Personality disorders and response to outpatient treatment of chronic pain

As part of a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation conducted prior to participation in an outpatient chronic pain treatment program, the psychological status of 101 persons was assessed. The majority of participants was found to have a form of personality disorder, determined by conservative cutoff scores applied to their Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) profiles. DSM-III-R Cluster C disorders (i.e., Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Passive-Aggressive) were overrepresented in this sample. Subsequent analyses revealed that personality disorders were related to higher levels of self-reported distress and pain at both the beginning and the end of outpatient treatment. Differential responses to treatment were observed on self-report measures; however, few relations were found between personality disorder and physical therapist ratings of impairment and improvement. Implications for the assessment of personality disorders in outpatient pain treatment programs are discussed and appropriate intervention strategies are considered.     

人格特质与高温运动应激后免疫功能变化的关系

观察了１１名护士实习生在高温运动应激下免疫功能的变化及其与人格特质的关系。结果表明：（１）高温运动应激可导致Ｔ３、Ｔ４、淋巴细胞百分比明显降低,皮质醇、ＩＬ—１明显升高。人格特质变化组应激前后Ｔ３、Ｔ４及淋巴细胞变化明显,而ＩＬ—１上升幅度小,提示机体对应激源的低反应性和异常人格特质对免疫的抑制作用。（２）Ｔ３应激时的变化值与Ｘ２、Ｘ３、Ｙ１呈明显正相关,与Ｘ１、ＳＴＡＩ（２）、ＳＣＬ—９０明显负相关;Ｔ４变化值与ＳＣＬ－９０、ＳＴＡＩ（１）、ＳＴＡＩ（２）、ＳＤＳ呈明显负相关;ＩＬ—１与Ｙ１、Ｘ２呈明显正相关,与ＳＤＳ呈明显负相关;皮质醇变化与人格特质无显著性相关,Ｘ４与免疫功能变化无显著性相关。     

优秀幼儿教师与幼专学生性格特征的比较研究

采用Ｙ—Ｇ性格测验问卷,对优秀幼儿园教师和幼师高专学生共１５６人,进行了心理测评,展开了优秀幼儿园教师与幼师高专学生性格特征的比较研究。结果表明：幼儿教师的性格类型与其职业成就相关;Ｙ—Ｇ性格测验的Ｄ型性格类型为幼儿教师的理想性格类型;幼师高专学生与优秀幼儿园教师的性格特征间存在显著差异。整个测评研究结果,为幼师高专学校招生选拨及培养学生的工作提供心理学依据。     

上海股民的投资行为与个性特征研究

采调查分析法,对上海的股票投资者进行了有关投资行为特点和个性心理牲方面的调查研究。结果表明：投资行为表现为中小投资者众多,资产组合单一等特点;经因素分析发现,影响股票投资绩效的主要维度是性格品质、能力、社会经济环境;气质是影响投资行为的一个重要因素,但对投资绩效没有影响。最后,文中对股票投资者提出了一些心理对策。     

The relations of generative concern and generative action to personality traits,satisfaction/happiness with life,and ego development

This research examined the relations that generative concern and generative action have to personality traits, satisfaction/happiness with life, and ego development. Generative concern is a general personality tendency or interest in caring for younger and anticipated individuals, while generative action addresses actual physical behaviors that promote the well-being of future generations. Two samples (79 and 152 adults) were employed. Generative concern scores were significantly related to scores for extraversion, openness, emotional stability (non-neuroticism), and agreeableness as well as to two agentic traits (achievement, dominance) and two communal traits (affiliation, nurturance). Generative action was significantly related to extraversion and openness. Generative concern but not generative action was found, as predicted, to be positively related to one's life satisfaction/happiness. Further, one's level of ego development determined, in part, the relation that generative concern had to satisfaction/happiness with life. Given that a subject scored high in ego development, his or her level of satisfaction/happiness varied as a function of generative concern such that those who scored low on generative concern were significantly less satisfied/happy than those that scored high on generative concern. The results are discussed within the context of the recently proposed theory of generativity.     

Clusteringn objects intok groups under optimal scaling of variables

We propose a method to reduce many categorical variables to one variable withk categories, or stated otherwise, to classifyn objects intok groups. Objects are measured on a set of nominal, ordinal or numerical variables or any mix of these, and they are represented asn points inp-dimensional Euclidean space. Starting from homogeneity analysis, also called multiple correspondence analysis, the essential feature of our approach is that these object points are restricted to lie at only one ofk locations. It follows that thesek locations must be equal to the centroids of all objects belonging to the same group, which corresponds to a sum of squared distances clustering criterion. The problem is not only to estimate the group allocation, but also to obtain an optimal transformation of the data matrix. An alternating least squares algorithm and an example are given.The authors thank Eveline Kroezen and Teije Euverman for their comments on a previous draft of this paper.     

What laypeople think the Big Five trait labels mean

We asked what laypeople think the commonly used Big Five trait labels mean, and how well their beliefs match the content of standard Big Five scales. Study 1 established participants’ familiarity with the Big Five trait labels. In Studies 2 and 3, participants described persons high on the traits using a free response format. Responses were sorted into categories (facets), each of which earned a centrality index defined as the proportion of responses for the given trait that fell into that category. Studies 2 and 3 converged well. Comparisons with four standard Big Five inventories revealed substantial commonality but also notable areas of non-overlap consisting of content identified by laypeople that was not represented in the standard scales, as well as content in the standard scales that was not mentioned by laypeople.     

The Personalities of Presidents as Independent Variables

The debate about the relative importance of the personality traits of presidents has a long history. Until the mid-1970s, scholars of the presidency extensively focused on the uniqueness of the individuals that held office. However, the difficulty in capturing presidential personalities and measuring their impact on executive politics led to a significant quantitative shift that focused more on the institutions within which presidents operate. This change produced a long-lasting divide between researchers interested in the “institutional” presidency and those focused on the “personal” presidency. I propose to integrate both approaches by incorporating insights from differential psychology to treat the personality traits of presidents as independent variables. In support of the argument, I use data from an expert survey that captured psychometric traits of presidents who governed the Western Hemisphere in 1945–2012 to reassess an influential study about Latin American presidents. The results show that adding openness to experience leads to a deeper understanding of presidential approval. I conclude by arguing that measuring the personality traits of all sorts of leaders is necessary to modernize the study of elites.