Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Scales Research Articles

Incremental Validity of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire in the Preemployment Assessment of Police Officer Candidates

Guidelines for screening public safety personnel candidates, including law enforcement positions, incorporate the use of separate psychological tests for assessing normal and abnormal functioning. We evaluated the incremental validity of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)—a measure of normal personality traits—beyond the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), a measure of psychopathology, using a sample of 1,687 candidates for law enforcement positions. They were clinically rated on 10 psychological suitability dimensions. For a subset of those who were subsequently hired as police officers ( n = 397), we also had post-hire outcome data. Using hierarchical nonlinear regression analyses, we found that the MPQ scales incremented the MMPI-2-RF scales in the prediction of 17 of 19 variables in this study. Our results indicate that the MPQ, as a measure of normal personality, provides unique information about psychological suitability and predicts negative post-hire outcomes in police candidates.

The Recaptured Scale Technique: A Method for Testing the Structural Robustness of Personality Scales

ABSTRACTTellegen and Waller advocated a complex and time-consuming scale construction method that they called “exploratory test construction.” Scales that are constructed by this method—such as the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)—are presumed to be more “psychologically coherent” and “robust” than scales constructed by other means. Using a novel procedure that we call the “recaptured scale technique,” we tested this conjecture by conducting a megafactor analysis on data from the 411 adult participants of the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart who completed the MPQ, the MMPI, and the CPI. We extracted and obliquely rotated 21 factors from a matrix of gender-corrected tetrachoric correlations for the 1,102 nonredundant items of the three omnibus inventories. Robustness of the 11 MPQ scales was assessed by the degree to which these factors recaptured the MPQ item groupings. Our results showed that nine factors were clearly recognizable as MPQ scales and two additional factors represented a bifurcation of an MPQ scale. A higher-order factor analysis of all 21 factor scales yielded five factors that clearly resembled the Big Five. Our results provide strong support for (a) the method of exploratory test construction, (b) the structural robustness of most MPQ scales, and (c) the utility of the recaptured scale technique.

Romantic Relationship Satisfaction Moderates the Etiology of Adult Personality.

The heritability of major normative domains of personality is well-established, with approximately half the proportion of variance attributed to genetic differences. In the current study, we examine the possibility of gene×environment interaction (G×E) for adult personality using the environmental context of intimate romantic relationship functioning. Personality and relationship satisfaction are significantly correlated phenotypically, but to date no research has examined how the genetic and environmental components of variance for personality differ as a function of romantic relationship satisfaction. Given the importance of personality for myriad outcomes from work productivity to psychopathology, it is vital to identify variables present in adulthood that may affect the etiology of personality. In the current study, quantitative models of G×E were used to determine whether the genetic and environmental influences on personality differ as a function of relationship satisfaction. We drew from a sample of now-adult twins followed longitudinally from adolescence through age 29. All participants completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and an abbreviated version of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Biometric moderation was found for eight of the eleven MPQ scales examined: well-being, social potency, negative emotionality, alienation, aggression, constraint, traditionalism, and absorption. The pattern of findings differed, suggesting that the ways in which relationship quality moderates the etiology of personality may depend on the personality trait.

Personality Predicts Individual Variation in Fear Learning

Although fear-learning research has tended to focus on typical responses, there is substantial individual variation in response to threat. Here, we investigated how personality is related to variability in associative fear learning. We used multilevel growth curve modeling to examine the unique and interactive effects of Stress Reaction (SR) and Harmavoidance (HA; Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire scales) and their corresponding higher-order factors on differential fear conditioning ( n = 225) and extinction ( n = 109; 24–48 hr later). Fear was indexed by fear potentiation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Our findings demonstrated weaker discrimination between threat and safety with high levels of SR. Subsequently, both retention of differential fear acquisition and extinction were weaker with high levels of SR and HA, thereby indicating maladaptive fear learning, whereas they were stronger with low levels of SR and high levels of HA, which suggests efficient fear learning. These findings illustrate how specific personality traits may operate to confer vulnerability or resilience for anxiety disorders.

Empirical Correlates of Low Scores on MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF Restructured Clinical Scales in a Sample of University Students

In the present study, the authors explored the meaning of low scores on the MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF restructured clinical (RC) scales. Using responses of a sample of university students (N = 811), the authors examined whether low (T < 39), within-normal-limits (T = 39-64), and high (T > 65) score levels on the RC scales are differentially associated with multidimensional personality questionnaire (MPQ)-defined personality descriptions. Eleven primary MPQ scales and three higher order MPQ scales (negative emotionality, positive emotionality, and constraint) were used to yield these descriptions. MANOVAs were conducted for each RC scale and followed up by univariate ANOVAs and post hoc Dunnett T3 tests to identify reliable RC-scale-defined group differences for the individual MPQ scales. For those cases that exhibited significant differences between the low and within-normal subgroups on the Dunnett T3 tests, effect sizes were computed. The authors identified and discussed meaningful MPQ-based personality characteristics of the low scoring subjects.

Personality in Germany and Minnesota: An IRT‐Based Comparison of MPQ Self‐Reports

We compared personality across cultures to explore the extent of cultural differences. This study used samples matched on gender and age from Germany and Minnesota to compare traditional scale scores and IRT-based parameters for Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire scales. Because the samples consisted of twins, we were able to replicate the findings from the subsamples consisting of one member of each pair with the subsamples consisting of their co-twins. When the full scales were considered, Germans were higher in Aggression and Absorption and Minnesotans were higher in Well-being, Control, and Traditionalism, but, except for those in Traditionalism, different item-difficulty parameters explained most of these differences. IRT highlighted less than optimal scale properties as well as differentially functioning items. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings.

Construct validity of multidimensional personality questionnaire (MPQ)

The paper presents two studies aimed at the examination of the factor structure of The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and joint factor structure of the scales of MPQ and SPSRQ (The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire). In the first research conducted on the sample of 1127 participants of both sexes, age 18 to 67, the results of the principal component analysis of the MPQ scales point to the existence of three higher-order dimensions, named General Adaptedness, Psychopathic Tendencies and Negative Emotionality. These dimensions correspond to the dimensions of the Eysenck?s PEN model to the greater extent than they achieve the assumed similarity with the dimensions of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. In the second study conducted on the sample of 199 respondents of both sexes, age 18 to 59, the results of the joint principal component analysis of the MPQ and SPSRQ scales point to the existence of three higher order dimensions, which correspond to the Tellegen?s Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint. .

The Personalities of Twins: Just Ordinary Folks

AbstractTwin studies have demonstrated that personality traits show moderate genetic influence. The conclusions drawn from twin studies rely on the assumptions that twins are representative of the population at large and that monozygotic and dizygotic twins are comparable in every way that might have bearing on the traits being studied. To evaluate these assumptions, we used Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) data from three samples drawn from the Minnesota Twin Registry (totaling 12,971 respondents) to examine the effect sizes associated with mean differences on the 11 MPQ scales and 3 higher-order MPQ factors for singletons versus twins and MZ twins versus DZ twins. The singletons in the samples were family members of the participating twins. We also used ratios of scale variances to examine the significance of variance differences. The only mean or variance difference replicated across all three samples was greater Social Closeness (about .1 standard deviation) for twins than for singletons. This difference was obtained for both males and females. It would appear that, with respect to personality, twins are not systematically different from other people. Our results also highlight the importance of replication in psychological research because each of our large samples showed differences not replicated in other samples.

Evidence for the construct validity and heritability of the Wilson–Patterson conservatism scale: a reared-apart twins study of social attitudes

A 28 item version of the Wilson–Patterson Attitude Inventory was administered to 345 participants (twins, spouses, friends, and others) in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. An overall conservatism measure demonstrated impressive construct validity. It had strong convergent validity, demonstrated by correlations of 0.72 and 0.58 with the Altemeyer Right Wing Authoritarianism scale and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) Traditionalism Scale, respectively. It also had strong discriminant validity, being largely uncorrelated with the other 10 MPQ Scales and WAIS Full Scale IQ. Heritabilities were calculated from fitting models to the variance–covariance matricies based on 54 pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and 46 pairs of dizygotic (DZ) twins reared apart. Conservatism demonstrated significant and sizeable genetic influence ( h 2=0.56), replicating the results reported in the Virginia 30,000 study of ordinary twins and family members and those of a large Australian twin study.

Sex differences and nonadditivity in heritability of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Scales.

A sex-limitation model was applied to the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) data from the Minnesota Twin Family Registry. The sample included 626 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs, 517 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, and 114 opposite-sex DZ twin pairs ranging in age from 27 to 64 years (mean age = 37.8). In addition, whenever possible, family members of the twins were also assessed: 1,690 spouses, 495 parents, 322 siblings, and 535 offspring. The goals of the present investigation were to analyze the covariance matrices to determine whether (a) there was evidence for sex limitation of heritability of the MPQ scales and (b) there was evidence for nonadditive genetic influences on these scales. Significant sex differences in heritability were found for 3 of the scales: Alienation, Control, and Absorption. In addition, evidence for dominance was found for all scales except Traditionalism and Absorption.

Sex differences and nonadditivity in heritability of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Scales.

A sex-limitation model was applied to the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) data from the Minnesota Twin Family Registry. The sample included 626 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs, 517 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, and 114 opposite-sex DZ twin pairs ranging in age from 27 to 64 years (mean age = 37.8). In addition, whenever possible, family members of the twins were also assessed: 1,690 spouses, 495 parents, 322 siblings, and 535 offspring. The goals of the present investigation were to analyze the covariance matrices to determine whether (a) there was evidence for sex limitation of heritability of the MPQ scales and (b) there was evidence for nonadditive genetic influences on these scales. Significant sex differences in heritability were found for 3 of the scales: Alienation, Control, and Absorption. In addition, evidence for dominance was found for all scales except Traditionalism and Absorption.

A Cross-Cultural Study of Personality with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

The cross-cultural stability of the factorial structure of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) was studied by comparing Israeli and American samples. The MPQ was translated into Hebrew and administered to 583 Israeli subjects. In the United States, a comparison group of 1,644 subjects completed the 300-item instrument. Replicatory factor analyses demonstrated the factorial stability of the MPQ's primary and higher order scales across the two cultures. Internal consistency analyses demonstrated satisfactory reliability of the Hebrew MPQ's scales. Three culture-specific MPQ items were replaced with items that were found to be more suitable for Israeli subjects. Comparisons of mean scores across cultures and gender were conducted to identify personality variables and gender differences that may be influenced by environmental factors that vary across the two cultures.

Personality traits are linked to crime among men and women: evidence from a birth cohort.

Is there a relationship between personality and criminal behavior? We addressed this question in a representative birth cohort of 862 male and female 18-year-olds. Personality was assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The MPQ measures 10 relatively independent personality traits and was not designed to identify offenders. Delinquency was assessed via 3 data sources: self-reports, informant reports, and official records. Variable-centered analyses revealed that MPQ scales indexing negative emotionality and behavioral constraint were consistent predictors of delinquency across the 3 data sources. Person-centered analyses revealed that youths abstaining from delinquency were uniquely characterized by low interpersonal potency. Youths involved in extensive delinquency were uniquely characterized by feelings of alienation, lack of social closeness, and risk taking. Advances in understanding criminal behavior can be made through research that places the personality-delinquency link in a developmental context.

Domains of the impulsivity construct: A factor analytic investigation

The impulsivity scale from the Personality Research Form (PRF), the control/impulsiveness scale from the Multidimensional Personality questionnaire (MPQ), and the restraint scale from the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) were each subjected to exploratory factor analysis in a sample of 252 normal adults. The replicability of the derived factor structure for each scale was tested in a sample of 230 undergraduates using confirmatory factor analysis. The relationships among impulsivity dimensions were also examined by subjecting the extracted factors from the three scales to a second order factor analysis. Although developed as unideminsional measures of the impulsivity construct, the MPQ and GZTS scales were found to have a similar multidimensional structure: a cautious versus spontaneous dimension, and a methodical versus disorganized dimension. This multidimensional model is compared with some recently proposed models for the impulsivity construct. The PRF scale was found to be a unidimensional measure that taps only a cautious/spontaneous facet of the impulsivity construct.

Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together.

We administered the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) to 217 monozygotic and 114 dizygotic reared-together adult twin pairs and 44 monozygotic and 27 dizygotic reared-apart adult twin pairs. A four-parameter biometric model (incorporating genetic, additive versus nonadditive, shared family-environment, and unshared environment components) and five reduced models were fitted through maximum-likelihood techniques to data obtained with the 11 primary MPQ scales and its 3 higher order scales. Solely environmental models did not fit any of the scales. Although the other reduced models, including the simple additive model, did fit many of the scales, only the full model provided a satisfactory fit for all scales. Heritabilities estimated by the full model ranged from .39 to .58. Consistent with previous reports, but contrary to widely held beliefs, the overall contribution of a common family-environment component was small and negligible for all but 2 of the 14 personality measures. Evidence of significant nonadditive genetic effects, possibly emergenic (epistatic) in nature, was obtained for 3 of the measures.