Five-factor Personality Traits Research Articles

Personality Traits and Subjective Health in Retirement Age – The Role of Personal Resources

Abstract The aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between five-factor personality traits and subjective health in retirement age, including the mediating role of personal resources. The sample comprised of 240 older adults approaching or of retirement age; aged 55-70 (M = 60.1 years). Subjective health was negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion and openness to experiences. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that personal resources (especially the sense of meaningfulness) mediated most of the analyzed associations between personality and subjective health. For conscientiousness suppressive effects were found

Five-factor personality traits and pain sensitivity: A twin study

Factors underlying individual differences in pain responding are incompletely understood, but are likely to include genetic influences on basal pain sensitivity in addition to demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity, and psychological factors including personality. This study sought to explore the relationship between personality traits and experimental pain sensitivity, and to determine to what extent the covariances between these phenotypes are mediated by common genetic and environmental factors. A sample composed of 188 twins, aged 23 to 35years, was included in the study. Heat pain intensity (HPI) and cold-pressor pain intensity (CPI) ratings were obtained using standardized pain testing procedures, and personality traits were assessed with the NEO Personality Inventory, Revised. Associations between personality and the pain sensitivity indices were examined using zero-order correlations and generalized estimating equations. Bivariate Cholesky models were used in the biometric analyses. The most robust finding was a significant phenotypic association between CPI and the personality facets Impulsiveness (a facet of Neuroticism) and Excitement-Seeking (a facet of Extraversion), and estimates of the genetic correlation were .37 (P<.05) and .43 (P<.05), respectively. In contrast, associations between HPI and personality seemed weak and unstable, but a significant effect of Angry Hostility (a facet of Neuroticism) emerged in generalized estimating equations analysis. Although the genetic correlation between these phenotypes was essentially zero, a weak but significant individual-specific environmental correlation emerged (re=.21, P<.05). Taken together, these findings suggest that CPI is more consistently related to personality dispositions than HPI, both phenotypically and genetically.

Care Recipient Agreeableness Is Associated With Caregiver Subjective Physical Health Status

The emotional and physical health consequences of caring for a family member are well documented. However, although personality has been shown to affect dyadic interactions and been linked with individual outcomes for both care recipients (CRs) and caregivers (CGs), the influence of CR personality on CG health remains unexplored. This study investigated cross-sectional associations between CRs' five-factor personality traits and CGs' physical and emotional health in 312 dyads of older adults with disability and their informal CGs who participated in the Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration. Regression models controlling for CG personality, strain, and sociodemographic characteristics and CR physical impairment and pain found that agreeableness in CRs was associated with better physical health among CGs. Facet-level analyses showed specific associations between the trust and compliance facets of CR agreeableness and CG physical health. Investigation of CR personality styles revealed that the "easygoing" (N-, A+) and "well-intentioned" (A+, C-) styles predicted better CG physical health; the "leaders" (E+, A-) style had the opposite effect. No significant associations were found between CR personality and CG mental health. Results from this study reveal the value of considering CR personality in relation to CG health and highlight the importance of assessing dispositional qualities within the context of care provision and informal assistance.

Personality Resemblance Between Parents and Offspring: Study of Five Factors Across Four Samples and Questionnaires

The aim of this study was to compare personality resemblance in four independent Croatian samples using the same family study design, but different measures of five-factor personality traits. The family study design can provide evidence of familial aggregation of personality and of assortative mating. Father-mother correlations, father-offspring correlations, mother-offspring correlations and regressions of offspring on midparent score were computed for five broad personality domains in each sample. Father-mother correlations ranged between −.12 and .27 across different samples and questionnaires, while father-offspring correlations ranged between .04 and .34, mother-offspring correlations between −.01 and .28 and regressions of offspring on midparent scores between .05 and .35. These results are congruent with earlier findings of: (a) low assortative mating for personality, and (b) moderate familial aggregation of personality, which is lower compared to heritability estimates from earlier studies using twin design. Familial aggregation is mostly comparable in size across four different five-factor questionnaires suggesting that, from a behavior genetic perspective, conclusions on family resemblance should not differ depending on the five-factor personality questionnaire used.

Five‐Factor Personality Traits and Age Trajectories of Self‐Rated Health: The Role of Question Framing

We examined the influence of personality traits on mean levels and age trends in 4 single-item measures of self-rated health: general rating, comparison to age peers, comparison to past health, and expectations for future health. Community-dwelling participants (N = 1,683) completed 7,474 self-rated health assessments over a period of up to 19 years. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses, age-associated declines differed across the 4 health items. Across age groups, high Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness, low Extraversion, and low Openness were associated with worse health ratings, with notable differences across the 4 health items. Furthermore, high Neuroticism predicted steeper declines in health ratings involving temporal comparisons. We consider theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms behind associations among personality traits and self-rated health.

The Relation between Five-Factor Personality Traits and Risk-Taking Behavior in Preadolescents

The predictive relation between Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits using the Five Factor Personality Inventory-Children (FFPI-C) and degrees of risk-taking in preadolescents (ages 10 to 12) was studied in a sample of 50 fifth-graders. Results indicated that high Extraversion and Openness to Experience and low Conscientiousness were correlated with high risk-taking. The FFPI-C factors were significantly predictive of risk-taking behavior, and accounted for 42% of the risk-taking variance, based on a multiple regression analysis. These findings suggest that the same mechanisms that are associated with adult risk-taking may already be present in children as young as 10 to 12-years of age.

Psychological Profile of Male and Female Animal Abusers

This study had three purposes: to explore psychological characteristics of animal abusers (criminal thinking styles, empathy, and personality traits), to replicate previously reported results (past illegal actions, bullying behavior), and to examine potential gender differences. The self-reported animal abuser group was 29 college students who reported two or more incidents of animal abuse; controls were 29 college students matched on age and gender. Participants completed self-report measures of criminal thinking, illegal behaviors, bullying, empathy, and the five-factor personality traits. Results indicated animal abusers had more previous criminal behaviors, were more likely to bully, and had the highest scores on the power orientation criminal thinking scale. Abuser by gender interactions were detected; female animal abusers scored significantly higher on several measures of criminal thinking, were found to be more likely to bully, and exhibited lower scores on measures of perspective taking and empathy compared to female controls.

The effects of five-factor personality traits on employment anxiety

The effects of five-factor personality traits on employment anxiety

Five-factor personality traits and subjective health among caregivers: The role of caregiver strain and self-efficacy.

This study examined the association among caregivers' five-factor personality traits and subjective health with particular emphasis on the role of two theoretically implicated mediators: multi-domain self-efficacy and caregiver strain. The sample comprised 536 informal caregivers (mean age = 62.9 years, SD = 19.9, 72% female, 98% White) of community-dwelling older adults with multiple functional impairments. Both physical health and mental health were negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion and conscientiousness. Agreeableness and openness were associated with better subjective mental health and physical health, respectively. Multiple mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy mediated all observed associations between personality and subjective health, whereas caregiver strain selectively mediated the associations of neuroticism and agreeableness with mental health.

The effects of personality traits on driving-related anger and aggressive behaviour in traffic among Serbian drivers

Aggressive driving is a worldwide phenomenon of an almost epidemic proportion. To understand this phenomenon, we have to determine which elements provoke drivers to feel anger and express aggression while driving. The main goal of this study was to determine the ways in which the five-factor personality traits model was related with aggressive behaviour during driving. We hypothesised that neuroticism correlates with aggressive driving indirectly through anger, whereas the other traits are directly connected with aggressive driving. In our analyses, we controlled for the age of the interviewed participants and their driving experience; gender was not a significant factor and as such was not controlled for in the analyses. Regression analyses showed that neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness predicted driving-related anger and aggression. The results revealed that the data fit well with our theoretical model. The relationship between neuroticism and aggressive driving is mediated by the driver's anger, whereas agreeableness and conscientiousness had both a direct and indirect relations with aggressive driving. Our model accounts for a relatively high percentage of the aggressive driving variance, suggesting the usefulness of assessing global personality traits for the prediction of aggressive driving.

A personality-based description of maturing out of alcohol problems: Extension with a Five-Factor model and robustness to modeling challenges

Aim To examine the relation of changes in Five-Factor personality traits (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience; Costa & McCrae, 1985), drinking motives, and problematic alcohol involvement in a cohort of college students (N = 467) at varying risk for alcohol use disorders from ages 21 to 35. Method Parallel process latent growth models were estimated to determine the extent that prospective changes in personality and alcohol problems covaried as well as the extent to which drinking motives appeared to mediate these relations. Results Changes in neuroticism and conscientiousness covaried with changes in problematic alcohol involvement. Specifically, increases in conscientiousness and decreases in neuroticism were related to decreases in alcohol from ages 21 to 35, even after accounting for marriage and/or parenthood. Change in coping (but not enhancement) motives specifically mediated the relation between changes in conscientiousness and alcohol problems in addition to the relation between changes in neuroticism and alcohol problems. Discussion Personality changes, as assessed by a Five-Factor model of personality, are associated with “maturing out” of alcohol problems. Of equal importance, change in coping motives may be an important mediator of the relation between personality change and the "maturing out" of alcohol problems.

Media images and female body dissatisfaction: The moderating effects of the Five-Factor traits

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine how the Five-Factor personality traits moderated the effects of exposure to idealized images on body dissatisfaction in women. Method Sixty-four college women completed the NEO-PI and the Eating Disorder Inventory and were then randomly exposed to images of either thin fashion models or heavier, (“plus-sized”) models. Following presentation of the stimuli, participants completed a second body esteem measure, which was the dependent variable. Results Women high in neuroticism showed significantly greater shifts in body esteem following exposure to media images than did less neurotic women, feeling more dissatisfied with their bodies after viewing idealized images and more satisfied with their bodies after viewing heavier women. Each of the other traits was associated with more favorable self-appraisals following exposure to the idealizing images. Conclusions Of the Five-Factor traits, the harmful effects of idealized images seem to be limited to women with relatively higher levels of neuroticism. These results suggest that the harmful effects of media images may not be as pervasive as is widely believed.

Five-factor Personality Dimensions and 3 Health-related Personality Constructs as Predictors of Health

To examine how 5-factor personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) and 3 higher-order health-related personality constructs (negative experience, optimistic control, and passivity) are related to self-reports of subjective health outcomes (positive and negative mood, physical symptoms, and general health concern) and objective health conditions (chronic illnesses, serious illnesses, and physical injuries). The study was carried out on a sample of 822 healthy volunteers (438 women and 384 men, from 18 to 84 years). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses for measures of subjective health outcomes used as criterion variables and binary logistic regression analyses for objective health conditions used as criterion variables. Three health-related personality constructs significantly predicted all subjective health measures above and beyond 5-factor personality dimensions. Out of the 5-factor personality dimensions, neuroticism was most consistently related to worse subjective health outcomes, while out of 3 health-related personality constructs, negative experience was related to worse and optimistic control to better subjective health outcomes. When objective health conditions were taken into account as criterion variables, both sets of variables were relatively weak predictors. Only 5-factor personality traits as a group of variables significantly predicted chronic illnesses (chi(2)(5)=15.06; P=0.012; Nagelkerke R(2)=0.032). Only neuroticism significantly predicted the presence of chronic illnesses (odds ratio [OR], 1.091; 95.0% confidence interval [CI], 1.040-1.144), whereas only optimistic control was related to more frequent physical injuries caused by accidents (OR, 1.285; 95.0% CI, 1.002-1.648). Five-factor personality traits and 3 health-related personality constructs may be useful factors in a multidisciplinary approach to understanding personality-health relationship.

Perfectionism and the Five-factor Personality Traits as Predictors of Mortality in Older Adults

The major hypothesis of the study was that perfectionism as a personality trait, along with the five-factor personality traits and dispositional optimism, is strongly associated with mortality in late life. After baseline assessment of health and personality traits as predictors of mortality, 450 participants were followed over a period of 6.5 years. Consistent with our hypotheses, findings demonstrated that risk of death was significantly greater for high scorers in perfectionism and neuroticism, compared to low scorers at the time of base line. Conversely, risk of death was significantly lower for high scorers in conscientiousness, extraversion and optimism. Implications for health and longevity are discussed.

The characteristics of bioentrepreneurs in the Australian biotechnology industry: A pilot study

AbstractIn order to understand the characteristics of bioentrepreneurs, this paper seeks to identify the entrepreneurial types present in the Australian biotechnology industry by using the four-way psychological typology (Miner 2000) and identifying linkages between the four-way psychological typology and the Big Five model of personality traits. We believe this is a new approach to using psychological typology in the study of entrepreneurship by mapping with the Big Five model of personality traits. Miner's four typological types are ‘personal achievers’ (PA), ‘super sales people’ (SS), ‘expert idea generators’ (EI) and ‘real managers’ (RM). The Big Five factors are extraversion (Ex), stability/emotion stability (Es), agreeableness (Ag), conscientiousness (Co), and openness to experience (Op). By combining the entrepreneurial types and the five-factor personality traits, we can map the linkage relationships as PA-ExEsCoOp; SS-ExAgCoOp; EI-ExEsOp and RM-ExEsCoOp.In this pilot study, we find there are more ‘personal achiever’ and ‘expert idea generator’ bioentrepreneurs in the biotech industry with the linkage relationships of PA-ExEsCoOp and EI-Ex EsOp, which lead us to conclude there are strong demands for bioentrepreneurs with managerial skills, sales and marketing skills, skills in forming strategic alliance with partners and skills in securing the public and private capitals through finance channels such as public listing and venture capital. This implies that if PA entrepreneurs acquired more agreeableness personality traits and EI entrepreneurs also acquired more agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits they would improve the ability of their businesses to attract more financial investments and form sustainable strategic alliance with partners in the Australian biotechnology industry.

The characteristics of bioentrepreneurs in the Australian biotechnology industry: A pilot study

AbstractIn order to understand the characteristics of bioentrepreneurs, this paper seeks to identify the entrepreneurial types present in the Australian biotechnology industry by using the four-way psychological typology (Miner 2000) and identifying linkages between the four-way psychological typology and the Big Five model of personality traits. We believe this is a new approach to using psychological typology in the study of entrepreneurship by mapping with the Big Five model of personality traits. Miner's four typological types are ‘personal achievers’ (PA), ‘super sales people’ (SS), ‘expert idea generators’ (EI) and ‘real managers’ (RM). The Big Five factors are extraversion (Ex), stability/emotion stability (Es), agreeableness (Ag), conscientiousness (Co), and openness to experience (Op). By combining the entrepreneurial types and the five-factor personality traits, we can map the linkage relationships as PA-ExEsCoOp; SS-ExAgCoOp; EI-ExEsOp and RM-ExEsCoOp.In this pilot study, we find there are more ‘personal achiever’ and ‘expert idea generator’ bioentrepreneurs in the biotech industry with the linkage relationships of PA-ExEsCoOp and EI-Ex EsOp, which lead us to conclude there are strong demands for bioentrepreneurs with managerial skills, sales and marketing skills, skills in forming strategic alliance with partners and skills in securing the public and private capitals through finance channels such as public listing and venture capital. This implies that if PA entrepreneurs acquired more agreeableness personality traits and EI entrepreneurs also acquired more agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits they would improve the ability of their businesses to attract more financial investments and form sustainable strategic alliance with partners in the Australian biotechnology industry.

Health Status and the Five-factor Personality Traits in a Nationally Representative Sample

The authors' objective was to determine the association between the 'big-five' personality traits and mental and physical disorders among adults in the United States. The Midlife Development in the United States Survey, a nationally representative sample of 3032 adults ages 25-74, was used to determine the association between the five-factor traits of personality and common mental and physical disorders. Findings are consistent with and extend previous results showing that conscientiousness is associated with significantly reduced likelihood of a wide range of mental and physical disorders among adults in the general population, and inversely that neuroticism is associated with increased rates. Among adults with physical illnesses, associations were found between personality and likelihood of physical limitations, especially conscientiousness. These findings provide a framework upon which research on complex causal processes may proceed. Thus future research attention might profitably be directed to conscientiousness-relevant processes, such as adherence to health and treatment recommendations and internalization of healthy societal norms for sensible health-related behavior.

Dimensional Representations of DSM-IV Personality Disorders: Relationships to Functional Impairment

This study compared three-dimensional representations of DSM-IV personality disorders and standard categories with respect to their associations with psychosocial functioning. Six hundred sixty-eight patients with semistructured interview diagnoses of schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive personality disorders or with major depressive disorder and no personality disorder completed questionnaires assessing three-factor and five-factor dimensional models of personality. Personality disorder categories, dimensional representations of the categories based on criteria counts, and three- and five-factor personality dimensions were compared on their relationships to impairment in seven domains of functioning, as measured by the Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation-Baseline Version. Both the categorical and dimensional representations of DSM-IV personality disorders had stronger relationships to impairment in functioning in the domains of employment, social relationships with parents and friends, and global social adjustment and to DSM-IV axis V ratings than the three- and five-factor models. DSM-IV dimensions predicted functional impairment best of the four approaches. Although five-factor personality traits captured variance in functional impairment not predicted by DSM-IV personality disorder dimensions, the DSM-IV dimensions accounted for significantly more variance than the measures of personality. Scores on dimensions of general personality functioning do not appear to be as strongly associated with functional impairment as the psychopathology of DSM personality disorder. A compromise in the ongoing debate over categories versus dimensions of personality disorder might be the dimensional rating of the criteria that comprise traditional categories.

看護者のバーンアウトと5因子性格特性との関連

本研究は，看護者のバーンアウトとパーソナリティー特性との関連を検討するため，総合病院に勤務する看護者1876名を対象にMaslach Burnout Inventory（MBI），NEO-FFI等からなる質問紙調査を行い，有効回答の得られた1449名を分析，検討した．その結果，MBIの情緒的消耗感（EE）は主に神経症傾向（N）や誠実性（C）と関連がみられた．脱人格化（DP）は，主に調和性（A），神経症傾向（N），外向性（E）および誠実性（C）と関連がみられた．達成感（PA）は外向性（E）や誠実性（C）および開放性（O）と関連がみられた．また階層的重回帰分析から，個人的属性項目（性別，年齢，趣味の有無，相談者の有無）はバーンアウト得点の分散の4～8%を説明するに留まっていたが，パーソナリティー特性はバーンアウト得点の分散の約20%を説明していた．

Typus melancholicus Personality Type and the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Personality traits are significant factors in the development and course of depression. Apart from the classical five-factor model of personality, other personality constellations, such as Tellenbach’s Typus melancholicus, have been described in association with depressive disorder. Several instruments have been developed to assess the Typus melancholicus personality (TMP). A systematic comparison of these instruments has not been done to date. The goal of this study was the comparison of four questionnaires used in assessing TMP. Four TMP questionnaires were compared and their relationship to the five-factor model of personality was examined among 264 psychiatric patients and normal controls. It was found that the TMP type represents a trait distinct from those of the five-factor model. TMP inventories had only moderate concurrent validity. The single TMP scales focus on different aspects of the TMP, despite their common core. Both the five-factor personality traits and the TMP scales were able to differentiate a group of depressed patients from control groups. The results show that TMP is not one trait but a personality trait constellation. This leads to the conclusion that a number of dimensions must be taken into consideration in the construction of a TMP inventory. This multidimensionality contributes to the refinement of the TMP concept and differentiates its therapeutic implications.