Low Psychoticism Research Articles

Personality and the psychology of religion

Three major personality dimensions were identified: extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. According to the theorizing, extraversion and psychoticism were predicted to be negatively related to religiosity, whereas neuroticism was positively related. The evidence has generally failed to support the predictions with respect to extraversion and neuroticism. However, low psychoticism is consistently related to religiosity, and this relationship is stronger with respect to the personal rather than public orientation to religion. Most of the available evidence is correlational in nature, so it is very difficult to explain this relationship. Future research should be broadened to include longitudinal studies and mood manipulations in order to clarify the processes underlying the potentially important links between psychoticism and religiosity.

Personality and intelligence

A total of 233 subjects completed the Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP), which measures the three primary (superfactor) traits, as well as 21 second-order factors; the Wonderlic Personnel Test, which is a brief measure of general cognitive ability/intelligence, and the Baddeley Reasoning Test (sentence verification intelligence test). Correlational and regressional analysis showed that scores on these highly inter-correlated intelligence measures ( r = 0.62) were associated with stability (rather than neuroticism), introversion (rather than extraversion) and low psychoticism. The time taken to complete the computer administration EPP (response latency) was, along with stability, the most powerful predictor of intelligence test scores, suggesting that test-taking style is an important factor in terms of intelligence test scores.

Personality correlates of religiosity among adults in the Republic of Ireland.

This study examined the relationship between measures of personal religiosity (religious attitude, frequency of personal prayer), a measure of public religiosity (church attendance), and the Abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire among 216 adults in the Republic of Ireland. A significant negative correlation was found between scores on psychoticism and on the three measures of religiosity among men (religious attitude, -.36; frequency of personal prayer, -.40; and frequency of church attendance, -.30) and among women (religious attitude, -.40; frequency of personal prayer, -.47; and frequency of church attendance, -.31). No significant relationship was found between any of the religiosity measures and the other measures contained within the Eysenck scores. A further analysis of the data suggests that the relationship for measures of public religiosity with low psychoticism is only a facet of the relationship between public and personal religiosity. These findings add to a growing body of research which locates religiosity within the psychoticism dimension of Eysenck's model of personality and adds to prior suggestions that this approach is applicable only to personal aspects of religiosity.

The evoked cardiac response as a function of cognitive load differs between subjects separated on the main personality dimensions

We report research on different phasic evoked cardiac responses associated with differences in personality. Heart rate changes were examined in relation to the stable individual difference variables of psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion. Subjects were divided into different pairs of subgroups on the basis of the measure of their personality dimension scores (above and below the group median). Each subject received 10 innocuous auditory stimuli with randomly varying interstimulus intervals. Stimuli were presented in one of two conditions. In the irrelevant condition there was no task, while in the relevant condition, subjects were required to count the number of stimuli presented. A main effect of condition was obtained in the evoked cardiac response. The initial heart rate deceleration was significantly larger in the irrelevant condition and a later acceleration was significantly larger in the relevant condition. High psychoticism subjects had smaller heart rate changes to the irrelevant stimuli and smaller differences between the relevant and irrelevant conditions than did low psychoticism subjects. High neuroticism subjects, compared with low neuroticism subjects, showed some enhanced cardiac responding to relevant stimuli, but there were no effects of differences in extraversion. The data are discussed in terms of the intensity of stimulus processing (both physical and cognitive) as a factor that may be related fundamentally to stable individual differences in personality.

Personality, Prayer, and Church Attendance in a Sample of Male College Students in the USA

Recent studies have suggested that, within Eysenck's dimensional model of personality, psychoticism rather than extraversion or neuroticism is fundamental to both positive religious attitude and frequency of religious practice. 1995 data of Maltby were further analysed to examine the relationship between the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated and frequency of personal prayer and church attendance among 100 male college students in the USA. A significant negative association was found between scores on the Psychoticism scale and frequency of personal prayer, with lower Psychoticism scores being associated with greater frequency in personal prayer. However, no significant association was found between scores on the Psychoticism scale and frequency of church attendance or between frequency of personal prayer and frequency of church attendance. These findings therefore only partly replicate those of Maltby among female students in the USA and lend some further support to the view that psychoticism is fundamental to religiosity.

Personality effects in personal and public orientations toward religion

The aim of this study was to consider comprehensively the relationship between a number of religious measures and Eysenckian and Freudian theories of religiosity. The sample comprised 324 (145 males, 179 females) adults from two U.S.A. Southern Baptist town communities. Subjects completed the Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity, the ‘Age Universal’ I-E scale, the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Sandler-Hazari Obsessionality Inventory, and two additional questions concerning the frequency of two religious behaviours. A principal components analysis with oblique rotation of the scales demonstrated that low psychoticism is fundamental to a personal orientation towards religion, whilst obsessionality underpins a public orientation towards religion. This distinction between types of religiosity demonstrates empirical evidence for both Eysenckian theory and Freudian theory. Suggestions are made for future research.

Factorial structure and correlates of marital adjustment in a Japanese population: A community study

A total of 146 married inhabitants (67 men and 79 women) in a provincial city of Japan were interviewed to examine marital adjustment and its psychosocial determinants. Fifteen items of the Short Marital Adjustment Test (Locke & Wallace, 1959) (LWT), a self-rating questionnaire, were transformed into a semi-structured interview together with two new items. Factor analysis yielded five factors which were interpreted as dyadic consensus, satisfaction, flexibility, home-loving, and interest-sharing. Better marital adjustment in women was correlated with higher standard of living, lower neuroticism, and a more caring father, whereas in men it was correlated with lower psychoticism and a more caring mother. Longitudinal studies are needed to throw more light on the determinants of marital adjustment.

Validation of the tridimensional personality questionnaire in a sample of male drug users

One hundred seventy-three male drug using volunteers for drug-related studies completed the Cloninger Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ), with most of these Ss also completing the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Eysenck I.7, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, the Symptom Check List 90, the Elliott-Huizinga Lifetime Criminality Measure, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-III, and the Personality Disorders Questionnaire. TPQ novelty seeking was correlated with impulsivity, aggression, and criminality, TPQ harm avoidance was correlated with introversion, neuroticism, low venturesomeness, and high psychological distress, while TPQ reward dependence was correlated with extraversion, low psychoticism, and empathy. With the possible exception of novelty seeking, the TPQ scales did not, as predicted by Cloninger, correlate with specific personality disorders or alcohol and drug abuse. The rationale for the construction of the TPQ scales was generally not supported in the present sample.

Sensation seeking, Eysenck's personality dimensions and reinforcement sensitivity in concept formation

The relationship between the SSS and EPQ personality dimensions and reinforcement sensitivity was examined in 140 undergraduates using a non-reversal shift concept formation task. Differences in reinforcement sensitivity related to sensation seeking (SS) were not found, although this trait and the EPQ scales were correlated with the Reward and Punishment Expectancy scales from a newly developed questionnaire (GRAPES). The superior concept learning of high neuroticism subjects was markedly disrupted by the frustration of an abrupt change in reinforcement contingency. There was some support for past research findings that introverts and low psychoticism (P) subjects were more inhibited by punishment than extraverts and high P subjects.

Audit of admission to medical school: II--Shortlisting and interviews.

Analysis of shortlisting of applicants for interview at St Mary's Hospital Medical School showed that factor analysis could reduce the selection criteria to three independent scales--"academic ability," "interests," and "community service"--all of which contributed to the interview decision. Early applicants scored more highly on all three factors but were still at a greater advantage in selection for interview than would have been predicted. The dean's judgment of priority for interview from the UCCA form was found to predict a candidate's chance of acceptance at other medical schools besides St Mary's. Analysis of interviewing showed high correlations among interviewers in their assessments, although there was evidence of influence by the chairmen. Factor analysis showed three major factors--academic suitability, non-academic suitability, and health--of which non academic suitability was the major determinant of interview success. Non academic suitability was related to personality (high extraversion and low psychoticism) and to the choices made on the UCCA form. The system of admission interviews enabled greater emphasis to be put on broader interests and achievements than if selection had been on the basis of UCCA application form alone.

Nursing students: personality dimensions and attitudes toward women.

100 female nursing students completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. A pattern of high Lie and low Psychoticism scores was found. Nursing students were more conservative than female undergraduates and more liberal than male undergraduates as indicated by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Scores on the four scales in the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were independent of scores on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale.

Relationships between the Bem sex-role inventory and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

A sample of 86 male and 93 female students in Wales completed the short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The data indicate that high scores on the scale of masculinity are associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism, but unrelated to either psychoticism or the lie scale, while high scores on the scale of femininity are associated with low psychoticism, high neuroticism and high lie scale scores, but unrelated to extraversion.

Average IQ values in various European countries

Finland has been noted to perform consistently very well in the international PISA assessments for many years, but it also has a relatively low per capita number of Nobel Prize winners. We draw upon a large body of proxy data and direct evidence, including the first ever use of RTs to calculate the Finnish IQ and the first ever use of the WAIS IV and PISA scores in the same capacity. Based on these data, we hypothesize that Finns perform so consistently well in PISA because they have a higher IQ overall than other European countries and exhibit a specialized slow life history strategy characterized by high Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and low Psychoticism and Extraversion. Most of these traits predict educational success but all would suppress genius and creativity amongst this population. We connect the present distribution of phenotypic traits amongst the Finnish population with evolutionary change starting in the Pleistocene, accelerating in the Holocene, and continuing into the present day. We argue that this profile explains why Finns are relatively poorly represented in terms of science Nobel laureates.

Relative Effect of Father's Education and “Psychoticism” on Some Measures of Aptitude in Iran

This paper compares differences in mean test scores of contrasting groups formed in terms of parental education and psychoticism. Subjects were 747 male and 239 female Iranian university applicants. Psychoticism was measured by a Persian adaptation of Eysenck's test. Mean differences between groups with very high and very low psychoticism scores on tests of general intelligence and Persian language are larger than those between groups with college-educated versus illiterate or semiliterate fathers. The reverse is found on a test of English language.

Some Personality Correlates of Self-Rated Academic Success

Using subjects' own ratings of their academic performance, a group of american university students were divided into academically successful (n = 312) and unsuccessful (n = 170) subgroups. A comparison of mean scores of the two groups on nine personality variables convered by Eysenck's PEN Inventory and Lanyon's Psychological Screening Inventory showed that academic success, as rated by subjects themselves, is associated with low psychoticism, neuroticism, and discomfort but high extraversion and defensiveness.