Higher Order Personality Dimensions Research Articles

Beyond adjustment: complex roles of personality and health-related strains in expatriate performance

We proposed and investigated the complex roles of higher order personality dimensions and health-related strains in relation to expatriate adjustment and performance using comparable cross-sectional (n = 170) and longitudinal (n = 77) samples of software engineers posted from India to North America, Western Europe and East Asia. Results indicate that social desirability personality is negatively related to heath-related strains and positively related to task performance, while superiority striving personality is positively associated with cultural adjustment. Using longitudinal data, we also clarified the temporal sequence of health-related strains relative to adjustment and performance. The results suggest that health-related strains are an important antecedent of adjustment, rather than a consequence. Also, expatriate task and relationship performance is a function of health strains and not a predictor. Overall, our findings support a multifaceted influence of dispositions and a pivotal role of health problems on international assignments.

Personality dimensions in persons symptomatically at risk of psychosis: pronounced but lacking a characteristic profile

Personality dimensions are frequently abnormal in psychosis. We examined if these abnormalities form a personality profile that is characteristic for patients symptomatically at risk of psychosis. Four higher order personality dimensions were assessed in 104 at-risk patients, 67 clinical and 97 healthy controls with the 'Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology', and analysed by two-step cluster procedure to detect personality profiles. Logistic regression was used to test for predictors of profile assignment. Low and high scorers were distinguished by two profiles. Patients were more likely high scorers. The presence of clinically relevant depression, though equally frequent in clinical groups, best predicted high scorers among patients. Though at-risk patients were significantly more often high scorers, this seemed to be a general reflection of the level of psychopathology rather than a group characteristic. Thus, personality dimensions might be of little value for facilitating early detection but might be important to consider in early intervention approaches.

Evaluation of the Validity of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire–Simplified-Wording Form (MPQ-SF) in Adolescents With Treatment Histories

The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a widely used personality assessment instrument informing lower- and higher-order personality dimensions. Despite recent developments of brief (MPQ-BF) and simplified wording (MPQ-SF) forms, there is relatively little work on the utility and validity of the MPQ in younger samples with lower reading levels. This study is the first to assess the reliability, factor structure, and criterion validity of the MPQ-SF in a sample of treatment-referred mid-adolescents (N = 105; 12-17 years). Results suggest adequate reliabilities for most of the lower-order primary scales and support a three-factor structure of the MPQ-SF, consistent with previous research with adult and college-aged samples. However, there were also notable cross-loadings for particular scales, which we discuss in relation to the four-factor MPQ model and the Five Factor Model of Personality. Relationships between MPQ personality dimensions and psychopathology using youth, parent, and clinician-rated psychopathology indices supported criterion-related validity. Together, these results confirm the utility of the MPQ in youth with treatment histories.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE BIG FIVE IN YOUTHS

ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and the Big Five of the youths in National Youth Skill Training Institute (IKBN) Miri, Sarawak. This survey involved a sampling of two hundred and ninety one youths who are currently learning at the IKBN Miri. The data was gathered through a self-report survey method using a questionnaire instrument. A newly developed instrument; Malaysian Youth Emotional Intelligence Test (MYEIT) is used to measure EI whereas Big Five Inventory (BFI) is used to measure the Big Five. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness strongly correlates with EI, followed by Extraversion, Openness and Neuroticism. Regression analyses further confirm that EI measured by MYEIT is overlap with the higher–order personality dimensions. Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Big Five

Trait Emotional Intelligence and the Big Five

Trait emotional intelligence (EI) is a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. This article examines the validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire–Child Form and investigates its relationships with Big Five factors and cognitive ability. A total of 690 children (317 Males; M Age = 10.25 years; SD = 1.58 years) completed the TEIQue-CF, the Raven Progressive, Matrices and the Big Five Questionnaire; in addition, a subsample of 136 participants answered to Depression and Anxiety scales. Results evidenced that TEIQue-CF is a reliable measure of Trait EI that is partially determined by all of the Big Five factors but independent of cognitive ability. Trait EI predicts depression and anxiety scores over and above the five higher order personality dimensions.

Relationships between trait emotional intelligence and the Big Five in the Netherlands

We investigated the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI; TEIQue-SF) and the Big Five personality dimensions (NEO-FFI) in two Dutch samples. Results were consistent with studies conducted with the full forms of the inventories in North America and Britain. Neuroticism was the strongest correlate of trait EI in both samples, followed by Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness. Regression analyses confirmed that the overlap between trait EI and the higher-order personality dimensions exceeds 50%, even when the constructs are operationalized via shortened assessments. These results are not only fully in line with trait EI theory, but also support the cross-cultural validity of the TEIQue-SF, and its suitability for the rapid assessment of global trait EI and its four constituent factors.

Internalizing and Externalizing Personality Dimensions and Clinical Problems in Adolescents

Ostensible psychiatric comorbidity can sometimes be explained by shared relations between diagnostic constructs and higher order internalizing and externalizing dimensions. However, this possibility has not been explored with regard to comorbidity between personality pathology and other clinical constructs in adolescents. In this study, personality pattern scales from the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory in a sample of 492 adolescent inpatients were subjected to a principal components analysis to yield oblique internalizing and externalizing dimensions. Relations between personality dimensions and well-established measures of psychopathology (depression, alcohol abuse, drug abuse) and other indicators of clinical dysfunction (self-esteem, suicidality, violence) were assessed before and after controlling for these higher-order personality dimensions. Associations between personality scales and indicators of psychopathology and clinical dysfunction were minimal with these higher order components controlled. These results suggest that internalizing and externalizing personality dimensions explain most of the associations between personality patterns and indicators of psychopathology and clinical dysfunction in adolescent patients.

The relationships of religiosity and personality with suicidal ideation

The prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI) has been studied among a sample of some 500 undergraduate students in the UK, and related to several behavioural and attitudinal religious variables and individual personality differences as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. SI was not significantly associated with age, but men appeared more likely to entertain suicidal thoughts than women. There were no significant differences in the mean levels of SI with respect to church affiliation or the frequency of church attendance and personal prayer. A comparison of the predictive effects of religious orientation, as measured by the subscales of the Revised Religious Life Inventory, and the Eysenckian higher order personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and social conformity indicated that the contributions made by the religious orientations were small. Neuroticism was a strong predictor of SI, closely followed by psychoticism. This study has not confirmed the generally found negative relationship between SI and religiosity, and has shown that the observed variance in SI is substantially explained by individual differences in personality.

A quantitative review of the relations between the “Big 3” higher order personality dimensions and antisocial behavior

In this meta-analytic review, Hans J. Eysenck’s theory of criminality ( Eysenck, 1964, 1977) serves as a theoretical framework for examining the relations between higher order personality dimensions and antisocial behavior (ASB). The three higher order dimensions examined are referred to as extraversion/sociability, neuroticism/emotionality, and impulsivity/disinhibition (see Sher & Trull, 1994), and they are likened to Eysenck’s dimensions of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and psychoticism (P), respectively ( Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) and Tellegen’s dimensions of positive emotionality (PEM), negative emotionality (NEM), and constraint (reversed) (CON), respectively ( Tellegen, 1982). Ninety-seven samples, from 52 published and unpublished studies, were reviewed. The results indicated that among the “Big 3” personality dimensions, impulsivity/disinhibition is most strongly related to ASB and extraversion/sociability is least strongly related to ASB. Additional variables, including age and methodological differences, were found to moderate the associations between the personality dimensions and ASB.

Taking theoretical risks in a world of directional predictions

As Meehl (1978) observed, one major reason for the painfully slow progress of soft psychology is our field’s heavy reliance on directional predictions, which leads to feeble tests of theories. In the present commentary, I outline six ways of taking theoretical risks in a world of directional predictions: (1) constructive replication of findings, (2) generating multiple maximally independent predictions, (3) adherence to the total evidence rule, (4) discriminant validation of measures, (5) incremental validation of measures, and (6) according attention to higher-order personality dimensions.

Investigating age differences in the genetic and environmental structure of the tridimensional personality questionnaire in later adulthood.

In this study we examined cross-sectional age differences in means, phenotypic covariance structure, and the underlying genetic and environmental structure of four personality constructs from Cloninger's personality system: Novelty Seeking (NS), Harm Avoidance (HA), Reward Dependence (RD), and Persistence (PS). Study participants were same-sex female twins between the ages of 50 and 96, drawn from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) twin sample. We examined age differences by comparing younger (age 50-65) and older (age 661) cohorts (based on a median split of the sample) and by estimating biometrical model parameters as linear and quadratic functions of continuous age. Results indicated modest, but significant, mean-level declines across this age range for NS, RD, and PS. HA showed no significant mean differences. We found moderate heritability estimates for all of the TPQ higher-order personality dimensions, ranging from 0.16 to 0.62. No significant age differences in the proportion of genetic and environmental influences on the TPQ dimensions were found. For HA, RD, and PS there were no significant age-related differences in total variance. However, for NS we observed a decline in total phenotypic variance across age cohorts.

Individual Differences Predictive of Drinking to Manage Anxiety Among Non‐Problem Drinkers With Panic Disorder

Alcohol problems co-occur with anxiety disorders at a rate that far exceeds chance ("comorbidity"). One view suggests that risk for developing a comorbid alcohol use disorder is increased when alcohol is used routinely to cope with anxiety symptoms ("self-medication"). Indicating that this view is overly broad, however, the literature suggests that only a subgroup of anxiety-disordered individuals tend to drink to manage their symptoms. Therefore, we set out to identify psychological characteristics that might mark those for whom drinking to cope with anxiety is most likely. Our survey of the literature identified several possibilities, including anxiety-related personality traits (anxiety sensitivity, self-consciousness and Trait Anxiety); higher-order personality dimensions (Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Novelty Seeking); and, finally, alcohol outcome expectancies (specifically, those related to tension-reducing effects from alcohol). In a sample of nonproblem drinkers with panic disorder, we regressed predictor variables on several alcohol use measures, including drinking aimed at the control of anxiety symptoms ("self-medication"). Although each variable related positively to a self-medicating style of drinking, expectancies for tension reduction from alcohol use accounted for about twice as much variance as did the other predictors. With simultaneous entry in a step-wise regression analysis, only tension-reduction alcohol outcome expectancies and the Harm Avoidance personality dimension were retained as significant predictors. Findings suggest that development of a self-medicating style of drinking among individuals with panic disorder is predicated, in part, on specific psychological characteristics of the individual. Alcohol outcome expectancies emerged as the single most important predictor of drinking behavior in this anxiety-disordered sample.

Individual Differences Predictive of Drinking to Manage Anxiety Among Non-Problem Drinkers With Panic Disorder

Background: Alcohol problems co-occur with anxiety disorders at a rate that far exceeds chance (“comorbidity”). One view suggests that risk for developing a comorbid alcohol use disorder is increased when alcohol is used routinely to cope with anxiety symptoms (“self-medication”). Indicating that this view is overly broad, however, the literature suggests that only a subgroup of anxiety-disordered individuals tend to drink to manage their symptoms. Therefore, we set out to identify psychological characteristics that might mark those for whom drinking to cope with anxiety is most likely. Our survey of the literature identified several possibilities, including anxiety-related personality traits (anxiety sensitivity, self-consciousness and Trait Anxiety); higher-order personality dimensions (Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Novelty Seeking); and, finally, alcohol outcome expectancies (specifically, those related to tension-reducing effects from alcohol). Methods: In a sample of nonproblem drinkers with panic disorder, we regressed predictor variables on several alcohol use measures, including drinking aimed at the control of anxiety symptoms (“self-medication”). Results: Although each variable related positively to a self-medicating style of drinking, expectancies for tension reduction from alcohol use accounted for about twice as much variance as did the other predictors. With simultaneous entry in a step-wise regression analysis, only tension-reduction alcohol outcome expectancies and the Harm Avoidance personality dimension were retained as significant predictors. Conclusions: Findings suggest that development of a self-medicating style of drinking among individuals with panic disorder is predicated, in part, on specific psychological characteristics of the individual. Alcohol outcome expectancies emerged as the single most important predictor of drinking behavior in this anxiety-disordered sample.

Perfectionism and depression symptom severity in major depressive disorder

In recent years it has been recognized that perfectionism is a multidimensional construct and two Multidimensional Perfectionism Scales have been developed and investigated in relative isolation [Frost, R.O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449–468; Hewitt, P.L., & Flett, G.L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470]. The present study sought to evaluate the association between various dimensions of perfectionism, higher-order personality dimensions, and self and observer rated depressive symptoms in a group of 145 patients with major depressive disorder. Only three of ten perfectionism dimensions (socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes and self-criticism) displayed medium to large correlations with depressive symptoms, especially self-report symptoms reflecting depressive cognitive distortions. The results are discussed in relation to the specificity of perfectionism dimensions to depression, adaptive versus maladaptive aspects of perfectionism, and in the context of previous research, much of which has relied on college student samples.

Personality, average mood and mood variability

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between personality and mood. Within the mood realm, it is possible to identify separate higher-order dimensions of positive affect and negative affect. In addition, individuals may differ in terms of both their mean mood level and their mood variability. These are theoretical reasons for predicting that all of these aspects of mood should be related to the higher-order personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism. The subjects in this study completed a mood questionnaire three times a day over a period of three weeks. Mean mood levels were best predicted by extraversion, but mean negative affect was also strongly related to neuroticism. Mood variability was related to extraversion and to neuroticism, with neurotic extraverts having the greatest mood variability and stable introverts having the smallest mood variability. The strength of the observed effects indicates that individual differences in mean mood and mood variability are determined in an important way by personality characteristics.

The relationship between androgyny and subjective indicators of emotional well-being.

The objective of this study (N = 176) was to evaluate (a) the construct validity of the revised Short Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) with respect to measures of psychological well-being; (b) the validity of the concept of androgyny conceived as an intrinsically interactive (rather than simply additive) concept, endowed as such with surplus meaning; and (c) the validity of the traditional assumption that it is the masculine male and feminine female who typify subjective wellbeing. The three hypotheses were tested concurrently by employing a hierarchical multiple regression analysis with interaction terms. Results across measures of well-being, stress reaction, and alienation taken from the Differential Personality Questionnaire (DPQ), provided only partial support for Bern's scales as markers of subjective well-being, but no support for androgyny as a concept in its own right with predictive properties distinct from femininity and masculinity. Finally, the results of a factor analysis indicate that the M and F scales of the BSRI occupy quite different locations in the space defined by certain higher-order personality dimensions. Implications for further studies of androgyny and other fulfillment or self-actuali zation concepts are also discussed.