The Five Factor Model of personality and evaluation of drug consumption risk

The problem of evaluating an individual's risk of drug consumption and misuse is highly important. An online survey methodology was employed to collect data including Big Five personality traits (NEO-FFI-R), impulsivity (BIS-11), sensation seeking (ImpSS), and demographic information. The data set contained information on the consumption of 18 central nervous system psychoactive drugs. Correlation analysis demonstrated the existence of groups of drugs with strongly correlated consumption patterns. Three correlation pleiades were identified, named by the central drug in the pleiade: ecstasy, heroin, and benzodiazepines pleiades. An exhaustive search was performed to select the most effective subset of input features and data mining methods to classify users and non-users for each drug and pleiad. A number of classification methods were employed (decision tree, random forest, $k$-nearest neighbors, linear discriminant analysis, Gaussian mixture, probability density function estimation, logistic regression and na{\"i}ve Bayes) and the most effective classifier was selected for each drug. The quality of classification was surprisingly high with sensitivity and specificity (evaluated by leave-one-out cross-validation) being greater than 70\% for almost all classification tasks. The best results with sensitivity and specificity being greater than 75\% were achieved for cannabis, crack, ecstasy, legal highs, LSD, and volatile substance abuse (VSA).Comment: Significantly extended report with 67 pages, 27 tables, 21 figure

Applied Personality Assessment: A 'Cronbachian' Perspective in Open Peer Commentary and Author's Response

Lievens's proposal that personality psychology would benefit from using applied tools of assessment—situation judgement tests and assessment centre exercises—was appropriate, especially as these tools focus on real-world criteria in high-stakes situations. Their use would help to integrate (specific) situationally influenced intra-individual differences (variability) and (general) inter-individual differences (diversity). Lievens's proposal also raised a broader issue: each assessment tool yields unique information, and together they have potential to provide a truly comprehensive model of personality based on the ‘Cronbachian’ perspective that has, so far, not been realized. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psycholog

Investigating social dominance in a prison population

This study using a prison sample to explore Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), socially dominant inmate behaviour, index offence, age and length of time served in secure environments. A sample of 397 adult male prisoners completed the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist- Scaled (prisoner behaviour towards other inmates and staff) and the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) Scale. It was predicted that prisoners would report higher SDO than non-incarcerated populations and that among inmates those with approach orientated index offences would be higher in SDO than those whose offenses were more remote. It was also predicted that SDO would be related to younger age, higher lifetime rates of incarceration, more negative behaviour towards other inmates and staff, and more resource focused behaviour. The results broadly supported predictions, and possible implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed

Competencies through the eyes of the psychologist: A closer look at assessing competencies

Competencies have become a leading construct in human resource practices. However, empirical research on competencies has lagged behind resulting in a gap between practice and science. In this study, the focus was on the nature of competencies by examining the relationships of three competency dimensions with cognitive ability, personality and performance during assessment center exercises. Data of 932 applicants participating in a 1-day selection procedure were used. Results showed that to assess the competency dimension Thinking psychologists focus on cognitive ability. To assess the competency dimension Feeling psychologists rely on performance during interview simulation exercises and on measures of personality. In assessing the dimension Power psychologists focus mainly on personality, although they also rely on cognitive ability and performance during interview simulation exercises. © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd