Low Levels Of Neuroticism Research Articles

Materialism and Well-Being Revisited: The Impact of Personality

Although the negative link between materialism and well-being has been confirmed by results from many empirical studies, mechanisms underlying this association still remain partially unexplained. The issue is addressed in this article in two ways. Firstly, the nature of the components of materialism is examined, and secondly—the article demonstrates that personality (particularly neuroticism and narcissism) is one of the important factors linking materialism and well-being. The article presents the results of three empirical studies, in which three main assumptions were verified—that the components of materialism, i.e. acquisition centrality, acquisition as a pursuit of happiness and possession-defined success, have dissimilar impacts on well-being, that materialists with high and low levels of neuroticism and narcissism differ with regard to well-being, and that neuroticism and narcissism mediate the relationship between materialism and well-being. The studies were based on self-reports and utilized well-known, established questionnaire measures of materialism, personality and well-being. The results showed that each component of materialism was associated with well-being in a slightly different way. Of the three possession-defined happiness was the strongest predictor of all aspects of well-being examined and the centrality component was not associated with any of them. Materialists with a high level of neuroticism and low level of grandiose narcissism experienced diminished well-being in comparison to materialism with a low level of neuroticism and high level of grandiose narcissism. Neuroticism and grandiose narcissism were both significant mediators, acting contrary to each other—neuroticism lowered well-being, whereas grandiose narcissism elevated it.

Aesthetic salience and flow in young athletes: Exploring the moderating role of personality, gender, and age

ObjectiveThis study investigated the relation between flow and aesthetic salience during sport, specifically whether heightened aesthetic salience interfered with flow for adolescent athletes. This study further tested whether neuroticism strengthened the relation between aesthetic salience and flow for boys and girls and whether this relation was stronger for year 9 or year 11 high school students.MethodData were from wave two of the Youth Activity Participation Study (YAPS) of Western Australia. The sample included 1,812 students (814 boys, 988 girls). The YAPS survey was administered using laptop computers or in pen and paper format.ResultsResults indicated a significant four‐way interaction between aesthetic salience, gender, neuroticism, and year level for experiences of flow. Probing of the four‐way interaction indicated that aesthetic salience was positively predictive of flow at lower levels of neuroticism, but negatively predictive of flow at higher levels of neuroticism, for year 11 girls. For boys, there was a conditional main effect such that more experiences of aesthetic salience predicted more flow in sport.ConclusionsThese findings illustrate that experiences of aesthetic salience in sport are complex and vary according to individual attributes.

The Big Five: Discovering Linguistic Characteristics that Typify Distinct Personality Traits across Yahoo! Answers Members

In psychology, it is widely believed that there are five big factors that determine the different personality traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism as well as Openness. In the last years, researchers have started to examine how these factors are manifested across several social networks like Facebook and Twitter. However, to the best of our knowledge, other kinds of social networks such as social/informational question-answering communities (e.g., Yahoo! Answers) have been left unexplored. Therefore, this work explores several predictive models to automatically recognize these factors across Yahoo! Answers members. As a means of devising powerful generalizations, these models were combined with assorted linguistic features. Since we do not have access to ask community members to volunteer for taking the personality test, we built a study corpus by conducting a discourse analysis based on deconstructing the test into 112 adjectives. Our results reveal that it is plausible to lessen the dependency upon answered tests and that effective models across distinct factors are sharply different. Also, sentiment analysis and dependency parsing proven to be fundamental to deal with extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Furthermore, medium and low levels of neuroticism were found to be related to initial stages of depression and anxiety disorders.

Differences among religiously unaffiliated and Christians in the perceptions of the personality of Jesus

ABSTRACTPrevious research has demonstrated that Christians living in Korea and Christians living in the US differ in their perceptions of Jesus, in a manner that is aligned with cultural values. The present study examined differences in the perception of Jesus within the US, examining agnostics, atheists, Catholics and nondenominational Christians, specifically assessing perceptions of his personality traits and moral foundations. Differences were observed between Christian groups and religiously unaffiliated groups, especially on the perceived levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and respect for Authority. However, among Christians, nondenominational Christians perceived higher levels of Conscientiousness, Openness, and respect for Authority than Catholics did. Finally, agnostics perceived higher levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Compassion and lower levels of Neuroticism than atheists did.

Conditional effects of mindfulness on sleep quality among clinical nurses: the moderating roles of extraversion and neuroticism

ABSTRACTThe present study aimed to examine the potential moderating role of personality traits in the psychological mechanisms by which mindfulness can lead to better sleep quality. A total of 172 oncology nurses participated in this study, and completed self-reported measures, including the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and 44-item Big Five Inventory (BFI-44). Results showed that mindfulness was correlated with the global PSQI score (r = −0.281, p < 0.01).Trait extraversion and neuroticism moderated the mindfulness-sleep relationship. The simple slope analysis indicated that the negative relationship between mindfulness and the global PSQI score was only significant at higher levels of extraversion (β = −0.419, p < 0.001) and lower levels of neuroticism (β = −0.344, p = 0.001). Additionally, the Johnson-Neyman technique revealed that, within a specific region (extraversion values above 21.93 and/or neuroticism values below 23.78), mindfulness was significantly associated with the global PSQI score; beyond the value regions, the significant association was lost. It suggests that mindfulness might play a protective role against sleep disturbance only among certain oncology nurses. The findings are valuable for identifying those who are more vulnerable to sleep dysfunction and may aid in targeted intervention planning.

Vocational teachers’ personality, career calling and the aspects of teaching quality

Nowadays , the decline in the prestige of the vocational teacher profession is a great challenge and requires a thorough exa mination of teachers' personality and its relationship with teaching quality. The aim of the research is to analyse the relationship between vocational teachers' personality traits, career calling and the aspects of tea ching quality. Three hundred and forty-six vocational teachers from Lithuania participated in the research. The results revealed that only slightly more than one-third of vocational teachers' has chosen the tea ching profession as calling. The high level of extra version ( p &lt; 0.01), openness to experience (p &lt; 0.01) and low level of neuroticism (p &lt; 0.01) are related to professional calling of vocational teachers. Also, the various aspects of teaching quality are closely related to teachers' personality traits. Thus, the research findings might serve as the basis for providing a more comprehensi ve view of the ps ychologi cal fa ctors of the vocational teachers' profession. Keywords : Vocational teacher, personality traits, career calling, teaching quality.

Personality and Suicidal Behavior in Old Age: A Systematic Literature Review.

Suicide rates generally peak in the second half of life and are particularly high in older men; however, little is known about the contribution of dispositional factors to late-life suicide. Maladaptive personality traits have been strongly implicated in suicide among younger adults, but the extent to which they continue to play a role in late-life suicidal behavior is unclear. We also do not know whether specific personality profiles interact with the stressors of aging to cause suicidal behavior. We sought to synthesize the data on personality pathology in late-life suicidal ideation and behavior via a systematic review using the PubMed, Google Scholar, PsycInfo, Scopus, Ovid, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane search engines. The included key words related to three descriptors: "personality," "suicide," and "elderly." Included articles evaluated personality based on the Five-Factor Model (FFM) or ICD/DSM diagnostic criteria in older samples with minimum age cutoffs of 50 years or older. Our original search identified 1,183 articles, of which 31 were retained. Included studies were heterogeneous in their design and personality measurements. Studies of categorical personality disorders were particularly scarce and suggested a stronger association with late-life suicidal ideation than with death by suicide. Only obsessive-compulsive and avoidant personality traits were associated with death by suicide in old age, but only in studies that did not control for depression. All personality constructs were positively linked to suicidal ideation, except for histrionic personality, which emerged as a negative predictor. Studies employing the FFM also indicated that older adults who died by suicide were less likely to display a maladaptive personality profile than elderly suicide attempters and younger suicide victims, having both lower levels of neuroticism and higher levels of conscientiousness than these comparison groups. Nevertheless, older suicide victims displayed lower levels of openness to experience than younger victims in two samples. Maladaptive personality manifests in milder, subthreshold, and more heterogeneous forms in late-life vs. early-life suicide. An inability to adapt to the changes occurring in late life may help explain the association between suicide in old age and higher conscientiousness as well as obsessive-compulsive and avoidant personality disorders.

A formal model of goal revision in approach and avoidance contexts

We developed a formal model of goal revision based on contemporary accounts of decision making under risk and uncertainty. The model assumes that individuals anchor their goal level to their dynamically updated expectations of performance and make adjustments around the anchor point depending on their risk preference. Risk preference was hypothesized to be a function of goal framing and personality. To assess the model, 60 participants were asked to set and revise goals as they completed an Air Traffic Control simulation task. Fitted model parameters indicated that participants pursuing avoidance goals were more risk averse when setting and revising their goals than participants pursuing approach goals. Individuals with high levels of neuroticism were more sensitive to the effects of goal framing than those with low levels of neuroticism. These findings clarify the role of goal framing, risk preferences, and activated traits in goal revision.

Identification from CCTV: Assessing police super‐recogniser ability to spot faces in a crowd and susceptibility to change blindness

SummaryPolice worldwide regularly review closed‐circuit television (CCTV) evidence in investigations. This research found that London police experts who work in a full‐time “Super‐Recogniser Unit” and front line police identifiers regularly making suspect identifications from CCTV possessed superior unfamiliar face recognition ability and, with higher levels of confidence, outperformed controls at locating actors in a bespoke Spot the Face in a Crowd Test. Police were also less susceptible to change blindness errors and possessed higher levels of conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism and openness. Controls who took part in Spot the Face in a Crowd Test actor familiarisation training outperformed untrained controls, suggesting this exercise might enhance identification of persons of interest in real investigations. This research supports an accumulating body of evidence demonstrating that international police forces may benefit from deploying officers with superior face recognition ability to roles such as CCTV review, as these officers may be the most likely to identify persons of interest.

The Effectiveness of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Diet Intervention in Persons with Arterial Hypertension and Obesity: A Key Role of the Patients’ Personality Profile

Background/Aims: Benefits resulting from weight loss and dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet in the treatment of arterial hypertension led to a search for a better therapy that would include psychological factors. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between the personality traits included in the Big Five personality traits and the effectiveness of treatment for weight loss in patients with essential hypertension and excessive body weight. Methods: The study involved 84 patients with essential hypertension, overweight or obesity, managed by a hypertensiologist. All patients underwent a 3-month diet treatment as part of the development process of an individualised eating plan that follows the principles of DASH diet and food education. Body mass index and DASH index were calculated before and after the therapy. NEO Five-Factor Inventory was applied to measure psychological variables. Results: The intervention led to a statistically significant increase of DASH index measured before and after treatment. There was a significant correlation between the increase of DASH index and gender. Patients presented higher intensity of openness to experience, extraversion, conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism and agreeableness compared to general population. Conclusion: The influence of psychological variables on the observed difference between men and women in DASH values and weight loss was not demonstrated.

The Association Between Personality and Loneliness: Findings From a Community-Dwelling Chinese Aging Population.

The experience of loneliness is prevalent and detrimental. Personality may influence individual perceptions of loneliness, but the relationship has not been adequately examined among minority aging populations. In a representative sample of 3,157 Chinese older adults in Chicago, we examined the associations between two personality traits and loneliness. Independent variables were neuroticism and conscientiousness, and dependent variable was perceived loneliness. Logistic regressions were used to adjust for confounding factors. Both traits were significantly associated with loneliness. One unit increase in neuroticism was associated with a 1.15 times higher likelihood of feeling lonely (odds ratio [OR]: 1.15, 1.12-1.18), whereas a unit increase in conscientiousness was associated with 3% decrease in risk of loneliness (OR: 0.97, 0.96-0.99). Compared with a low level of neuroticism, individuals with middle and high levels were 1.51 and 3.59 times more likely to feel lonely (OR: 1.51, 1.17-1.95; OR: 3.59, 2.84-4.54). Participants with high conscientiousness had a 24% decreased risk of loneliness relative to those with a low level (OR: 0.76, 0.60-0.96). This study provides evidence supporting the close relationships between personality and loneliness among U.S. Chinese older adults. Rigorously designed longitudinal studies are needed to clarify different trajectories of loneliness over time and its associated factors.

Personality factors and cognitive functioning in elderly with Parkinson's disease.

ABSTRACTParkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurological disease, resulting from cell degeneration in the substantia nigra, responsible for the production of dopamine.Objective: This study aimed to characterize the cognitive functioning, personality factors and prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Furthermore, this study sought to analyze whether personality factors were predictors of cognitive functioning.Methods: The sample consisted of 30 elderly with PD. Participants completed a sociodemographic data sheet, the NEO-FFI-R (Five Factor Inventory NEO Revised), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the Beta-III, the phonemic verbal fluency test and semantics (Animals), the digits span subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adults and the Boston Naming Test and the word list of the CERAD battery, the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory. Results: The elderly with PD presented impairment in verbal episodic memory and executive functions. Most of the participants demonstrated low levels of neuroticism. The extraversion factor was positively correlated with executive functions and the openness to experience factor was positively correlated with verbal episodic memory. It was concluded that the elderly with PD presented memory and executive function impairments. The factor that most contributed to performance of the elderly with PD on memory and executive function tasks was the extraversion factor.

A controlled study of the influence of comorbidity on activities of daily living in elderly cancer survivors (the HUNT-3 survey).

To examine the influence of somatic comorbidity on Activity of Daily Living (ADL) problems in cancer survivors ≥70years (ECSs) based on data from The Health Study of Nord-Trøndelag County (HUNT-3) 2006-08. Among participants of the HUNT-3 survey, 599 ECSs had a diagnosis of one invasive cancer according to both The Cancer Registry of Norway and self-report. Three controls without cancer aged ≥70years for each ECS were drawn from the HUNT-3 sample. We compared personal-ADL (P-ADL) and instrumental-ADL (I-ADL) problems for ECSs and differences between ADL problems for ECSs with and without comorbidity and controls with and without comorbidity. The prevalence of P-ADL problems was 3.5% among ECSs and 2.9% among controls (p=0.97) and for I-ADL 28.5% versus 21.4% (p=0.01), respectively. In bivariate analyses where ECSs versus controls was the dependent variable, presence of I-ADL problems, higher age, being female, paired relationship, poor self-rated health, hospitalization last year, and low level of neuroticism were associated being ECSs. In multivariate analyses, these variables, except I-ADL-problems and paired relationship, remained significantly associated being ECSs. No significant differences were shown for P-ADL problems when comparing ECSs and controls with comorbidity, and ECSs with and without comorbidity. ECSs with comorbidity reported significantly more I-ADL-problems than controls with comorbidity, and ECSs with comorbidity had significantly more I-ADL-problems than ECSs without comorbidity. Our results reflect common factors found in ADL studies in the elderly population. Health personnel have to be particularly observant on I-ADL problems among female ECSs, and those reporting poor self-rated health or comorbidity.

Does Neuroticism Influence Oral Health-Related QOL in Patients with Removable Partial Dentures?

This prospective cohort study investigated the relationship between patient neuroticism and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) before and after prosthetic treatment as well as changes in OHRQoL-namely, treatment efficacy. Sixty-three patients (23 men and 40 women; mean age 67.2 ± 8.6 years), who were scheduled to receive new removable partial dentures (RPDs), were recruited. OHRQoL was assessed using the Japanese version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-J). The Japanese version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was used to assess neuroticism. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the association between neuroticism and OHIP-J scores before and after treatment. After stratifying patients according to neuroticism score, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for intragroup comparison of OHIP-J scores before and after treatment. Moreover, logistic regression analysis was used to determine the impact of covariates on treatment efficacy such as age, sex, Eichner classification, neuroticism, changes in maximal occlusal force, and OHIP-J scores before treatment. Statistical analyses showed that higher neuroticism scores were associated with higher total OHIP-J scores before treatment ( r = 0.41, P = 0.001) but were not associated with OHIP-J scores after treatment ( r = 0.07, P = 0.566). When the effect of all independent variables was analyzed in multivariate analysis, neuroticism and OHIP-J scores before treatment affected treatment efficacy. These results suggest that OHRQoL of patients with higher levels of neuroticism was low before prosthetic treatment but significantly improved by oral rehabilitation with RPDs to the same level as patients with lower levels of neuroticism. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The results of this study may change the clinical perception of the effect of prosthetic rehabilitation with removable partial dentures in patients with higher levels of neuroticism. The study concluded that prosthetic rehabilitation could contribute toward satisfaction even in neurotic patients, who are presumed to show less satisfaction with their oral status.

Personality and Creativity as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being in Caregivers of Person with Chronic Mental Illness

Well-being is a Dynamic concept that comprises Personal, Emotional, Social, Psychological, and Spiritual dimensions along with health related behaviors. The present research was conducted to find out whether Psychological well-being in Caregivers of Person with chronic mental Illness can be predicted by Personality Dispositions and Creativity. We assume that Psychological well-being is likely to be predicted by personality Dispositions. Low level of neuroticism, high levels of extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and creativity. 100 caregivers of Person with chronic mental Illness were selected through Purposive Sampling technique from the Private clinics and Private Psychiatric Hospitals. NEO Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992), Creative Behavior Inventory (Hocevar, 1979) and Psychological Well-being Scale (Ryff, 1995) were administered to the caregivers of Person with chronic mental Illness. The findings of our study revealed that Psychological Well-Being is predicted by high level of Extraversion and Conscientiousness and low level of Neuroticism after controlling the demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, weekly hours on caregiving & job). The findings of this study revealed that increasing extraversion and conscientiousness among Caregivers can eventually help in promoting Psychological well-being.

Do the psychological benefits of greenspace depend on one's personality?

Greenspace is thought to yield psychological benefits in terms of reducing stress and restoring attentional fatigue. The efficacy of exposure to greenspace may depend greatly on an individual's personality. Certain personality traits may make an individual more susceptible to experiencing stress and attentional fatigue and hence these same individuals may derive greater psychological benefits from greenspace than others. Employing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this study investigates the extent to which one's personality traits may moderate the psychological benefits of greenspace. The results provide some evidence to suggest that individuals who report higher levels of emotional stability (equivalently, lower levels of neuroticism) glean noticeably greater psychological benefits from greenspace. This result may reflect more emotionally stable individuals being more likely to venture out and take pleasure in green and more hospitable spaces. Conversely, and in line with a priori expectations, there is some, albeit weak evidence, to suggest that individuals who report higher levels of conscientiousness realise greater psychological benefits from greenspace than those who report comparatively lower levels of conscientiousness. These findings extend on existing knowledge in the area of environmental psychology on the benefits of nature.

Personality and sexuality in older adults

Objective: This study explored cross-time associations between personality and multiple components of sexual functioning and behaviour in a large cohort of older adults (n = 5745).Design: Participants (Mage = 65.57 ± 8.28 years) completed questionnaires in 2010 and 2012.Main outcome measures: Outcomes explored included sexual attitudes, sexual activity, sexual satisfaction, lifetime sexual partners, sexual orientation and sexual dysfunction.Results: We found that higher levels of openness and lower levels of agreeableness were related to more liberal attitudes toward sex, a greater number of sexual partners, a higher sex drive, more frequent sexual activity, lower levels of sexual dysfunction and (for women) a greater tendency towards homosexuality. Higher levels of conscientiousness were also related to more conservative attitudes towards sex, lower levels of sexual dysfunction and a greater tendency towards heterosexuality. For sexually active older adults, higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of neuroticism were related to greater sexual satisfaction. Higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of conscientiousness were also related to a greater number of sexual partners in men but not women.Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that personality is an important correlate of sexual functioning and behaviour in older adults.

Personality and stressor-related affect.

Greater increases in negative affect and greater decreases in positive affect on days stressors occur portend poorer mental and physical health years later. Although personality traits influence stressor-related affect, only neuroticism and extraversion among the Big Five personality traits have been examined in any detail. Moreover, personality traits may shape how people appraise daily stressors, yet few studies have examined how stressor-related appraisals may account for associations between personality and stressor-related affect. Two studies used participants (N = 2,022; age range: 30-84) from the National Study of Daily Experiences II to examine the associations between Big Five personality traits and stressor-related affect and how appraisals may account for these relationships. Results from Study 1 indicate that higher levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and lower levels of neuroticism are related to less stressor-related negative affect. Only agreeableness was associated with stressor-related positive affect, such that higher levels were related to greater decreases in positive affect on days stressors occur. The second study found that stressor-related appraisals partially accounted for the significant associations between stressor-related negative affect and personality. Implications for these findings in relation to how personality may influence physical and emotional health are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Service with a smile: A source of emotional exhaustion or performance incentive in call‐centre employees

AbstractThis study examines the relationships between emotional labour (surface acting, deep acting, and natural expression of positive emotions) and emotional exhaustion and service performance among 215 call centre employees. Of the hypotheses concerning the relation between the three emotional regulation strategies to emotional exhaustion and to service performance, only natural expression of positive emotion is significantly related to both consequences. Results also suggest that neuroticism moderates the link between deep acting and emotional exhaustion: employees with low levels of neuroticism seem more emotionally exhausted when they use deep acting. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Servir les clients avec le sourire: Source d'épuisement ou de performance chez les employés de centres d'appels?

AbstractThis study examines the relationships between emotional labour (surface acting, deep acting, and natural expression of positive emotions) and emotional exhaustion and service performance among 215 call centre employees. Of the hypotheses concerning the relation between the three emotional regulation strategies to emotional exhaustion and to service performance, only natural expression of positive emotion is significantly related to both consequences. Results also suggest that neuroticism moderates the link between deep acting and emotional exhaustion: employees with low levels of neuroticism seem more emotionally exhausted when they use deep acting. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.