Empathy

The aim of this study was to determine the most salient predictors of tolerance to human diversity. A total of 118 individuals (M = 32.93 years, standard deviation = 13.80) responded to dilemma‐like stories involving holding prejudicial beliefs (beliefs), talking about them (speech) and acting on them (acts). Participants also completed the openness and agreeableness scales from the Big Five Inventory and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Differences in tolerance judgements were found to be related to differences in personality characteristics. Results showed that openness and agreeableness were predictors of tolerance in the belief dimension, whereas the most salient predictor of tolerance in the speech and act dimensions was empathic concern, which also mediated the relationships between agreeableness and tolerance for these dimensions. These findings are not unexpected because holding intolerant beliefs is inconsistent with having an open mind, and intolerant speech and actions are inconsistent with pro‐social behaviour, of which tolerance is arguably one form.     

Type D personality and cardiac output in response to stress

Type D personality is predictive of adverse clinical outcome and psychological distress in cardiac patients. However, the mechanisms by which Type D affects health are largely unknown. This study (1) investigated the relationship between Type D and cardiovascular reactivity to experimentally induced stress and (2) tested the influence of Type D on subjective feelings of stress. Eighty four healthy young adults (50% males, mean (SD) age 22 (6.84) years), completed measures of Type D personality, stress arousal and a stress-inducing procedure involving a taxing mental arithmetic task. Cardiovascular measures were recorded throughout the experiment. Mixed measures ANOVA showed a significant main effect of Type D and a significant group by time effect of Type D on cardiac output in male participants. Type D males exhibit significantly higher cardiac output during the stressor phase compared to non-Type D males. However, there was no relationship between Type D and cardiovascular reactivity in females. In addition, Type D individuals exhibited significantly higher feelings of subjective stress compared to non-Type D's. These findings provide new evidence on Type D and suggest that Type D may affect health through increased cardiac output and higher subjective feelings of stress following acute stress.     

Personality and health habits

Abstract

Four hundred and fifty-five males and 523 females from a community sample participated in a study on the relationship between seven health practices (sleeping; breakfasting; snacking; being at good weight; smoking; alcohol consumption and physical activity) and seven personality factors (Neuroticism; Social Inadequacy; Rigidity; Hostility; Self-sufficiency; Dominance and Self-esteem).

It was found that the seven health habits did not constitute a homogeneous operationalization of a construct “positive lifestyle.” The intercorrelations between the different health practices were typically low. The results of MANOVAs and subsequent ANOVAs revealed small, but statistically significant differences between subjects reporting positive and those reporting poor health habits. The failure to find significant interactions with sex indicated that the results for males and females were generally similar. Neuroticism and hostility discriminated best between the groups with poor or good health behaviors. This held for sleeping, exercising, breakfasting daily and smoking. In addition, sporting people scored lower on social inadequacy and higher on self-esteem. Further, individuals who do not have a daily breakfast were more self-sufficient. Snacking individuals were generally less rigid and less dominant, but more hostile. In conclusion, most negative health habits were found to be associated with personality attributes which are intimately related to symptom reporting (neuroticism, hostility). Given the generally weak associations, it is concluded that, in order to obtain a more complete picture of the individual's psychosocial risk profile, lifestyle data should be collected together with information on the person's stress and his or her coping qualities.     

Neuroticism,conscientiousness and fruit consumption: Exploring mediator and moderator effects in the theory of planned behaviour

Integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with the five-factor model (FFM) of personality may provide insight into the cognitive and motivational mechanisms linking personality with health behaviour, but this issue has received very little attention regarding fruit consumption. Mediator effects of TPB concepts in the personality–fruit consumption link, as well as moderator effects of personality in the intention–fruit consumption link, were therefore investigated in the present study. Data on fruit consumption, TPB concepts and FFM dimensions were gathered among 405 respondents in face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the mediator and moderator effects. The direct effect of conscientiousness on fruit consumption was mediated by attitude and perceived behavioural control, while no direct effect of neuroticism on fruit consumption was found. Neuroticism moderated the intention–fruit consumption relationship with the weakest relationship for those scoring high on neuroticism. Conscientiousness did not moderate the intention–fruit consumption relationship. TPB variables are mediators in the conscientiousness–fruit consumption link. Whether fruit consumption is intentional may be dependent upon the personality dimension neuroticism. Personality dimensions may be a useful addition to the TPB and should be considered in health behaviour change interventions.     

Interventions to prevent skin cancer: Experimental evaluation of informational and fear appeals

Abstract

Reports experimental and correlational analyses of intentional sunbathing in 82 female and 54 male suntanned adults at high-risk of skin cancer. Random assignment to high or low information conditions allowed evaluation of a widely-distributed American Cancer Society pamphlet. A crossed manipulation assigned subjects to a cancer fear/no fear condition. Personality variables served as correlational predictors of sunbathing attitudes, intentions, and information-seeking behaviors; skin cancer knowledge served as both a predictor and a dependent variable. Skin cancer knowledge, but not fear, emerged as a significant predictor of attitudes, intentions, and behaviors; and simple provision of information affected relevant knowledge. Contrary to the limits often encountered with health behaviors, specific cancer education appears to be somewhat effective in this domain, though indirectly. High risk-taking personalities were less likely to have or seek relevant information, suggesting the need to take into account individual predispositions and routes of knowledge acquisition when designing interventions.     

Type D personality and social relations in adults with diabetes: results from diabetes MILES – The Netherlands

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether individual differences in Type D personality (combination of negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI)) could explain heterogeneity in perceived social support and relationship adjustment (intimate partner relationship) among people living with diabetes.

Design: In the Diabetes MILES—The Netherlands survey, 621 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (54% female, age: 56?±?14 years) completed measures of Type D personality (DS14), perceived social support and relationship adjustment. We used established DS14 cut-off scores to indicate Type D personality, high NA only, high SI only and reference groups.

Results: Participants from the Type D and NA only groups perceived lower levels of social support (Welch[3,259]?=?37.27, p?<?0.001), and relationship adjustment (Welch[3,191]?=?14.74; p?<?0.01) than those from the SI only and reference groups. Type D was associated with lower social support (lowest quartile; adjusted OR?=?8.73; 95%CI?=?5.05?～?15.09; p?<?0.001) and lower relationship adjustment (lowest quartile; adjusted OR?=?3.70; 95%CI?=?2.10?～?6.53; p?<?0.001). Type D was also associated with increased levels of loneliness.

Conclusion: Participants with Type D and participants with high NA only tend to experience less social support and less relationship adjustment. Type D personality was also associated with more loneliness. Experiencing lower social support and relationship adjustment may complicate coping and self-management in people with diabetes.     

Personality Psychology in the First Decade of the New Millennium: A Bibliometric Portrait

Nine principal personality psychology journals—Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP), Journal of Personality (JP), Journal of Research in Personality (JRP), European Journal of Personality (EJP), Personality and Individual Differences (PAID), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB), Personality and Social Psychology Review (PSPR), Journal of Personality Assessment (JPA), and Journal of Personality Disorders (JPD)—have published 8510 research papers from 2001 to 2010. These papers have been cited 149 108 times (September 2011) by papers published in journals indexed in the Web of Science. Although personality psychologists from the US published the largest number of papers (4924, 57.9%) and had the largest number of citations (101 875, 68.3%), their relative contribution to personality literature has slightly diminished during the first decade of the new millennium. Unlike other countries, personality psychologists residing in the US demonstrated a strong country self‐citation bias: They were about 14% more likely to cite papers which were written by their compatriots rather than non‐US authors in three leading journals JPSP, PSPB, and PSPR. The intensity and pattern of citations indicate that personality psychology indeed occupies one of the core positions at the heart of psychological knowledge. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Exon 3 VNTR Contributes to Adaptive Personality Differences in an Italian Small Island Population

The search for evolutionary forces shaping the diversity of human personality traits encouraged studies that have found that islanders are relatively closed and introverted, with little interest in the external world. The ‘personality gene flow’ hypothesis was proposed to explain the mechanism underlying this difference, suggesting that the frequency of alleles that influence islander personality traits might progressively increase in the gene pools on islands because of selective emigration of individuals not displaying these alleles. We genotyped 96 individuals from the Italian mainland and 117 from Giglio Island, whose residents were previously assessed regarding their personality traits. We genotyped three polymorphisms: the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) exon 3 repeat region, the serotonin‐transporter SLC6A4 5‐HTTLPR indel and the dopamine transporter SLC6A3 DAT1 3′UTR repeat region. Only the DRD4 exon 3 repeat was hypothesised to show varying allele frequencies because this polymorphism could be associated with human migration and personality traits such as extraversion, openness and novelty seeking. As predicted, no differences in allele frequencies were found for the SLC6A4 and SLC6A3 polymorphisms, whereas significant differences were observed in the frequency of the DRD4 exon 3 alleles. The DRD4.2 repeat was more common in mainlanders, as expected, whereas the DRD4.7 allele was over‐represented among islanders who never emigrated. This last result contradicts the suggested association of this allele with long‐distance migrations. We suggest that emigration might have caused gene flow out the island that resulted in somewhat unpredictable changes in the frequencies of specific alleles, thus influencing islander personality traits. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Emotional Stability and Affective Self‐regulatory Efficacy Beliefs: Proofs of Integration between Trait Theory and Social Cognitive Theory

The present study aimed to investigate the development and interplay of emotional stability and affective self‐regulatory efficacy beliefs through adolescence to young adulthood. A latent growth curve approach was used to investigate level and stability of emotional stability and self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions and in expressing positive emotions. We found that initial levels of emotional stability and self‐efficacy beliefs are highly correlated. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, the growth rate of perceived self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions predicted the growth rate of emotional stability, whereas the opposite path was not significant. The growth rates of perceived self‐efficacy in expressing positive emotions and emotional stability were not related to each other. Taken together, these findings point to self‐efficacy beliefs as instrumental to the change of traits. Practical implications of results are discussed, highlighting the role of social cognitive theory in supplying the proper strategies to design effective interventions to enable people to make the best use of their potentials. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.