Individual Differences In Traits Research Articles

The Role of Scripts in Personal Consistency and Individual Differences

This article examines the role of scripts in personal consistency and individual differences. Scripts are personally distinctive rules for understanding emotionally significant experiences. In 2 studies, scripts were identified from autobiographical memories of college students (Ns = 47 and 50) using standard categories of events and emotions to derive event-emotion compounds (e.g., Affiliation-Joy). In Study 1, scripts predicted responses to a reaction-time task 1 month later, such that participants responded more quickly to the event from their script when asked to indicate what emotion would be evoked by a series of events. In Study 2, individual differences in 5 common scripts were found to be systematically related to individual differences in traits of the Five-Factor Model. Distinct patterns of correlation revealed the importance of studying events and emotions in compound units, that is, in script form (e.g., Agreeableness was correlated with the script Affiliation-Joy but not with the scripts Fun-Joy or Affiliation-Love).

Masked first name priming increases effort-related cardiovascular reactivity

Recent research on motivational intensity has shown that explicit manipulations of self-focused attention (e.g., mirrors and video cameras) increase effort-related cardiovascular responses during active coping. An experiment examined whether masked first name priming, an implicit manipulation of self-focused attention, had similar effects. Participants ( n = 52 young adults) performed a self-paced cognitive task, in which they were told to get as many trials correct as possible within 5 min. During the task, the participant's first name was primed for 0%, 33%, 67%, or 100% of the trials. First name priming, regardless of its frequency, significantly increased cardiovascular reactivity, particularly systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity. Furthermore, the priming manipulation interacted with individual differences in trait self-focus: trait self-focus predicted higher SBP reactivity in the 0% condition, but first name priming eliminated the effects of individual differences. Implications for self-awareness research and for the emerging interest in priming effects on effort are considered.

Personality and Defensive Reactions: Fear, Trait Anxiety, and Threat Magnification

The revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST) of personality (Gray & McNaughton, 2000) maintains that trait individual differences in the operation of defensive systems relate to facets of human personality, most notably anxiety and fear. We investigated this theory in 2 separate studies (total N=270) using a threat scenario research strategy (Blanchard, Hynd, Minke, Minemoto, & Blanchard, 2001). Consistent with rRST, results showed that individuals with high fear questionnaire scores tended to select defensive responses entailing orientation away from threat (e.g., run away) and that fear-prone individuals also tended to perceive threats as magnified. The extent of this threat magnification mediated the positive association observed between fear and orientation away from threat. Overall, results suggest that interindividual variance in defensive reactions is associated with a variety of existing personality constructs but that further research is required to determine the precise relationship between personality and defensive reactions.

The influence of consumer traits and demographics on intention to use retail self‐service checkouts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among demographic factors (gender, age, education, and income), consumer traits (technology anxiety, need for interaction, and technology innovativeness), and intention to use retail self‐checkouts.Design/methodology/approachA total of 285 usable responses are obtained through a web‐based survey after excluding non‐qualified respondents. Structural equation modeling is developed and tested.FindingsThe results of this paper demonstrate that demographic factors only indirectly influence intention to use retail self‐checkouts through consumer traits and thus the authors conclude that individual differences in the use of retail self‐checkouts can be attributed to consumer traits which are determined by some of the demographic factors.Research limitations/implicationsDemographic factors and consumer traits are only included as determinants of intention to use retail self‐checkouts. Therefore, future research could attempt to draw a comprehensive picture of retail self‐checkouts by incorporating other relevant factors.Originality/valueBy classifying individual difference traits into demographic factors and consumer traits, this paper provides more detailed explanations of the relationships among demographic factors, consumer traits, and intention to use retail self‐checkouts.

Relationship between Disgust and Memory Biases in Spider Fear

The literatures examining disgust's role in information processing biases and evidence for memory biases in anxiety disorders are both mixed, suggesting small or fragile effects. Thus, to maximize power and reliability, a mega-analytic approach was used to examine data across two studies to determine whether a memory bias for spider-relevant information exists under conditions when disgust is elevated and if the bias is specific to highly fearful individuals. Disgust was manipulated by having a large tarantula present or absent (at encoding and/or at recall) when individuals high (N=158) or low (N=108) in spider fear completed a free recall task. Results indicated that, as expected, the spider's presence was related to enhanced recall of spider information. However, this bias was driven by the presence of the spider during encoding only (as opposed to during recall), and high trait spider fear was not necessary for the memory bias to be expressed. Finally, there was a small effect for individual differences in trait and state disgust to predict spider recall, but this effect disappeared when anxiety was also included as a predictor, suggesting only a limited role for disgust in memory biases related to specific fears.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Selective Attention to Threat

Biased competition models of selective attention suggest that attentional competition is influenced both by bottom-up sensory mechanisms sensitive to stimulus salience and top-down control mechanisms that support the processing of task-relevant stimuli. This provides a framework for investigating the neural mechanisms underlying selective attention to threat. Both subcortical regions implicated in threat detection--specifically the amygdala--and prefrontal cortical regions implicated in top-down attentional control are activated in response to task-irrelevant threat stimuli. A number of questions including the automaticity of the amygdala response to threat distractors, the modulation by anxiety of the amygdala and prefrontal response to these stimuli, and the impact of genetic and environmental factors upon this circuitry are addressed. The empirical literature is considered in the context of theoretical accounts of the neural substrate of selective attention and conscious awareness. It is suggested that the neural activity provoked by a given visual stimulus is influenced by factors impacting upon the strength of the bottom-up trace (e.g., presentation time, backward masking), stimulus salience (including threat relatedness), competition with other visual stimuli for perceptual processing resources, and the augmentation of the stimulus trace by allocation of top-down attentional resources. Individual differences in trait and state anxiety, and in genetic makeup, are thought to modulate the influence of stimulus valence and top-down attention through their impact upon amygdala and prefrontal function.

攻撃の置き換え傾向尺度 (DAQ) 日本語版作成に関する研究

攻撃の置き換え傾向の個人差が, 攻撃の置き換えによって生じやすい家庭内暴力などの攻撃行動を予測することが示されている。本研究では, 日本におけるDAQ (Displaced Aggression Questionnaire: Denson, Pedersen, & Miller, 2006) の利用価値を指摘し, 大学生および専門学校生 (n=777, 年齢範囲=18-24) を対象にした調査によってDAQ日本語版を作成した。日本語版の因子構造は, 原版と同様に,“怒りの反すう”10項目 (α=.92),“報復の企図”11項目 (α=.92),“攻撃の置き換え”10項目 (α=.93) の3因子構造31項目 (α=.93) であった。DAQ日本語版総合尺度および日本版BAQ総合尺度を説明変数, 家庭内言語的暴力尺度を基準変数とする重回帰分析の結果, DAQ日本語版総合尺度は有意な影響力を示した一方 (β=.29, p<.001), 日本版BAQ総合尺度は有意な影響力を示さなかった (β=.10, ns)。攻撃特性から学生の家庭内言語的暴力を予測する場合には, DAQ日本語版が有用であることが示された。

Phenotypic plasticity and plant invasions: is it all Jack?

1 Phenotypic plasticity has long been suggested to facilitate biological invasions where a general purpose genotype or ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ strategy could facilitate invasion should native species be, on average, more specialized. Current understanding of the importance of phenotypic plasticity is limited by methodological difficulties yet glasshouse experiments, paralleling those used in evolutionary biology, are increasingly being used to assess whether invasive species have high phenotypic plasticity or not. Unfortunately, these studies have several major limitations. 2 In general, glasshouse experiments have quantified relatively labile means of expressing phenotypes, such as plant biomass, rather than changes in plant development. As some environments favour plant growth and reproduction more than others, simply quantifying allometric or physiological responses relating to differential plant growth may not reveal much about phenotypic plasticity. 3 Plasticity is often a comparative rather than an absolute measure. A range of comparators have been used, for example, unrelated natives, congeneric natives, other congeneric aliens or conspecifics from the source region. Thus, unlike many life-history traits used in analyses of invasion, phenotypic plasticity is strongly context-dependent and limits comparison across different studies. 4 Phenotypic plasticity is assumed to lead to a greater breadth of environmental conditions across which a species can maintain positive population growth and increase the likelihood of invasiveness. Yet, most studies examine only a partial subset of the full environmental range experienced by the species. If the reaction norm of a target species and its comparator vary independently across an environmental gradient, this partial approach can present different interpretations of phenotypic plasticity. 5 Rather than simply quantifying greater phenotypic plasticity in invasive species, research questions should be directed at better understanding its role in the geographic distribution, successful colonization, population persistence and/or high local abundance of invasive species in the introduced range. These issues require integrated measures of plant performance rather than crude differences in individual traits across an environmental gradient. As yet, there is only limited appreciation of the role of phenotypic plasticity in any one of these areas and there is a need to extend studies beyond glasshouse experiments.

From ugly duckling to swan?: Japanese and American beliefs about the stability and origins of traits

Two studies compared the development of beliefs about the stability and origins of physical and psychological traits in Japan and the United States in three age groups: 5–6-year-olds, 8–10-year-olds, and college students. The youngest children in both cultures were the most optimistic about negative traits changing in a positive direction over development and being maintained over the aging period. The belief that individual differences in traits are inborn increased with age, and in all age groups, this belief was related to predictions of greater trait stability. In both cultures, all ages believed positive traits would be maintained over development. In addition to developmental similarities across cultures, cultural variations, consistent with the hypothesis that interdependent cultures have a more incremental view of traits, were present. Japanese participants were more optimistic than American participants about negative traits changing towards the positive and were more likely to attribute differences in trait expression to effort.

Sex and the selfish herd: sexual segregation within nonmating whirligig groups

The fitness costs and benefits at different positions in fish shoals, bird flocks, and insect swarms can be asymmetric; a group’s edge may provide more feeding opportunities, but also greater predator risk. Animals make trade-offs between these selection pressures based on individual differences in traits including satiation level, ability to avoid predators, and sex. Previous studies did not evaluate the impact of sex on group positioning in these types of nonhierarchical, nonmating groups called congregations. A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted, using marked whirligig beetles (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae), to test for sexual segregation and why different sexes might choose different positions. Soon after a disturbance, males often were found at the periphery and females at the center of groups. There was also an overlying influence of feeding on position; satiated individuals moved toward the center and hungry individuals toward the periphery. Several minutes after a disturbance, sexual segregation disappeared, but segregation due to hunger persisted. Sexual segregation in this study was best explained by the predator avoidance hypothesis, not the energy needs hypothesis. Females weighed less than males; this may make them more at risk to predation because of reduced swimming speed or less mechanical protection from their exoskeleton. No difference between the sexes was found in the volume of their defensive chemicals. This is one of the first studies to show that sex influences position of individuals within simple nonmating groups (congregations) and suggests that more attention should be given to positional sex differences within shoals, flocks, herds, and swarms. Key words: congregation, Dineutes, grouping, gyrinidae, nondimorphic, predator avoidance, sexual segregation, spatial position, swarm, trade-offs, whirligig. [Behav Ecol]

MECHANISMS OF NONLETHAL PREDATOR EFFECT ON COHORT SIZE VARIATION: ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS

Understanding the factors responsible for generating size variation in cohorts of organisms is important for predicting their population and evolutionary dynamics. We group these factors into two broad classes: those due to scaling relationships between growth and size (size-dependent factors), and those due to individual trait differences other than size (size-independent factors; e.g., morphology, behavior, etc.). We develop a framework predicting that the nonlethal presence of predators can have a strong effect on size variation, the magnitude and sign of which depend on the relative influence of both factors. We present experimental results showing that size-independent factors can strongly contribute to size variation in anuran larvae, and that the presence of a larval dragonfly predator reduced expression of these size-independent factors. Further, a review of a number of experiments shows that the effect of this predator on relative size variation of a cohort ranged from negative at low growth rates to positive at high growth rates. At high growth rates, effects of size-dependent factors predominate, and predator presence causes an increase in the scaling of growth rate with size (larger individuals respond less strongly to predator presence than small individuals). Thus predator presence led to an increase in size variation. In contrast, at low growth rates, size-independent factors were relatively more important, and predator presence reduced expression of these size-independent factors. Consequently, predator presence led to a decrease in size variation. Our results therefore indicate a further mechanism whereby nonlethal predator effects can be manifest on prey species performance. These results have strong implications for both ecological and evolutionary processes. Theoretical studies indicate that changes in cohort size variation can have profound effects on population dynamics and stability, and therefore the mere presence of a predator could have important ecological consequences. Further, changes in cohort size variation can have important evolutionary implications through changes in trait heritability.

Cognitive ability and occupational status in a British cohort.

The relation between individual trait differences, social mobility and social structure is central to social biology. Because genetic variance underlies phenotypic variance in some of these traits, for example IQ, several mechanisms determine the population variance. Polygenic inheritance is the basic mechanism. Social mobility and assortative partner choice distribute the trait variance within generations. This feedback circle is constrained by sociological conditions at several levels of analysis. Fundamental to this theory of social assortment is the relation between social-biological traits and social class on the one hand, and these traits and social mobility on the other hand. The focus here is on the relation between social class, social mobility and cognitive ability. The National Child Development Study is drawn upon, including the last follow-up (1999-2000). By approaching this relationship through various methods, both social-biological and sociological aspects of this research question can be assessed.

VIOLATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL RULES AND ETHICS

The present investigation explores the current state of organizational violation, and examines its relation with both corporate climate and individual trait differences. Four hundred and ninety-two corporate employees responded to our survey. About 10% of the respondents admitted their corporate climate to be permissive of cover-up of violation, and 10% reported experiencing their involvement with organizational violation. The mood of covering-up was prevalent among giant corporate and governmental agencies. Employees to these organizations showed high sense of resistance to organizational violation at the same time. Significance of age and experience of job change was discussed in terms of their relation to attitude to violation. Language: ja

An ethical decision-making process for computing professionals

Our comments focus on the ACM Code of Ethics and situate the Code within a general ethical decision-making process to specify the five steps which logically precede human action in ethical matters and determine that action, and the individual difference traits in these five steps which bear upon the resolution of an ethical problem and lead to morally responsible action. Our main purpose is to present a cognitive moral processing model which computing professionals can use to better understand their professional rights and duties. It is clear that the Code provides substantial guidance in the areas of intellectual property rights, unauthorized entry into computing systems, and privacy. In other areas, such as obscenity on bulletin-board systems, the Code is silent. An interactive software program which allows the user to see the ways in which the Code is integrated and instructive in the six-step moral decision-making process is accessible via the internet. Our secondary purpose is to reformulate the Code as a set of questions which allow the computing professional to see practices which diminish the human person as unethical and those which enhance the human person as ethical.

Sensitization studies in chemically intolerant individuals: implications for individual difference research.

Chemical intolerance (CI) is an individual difference trait in which persons report feeling ill in multiple physiological systems from low levels of a wide range of chemically unrelated environmental substances. This paper discusses the neural sensitization model for progressive host amplification of polysymptomatic responses elicited by chemical exposures following an initiating event. The sensitization model accommodates hypotheses for initiating and eliciting CI in human populations that involve both environmental chemicals and physical or psychological stressors. Recent studies in this laboratory have demonstrated sensitization in individuals with CI over repeated sessions for dependent variables such as electroencephalographic (EEG) activity and diastolic blood pressure. Psychological distress variables alone do not explain these findings. Individuals with CI and/or vulnerability to sensitization share specific characteristics, for example, female gender, certain genetic background (offspring of alcohol-preferring parents), and personal preference for high sugar/ carbohydrate intake. Overall, the data suggest that the 15-30% of the general population who report heightened CI are highly sensitizable. Sensitizability may serve an adaptive, sentinel function in threatening environments with poor signal-to-noise ratios. However, as sensitization gradually shifts operating set points of physiological systems out of the normal range in response to allostatic load, this process may contribute to the development of chronic, polysymptomatic health conditions such as multiple chemical sensitivity and/or fibromyalgia. Individual response specificity and stereotypy rather than toxicant properties may determine which types of central, autonomic, and/or peripheral nervous system dysfunctions manifest at subclinical and clinical levels.

Substance use disorders in schizophrenia: Review, integration, and a proposed model

Substance use disorders occur in approximately 40 to 50% of individuals with schizophrenia. Clinically, substance use disorders are associated with a variety of negative outcomes in schizophrenia, including incarceration, homelessness, violence, and suicide. An understanding of the reasons for such high rates of substance use disorders may yield insights into the treatment of this comorbidity in schizophrenia. This review summarizes methodological and conceptual issues concerning the study of substance use disorders in schizophrenia and provides a review of the prevalence of this co-occurrence. Prevailing theories regarding the co-occurrence of schizophrenia and substance use disorders are reviewed. Little empirical support is found for models suggesting that schizophrenic symptoms lead to substance use (self-medication), that substance use leads to schizophrenia, or that there is a genetic relationship between schizophrenia and substance use. An integrative affect-regulation model incorporating individual differences in traits and responses to stress is proposed for future study.

Personality traits discriminating between employees in public- and in private-sector organizations

Based on data collected from public and private organizations in Greece, this paper examines the differences in individual traits between public and private-sector employees, differences which eventually influence employees' attitudes and behaviours towards their organizations and their consequent performance, specifically in organizational commitment and neglect behaviour. The findings indicate that there are some differences between the two groups of employees. In only three out of ten personality characteristics examined here (security needs, pay needs and Protestant work ethic), are there no distinctions between the groups. These findings imply that, besides the environmental and structural characteristics of the two sectors which may be the source of attitudinal differences, it might also be that persons attracted to the public sector have different personality characteristics from those attracted to the private sector. Regardless of the source of differences, results point to the need for changing recruitment and selection practices in public organizations as well as for implementing a number of human resource management practices, the lack of which seems to drive junior qualified staff away from the public sector where they are mostly needed. The later seems to be the case in Greece where the lower pay and the non-competitive, non-challenging atmosphere prevailing in most public-sector organizations seem to play an important role in driving most dynamic employees away from the public sector.

Need for Cognition: An Individual Differences Approach to Understanding Warning Effectiveness

Research has shown that trait individual differences in need for cognition influence the evaluation of persuasive messages. Product warning instructions can be considered a form of persuasive message because a goal of warnings is to change attitudes and alter behavior. This research investigated the relationship between need for cognition scores and rating and recall measures of warning quality and effectiveness. Product warning instructions were presented with and without injury outcome statistics, which may act as a heuristic cue in the persuasion process. Results showed that individuals higher in need for cognition recalled more warnings that contained statistics and judged all types of warnings as more important. The potential for individual differences to help explain warning effectiveness is discussed.

The Big Five as States: How Useful Is the Five-Factor Model to Describe Intraindividual Variations over Time?

This study investigated the similarity between the factor structure of longitudinal variations in states and the factor structure of individual differences in traits. On 90 consecutive days, 22 students self-administered 30 self-report items that were markers of the Big Five. Most participants showed good discrimination among the 90 measurement occasions. Correlations were computed between items across measurement occasions. These P-correlations were factored, and the factor matrices were target rotated toward a reference factor structure of individual differences, using orthogonal Procrustes rotations. A substantial match was obtained between the factor structure of longitudinal correlations that had been averaged across participants and the factor structure of individual differences. For individual participants, this factor match was worse. It is concluded that the Big Five are useful to describe longitudinal variations in states. A sharp distinction between the five-factor model and the trait approach is recommended.

Beliefs and the Big Five: Cognitive Bases of Broad Individual Differences in Personality

Recently a consensus has developed that the Big Five traits of personality (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) are an adequate taxonomy of individual difference traits. However, despite this consensus and the often impressive predictive results of trait research, very little research has been done on a key question—How do traits work at the level of proximal mental processes to causally determine behavior? We argue that the constructs of the cognitive approach to personality (e.g., beliefs, expectancies, and subjective values) can be used to provide proximal, causal explanations of individual differences. Two studies are reported demonstrating the initial steps in this effort. Study 1 (N= 83) used think-aloud assessment techniques to measure the beliefs of subjects. These interviewer-assessed beliefs were then shown to be significantly correlated with individual differences in standard self-report personality questionnaires. Study 2 assessed subjects' (N= 86) beliefs via a self-report measure and found beliefs to be significantly correlated with scores on standard personality questionnaires. We argue that individual differences along the broad trait dimensions of the Big Five can be explained via individual differences in general beliefs people hold about themselves and the social world. Future directions and limitations of this approach are discussed.