Dimensions of personality: 16, 5 or 3?—Criteria for a taxonomic paradigm

Uncovering the structure of self-regulation through data-driven ontology discovery

Psychological sciences have identified a wealth of cognitive processes and behavioral phenomena, yet struggle to produce cumulative knowledge. Progress is hamstrung by siloed scientific traditions and a focus on explanation over prediction, two issues that are particularly damaging for the study of multifaceted constructs like self-regulation. Here, we derive a psychological ontology from a study of individual differences across a broad range of behavioral tasks, self-report surveys, and self-reported real-world outcomes associated with self-regulation. Though both tasks and surveys putatively measure self-regulation, they show little empirical relationship. Within tasks and surveys, however, the ontology identifies reliable individual traits and reveals opportunities for theoretic synthesis. We then evaluate predictive power of the psychological measurements and find that while surveys modestly and heterogeneously predict real-world outcomes, tasks largely do not. We conclude that self-regulation lacks coherence as a construct, and that data-driven ontologies lay the groundwork for a cumulative psychological science.

Scientific progress relies on integrating and building on existing knowledge. Here, the authors propose improving cumulative science by developing data-driven ontologies, and they apply this approach to understanding the construct of self-regulation.

Varimax Rotation Based on Gradient Projection Is a Feasible Alternative to SPSS

Gradient projection rotation (GPR) is an openly available and promising tool for factor and component rotation. We compare GPR toward the Varimax criterion in principal component analysis to the built-in Varimax procedure in SPSS. In a simulation study, we tested whether GPR-Varimax yielded multiple local solutions by creating population simple structure with a single optimum and with two optima, a global and a local one (double-optimum condition). The other conditions comprised the number of components (k = 3, 6, 9, and 12), the number of variables per component (m/k = 4, 6, and 8), the number of iterations per rotation (i = 25 and 250), and whether loadings were Kaiser normalized before rotation or not. GPR-Varimax was conducted with unrotated and multiple (q = 1, 10, 50, and 100) random start loadings. We found equal results for GPR-Varimax and SPSS-Varimax in most conditions. The few very small differences in favor of SPSS-Varimax were eliminated when Kaiser-normalized loadings and 250 iterations per rotation were used. Selecting the best solution out of multiple random starts in GPR-Varimax increased proximity to population components in the double-optimum condition with Kaiser normalized loadings, for which GPR-Varimax recovered population structure better than SPSS-Varimax. We also included an empirical example and found that GPR-Varimax and SPSS-Varimax yielded highly similar solutions for orthogonal simple structure in a real data set. We suggest that GPR-Varimax can be used as an alternative to Varimax rotation in SPSS. Users of GPR-Varimax should allow for at least 250 iterations, normalize loadings before rotation, and select the best solution from at least 10 random starts to ensure optimal results.

Genetics of biologically based psychological differences

In recent years, substantial effort has gone into disentangling the genetic contribution to individual differences in behaviour (such as personality and temperament traits). Heritability estimates from twin and family studies, and more recently using whole genome approaches, suggest a substantial genetic component to these traits. However, efforts to identify the genes that influence these traits have had relatively little success. Here, we review current work investigating the heritability of individual differences in behavioural traits and provide an overview of the results from genome-wide association analyses of these traits to date. In addition, we discuss the implications of these findings for the potential applications of Mendelian randomization.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.

Personality Dynamics, Motivation, and the Logic of Explanation

Dynamic personality approaches provide an important step forward for twenty-first century personality theories because they promise greater explanatory power compared with latent trait approaches. Nevertheless, whether dynamic personality theories satisfactorily address motivated action remains unclear. To address this, this article discusses the logic of explanation and problems with latent trait approaches in terms of circularity and reification. The article then assesses explanation within dynamic personality accounts and the putative role of motivation. While dynamic personality approaches avoid many of the problems associated with latent trait accounts, a satisfactory account of motivational systems and “human nature” is currently missing. Suggestions for addressing the dynamics of human nature in terms of criteria for motivational systems are discussed. Attachment theory is offered as one possible foundation for addressing the motivational dynamics of personality.

Learning and Personalizing Socially Assistive Robot Behaviors to Aid with Activities of Daily Living

Socially assistive robots can autonomously provide activity assistance to vulnerable populations, including those living with cognitive impairments. To provide effective assistance, these robots should be capable of displaying appropriate behaviors and personalizing them to a user's cognitive abilities. Our research focuses on the development of a novel robot learning architecture that uniquely combines learning from demonstration ( LfD ) and reinforcement learning ( RL ) algorithms to effectively teach socially assistive robots personalized behaviors. Caregivers can demonstrate a series of assistive behaviors for an activity to the robot, which it uses to learn general behaviors via LfD . This information is used to obtain initial assistive state-behavior pairings using a decision tree. Then, the robot uses an RL algorithm to obtain a policy for selecting the appropriate behavior personalized to the user's cognition level. Experiments were conducted with the socially assistive robot Casper to investigate the effectiveness of our proposed learning architecture. Results showed that Casper was able to learn personalized behaviors for the new assistive activity of tea-making, and that combining LfD and RL algorithms significantly reduces the time required for a robot to learn a new activity.

Interpersonal Dynamics in Personality and Personality Disorders

Clinical and basic personality psychologists interact less than they should, given their similar interests. In clinical personality psychology, available evidence supports a transition from the current categorical system to a hierarchical trait scheme for diagnosing the stable features of personality disorder. However, trait models do not capture the dynamic aspects of personality disorders as they have been described in the clinical literature, and thus miss a clinically critical feature of personality pathology. In contrast, basic personality psychologists have coalesced around a consensual structure of individual differences and become increasingly interested in the dynamic processes that underlie and contextualize traits. But trait psychology models are not sufficiently specific to characterize dynamic personality processes. In this paper, I filter clinical descriptions of personality disorders through the lens of interpersonal theory to specify a recursive within–situation interpersonal pattern of motives, affects, behaviours, and perceptions that could contribute to the stable between–situation patterns of maladaptive behaviour of historical interest to both basic and clinical personality psychologists. I suggest that this interpersonal model adds specificity to recent proposals regarding processes in the basic personality literature and has significant potential to advance research on personality dynamics. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Genetic risk of major depressive disorder: the moderating and mediating effects of neuroticism and psychological resilience on clinical and self-reported depression

BACKGROUND

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for depression correlate with depression status and chronicity, and provide causal anchors to identify depressive mechanisms. Neuroticism is phenotypically and genetically positively associated with depression, whereas psychological resilience demonstrates negative phenotypic associations. Whether increased neuroticism and reduced resilience are downstream mediators of genetic risk for depression, and whether they contribute independently to risk remains unknown.

METHODS

Moderating and mediating relationships between depression PRS, neuroticism, resilience and both clinical and self-reported depression were examined in a large, population-based cohort, Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (N = 4166), using linear regression and structural equation modelling. Neuroticism and resilience were measured by the Eysenck Personality Scale Short Form Revised and the Brief Resilience Scale, respectively.

RESULTS

PRS for depression was associated with increased likelihood of self-reported and clinical depression. No interaction was found between PRS and neuroticism, or between PRS and resilience. Neuroticism was associated with increased likelihood of self-reported and clinical depression, whereas resilience was associated with reduced risk. Structural equation modelling suggested the association between PRS and self-reported and clinical depression was mediated by neuroticism (43-57%), while resilience mediated the association in the opposite direction (37-40%). For both self-reported and clinical diagnoses, the genetic risk for depression was independently mediated by neuroticism and resilience.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest polygenic risk for depression increases vulnerability for self-reported and clinical depression through independent effects on increased neuroticism and reduced psychological resilience. In addition, two partially independent mechanisms - neuroticism and resilience - may form part of the pathway of vulnerability to depression.

Mood and Personality Characteristics are Associated with Metamemory Knowledge Accuracy in a Community-Based Cohort of Older Adults

OBJECTIVES

Emerging work reveals the neuroanatomic changes that compromise metacognition; however, little is known about the impact of premorbid factors. Research suggests that psychological variables influence the perception of cognition, but whether they influence the accuracy of those perceptions (i.e., metacognition) has not been directly examined.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), we tested for discrete personality (NEOFFI) and mood (STAI, BDI-II, and GDS) classes among a community-based cohort of 151 older adults, enrolled in the NKI-Rockland study. Metamemory was calculated by comparing subjective memory ratings (modified Cognitive Failures Questionnaire) to objective memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) to determine the degree to which individuals were overconfident, underconfident, or accurate in their self-assessment. A generalized linear model was used to examine whether metamemory differed across the emergent classes. A one sample t test was used to determine whether the metamemory scores of the emergent classes were statistically significantly different from zero, that is, over or under confident.

RESULTS

Two discrete classes emerged in the LCA: Class 1 was characterized predominantly by high extraversion and conscientiousness and low neuroticism and anxiety; Class 2 was characterized predominantly by low extraversion and conscientiousness and high neuroticism and anxiety. Metamemory differed significantly as a function of Class Membership (F(4,151)=5.42; p<.001), with Class 1 demonstrating accurate metamemory (M=0.21; SD=1.31) and Class 2 demonstrating under-confidence (M=-0.59; SD=1.39) in their memory.

CONCLUSIONS

The significant association between psychological factors and metamemory knowledge accuracy suggests that such characteristics may be important to consider in the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of metacognitive disturbances. (JINS, 2018, 24, 498-510).

Design, rationale and feasibility of a multidimensional experimental protocol to study early life stress

There is a rapidly accumulating body of evidence regarding the influential role of early life stress (ELS) upon medical and psychiatric conditions. While self-report instruments, with their intrinsic limitations of recall, remain the primary means of detecting ELS in humans, biological measures are generally limited to a single biological system. This paper describes the design, rationale and feasibility of a study to simultaneously measure neuroendocrine, immune and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to psychological and physiological stressors in relation to ELS. Five healthy university students were recruited by advertisement. Exclusion criteria included chronic medical conditions, psychotic disorders, needle phobia, inability to tolerate pain, and those using anti-inflammatory medications. They were clinically interviewed and physiological recordings made over a two-hour period pre, during and post two acute stressors: the cold pressor test and recalling a distressing memory. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Index were utilised to measure ELS. Other psychological measures of mood and personality were also administered. Measurements of heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, skin conductance, skin blood flow and temporal plasma samples were successfully obtained before, during and after acute stress. Participants reported the extensive psychological and multisystem physiological data collection and stress provocations were tolerable. Most (4/5) participants indicated a willingness to return to repeat the protocol, indicating acceptability. Our protocol is viable and safe in young physically healthy adults and allows us to assess simultaneously neuroendocrine, immune and autonomic nervous system responses to stressors in persons assessed for ELS.

Unusual Configurations of Personality Traits Indicate Multiple Patterns of Their Coalescence

It is widely accepted that the Five Factor Model (FFM) is a satisfactory description of the pattern of covariations among personality traits, which supposedly fits, more or less adequately, every individual. As an amendment to the FFM, we propose that the customary five-factor structure is only a near-universal, because it does not fit all individuals but only a large majority of them. Evidences reveal a small minority of participants who have an unusual configuration of personality traits, which is clearly recognizable, both in self- and observer-ratings. We identified three types of atypical configurations of personality traits, characterized mainly by a scatter of subscale scores within each of the FFM factors. How different configurations of personality traits are formed, persist, and function needs further investigation.

Adult attachment's unique contribution in the prediction of postpartum depressive symptoms, beyond personality traits

BACKGROUND

Personality traits such as neuroticism can help identify pregnant women at risk of postpartum depressive symptoms (PPDS). However, it is unclear whether attachment style could have an additional contribution to this risk elevation. This study aimed to examine the overlap of adult attachment insecurity and neuroticism/trait anxiety as PPDS predictors, taking into account baseline depressive symptoms.

METHODS

A Swedish population-based sample of pregnant women reported on adult attachment and either neuroticism (n = 1063) or trait anxiety (n = 555). Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline, and at six weeks and six months postpartum. Correlations between attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety were calculated. Generalized linear models of PPDS tested the effect of attachment anxiety and avoidance, adjusting for neuroticism/trait anxiety and baseline depression. Logistic regression models with combined high attachment anxiety and neuroticism/trait anxiety visualized their value as risk factors beyond antenatal depression.

RESULTS

Attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety were highly correlated (r = .55-.77). Attachment anxiety exerted a partially independent effect on PPDS at six weeks (p < .05) and at six months (p < .05) adjusting for neuroticism. Among antenatally non-depressed, combined high attachment anxiety and high neuroticism or trait anxiety was predictive of PPDS at both assessment points.

LIMITATIONS

Low acceptance rate, exclusive use of self-reports.

CONCLUSIONS

Beyond personality, attachment anxiety had a small independent effect on the risk of PPDS. Combining items of adult attachment and neuroticism/trait anxiety could prove useful in antenatal screening for high risk of PPDS.

The Eating Motivation Survey: results from the USA, India and Germany

OBJECTIVE

Research has shown that there is a large variety of different motives underlying why people eat what they eat, which can be assessed with The Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS). The present study investigates the consistency and measurement invariance of the fifteen basic motives included in TEMS in countries with greatly differing eating environments.

DESIGN

The fifteen-factor structure of TEMS (brief version: forty-six items) was tested in confirmatory factor analyses.

SETTING

An online survey was conducted.

SUBJECTS

US-American, Indian and German adults (total N 749) took part.

RESULTS

Despite the complexity of the model, fit indices indicated a reasonable model fit (for the total sample: χ 2/df=4·03; standardized root-mean-squared residual (SRMR)=0·063; root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0·064 (95 % CI 0·062, 0·066)). Only the comparative fit index (CFI) was below the recommended threshold (for the total sample: CFI=0·84). Altogether, 181 out of 184 item loadings were above the recommended threshold of 0·30. Furthermore, the factorial structure of TEMS was invariant across countries with respect to factor configuration and factor loadings (configural v. metric invariance model: ΔCFI=0·009; ΔRMSEA=0·001; ΔSRMR=0·001). Moreover, forty-three out of forty-six items showed invariant intercepts across countries.

CONCLUSIONS

The fifteen-factor structure of TEMS was, in general, confirmed across countries despite marked differences in eating environments. Moreover, latent means of fourteen out of fifteen motive factors can be compared across countries in future studies. This is a first step towards determining generalizability of the fifteen basic eating motives of TEMS across eating environments.

Correlations Between Personality, Affective and Filial Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Psychological Well-Being in a Sample of Italian Adolescents

Adolescence is a critical period for the emergence of a balanced personality in adults. Extraversion, neuroticism, and affective self-efficacy beliefs in emotion regulation showed to be good predictors of psychological well-being in adolescents. We analyzed the association between affective self-efficacy beliefs, personality traits, and psychological well-being of 179 Italian adolescents. We also analyzed the connection between adolescents' filial self-efficacy beliefs and psychological well-being and possible moderating effects of self-efficacy beliefs on personality traits. Results show that extraversion, neuroticism, and self-efficacy beliefs in emotion regulation are correlated with psychological well-being, while filial self-efficacy does not. Self-efficacy beliefs do not show significant moderating effects on personality traits, even if self-efficacy beliefs in expressing positive emotions reduce negative characteristics of individuals with high level of psychoticism.

Satisfacción Laboral: Un Modelo Explicativo Basado en Variables Disposicionales

Se verificó un modelo explicativo de la satisfacción laboral basado en la relación de algunas variables disposicionales. Se plantea un modelo de mediación múltiple moderada, que fue analizado en una muestra multiocupacional de 575 trabajadores argentinos. La verificación empírica indicó que el efecto indirecto positivo del capital psicológico y de la inteligencia emocional sobre la satisfacción laboral es amplificado por la extraversión y atenuado por el neuroticismo; en contraste, el efecto indirecto negativo del cinismo organizacional se encuentra fortalecido por el descontrol emocional y amortiguado por la extraversión. Se discuten los resultados y se señalan las fortalezas y limitaciones del estudio.

Impulsivity and Cluster B Personality Disorders

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct and an important personality trait in various mental health conditions. Among personality disorders (PDs), especially cluster B PDs are affected. The aims of this review are to summarize the relevant findings of the past 3 years concerning impulsivity in cluster B PDs and to identify those subcomponents of self-reported impulsivity and experimentally measured impulse control that are most affected in these disorders.

RECENT FINDINGS

All studies referred to antisocial (ASPD) or borderline PD (BPD), and none were found for narcissistic or histrionic PD. In ASPD as well as BPD, self-report scales primarily revealed heightened impulsivity compared to healthy controls. In experimental tasks, ASPD patients showed impairments in response inhibition, while fewer deficits were found in delay discounting. BPD patients showed specific impairments in delay discounting and proactive interference, while response inhibition was less affected. However, after inducing high levels of stress, deficits in response inhibition could also be observed in BPD patients. Furthermore, negative affect led to altered brain activation patterns in BPD patients during impulse control tasks, but no behavioral impairments were found. As proposed by the DSM-5 alternative model for personality disorders, heightened impulsivity is a core personality trait in BPD and ASPD, which is in line with current research findings. However, different components of experimentally measured impulse control are affected in BPD and ASPD, and impulsivity occurring in negative emotional states or increased distress seems to be specific for BPD. Future research could be focused on measures that assess impulsive behaviors on a momentary basis as this is a promising approach especially for further ecological validation and transfer into clinical practice.

Intelligence and neuroticism in relation to depression and psychological distress: Evidence from two large population cohorts

Background

Neuroticism is a risk factor for selected mental and physical illnesses and is inversely associated with intelligence. Intelligence appears to interact with neuroticism and mitigate its detrimental effects on physical health and mortality. However, the inter-relationships of neuroticism and intelligence for major depressive disorder (MDD) and psychological distress has not been well examined.

Methods

Associations and interactions between neuroticism and general intelligence (g) on MDD, self-reported depression, and psychological distress were examined in two population-based cohorts: Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS, n = 19,200) and UK Biobank (n = 90,529). The Eysenck Personality Scale Short Form-Revised measured neuroticism and g was extracted from multiple cognitive ability tests in each cohort. Family structure was adjusted for in GS:SFHS.

Results

Neuroticism was strongly associated with increased risk for depression and higher psychological distress in both samples. Although intelligence conferred no consistent independent effects on depression, it did increase the risk for depression across samples once neuroticism was adjusted for. Results suggest that higher intelligence may ameliorate the association between neuroticism and self-reported depression although no significant interaction was found for clinical MDD. Intelligence was inversely associated with psychological distress across cohorts. A small interaction was found across samples such that lower psychological distress associates with higher intelligence and lower neuroticism, although effect sizes were small.

Conclusions

From two large cohort studies, our findings suggest intelligence acts a protective factor in mitigating the effects of neuroticism on psychological distress. Intelligence does not confer protection against diagnosis of depression in those high in neuroticism.

Openness to Experience as a Basic Dimension of Personality

In this article I trace some of the historic roots of the concept of Openness to Experience and provide data on the convergent and discriminant validity of measures of Openness in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Factor analyses demonstrate that facet scales measuring Openness to Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas, and Values covary to define a broad dimension of personality; these scales are weakly and inconsistently related to psychometric measures of intelligence and to self-report measures of Intellectance that emphasize academic ability. I illustrate the construct of Openness with a case study and conclude with suggestions for exploring the role of Openness in understanding cognitive traits, consciousness and mental processes, and the interface between cognition and emotion.

Interpersonal Problems and Personality: Using Three Factor Solutions

Attempting to bridge the gap between psychotherapy research on interpersonal discord and personality research on factors of normal and abnormal personality, the present study uses personality factors to predict interpersonal problems. Eysenck's P-E-N (Psychoticism-Extraversion-Neuroticism) model of personality and its correspondent index, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised is used as a schema from which to conceptualize and measure personality. Horowitz's Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, which includes six problems commonly reported by psychotherapy patients at intake (hard to be assertive, hard to be submissive, hard to be intimate, hard to be sociable, too controlling, and too responsible), was used as an index of interpersonal distress. Hierarchical multiple regression, in which the most significant predictor was entered into the equation first, indicate significant prediction of various problems by the personality factors considered here. Results are discussed in the context of interpersonal theory.

Theories, Models, and Factor Approaches to Personality, Temperament, and Behavioral Types: Postulations and Measurement in the Second Millennium A.D

The chronology and historical developments in postulating theories, models, and factor approaches to personality, temperament, and behavioral types are discussed as they occurred during the 20th century A.D. The measurement of these models and approaches is from an historical perspective with a focus on the precursors of the five factor approaches that are currently the most commonly accepted ones today. The early beginnings dating back 2,500 years are also briefly discussed.

Positive Self-Presentation Effects and the Detection of Defensiveness on the NEO PI-R

Recent investigations suggest that the five factors are highly susceptible to faking. Three studies are presented that address the effects of positive self-presentational set on the revised edition of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R). Study 1 involves a within-subjects design ( N = 100) for the purposes of determining the effects of positive self-presentation on NEO PI-R domain and facet scales. Study 2 reports the development of two multivariate functions for the classification of fake-good protocols and provides results supporting the generalizability of these equations. Finally, Study 3 addresses the issue of specificity in a low base-rates sample ( N = 254) and lends further evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of these functions. These findings suggest that the NEO PI-R is clearly vulnerable to faking and support the contention that profiles derived under socially desirable conditions can be accurately identified.

Personality Traits in Adolescence as Predictors of Religiousness in Early Adulthood: Findings from the Terman Longitudinal Study

The authors examined the associations of the Big Five personality factors with religiousness in adulthood for a 19-year longitudinal sample of 492 adolescents age 12 to 18. Among the Big Five, Conscientiousness in adolescence was uniquely related to higher religiousness in early adulthood. For adolescents high in Emotional Stability, the link between strength of religious upbringing and religiousness in adulthood was weaker than it was for adolescents who were less emotionally stable. These findings replicate the work of others demonstrating the importance of Conscientiousness as a predictor of religiousness and suggest that emotionally unstable adolescents might be more likely to adopt levels of religiousness that are similar to those of their parents.

Personality, Preventive Health Behaviour and Comparative Optimism about Health Problems

The aim was to test a model whereby personality influences preventive health behaviour which in turn influences comparative optimism about possible future health problems. Students ( N 5 150) completed measures of personality (five-factor), preventive health behaviour and comparative optimism. The model was tested using structural equation modelling with observed variables. In the final model, agreeableness and conscientiousness had positive main effects and an interactive effect upon preventive health behaviour. Preventive health behaviour had a positive effect upon comparative optimism. In addition, extraversion had a direct positive effect (not mediated by preventive health behaviour) upon comparative optimism. It is speculated that agreeableness and conscientiousness combine to produce a general regard for social convention that is conducive to healthier behaviour. The effect of extraversion is explicable in terms of positive affectivity.

Temperament Styles of Children from the People's Republic of China and the United States

Preferences for four bipolar temperament qualities (i.e. extroversion-introversion, practical-imaginative, thinking-feeling and organized-flexible styles) of 400 Chinese children, ages 9, 11, 13 and 15, first are described and then compared to temperament qualities of 3,539 US children of the same ages. Chinese children more frequently prefer extroversion to introversion styles, practical to imaginative styles, thinking to feeling styles and organized to flexible styles. In contrast to Chinese boys, Chinese girls are more likely to prefer practical and feeling styles. All four bipolar temperament styles display some age changes, with practical-imaginative and organized-flexible styles displaying the most changes. Although Chinese and US children did not differ on extroversion-introversion styles, they differ on three temperament styles. Compared to US children, Chinese children are more likely to prefer practical, thinking and organized styles; these differences were found within boys and girls from the two countries. Temperament preferences displayed by Chinese and US children may reflect qualities important to values prominent in either a collectivist or individualist society.

Personality diatheses and Hurricane Sandy: effects on post-disaster depression

BACKGROUND

According to diathesis-stress models, personality traits, such as negative emotionality (NE) and positive emotionality (PE), may moderate the effects of stressors on the development of depression. However, relatively little empirical research has directly examined whether NE and PE act as diatheses in the presence of stressful life events, and no research has examined whether they moderate the effect of disaster exposure on depressive symptoms. Hurricane Sandy, the second costliest hurricane in US history, offers a unique opportunity to address these gaps.

METHOD

A total of 318 women completed measures of NE and PE 5 years prior to Hurricane Sandy. They were also assessed for lifetime depressive disorders on two occasions, the latter occurring an average of 1 year before the hurricane. Approximately 8 weeks after the disaster (mean = 8.40, s.d. = 1.48 weeks), participants completed a hurricane stress exposure questionnaire and a measure of current depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Adjusting for lifetime history of depressive disorders, higher levels of stress from Hurricane Sandy predicted elevated levels of depressive symptoms, but only in participants with high levels of NE or low levels of PE.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support the role of personality in the development of depression and suggest that personality traits can be useful in identifying those most vulnerable to major stressors, including natural disasters.

Does Personality Moderate the Effects of Mindfulness Training for Medical and Psychology Students?

The majority of mindfulness research to date has reported only on the group-level effects of interventions. Therefore, there is a need to better understand who is most likely to benefit from mindfulness interventions. This study reports on moderation analyses from a two-centre randomised controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) among 288 medical and psychology students. The study investigated whether baseline personality factors (neuroticism, conscientiousness and extroversion) and baseline mindfulness moderated effects on mental distress, study stress and subjective well-being measured after the intervention. An increased effect of the intervention on mental distress and subjective well-being was found in students with higher scores on neuroticism. Students with higher scores on conscientiousness showed an increased effect of mindfulness training on study stress. The training protected students against an increase in mental distress and study stress and a decrease in subjective well-being that was seen in the control group. Baseline mindfulness and extroversion did not moderate the effects of the intervention on the outcomes. The majority of the 288 medical and psychology students in the study sample were female. Female participants scored significantly higher on neuroticism and conscientiousness, and they may therefore be an important target group for mindfulness interventions among students.

Domain knowledge and data quality perceptions in genome curation work

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to understand genomics scientists’ perceptions in data quality assurances based on their domain knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study used a survey method to collect responses from 149 genomics scientists grouped by domain knowledge. They ranked the top-five quality criteria based on hypothetical curation scenarios. The results were compared using χ2 test.

Findings

– Scientists with domain knowledge of biology, bioinformatics, and computational science did not reach a consensus in ranking data quality criteria. Findings showed that biologists cared more about curated data that can be concise and traceable. They were also concerned about skills dealing with information overloading. Computational scientists on the other hand value making curation understandable. They paid more attention to the specific skills for data wrangling.

Originality/value

– This study takes a new approach in comparing the data quality perceptions for scientists across different domains of knowledge. Few studies have been able to synthesize models to interpret data quality perception across domains. The findings may help develop data quality assurance policies, training seminars, and maximize the efficiency of genome data management.

Maladaptive Personality at Work: Exploring the Darkness

Important changes in how personality is conceptualized and measured are occurring in clinical psychology. We focus on 1 aspect of this work that industrial psychologists have been slow to embrace, namely, a new trait model that can be viewed as a maladaptive counterpart to the Big 5. There is a conspicuous absence of work psychology research emerging on this trait model despite important implications for how we understand personality at work. We discuss objections to the trait model in a work context and offer rejoinders that might make researchers and practitioners consider applying this model in their work. We hope to stimulate discussion of this topic to avoid an unnecessary bifurcation in the conceptualization of maladaptive personality between industrial and clinical settings.

The Circumplex of Personality Metatraits: A Synthesizing Model of Personality Based on the Big Five

The Big Five model describes the structure of personality as 5 orthogonal and universal dimensions. Although the model has gained significant empirical support both in the psycholexical and questionnaire approaches, it is not free of criticism. The controversies concern the main assumptions regarding the structure of personality, among others the number of basic traits and their orthogonality. It turns out that 2 higher-order factors (also called metatraits) Alpha and Beta, or even 1 General Factor of Personality (GFP) are located above the 5 traits and account for systematical intercorrelations between these basic dimensions. The present article describes the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits (CPM), a proposal based on the knowledge gathered in the Big Five research tradition and solving some problems raised both in psycholexical and psychometric approaches. According to the model, metatraits can be described within a circumplex that is organized by 2 orthogonal dimensions: Alpha and Beta. Furthermore, we also introduce to the model 2 other metatraits: Gamma and Delta. On one hand these correspond to the personality types, and on the other they resolve the controversies related to the GFP. The main advantage of the CPM model is that it provides foundations for wide-ranging theoretical integration: (a) of the trait (disposition) approach to personality with those personality theories that make use of dynamic and explanatory theoretical constructs; (b) of various models of personality, temperament, emotion, motivation, and psychopathology; and (c) of the traditions of personality description in terms of traits and in terms of types.

From the big five to the general factor of personality: a dynamic approach

An integrating and dynamic model of personality that allows predicting the response of the basic factors of personality, such as the Big Five Factors (B5F) or the general factor of personality (GFP) to acute doses of drug is presented in this paper. Personality has a dynamic nature, i.e., as a consequence of a stimulus, the GFP dynamics as well as each one of the B5F of personality dynamics can be explained by the same model (a system of three coupled differential equations). From this invariance hypothesis, a partial differential equation, whose solution relates the GFP with each one of the B5F, is deduced. From this dynamic approach, a co-evolution of the GFP and each one of the B5F occurs, rather than an unconnected evolution, as a consequence of the same stimulus. The hypotheses and deductions are validated through an experimental design centered on the individual, where caffeine is the considered stimulus. Thus, as much from a theoretical point of view as from an applied one, the models here proposed open a new perspective in the understanding and study of personality like a global system that interacts intimately with the environment, being a clear bet for the high level inter-disciplinary research.

Do different circadian typology measures modulate their relationship with personality? A test using the Alternative Five Factor Model

The relationship between personality and circadian typology shows some inconsistent results and it has been hypothesized that the model used to measure personality might have a moderating effect on this relationship. However, it has never been explored if this inconsistency was dependent on the questionnaire used to measure differences in circadian rhythms as well. We explored this issue in a sample of 564 university students (32% men; 19-40 years) using the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire, which is based on an evolutionary-biological approach, in combination with the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) and the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ). Both questionnaires detected differences between circadian typologies in Sociability (highest in evening types; ET) and Impulsive Sensation-Seeking scales (highest in ET), while the CSM also detected differences in Activity (lowest in ET) and Aggression-Hostility (highest in ET). Further, both questionnaires detected differences between circadian typologies in the subscales General Activity (morning types [MT] higher than ET), Impulsivity (ET highest) and Sensation-Seeking (highest in ET). Differences between circadian typologies/groups in the subscales Parties (highest in ET) and Isolation Intolerance (lowest in MT) were only detected by the rMEQ. The CSM clearly separated evening types from neither and morning types while the rMEQ showed that neither types are not intermediate but closer to evening types in General Activity and Isolation Intolerance, and closer to morning types in Impulsive Sensation-Seeking, Parties, Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking. The obtained results indicate that the relationship between circadian typology and personality may be dependent on the instrument used to assess circadian typology. This fact may help to explain some of the conflicting data available on the relationship between these two concepts.