Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Variation In Personality Among Semi-Wild Myanmar Timber Elephants, Sateesh Venkatesh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines two personality traits: exploration and neophobia, which could influence human-elephant conflicts. Thirty-one semi-wild elephants were tested over two trials using a custom novel puzzle tube containing three tasks and three rewards. Our studies show that elephants do vary significantly between individuals in both exploration and neophobia.

Gender Differences In Personality: An Item-Level Analysis, Casey C. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Personality is a social and organizational construct with a substantial history and discourse. One particular area in personality that is of interest is gender differences in personality. Gender differences have been found on scales measuring various aspects of personality, such as narcissism (Grijalva et al., 2014). While there are differences present in personality data, there hasn’t been a consistent explanation for why this occurs. This research looked specifically at the construction of personality items to begin to understand the differences in personality by gender. While social roles and social context are mostly referenced to inform the response patterns of men …

Mental Healthcare Providers' Personality And Its Relation To Preferences Of Client Personality, Taylor R. Rodriguez

Master's Theses

The incorporation of personality assessment and client treatment preferences in psychotherapy has implications for therapeutic processes and outcomes (e.g., treatment engagement, retention). While this research has largely focused on client characteristics and traits, mental healthcare providers seem to demonstrate differing perspectives of clients as a function of both their own and their clients’ personalities. However, no prior literature has considered providers’ pretreatment preferences of clients. The current study aimed to examine providers’ unique personality profiles and their associations with preferences for client personality characteristics utilizing a person-centered personality approach (i.e., latent profile analysis). Specifically, the study (1) examined providers’ personality …

Trait Conscientiousness And Agreeableness In Relation To Positive And Negative Mood Self-Perceived Altruism, Justin Thomas Robertello

MSU Graduate Theses

While much research has been done on altruism and people's perceptions of the altruistic tendencies of others, perception of altruism as it relates to self, especially in relation to the influence of internal states, lacks similarly extensive investigation. This study aims to explore how the stable internal states of personality and the fluid states of mood play a role in our own perceptions of our altruistic tendencies. Participants were provided with a personality questionnaire and exposed to image sets designed to induce positive or negative mood. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) was administered post mood induction to verify …

The Factor Structures Of Ability And Trait Emotional Intelligences Relative To General Intelligence And Personality, Nicholas Carfagno

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Emotional Intelligence is a popular term used to describe one’s experience with their own emotions and awareness of others’. Although emotional intelligence is thought to be a helpful predictor of various variables such as work performance and wellbeing, there is disagreement within the field of the precise definition and method of measurement. The current study examines two of the most popular models of emotional intelligence, ability and trait models, to determine if they are the same construct or two different constructs that share a moniker. Additionally, both ability and trait emotional intelligences’ factor structures are examined through hierarchical and bifactor …

The Dark Tetrad At Work: Examining The Effects Of Bottom-Line Mentality, Job Satisfaction, And Perceptions Of Organizational Politics On Counterproductive Work Behavior, Ryan Barry

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary organizations often use personality measures when selecting new employees. Recent developments in the literature have shown that measures of the dark tetrad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) provide additional benefits (e.g., incremental validity) over measures of normal personality (e.g., Big Five) in predicting counterproductive work behavior (CWB). The purpose for this study was to identify factors that may affect the positive relationship between higher levels the dark tetrad and CWB. We proposed that perceptions of supervisor’s bottom-line mentality (their focus on prioritizing profits over other goals) serves as a moderator, whereas one’s job satisfaction and perceptions of organizational …

The Role Of Dark Personalities In Intimate Partner Violence, Rachel A. Plouffe

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an international public health concern that poses significant mental and physical health risks for affected individuals. To improve prevention and intervention efforts, it is imperative that researchers and government bodies understand risk factors for IPV. This dissertation sought to evaluate individual differences in personality and childhood experiences as risk factors for various forms of IPV. The first two studies in this dissertation assessed whether the Dark Tetrad personality traits moderated the relationships between participants’ and their partners’ levels of IPV perpetration. In these studies, we assessed whether the Dark Tetrad traits operated differently in their …

The Impact Of Contact Experiences On Personality And Mental Illness Stigma In The Uae, Michelle Maria Antonia Tomas Smigura

Psychology Theses

Mental health illness is one of the most stigmatized diseases globally. Mental illness stigma continues to play an important role that shapes societal responses to individuals with mental illness. Owing to the negative consequences of stigma endorsed by the public and thereby internalized by the individual, better understanding is required to identify how these public negative attitudes develop towards people with mental illness. This study examined whether one’s contact experiences with mental illness influenced the role that their personality plays on mental illness stigma. Participants (N = 203) completed the Social Distance Scale, 20-item short form of the International Personality …

The Myers-Briggs Personality System And Its Moderating Effects On The Relationship Between Job Characteristics And Job Satisfaction, Rebecca Marshall

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this research, I examined how characteristics of the job, namely task significance and task identity, predicted job satisfaction and how those relationships were moderated by one’s Myers-Briggs type. It was hypothesized that the thinking/feeling dichotomy would moderate the relationship between task significance and job satisfaction and the sensing/intuition dichotomy would moderate the relationship between task identity and job satisfaction. In the study, I sought to understand how these moderated relationships would differ for people with good and poor psychological health. There were 945 people who participated which required them to answer questions about their job, personality, psychological health, life, …

The Relationship Between Undergraduate Gender, Drinking Motives, Alcohol Involvement, And Neuroticism, Jaymi Wilson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The onset of problem drinking behaviors for many college undergraduates occurs as they enter a new environment devoid of previous inhibiting factors. For whatever reasons college students choose to drink—and not all of them do—it is imperative to understand both the motives and influences affecting increased alcohol related risks. After conducting a thorough literature review, I propose a research design to test the hypothesis that drinking motives and alcohol involvement are mediated by neuroticism. To support this prediction, I will present a model that considers the impact that subject personality, namely neuroticism, may have in mediating the relationship. Specifically, this …

The Maze Of Personality: Latency And Electric Organ Discharge In A Mormyrid Fish, Gnathonemus Petersii Gunther 1862 (Mormyridae, Teleostei), Abbey C. Lipe

Theses and Dissertations

Personality is individual differences in behavior, consistent across contexts. Among Gnathonemus petersii we investigated, we hypothesized that fish could be grouped by: (1) slow/fast maze performance, (2) low/high electric frequencies, (3) correlated latency and frequency. Our first two hypothesis were not supported. Our third hypothesis was partially supported.

The Impact Of Religiosity And Personality On Resilience And Coping Strategies, Leah Eldred

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of religiosity and personality on resilience and coping strategies amongst undergraduate college students. Participants completed four different questionnaires measuring religiosity, personality, resilience, and coping skills, as well as a demographic questionnaire. A two-way factorial ANOVA statistical analysis and correlation analyses were conducted. The findings indicated that participants who were pessimistic reported more use of maladaptive coping strategies than optimistic participants. The main implication of this study was that people who are more pessimistic can be taught how to utilize adaptive coping strategies rather than the maladaptive ones that they …

Assessing The Role Personality Plays In Puppy Raisers And Guide Dogs In Training, Cassidy D. Wood

Honors Theses

Several factors affect how guide dogs in training fare during the period before the dogs are paired with their future handler. One factor that has not been researched in the past is personality compatibility between the puppy raiser and the dog in training. For the needs of the visually impaired community to be met, guide dog schools need to efficiently train and match dogs to handlers without the dogs failing. To help reduce the number of dogs that fail guide dog training, this study suggests the assessment and comparison of personality for the dog and potential puppy raisers to better …

Effects Of Parental Migration On Education And Personality: Evidence From Indonesia, Kyle Sullivan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In developing countries, migration can be an important method for many families and households to produce additional income via remittances in order to meet their needs or invest in their children. However, migration is a dynamic process and the absence of a parent can have negative effects on those children left behind. This paper explores how parental migration is associated with their children’s years of education completed and how these associations are heterogenous by family compositions in Indonesia. I use a longitudinal dataset which allows for parents’ migrations to be attributed throughout an individual’s childhood to measure the cumulative impact. …

The Influence Of Personality And Losses On Search In Decisions From Experience, Michael Mordechai Hay

LSU Master's Theses

Research in decision making has focused increasing attention on understanding search behavior without focusing on how individual differences might influence people’s search behavior. To increase our understanding of this topic, the present study examined how personality predicted the amount of search an individual engages in before making a risky decision. It was hypothesized that conscientiousness would be a positive predictor of search behavior and would emerge as an even stronger predictor of search behavior when choosing between options with negative outcomes. It was also hypothesized that neuroticism would be a negative predictor of search behavior and that individuals with higher …

Finding Agreeableness: A Replication Of Its Lower Order Factor Structure And An Exploration Of Cognitive And Psychopathology, Gerald Armando Pantoja

Theses and Dissertations

Although some effort has been made to reach an empirical consensus on the structure of agreeableness (Crowe, Lynam, & Miller, 2017; Davies, 2014), research exploring how facets of agreeableness relate to important psychological outcomes is lacking. Two studies were conducted to address these issues. In Study 1, in a large sample of 722 participants, we carried out an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on agreeableness items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 2006) to determine the lower-order structure of agreeableness and examined whether the facets were differentially related to cognitive outcomes. In Study 2, in an …

Predicting Personality Traits In Police Officer Candidates Using The M-Pulse, Kyle Villarama

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The life of a police officer is filled with high stress and demands, so it is important to hire the right candidates. Preemployment testing is where candidates are screened with instruments such as the M-PULSE and the MMPI-2-RF to see if they are psychologically suitable for law enforcement. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to determine the extent that scores on selected M-PULSE scales (negative emotions and interpersonal difficulties) predicted scores on selected MMPI-2-RF scales (stress/worry and family problems). Archival data were provided by a small corporation that conducts preemployment testing of police officer candidates. Data from the …

Job Satisfaction As A Function Of The Five Factor Model Of Personality In The Community Mental Health Center Environment Of Northern Indiana, Robert Ryan

Dissertations

Problem

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the Big Five personality type indicators and job satisfaction in the community mental health setting. The focus of this study was to gain a better understanding of whether a not-for-profit can benefit from the use of a brief personality instrument to recruit and retain individuals with the highest probability of job satisfaction. This research complements previous research which has revealed a positive correlation between certain Big Five personality traits and job satisfaction in several sectors. The research population for this study consisted of community mental health employees working …

Psychologists’ Conceptualizations Of Clients And Their Relation To Psychotherapy Outcomes: A Profile Analysis, Han Lim Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The aims of this research is to 1) quantitatively assess therapist perceptions of prototypically difficult and successful clients and assess whether characterizations of such clients vary as a function of therapist level of experience and sex, 2) examine whether clients who characterize themselves as more similar to the prototype show different rates of change in psychotherapy, and 3) evaluate whether clients’ self-reported personality and attitudes change in psychotherapy become more or less similar to the prototype profiles. There were no differences in prototypical difficult and successful client profiles as a function of therapist sex or level of experience. Clients’ improvements …

Attitude Formation And Malleability In Response To Visual Cues And Counterattitudinal Information, Tyler W. Mueller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this research is to investigate how individuals form attitudes based on the appearance of another person and how malleable those attitudes are when the individual is presented with new information about the other person. The predicted effect from this study was that participants would form attitudes about another person's agreeableness based on visual information and that when presented counterattitudinal information would be more likely to change attitudes than information that matches their initial attitude. It was also expected that negative first impressions would be harder to change. METHOD: Participants (N = 109) were presented one …

The Moderating Role Of Personality On Person-Organization Fit And Turnover, Jane Park

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Two studies were conducted to investigate whether personality traits serve as boundary conditions of the person-organization fit and turnover relationship, and whether continuous commitment may help explain why personality moderates the relationship between person-organization fit and turnover. The first study examines the effect of extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness on the relationship between person-organization fit and turnover. The sample consisted of 1,251 office managers at a large, national organization. The second study follows up on the first study and examines the same relationships. In addition, the second study includes the effect of continuous commitment on the relationship between person-organization fit and …

Exploring The Relationship Between Hardiness And Performance In Collegiate Baseball Players, Kevin R. Lou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of the individual personality characteristic of hardiness on trait anxiety and objective performance within NCAA Division I collegiate baseball players. An updated version of the PVS III-R was used to measure hardiness after a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted. Of the total 389 players that participated, 171 met inclusion criteria requirements and were split into two groups – hitters (N=94) and pitchers (N=80) – to identify differences in skills and how sub-constructs of hardiness affected performance through a descriptive correlational prospective design. The results show …

Trait Anxiety And Other Personality Constructs As Predictors Of Negative Reactions To Quarantine And Social Isolation, Faith A. Ambrose

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Former research has shown a strong relationship between anxiety and various negative reactions to trauma, including widespread traumatic events such as natural disasters, war, and pandemics. COVID-19 has been an ongoing, potentially traumatic event for individuals all over the world. Even individuals who have not experienced serious traumatic consequences because of the pandemic have likely had some negative experiences regarding the mandated quarantine and social distancing. This study seeks to find possible personality predictors for negative reactions, whether they be behavioral or cognitive. Participants completed several questionnaires that test personality constructs, including trait anxiety, need for affiliation, extraversion, and autonomy. …