General Factor Of Personality Research Articles

Personality predictors of creative achievement and lawbreaking behavior

This article investigates how Big Five personality traits are related to creative achievements and lawbreaking behavior in a large sample (N = 1669) of Polish adults. Structural equation modelling with personality modelled as a bi-factor structure demonstrated a weak, yet significant link (r = .21) between latent factors of creative achievements and lawbreaking behavior. A general factor of personality was unrelated to creative achievement, but negatively linked to lawbreaking behavior. Lawbreaking behavior was also negatively predicted by conscientiousness and agreeableness, while only openness positively predicted creative achievement. A person-centered analysis illustrated three distinct personality profiles: resilient, undercontrolled, and overcontrolled that differed in both lawbreaking behavior and creative achievements.

Personality facet loadings onto the general factor of personality change when social desirability responding is considered

The General Factor of Personality (GFP) has been found to be more robust under faking conditions and to correlate significantly with both self-report faking and social desirability responding, yet some still regard the GFP as a meaningful construct. This study examines the structure of the GFP (based on facet loadings on the first unrotated principal axis factor) when five individual social desirability/impression management scores (as well as the total) are partialled from the facets. Controlling for the social desirability/impression management variance altered the loadings of the personality facets. Specifically, loadings for the facets varied in magnitude, and for some, even changed direction when individual and combined measures of social desirability/impression management were removed. The results suggest that the GFP is not consistent in structure and is influenced by social desirability/impression management. Further, the results suggest that the interpretation of the structure of the GFP may change depending on how individuals present themselves when completing personality measures.

The Relationship Between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Personality. Is Trait EI Really Anchored Within the Big Five, Big Two and Big One Frameworks?

Pérez-González and Sánchez-Ruiz (2014) published a study in which they found that trait emotional intelligence can be considered a broad personality trait integrated into the higher levels of a multi-level personality hierarchy. They also came to the conclusion that this construct can be considered a proxy for the general factor of personality. The purpose of this study is to try to replicate their study. We follow the same methodology these authors used but with a new sample, and a different definition of trait emotional intelligence and therefore a different measurement tool. Our results show convergent validity between trait emotional intelligence and personality, but not discriminant validity, suggesting than trait emotional intelligence is not integrated in the higher level of the personality hierarchies, but it is another way to measure the same big five personality traits that traditionally compose the construct of personality. We also found that trait emotional intelligence highly correlated with the general personality factor, but additionally we found an extremely high negative correlation between those two constructs and neuroticism. This finding suggest that they may represent above all just the absence of neuroticism in a person.

Disengaging from Evil: Longitudinal Associations Between the Dark Triad, Moral Disengagement, and Antisocial Behavior in Adolescence

Previous work has identified important correlational linkages between the dark triad of personality (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) and antisocial behavior in adolescence. However, little is known about the longitudinal associations between these personality characteristics and antisocial behavior, and the processes underlying these linkages. We hypothesized positive bidirectional associations between the dark triad and antisocial behavior, and that increases in moral disengagement would underlie these longitudinal associations. In the current study, we examined these hypotheses in 502 Dutch adolescents (51.8% boys, Mage = 13.57, SD = 1.07) across three annual waves. Path models showed that antisocial behavior was positively associated with relative increases in moral disengagement, a general dark personality factor, and Machiavellianism specifically, but not the other way around. These paths were only observed in boys and more pronounced during the first year of the study. Finally, antisocial behavior was partly indirectly associated to psychopathy across time via antisocial behavior and moral disengagement at a later time point. Together, these findings suggest that dark personality characteristics and moral disengagement development are more likely to be the result of changes in antisocial behavior than the other way around.

Early childhood social responsiveness predicts the general factor of personality in early adolescence

AbstractPositively valenced personality traits are positively correlated, forming a general factor of personality or GFP. A leading interpretation of the GFP is that it reflects social effectiveness. Accordingly, the GFP has been associated with positive social outcomes in adolescence. Yet little is known about its developmental origins. Given that the GFP is partially heritable, it was hypothesized that childhood social engagement would predict the GFP in early adolescence. Archived data from the Colorado Adoption Project were used to test this hypothesis. Using combinations of self and other ratings of personality, and adopting a range of different statistical techniques, confirmed that responsiveness to and fear of (inversely) strangers during the first 4 years of age predicted the GFP at age 12. Future research examining the possible developmental origins of the GFP is prescribed.Highlights Can the general factor of personality be predicted by early childhood temperament? Sociability toward strangers in the first four years was associated with the general factor of personality in early adolescence. The results point to the foundations of the general factor of personality.

Religious In-group Preference: A Replication and Extension into the Domain of Identity

Jewish success has led to questions of how Jews may differ from non-Jews. There is clear evidence that Ashkenazi Jews have greater general cognitive ability. There is more recent evidence that U.S. Jews differ in personality; specifically that they have a higher general factor of personality. Most recently it was also found that U.S. Jews exhibit high levels of in-group preference, despite having a low level of religiosity (itself being strongly positively correlated with in-group preference). In the current investigation this finding is replicated using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study and inquiry extended to examine differences in personal identity. Consistent with the previous findings, Jews showed high levels of in-group preference and low levels of religiosity. Additionally, Jews put more importance on ethnic, and possibly political, identity. These results are interpreted as Jews conflating identifying as a religious and as an ethnic group. A clear limitation of the study is the small Jewish sample. It is recommended that future research test the replicability of the findings of differences in personal identity.

A latent profile analysis of the Five Factor Model of personality: A constructive replication and extension

Recent research into the underlying structure of personality has created considerable debate among academics. Further, a new, person-centered approach to studying personality has recently gathered support, but results have been underwhelming and inconsistent. The present study steps into the debate from a new angle with a constructive replication and derives a model of latent personality profiles in an archival sample of over three million respondents from almost every country in the world who completed a Five-Factor Model of personality questionnaire and other work and life outcomes measures. Three latent profiles emerged from this analysis, which were characterized by the degree to which respondents endorsed the traits of Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability. The trait of Openness to Experience did not appear to discriminate between the three latent profiles. Consistent with socioanalytic theory, evolutionary psychology, and more nascent theory on the general factor of personality, personality profiles were labelled as maladaptive, adaptive, and highly adaptive. More adaptive personality profiles were associated with higher life satisfaction, job self-efficacy, and passion towards work, as well as favorable value systems. Theoretical implications are subsequently discussed.

Mind-Personality Relations from Childhood to Early Adulthood.

We present three studies which investigated the relations between cognition and personality from 7 to 20 years of age. All three studies showed that general cognitive ability and the general factor of personality are significantly related throughout this age span. This relation was expressed in several ways across studies. The first investigated developmental relations between three reasoning domains (inductive, deductive, and scientific) and Eysenck’s four personality dimensions in a longitudinal-sequential design where 260 participants received the cognitive tests three times, and the personality test two times, covering the span from 9 to 16 years. It was found that initial social likeability significantly shapes developmental momentum in cognition and vice versa, especially in the 9- to 11-year period. The second study involved 438 participants from 7 to 17 years, tested twice on attention control, working memory, reasoning in different domains, and once by a Big Five Factors inventory. Extending the findings of the first, this study showed that progression in reasoning is affected negatively by conscientiousness and positively by openness, on top of attention control and working memory influences. The third study tested the relations between reasoning in several domains, the ability to evaluate one’s own cognitive performance, self-representation about the reasoning, the Big Five, and several aspects of emotional intelligence, from 9 to 20 years of age (N = 247). Network, hierarchical network, and structural equation modeling showed that cognition and personality are mediated by the ability of self-knowing. Emotional intelligence was not an autonomous dimension. All dimensions except emotional intelligence influenced academic performance. A developmental model for mind-personality relations is proposed.

The general factor of personality is very robust under faking conditions

The nature of the general factor of personality (GFP) under faking (good and bad) conditions is examined across four independent archival samples. In each sample, participants were randomly assigned to complete a personality measure under honest, fake-bad, or fake-good instructions. The factor structure of the GFP was examined for each condition and, across all four samples, the GFP was most robust under the fake-bad instructions (highest factor loadings and accounted for most of the variance), followed by the fake-good conditions, and the GFP was the weakest in the honest or standard instruction situations. Because the structure and composition of the GFP changes under different test-taking instructions, these results suggest that researchers interested in studying the GFP must consider the impact of test-taking conditions.

The General Factor of Personality and faking: A cautionary note on the meaningfulness of the GFP under different response conditions

What happens to the General Factor of Personality (GFP) when extracted under different test-taking instructions such as to fake-good? This study investigates the nature of the GFP across two different samples of students, each having completed a different personality measure, and under different test-taking instructions. Specifically, participants were applicants into a teacher education program who had been successful and accepted into the program. After placement, groups of students were asked to complete the same personality measure, that they completed as an applicant, with instructions to respond honestly, to fake-good, or to try to reproduce the responses they had given as applicants. Across the two studies, the resulting GFP in the fake-good condition was more robust than the other conditions, accounting for over 50% of the variance. The GFPs from the initial applicant responses were also strong, but not as strong as the fake-good GFPs. These results suggest caution when interpreting a GFP in applied settings, especially with applicants who would want to present themselves in a desirable light.

Racing to get self-employed? Life history models and self-employment

Abstract Entrepreneurship research has shown that self-employment is a result of individual, environmental, and social factors, however, there is a limited understanding of whether the extent of coalescence of these factors over time is associated with self-employment. Using Life History Theory, we examine whether a single Super-K factor, encompassing general health, social relationships, and general personality factors, is related to self-employment. Results indicate that the Super-K factor is positively associated with the likelihood of self-employment, and that self-employment partially mediates the path between Super-K and income. However, the effect size is small, but not negligible, for the likelihood of self-employment. Our results also indicate the negligible overarching role of life time accumulation of health, social relationships, and personality on income through self-employment.

The Dissociation between Adult Intelligence and Personality with Respect to Maltreatment Episodes and Externalizing Behaviors Occurring in Childhood.

Here we analyze the simultaneous relationships among five variables. Two refer to childhood (episodes of various forms of maltreatment and externalizing behaviors), whereas three refer to early adulthood (intelligence, personality, and socialization difficulties). The 120 individuals considered for the present report were invited from the 650 schoolchildren participating in the Longitudinal Study of Intelligence and Personality (Minas Gerais, Brazil). The complete sample was recruited in 2002 (T1; mean age = 10.0; standard deviation (SD) = 2.2) and 120 were tested again in 2014-17 (T2; mean age = 23.5; SD = 2.2). Externalizing behaviors were registered at T1, whereas the remaining variables were obtained at T2. These were the main results: (1) externalizing behaviors predict future social effectiveness (as estimated by the general factor of personality derived from the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R) and socialization difficulties computed from the socialization scale (SOC)) and future intelligence performance (as assessed by a set of fluid and crystallized tests); (2) episodes of self-reported childhood maltreatment predict social effectiveness, but not intelligence; (3) maltreatment and externalizing behaviors are unrelated; and (4) social effectiveness (personality) and intelligence are unrelated. Therefore, the findings support the dissociation between adult intelligence and personality with respect to maltreatment episodes and externalizing behaviors occurring in childhood. Implications of these findings for social policies aimed at preventing adult socially ineffective personalities are underscored.

Personality underpinnings of identity: The role of metatraits and traits in identity formation modes

The article examines the relationships between personality traits and identity formation modes in both a theoretical and empirical manner. The sample consisted of 813 participants aged 18–65. The results indicate that personality metatraits Alpha and Beta can serve as core underpinnings of differentiation in identity formation, and that the relationships between these two personality metatraits and identity formation modes take a sinusoidal form, which is consistent with the circular organization of the Circumplex of Identity Formation Modes. The indicator of General Factor of Personality was the strongest connected to the circumplex dimension reflecting identity stability. At the Big Five traits level, two personality traits, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience, were most strongly related to identity formation, while Emotional Stability predicted modes strongly but in a non-sinusoidal way. Thus, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience can be seen as two basic underpinnings of identity formation, just as Agreeableness and Extraversion are responsible for interpersonal behavior in the Wiggins model.

How Universal Is the General Factor of Personality? An Analysis of the Big Five in Forager Farmers of the Bolivian Amazon.

In various personality models, such as the Big Five, a consistent higher order general factor of personality (GFP) can be identified. One view in the literature is that the GFP reflects general social effectiveness. Most GFP studies, however, have been conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, and rich democracies (WEIRD). Therefore, to address the question of the universality of the GFP, we test whether the GFP can also be identified in a preliterate indigenous sample of Tsimane by using self-reports, spouse reports, and interviewer ratings. In the Tsimane, a viable GFP could be identified and the intercorrelations between personality traits were significantly stronger than in samples from industrial countries. The GFP correlated with the ratings of social engagement. In addition, self and spouse ratings of the GFP overlapped. Overall, the findings are in line with the notion that the GFP is a human universal and a substantive personality factor reflecting social effectiveness.

Family Cohesion and the General Factor of Personality: Examining Differences in Monozygotic Twin Pairs

It was recently found that differences between monozygotic twins in the general factor of personality were positively correlated with differences in adulthood recollections of maternal and paternal affection. The current study used data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study on Aging to possibly replicate and extend these findings. The results were consistent with replication for monozygotic twin pairs who were reared together (base total of 166 pairs), but not for those who were reared apart (base total of 99 pairs). This finding suggests that the effect is due to the relative and not absolute aspects of the familial environment during childhood. Additionally, the general factor of personality was not shown to mediate childhood and adulthood family cohesion. These results suggest that the general factor of personality may have independent effects on recollections of childhood family cohesion and current family cohesion. Thus, both how family dynamics are related to the development of the general factor of personality and how the general factor of personality impacts adulthood family relations (e.g., parenting) are important areas of future inquiry.

General Factors of Psychopathology, Personality, and Personality Disorder: Across Domain Comparisons.

Three separate and distinct literatures exist investigating general factors of psychopathology (p factor), personality (GFP), and personality disorder (g-PD). Surprisingly, there has been little-to-no investigation regarding the convergence of these three distinct general factors. In the present investigation, two studies were conducted examining the convergence of the p factor, GFP, and g-PD. In Study 1, a combined model extracting all three factors from self-report data simultaneously found high convergence. The findings for the g-PD and GFP were replicated in Study 2 using multi-method data, wherein the GFP and the g-PD were extracted from a community sample of 1,630 older adults and correlated with an index of maladaptivity. The present findings support the position that general factors of psychopathology, personality disorder, and personality are likely to entail a common individual differences continuum, which may impact on how these general factors are to be understood.

Testing the generality of the general factor of personality: An exploratory bifactor approach

ObjectiveTo investigate whether the psychometric properties of the general factor of personality (GFP) obtained through self-reported measures support its interpretation as a substantive dimension of general order. MethodWe estimated oblique and orthogonal bifactor exploratory structural equation models of the Big Five. ResultsThe GFP explained considerably less variance than the five group factors and showed poor model-based reliability. The pattern of GFP loadings was consistent with those of a reverse-keyed wording factor. When related to an external variable (dispositional optimism) the GFP was primarily associated to method variance, and not to the substantive criterion. ConclusionsAlthough there is a certain degree of variance common to most behavioral indicators of personality, its properties are not compatible with an interpretation of the GFP as a reliable and psychometrically meaningful general factor of personality.

Polska adaptacja kwestionariusza CSIE Locke'a do pomiaru poczucia skuteczności interpersonalnej i jego osobowościowe korelaty

Celem artykułu jest prezentacja polskiej wersji kwestionariusza do pomiaru poczucia skuteczności interpersonalnej – Skal koła skuteczności interpersonalnej (Circumplex Scales for Interpersonal Efficacy; CSIE) Locke’a – oraz poznanie osobowościowych uwarunkowań konstruktów koła interpersonalnego i szerokości repertuaru zachowań interpersonalnych. CSIE są oparte na modelu koła interpersonalnego Wigginsa (Wiggins, Trapnell, Phillips, 1988) i mierzą 8 aspektów interpersonalnego poczucia skuteczności: Dominujący, Dominujący i Zdystansowany, Zdystansowany, Ustępliwy i Zdystansowany, Ustępliwy, Ustępliwy i Życzliwy, Życzliwy, Dominujący i Życzliwy. Badanie przeprowadzono na próbie N = 306. Rzetelność jednej skali (FG – Ustępliwy i Zdystansowany) jest niska, rzetelności pozostałych skal są zadowalające. Struktura wewnętrzna i trafność teoretyczna narzędzia są satysfakcjonujące. Stwierdzono, że interpersonalne poczucie skuteczności jest najsilniej powiązane z metacechą Beta / Plastyczność, co poddano dyskusji w kontek ie Cybernetycznej Teorii Wielkiej Piątki (Cybernetic Big Five Theory; CB5T) DeYounga (2015). Jako wskaźniki szerokości repertuaru zachowań interpersonalnych zastosowano elastyczność interpersonalną (wzniesienie profilu) oraz sztywność interpersonalną (długość wektora). Elastyczność interpersonalnego poczucia skuteczności i cech interpersonalnych jest powiązana z ekstrawersją, ugodowością, stabilnością emocjonalną, intelektem, Alfą / Stabilnością, Betą / Plastycznością oraz Ogólnym Czynnikiem Osobowości. Z kolei sztywność wartości i cech interpersonalnych koreluje z ekstrawersją, ugodowością, stabilnością emocjonalną, intelektem, Alfą / Stabilnością, Betą / Plastycznością oraz Ogólnym Czynnikiem Osobowości.

CHANCHING THE EXTERNALIZING AND INTERNALIZING SPECTRUM OF PERSONALITY WITH SELF-REGULATION THERAPY

This article presents an integrator model of changes in the externalizing and internalizing factors of personality grouped in the General Factor of Personality (GFP), based on the Unique Trait Personality Theory (UTPT) [1]. This theory proposes that a continuum exists between personality and psychopathology, as well as the existence of a GFP that occupies the apex of the hierarchy of personality, and extends from an impulsiveness-and-aggressiveness pole (externalizing spectrum) to an anxiety-and-introversion pole (internalizing spectrum). With an experimental intra-group design, 30 regular users of stimulant drugs (cocaine and amphetamine) used the Self-Regulation Therapy (SRT). The SRT is a psychological procedure based on classic conditioning and suggestion used to experience a relaxation effect after the first session, and a stimulation effect during the second session. This stimulation is achieved by reproducing, by the SRT, the sensations produced by stimulant drugs. Effects were recorded on format-state scales of personality adjectives and activation, which represented both externalizing and internalizing factors. The results showed that both relaxation and stimulation, by imitating the effects of drugs, brought about short-term changes in both the GFP, and the externalizing and internalizing factors, and also in the predicted direction, i.e., changes in global personality.

ADVANCES IN THE GENERAL FACTOR OF PERSONALITY DYNAMICS

This paper presents a dynamical integro-differential equation to reproduce the dynamical response of the General Factor of Personality (GFP) to a stimulus dose, particularly to a stimulant drug dose. The model is called in the past authors publications as response model. We refer to it as the old response model, due to a new response model presented here that solves partially the problem of the model validation: how to forecast the GFP dynamical response from a previous model calibration. The application case presented is an individual ABC experimental design where the stimulus used is methylphenidate.