Individual Psychological Differences Research Articles

Internal locus of control and shiftwork effects

A range of situational, biological and psychological individual differences have been suggested to modify the impact of shift and night work. This paper discusses the development and application of a construct firmly based in the psychological/behavioural domain. The overall aim is to offer a theoretical standpoint with practical implications. Locus of Control theory has an extensive research history. In line with the evolution of thinking about this construct in terms of application in a context-specific sense, this paper describes the origins of internally-oriented Shiftwork Locus of Control (SHLOC) and presents its relationships with typically reported shiftwork-related outcomes. The SHLOC measure has been shown to be psychometrically robust and has demonstrated consistent patterns of relationships with shiftwork related variables that include sleep quality, fatigue, alertness, interference with family and social life, psychological well-being and perceived stress. In general, higher shiftwork-specific internality is associated with more positive outcomes (e.g. better sleep quality, lower fatigue, higher alertness) than lower shiftwork-specific internality. These findings hold true across a range of shiftwork situations and occupational groups. The construct has practical potential as an addition to shiftworker monitoring procedures that may be used to identify those individuals who may be more susceptible to the negative effects of shiftworking and, thereby, could benefit from targeted intervention.

Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences.

Psychological researchers typically distinguish five major domains of individual differences in human behavior: cognitive abilities, personality, social attitudes, psychological interests, and psychopathology (Lubinski, 2000). In this article we: discuss a number of methodological errors commonly found in research on human individual differences; introduce a broad framework for interpreting findings from contemporary behavioral genetic studies; briefly outline the basic quantitative methods used in human behavioral genetic research; review the major criticisms of behavior genetic designs, with particular emphasis on the twin and adoption methods; describe the major or dominant theoretical scheme in each domain; and review behavioral genetic findings in all five domains. We conclude that there is now strong evidence that virtually all individual psychological differences, when reliably measured, are moderately to substantially heritable.

Effects of Compulsive Buying Tendencies on Attitudes toward Advertising: The Moderating Role of Exposure to TV Commercials and TV Shows

Since its introduction, television content has had important effect on the way we behave and think. Using samples from two countries (the U.S. and Korea), the present study investigates the effects of compulsive buying tendencies on attitudes toward advertising. The results suggest that audiences' compulsive buying tendencies create negative attitudes toward advertising in the two nations. Our findings also suggest that heavy exposure to television commercials and television shows significantly reduces negative attitudes toward advertising invoked by audiences' compulsive buying tendencies in Korea, but not in the U.S. These results indicate that advertising practitioners and scholars should consider relationships between the macro level of cultural variation and the micro level of individual psychological differences (i.e., compulsive buying tendencies). Specifically, we find that compulsive buying tendency plays an important intervening role in some cultivation effects of mass media and advertising.

Introduction to the Symposium 'Health Resistance': The limits of contemporary health promotion

This paper presents a brief introduction to the Symposium 'Health Resistance': The Limits of Contemporary Health Promotion. In particular, the concept of 'health resistance' is defined and its affinity with psychological reactance theory articulated. The relevance of the 'health resistance' concept is highlighted, particularly in a social context in which the general public appear to be becoming increasingly sceptical and distrustful towards science, medicine and health professionals. This introductory paper also seeks to further clarify the nature of 'health resistance'. Is it a product of individual psychological differences, or is it related more to the social and political context of particular subcultures or societies? Or is it a mixture of both? This Symposium addresses this question in relation to a variety of different health related domains and behaviours including mental health, unsafe sex, recreational drug use, smoking and MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination. Finally, a number of moral and ethical questions are raised. How can and should health promoters respond to 'health resistance'?

Influence of Caffeine on Physiological and Cognitive Functions of Humans

The review is devoted to the analysis of the effect of caffeine on physiological and cognitive functions of humans. The methodological aspects of experiments with the use of caffeine are discussed, in particular, the dosage, the frequency of use, and in combination with other products. The possibilities of the use of caffeine for studying physiological and mental phenomena, as well as age-related and individual psychological differences in reactions to caffeine, were shown.

Quality of Life and Anxiety in a Phase II Cardiac Rehabilitation Program

Purpose: Cardiac rehabilitation programs increasingly attempt to improve both quantity and quality of life (QOL). Documenting QOL changes requires appropriate instruments, and interpreting QOL data requires an understanding of the factors that influence such reports. Methods: To address both issues, we assessed QOL among 77 patients before and after participation in a 12-wk phase II cardiac rehabilitation program. Individual psychological differences in trait anxiety and defensiveness were also assessed. The sample was 76.6% male, 70.1% married, and had a mean age of 58.8 yr. Results: The QOL scales detected changes which occurred over the 12-wk testing period. QOL reports were strongly and differentially influenced by individual differences in trait anxiety, such that patients reporting high trait anxiety displayed poorer QOL than those low in trait anxiety. More specifically, trait anxiety influenced affect reports most strongly, functional aspects moderately, and physical aspects of QOL reports the least. Conclusions: Defensiveness was unrelated to QOL reports. The 17% of participants who voluntarily left the rehabilitation program prematurely were characterized as younger, having better self-perceived health, having a less severe cardiac history, and being high in both trait anxiety and defensiveness. Study benefits and limitations are discussed.

Quality of life and anxiety in a phase II cardiac rehabilitation program.

Cardiac rehabilitation programs increasingly attempt to improve both quantity and quality of life (QOL). Documenting QOL changes requires appropriate instruments, and interpreting QOL data requires an understanding of the factors that influence such reports. To address both issues, we assessed QOL among 77 patients before and after participation in a 12-wk phase II cardiac rehabilitation program. Individual psychological differences in trait anxiety and defensiveness were also assessed. The sample was 76.6% male, 70.1% married, and had a mean age of 58.8 yr. The QOL scales detected changes which occurred over the 12-wk testing period. QOL reports were strongly and differentially influenced by individual differences in trait anxiety, such that patients reporting high trait anxiety displayed poorer QOL than those low in trait anxiety. More specifically, trait anxiety influenced affect reports most strongly, functional aspects moderately, and physical aspects of QOL reports the least. Defensiveness was unrelated to QOL reports. The 17% of participants who voluntarily left the rehabilitation program prematurely were characterized as younger, having better self-perceived health, having a less severe cardiac history, and being high in both trait anxiety and defensiveness. Study benefits and limitations are discussed.

In Defense of Activity Theory

This paper elaborates the relationship between practical social activity and psychological phenomena. In particular, I explain how psychological phenomena dialectically contribute to social activity even as they are organized by it. I also explain how individual differences in psychology are accounted for by activity. The article answers objections which have been raised to an earlier paper I wrote on activity and cultural psychology.

The moderating effects of cognitive style and recency effects on the auditors′ belief revision process

Auditors′ belief revisions are found to be influenced by the presentation order of audit evidence. The Belief Adjustment model developed by Hogarth and Einhorn predicts recency effects when certain task variables are present. An unanswered question remains: Do individual psychological differences play a role in influencing the recency effect? Reports the findings of an empirical test on recency effect in auditors′ belief revision process and its relation to the field dependence cognitive style (a personal/individual variable). Twenty auditor‐subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire on an internal control case using “complex, mixed” evidence in a step‐by‐step response mode. The research findings confirmed the existence of a significant recency effect and showed that the field dependence cognitive style interacts with the order of evidence to influence the auditors′ belief‐adjustment process.

Cultural practices and the conception of individual differences: theoretical and empirical considerations.

Current conceptions of individual differences locate abilities inside the person. However, empowered by their cultural tools, humans can surpass their natural abilities. This chapter considers empirical evidence and theoretical issues that point out the need to reconceptualize individual differences in psychology.

1989 Division 17 Presidential Address

Events in the history of psychology in the United States are recounted with a focus on the domains of science, practice, and politics. After Jacklin, "Feminist Research and Psychology' (1987), three models of psychological science, (a) individual, (b) normal/abnormal, and (c) individual differences, are used to explicate the relative independence and divergent developmental courses of the three domains. Specifically, it is argued that adherence to a single paradigm within each domain has limited the integration of science, practice, and politics and has weakened psychology. It is suggested that the scientist-professional values of counseling psychologists can strengthen psychology s diversity and promote a needed integration of the discipline, the profession, and psychology's endeavors in behalf of the common good.

Locus of control and academic achievement: A literature review.

A quantitative review of research investigating the relationship between locus of control and academic achievement was conducted. Two basic conclusions resulted: (a) More internal beliefs are associated with greater academic achievement, and (b) the magnitude of this relation is small to medium. Characteristics of the participants in the reviewed studies (i.e., gender, age, race, and socioeconomic level) and the nature of the locus of control and academic achievement measures were investigated as mediators of the relation. The relation tended to be stronger for adolescents than for adults or children. Also, the relation was more substantial among males than among females. Finally, stronger effects were associated with specific locus of control measures and with standardized achievement or intelligence tests (as opposed to teacher grades). The concept of locus of control, although relatively new (Rotter, 1954), has received considerable attention in the study of individual psychological differences (Lefcourt, 1976; Phares, 1976). Locus of control refers to a person's beliefs about control over life events. Some people feel personally responsible for the things that happen to them. These people are labeled internals. Others feel that their outcomes in life are determined by forces beyond their control (e.g., fate, luck, and other people). These people are labeled externals. Obviously, most people fall between the two extremes, forming a continuous distribution of locus of control beliefs. Locus of control is thought to be a relatively enduring dispositional characteristic, although certainly modifiable through experience.

The Genetic Basis of Individual Differences in the Human EEG at Rest

Individual differences in the human electroencephalogram (EEG) are an informative parameter for study of the nature of individual psychophysiological and psychological differences. EEG parameters reflect the basic properties of the nervous system, which in many respects determine the dynamic features of various mental processes [13]. Individual EEG properties are linked to distinctive features in a person's emotional makeup [14], the nature of [that person's] intellectual and behavioral activity [9, 12] and mnemonic functions [3], and other individual psychological and psychophysiological characteristics. Hence, it is very important for differential psychophysiology and psychology to study the origins of individual differences in the EEG.

Who cares about ecology? Personality and sex differences in environmental concern.

This study was designed to identify personality factors that underlie concern for ecological-environmental problems. High and low environmental-concern individuals were given the California Psychological Inventory and were found to differ significantly on many subscales. A factor analysis of the CPI data produced four factors which closely paralleled previous CPI research findings. In conjunction with this analysis, four factorially derived scores were obtained for each individual. Comparison of high and low environmental-concern individual's factorially derived scores showed high environmental-concern persons as having stronger value orientation, person orientation, and ethical-conscientiousness, but not differing from low environmental-concern individuals in terms of independence of thought or action. Further, high environmental-concern females were found to be significantly more extraverted, "leader-types" than low environmental-concern females; while the opposite relation was obtained for males. Thus, it appears that men and women become involved with the environmental movement for different reasons, Finally, additional implications of the involvement of basic psychological individual differences in determining ecological-environmental concern were discussed.

The Fiftieth Anniversary of Soviet Psychophysiology

It must be generally recognized today that areas "contiguous" to a particular science have great theoretical and practical importance, which arises during contact of various sciences in some important objective. This is particularly true with respect to such a complex research objective as the thinking human brain. We find the ancients already beginning to speculate about the question of the relation of the "soul" to the body and about which body organ has the closest relation to psychological activity. Gradually this question became more concrete and was broken down into a group of more particular problems on which many scholars have been working. The early "classical" psychophysiology was primarily concerned with study of the relation of the senses and perception to the physical properties of stimuli and to the anatomical-physiological apparatuses of the peripheral sense organs. Currently, the main emphasis is shifting more and more to a study of the central mechanisms of psychological processes. This fundamental shift in approach to the traditional "psychophysical" problem (now frequently referred to as the psychophysiological problem) first took place in the area of studying the mechanisms of association, and was subsequently spread over studies of perception, emotion, voluntary movements, cognitive processes, and, finally, individual psychological differences.

Individual differences monitoring dosage reactions

One of the major problems of engineering psychology is dosage reactions. The purpose of the article is to find out what the individual differences in dosage reactions are. The influence of individuals' motion transmission increase and compliance or non-compliance of the structure of the governing body and the indicator scale were experimentally examined. Individual psychological differences become apparent at different latent periods, show different dosage response time, relationships between the latent period the length, reaction times, and rates of organ movement. Based on experimental data we can conclude that the duration of the action, it appears, is associated with nervous processes motility. For subjects with a short latency period dosage reactions are also significantly shorter. This demonstrates the great nervous process motility of the research subjects. The latent period duration also shows speed the emergence of neural processes, while organ speed and motion termination describes differential attenuation. The operators of individual psychological differences should be taken into account, not merely teaching and training them, but also selecting them.

III. The Role of Individual Psychological Differences in Social Psychology

Journal Article III. The Rôle of Individual Psychological Differences in Social Psychology Get access Catharine Cox Miles Catharine Cox Miles Institute of Human Relations, Yale University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 15, Issue 4, May 1937, Pages 469–472, https://doi.org/10.2307/2571410 Published: 01 May 1937