Short communication: a hierarchy of items within Eysenck’s EPI

Based on the recent finding of a hierarchical scale for Neuroticism in the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, two further personality inventories: the Eysenck Personality Inventory and Goldberg’s International Personality Item Pool were analysed using the Mokken Scaling Procedure for hierarchical scales. Items from two dimensions of the Eysenck Personality Inventory: Neuroticism and Extraversion produced hierarchical scales of 12 and five items, respectively. The Neuroticism items ran from items expressing mild to more extreme worry and the Extraversion items ran from mild sociability to more extreme ‘showing off’. The utility of hierarchical scales in personality measurement is discussed in terms of furthering theoretical understanding of personality and also practical application. In addition, the reasons why only one of these scales should produce hierarchical sets of items is discussed

Narcissistic Traits of Police Officers in America

The narcissistic traits of police officers aged 17 to 78 in the United States affect American citizens in various degrees. Improvements made to pre-employment psychological evaluations, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), the L (Lie) Scale, and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), may detect and screen out police officer candidates with underlying Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It is important that candidates with NPD be screened out as, if they become officers, they may commit acts of police misconduct, which greatly affect the safety and trust of the American people

The Genetic and Environmental Sources of Resemblance Between Normative Personality and Personality Disorder Traits

Recent work has suggested a high level of congruence between normative personality, most typically represented by the big five factors, and abnormal personality traits. In 2,293 Norwegian adult twins ascertained from a population-based registry, the authors evaluated the degree of sharing of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality, assessed by the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and personality disorder traits (PDTs), assessed by the Personality Inventory for DSM-S-Norwegian Brief Form (PID-5NBF). For four of the five BFI dimensions, the strongest genetic correlation was observed with the expected PID-5-NBF dimension (e.g., neuroticism with negative affectivity [+], conscientiousness with disinhibition [-]). However, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness had substantial genetic correlations with other PID-S-NBF dimensions (e.g., neuroticism with compulsivity [+], agreeableness with detachment [-]). Openness had no substantial genetic correlations with any PID-5-NBF dimension. The proportion of genetic risk factors shared in aggregate between the BFI traits and the PID-5-NBF dimensions was quite high for conscientiousness and neuroticism, relatively robust for extraversion and agreeableness, but quite low for openness. Of the six PID-S-NBF dimensions, three (negative affectivity, detachment, and disinhibition) shared, in aggregate, most of their genetic risk factors with normative personality traits. Genetic factors underlying psychoticism, antagonism, and compulsivity were shared to a lesser extent, suggesting that they are influenced by etiological factors not well indexed by the BFI

Fear and Greed in Financial Markets: A Clinical Study of Day-Traders

We investigate several possible links between psychological factors and trading performance in a sample of 80 anonymous day-traders. Using daily emotional-state surveys over a five-week period as well as personality inventory surveys, we construct measures of personality traits and emotional states for each subject and correlate these measures with daily normalized profits-and-losses records. We find that subjects whose emotional reaction to monetary gains and losses was more intense on both the positive and negative side exhibited significantly worse trading performance. Psychological traits derived from a standardized personality inventory survey do not reveal any specific "trader personality profile", raising the possibility that trading skills may not necessarily be innate, and that different personality types may be able to perform trading functions equally well after proper instruction and practice.

Clergy work-related satisfactions in parochial ministry: the influence of personality and churchmanship

The aim of this study was to test several hypotheses that clergy work-related satisfaction could be better explained by a multidimensional rather than a unidimensional model. A sample of 1071 male stipendiary parochial clergy in the Church of England completed the Clergy Role Inventory, together with the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Factor analysis of the Clergy Role Inventory identified five separate clergy roles: Religious Instruction, Administration, Statutory Duties (conducting marriages and funerals), Pastoral Care, and Role Extension (including extra-parochial activities). Respondents also provided an indication of their predispositions on the catholic-evangelical and liberal-conservative dimensions. The significant associations of the satisfactions derived from each of the roles with the demographic, personality, and churchmanship variables were numerous, varied, and, with few exceptions, small in magnitude. Separate hierarchical regressions for each of the five roles indicated that the proportion of total variance explained by churchmanship was, in general, at least as great as that explained by personality, and was greater for three roles: Religious Instruction, Statutory Duties, and Role Extension. It was concluded that clergy satisfactions derived from different roles are not uniform and that churchmanship is at least as important as personality in accounting for clergy work satisfaction

The Returns to Cognitive Abilities and Personality Traits in Germany

We provide the first joint evidence on the relationship between individuals' cognitive abilities, their personality and earnings for Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study, we employ scores from an ultra-short IQ-test and a set of measures of personality traits, namely locus of control, reciprocity and all basic items from the Five Factor Personality Inventory. Our estimates suggest a positive effect of so-called fluid intelligence or speed of cognition on males' wages only. Findings for personality traits are more heterogeneous. There however is a robust wage penalty for an external locus of control for both men and women.Cognitive abilities, personality traits, Five Factor Model, Locus of control, reciprocity, wages

Type D Personality and Injury Relationship in Collegiate Track Athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine Type D personality as an internal factor for injury risk in collegiate track athletes. A survey was administered to 275 track athletes across each of the three NCAA divisions. The survey included general questions about injury history, which included demographic type questions. A Type D Personality Inventory assessment was administered which measured negative affectivity and social inhibition (Blum, 2009). Additionally, the survey included a version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), measuring an athlete’s evaluation of situations that invokes a stress response (Cohen et al, 1983). Lastly, the survey included the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI) ((Smith et al, 1994), which measures an athlete’s psychological skills. Skills measured in this section included; coping under adversity, coach ability, concentration, confidence, goal setting, peaking under pressure, and freedom from worry. Logistic Regression results revealed that Type D personality is a significant factor for predicting athletic injury in collegiate track athletes. However, a discriminate analysis with the two factors of Type D personality, negative affectivity and social inhibition, revealed that only negative affectivity significantly predicted injury. Coping skills and perceived stress both had significant impacts on negative affectivity. Due to social inhibitions insignificant effect on predicting injury, it was not further looked into. Findings from this study provide essential information to athletic programs, coaches and athletes aiming to reduce injury risk among collegiate track athletes