Personality Factors Extraversion Research Articles

Follow-up of myasthenia gravis. Results of a longitudinal study of the significance of psychosocial predictors

Forty-two patients suffering from myasthenia gravis were examined in a longitudinal study design. The aim of the study was to investigate possible psychosocial predictors for the course of the disease. At the time of the first examination (T1) the diagnosis myasthenia gravis had been established for no longer than 1 year. Two further examinations were done at 6 months (T2) and 18 months (T3) after T1. Methods consisted of a personality questionnaire (FPI), a coping questionnaire (FKV), an assessment of neurotic symptoms by interviewers (PSKB) and an assessment of the doctor-patient relationship by the attending physicians. Two different severity scores (Oosterhuis Index, Myasthenia Score) served as criteria for the course of the disease. There was no connection between the course of myasthenia gravis and neurotic symptoms like anxiety or depression and the quality of the doctor-patient relationship (both assessed at T1). Also demographic data were independent from the development of severity scores. The personality factor extraversion was associated with a positive course of the disease, aggressiveness and worrying about health with a negative one. Among the coping behaviors religiousness and looking for sense were associated with a favorable course but that was shown only regarding the Oosterhuis Index and not the Myasthenia Score. As several T1 personality factors were predictive for the severity scores at T3, these results may suggest a causal influence of personality factors on the severity of the illness. Whether or not this relationship is actually in operation, however, remains ellusive. Further studies using an experimental design are needed to strengthen this hypothesis.

The importance of personality in the performance of diagnostic radiographers?

Purpose: To investigate the role of personality in the performance of student and qualified diagnostic radiographers. Methods: The personality profiles of student and qualified radiographers were measured using the Cattell 16 Personality Factor questionnaire. The second order personality factor scores obtained were compared to performance criteria obtained by peer assessments. Results: Significant differences in mean personality factor scores were found between groups rated highly and lowly in the performance criteria. Significant correlations were found between personality factors and performance criteria. Conclusions: Evidence was found to suggest that high levels of the second order personality factor Extraversion may be useful to female student and qualified diagnostic radiographers in the performance of their work. High levels of the first order personality trait Intelligence may also be related to academic success for female student radiographers during their educational course.

Models of job-related stress and personal achievement among consultant doctors.

The antecedents and outcomes of feelings of job-related stress and personal achievement were studied in a large sample of consultant doctors working in Scotland. In a sample of 333 doctors it was found that a tendency to use emotion-oriented coping strategies and negative appraisals of organizational changes in the practice of medicine mediated the effect of the personality dimension of Neuroticism on reported job stress. Job stress levels predicted the degree of 'burnout' experienced by doctors, i.e. their tendencies to be emotionally exhausted by their work and to dehumanize patients. Higher clinical workloads were related to higher levels of stress but also to higher feelings of personal achievement. A substantial proportion of the variance in many of the variables in the stress model was accounted for by a general tendency to experience negative emotions, closely related to Neuroticism; this general factor appeared to be similar to the recently formulated concepts of 'negative affectivity' and 'somatopsychic distress'. The personality factors of Extraversion and Conscientiousness both contributed to positive feelings of personal achievement (N = 344); the effect of Extraversion was direct, whereas the effect of Conscientiousness was mediated by a tendency to use task-oriented coping strategies. Models of the processes of stress and personal achievement were tested for acceptability using the EQS Structural Equations Program. The implications of the models for transactional theories of stress are discussed.

Personality, motivation, and Holland type in a private-practice sample

Variations in personality and motivational patterns among Holland types were investigated. Motive was measured by the Motivational Analysis Test (MAT), personality by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), and Holland type was derived from scores on the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) or the California Occupational Preference System (COPS). The results of these tests were obtained from a private-practice data base including 206 clients seeking career counseling or therapy. It was expected that certain levels of personality factors and motivational patterns would be characteristic of persons in the various Holland types. The results suggest that motivational patterns tend to be more similar across Holland types, whereas analyses of variance found significant variability between the Holland types on the personality factors extraversion, practicality, and independence. Interpretations were offered and theoretical implications discussed.

Mood variability and personality

Recent studies have disagreed on how various combinations of the major personality factors Extraversion and Neuroticism relate to the variability of moods. This study attempted to find the most important personality influences upon mood variability by including Psychoticism alongside Extraversion and Neuroticism in the analysis. Neither Extraversion nor Neuroticism, singly or in combination, could account for individual differences in mood variability. However Psychoticism was linearly related to mood variability, but only when individuals were introverted: there was no link between personality and mood variability for extraverts. It is suggested this result reflects the influences of the different lifestyles of these two personality types. Introverts are expected to draw upon the self to initiate mood changes, whilst extraverts use their environments.

Characteristics of senior medical students at Belfast.

Summary This paper analyses and discusses the degree of homogeneity existing in the medical school student population of the Queen's University, Belfast, in relation to certain characteristics: social class, academic attainment, admission standards, intelligence test scores, and personality. Findings are compared with those reported in earlier studies elsewhere. No sex difference in social class distribution of Queen's medical students is noted. There is a much lower proportion of social class I students and a higher social class III proportion, than shown elsewhere in Britain (Johnson, 1971). Women constitute 38% of the medical school student population, a proportion in line with the 40% reported as the overall British percentage (Brit. Med. J., 1976). Females are shown to have a significantly better overall academic record than males, related to intelligence, aptitude for certain subjects and probably to behavioural and attitudinal differences to study and medical care. No significant sex differences are noted in relation to entry qualifications, intelligence, and the personality factors of extraversion and neuroticism. Male A-level scores in the present study are useful predictors of academic success in the medical course, but this is only true for females up to 2nd M.B. stage. General practice is the exception for both sexes, there being no significant correlations with general practice scores. Highly intelligent females and males below their group intelligence mean performed significantly better in learning situations in general practice as reflected in general practice scores, than highly intelligent males. The data may reflect different attitudes to whole person care and varying abilities to integrate knowledge and to define problems in primary care. These findings, including the sex differences in the factors related to academic attainment in the later clinical years of the medical curriculum, may have implications with regard to present selection procedures to most medical schools based solely on A-level grades.

The Factor of Militarism

To investigate the nature of militarism, two different but related questionnaires were admini stered to two different samples of adults and university students, N = 122 and 261, respectively. Both questionnaires contained a variety of ideological and personality scales selected on the basis of a review of the literature. In both cases, the scale scores were standardized, correlated with each other, and factor analyzed by the principal components method. In both samples, a primary factor of militarism was among the first two factors extracted. The primary factor of militarism contained scales of militarism, nationalism, severe treat ment of criminals, anti-Communism, anti-internationalism, conservatism, anti-democratic at titudes, authoritarianism, and anti-Semitism. The items in these scales were characterized by a readiness to use or threaten to use force and punishment to control the behavior of those believed to be deviating from the values of Western adult society, including the Communist 'enemy', children, Jews, Negroes, foreigners, lower-class people, sexual deviates, and mental patients. This need for compulsion and punishment was presumed to be a function of lack of faith in human nature. The primary factor of militarism was significantly correlated with the ideological factors of conservatism, nationalism, religiosity, lack of internationalism, lack of knowledge of foreign affairs, and political cynicism; and with the personality factors of extraversion, misanthropy, faulty childhood disciplines, lack of social responsibility, neuroticism, and lack of empathy. Some of these results (such as the correlation of militarism with conservatism and religiosity) are probably limited in their generalizability to the Western World, while the rest are prob ably more universal in their generalizability. However, cross-cultural studies will be required to increase our understanding of militarism in general. This study implies the need for more freedom in human relations if we want more respon sibility in human relations, including international relations.

Personality Factors of Extraversion and Anxiety in New Zealand's Persistent Offenders

Personality Factors of Extraversion and Anxiety in New Zealand's Persistent Offenders