The contribution of personality characteristics to the relationship between social support and perceived physical health.

Employed structural equation modeling to derive and test a model of the relationships between personality characteristics, social network size, the perceived availability of support, socially supportive behaviors, and perceived physical health with 182 adults (aged 30–90 yrs). Ss completed a telephone interview and a questionnaire that included a version of the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire and 3 subscales from the Personality Research Form. Significant paths indicated that Ss who perceived themselves as affiliative and as help seekers and help givers reported larger social networks, received more socially supportive behaviors, and perceived more available support. Also, the more support Ss perceived to be available to them, the more positively they rated their perceived physical health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recipient-provider agreement on enacted support, perceived support, and provider personality.

This study examined agreement between recipients and providers about social support and personality. One hundred daughter caregivers of a parent with Alzheimer's disease and each caregiver's most important support provider independently reported supportive behaviors provided to caregivers, the perceived supportiveness of the provider, and providers' personality traits. For all indices, agreement was higher for enacted support than for perceived support and personality, which were similar to each other for some, but not all, indices of agreement. These findings support the validity of measures of enacted and perceived support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objective determinants of perceived social support.

Examined objective characteristics of people's social networks as determinants of the perceived availability of social support in 50 60–88 yr olds and in 71 18–35 yr old mothers of 1-yr-olds. Number of network members and frequency of contact with network members, computed separately for kin and nonkin were examined as predictors of loneliness (as measured by the UCLA Loneliness Scale), overall social support, and the 6 components of social support proposed by R. Weiss (1974). Kin were found to be more effective providers than nonkin of some aspects of social support. Network characteristics were better predictors of perceived social support for the elderly than for the mothers, but a maximum of 30% of the variance in perceived social support was attributable to the objective network characteristics in either sample. It is recommended that future research on the determinants of perceived social support consider actual interpersonal behaviors, their contexts, and personality characteristics that affect the facilitation and interpretation of supportive behaviors. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, nonverbal behavior, and perceived dominance: A test of the theory.

We evaluated Henley's (1973, 1977) and Goffman's (1976, 1979) theories about the relation between gender, nonverbal behavior, and perceived dominance in three studies. Our ratings of 1,106 media portrayals (Study 1) and observations of 1,257 people in public settings (Study 2) revealed few gender differences in frequency of head canting or body canting but some gender differences in frequency of smiling. In Study 3, we rated 96 advertisements that included all levels of gender, head cant, body cant, and smiling on five personality dimensions; we obtained only one predicted relation with dominance. It may be that the head canting, body canting, and smiling behaviors of females and males are actually more similar than was previously recognized and, contrary to hypotheses, dominance may not be strongly associated with these behaviors. We used previously suggested notions of gender as a categorizing strategy and as a diffuse status characteristic to explain why hypotheses that associate nonverbal behaviors with dominance and gender have had an acceptance unwarranted by the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations Between Big Five Personality Characteristics and Perceived Support in Adolescents' Families.

The authors investigated the longitudinal relations between family members' Big Five personality factors and perceived support. Members of 285 two-parent families with 2 adolescent children judged their own and other family members' Big Five factors and the support perceived from the other members on 3 occasions at 12-month intervals. The Big Five factor Agreeableness was particularly related to perceived support. Changes in individuals' Big Five factors were linked to changes in the support they perceived themselves but even more to changes in the support that other family members perceived from them. Results are consistent with the parallel continuities hypothesis: Individual characteristics will be stable when there is stability in the supportive environment, but when the environment is changing, personality tends to change in the same direction, and vice versa. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of environment and personality: A test of Holland's theory.

Tested J. L. Holland's assumption that personality variables interact with environment. The following hypotheses were investigated: (a) for males who leave engineering (n = 27) there is a personality change different from that found among those who remain in engineering (n = 25); and (b) for males who leave or remain in engineering, the personality development is different from that of males in a 2-yr college (n = 22). Analysis of Omnibus Personality Inventory scores indicates that 2 dimensions represented differences between groups: intellectual independence and practical inclination. Transfers to arts and sciences from engineering became more realistic, nonjudgmental, intellectual, liberal, and skeptical of orthodox religious beliefs. 2-yr students showed greater variability in their personality change scores and a loss in their liking for reflective and abstract thought. Results tend to support Holland's theory of vocational development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatric symptom-provoking studies: an ethical appraisal

This study investigated perceived social support, emotional as well as instrumental, from family members and friends, and examined their stress-buffering effects on depression in college students and middle-aged adults in Japan. For both samples, family members were relatively more important sources of instrumental support, whereas friends were primarily perceived as emotional support providers. No gender differences were found for the middle-aged adults, but as in previous studies, women in the college sample perceived more support for them than men. A series of hierarchical regression analyses with support by stress interaction terms revealed distinctive patterns of support effects on depression for men and women of each sample. Characteristics of perceived social support in each sample were described, and overall results suggested that it is essential in social support research to take the meanings of supportive relationship into consideration, in the context of social and developmental factors of the samples under study.     

Seeking security or growth: A regulatory focus perspective on motivations in romantic relationships.

Using a multimethod approach, we examined how regulatory focus shapes people's perceptual, behavioral, and emotional responses in different situations in romantic relationships. We first examined how chronic regulatory focus affects romantic partners' support perceptions and problem-solving behaviors while they were engaged in a conflict resolution discussion (Study 1). Next, we experimentally manipulated regulatory focus and tested its effects on partner perceptions when individuals recalled a prior conflict resolution discussion (Study 2). We then examined how chronic regulatory focus influences individuals' emotional responses to hypothetical relationship events (Study 3) and identified specific partner behaviors to which people should respond with regulatory goal-congruent emotions (Study 4). Strongly prevention-focused people perceived their partners as more distancing and less supportive during conflict (Studies 1 and 2), approached conflict resolution by discussing the details related to the conflict (Study 1), and experienced a negative relationship outcome with more agitation (Study 3). Strongly promotion-focused people perceived their partners as more supportive and less distancing (Studies 1 and 2), displayed more creative conflict resolution behavior (Study 1), and experienced a negative relationship outcome with more sadness and a favorable outcome with more positive emotions (Study 3). In Study 4, recalling irresponsible and responsible partner behaviors was associated with experiencing more prevention-focused emotions, whereas recalling affectionate and neglectful partner behaviors was associated with more promotion-focused emotions. The findings show that regulatory focus and approach–avoidance motivations influence certain interpersonal processes in similar ways, but regulatory focus theory also generates novel predictions on which approach–avoidance models are silent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure to find differences in drinking behavior as a function of familial risk for alcoholism: A replication.

Groups of high-risk (alcoholic fathers), middle-risk (second-degree alcoholic relatives) and low-risk (no first- or second-degree alcoholic relatives) male college students were compared with respect to drinking behavior, sociodemographic variables, personality, cognitive functioning, and mental health and drug use problems in themselves and in family members. The groups differed significantly on only one of a number of sociodemographic variables. No significant group differences were revealed in drinking behavior, or alcohol-related symptoms or consequences. High-risk subjects reported significantly more childhood attentional and social problems than did low-risk subjects. No group differences were found with respect to other childhood problem behaviors, cognitive functioning, subject or family drug use, or mental health problems. The findings are discussed in terms of the questions they raise concerning the results of high-risk studies and the contribution of genetic factors to alcoholism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and cognitive ability predictors of performance in graduate business school.

A cross-validation study is reported in which both personality variables and cognitive ability variables were evaluated as predictors of 2 separate performance criteria in a sample of 450 Master of Business Administration students. Whereas verbal and quantitative aptitudes of the students were found to be strong predictors of performance at written work, they were weak predictors of an in-class performance criterion. The opposite was true when specific personality trait variables were used as predictors. The personality characteristics of the students predicted classroom performance better than they predicted written performance. The Big Five factors of personality (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) did not predict either criterion consistently. In conclusion, personality variables are related to academic success when characteristic modes of behavior play a role in academic performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactional analysis of suicidal behavior.

Analyzes the limitations inherent in 5 empirical research models (pure environmental, pure individual differences, discrete parallel, nonparallel typological, and parallel typological models) that have been used to study suicidal behavior. These extant models are shown to have specific limitations in terms of their ability to reflect an interactional perspective on suicidal behavior. A more adequate research model was then developed and used to test 2 hypotheses derived from a general interactional thesis; approximately 510,400 Ss were studied. Findings support both hypotheses, thus providing considerable support for the general thesis, i.e., that such real-life behaviors cannot adequately be understood by recourse to either individual difference variables alone or environmental variables alone. The implications of these findings and the empirical research model that revealed them are discussed in terms of heuristic value and relevance to students of other forms of human behavior. (76 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of gender-related personality traits, problem-solving appraisal, and perceived social support in developing a mediational model of psychological adjustment.

This study examined the relation between gender-related personality traits and psychological adjustment. The study used structural equation modeling with latent variables to assess how gender-related personality traits influence aspects of psychological adjustment. Participants included 306 undergraduate and graduate students. Results indicated that the different gender-related personality traits influence corresponding aspects of psychological adjustment through 2 mediational components: problem-solving appraisal and perceived social support. The relation between gender-related personality traits and psychological adjustment is not simply a linear one as conceptualized previously. Rather, gender-related personality traits have an indirect effect through mediating factors. Implications for counseling interventions and for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concordance in the face of a stressful event: When do members of a dyad agree that one person supported the other?

Students reported behaviors they expected from a primary support person in response to an upcoming exam. After the exam, students and support persons independently reported behaviors the supporter provided. There was only moderate agreement within dyads about the occurrence of supportive behaviors (κ?=?.39). Dyad intimacy, fulfilled expectancies, student and supporter social competence, and communal orientation all were associated with greater concordance. There was also greater agreement on behaviors rated by judges as helpful than harmful and in dyads that included a woman than in man–man dyads. Greater dyad intimacy and more fulfilled expectancies accounted for why there was greater concordance in dyads that included a woman, and more fulfilled expectancies accounted for why there was greater concordance on positive than negative behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional orientations and the prediction of behavior: The attribution–prediction bias.

Consistent with the proposal that people rely on implicit causal theories that relate different types of attributions to behaviors that differ in valence, 3 studies showed that in addition to predicting more positive than negative behavior in the target, participants produced an attribution–prediction bias. This bias indicated that persons with a dispositional orientation predicted more negative and less positive behavior from the target than persons with a situational orientation. The authors produced these findings in Studies 1 and 2 by manipulating the perceived characteristic motives of a target (dispositional, situational). In Study 3 the authors used a cultural operationalization of attributional orientations by examining the responses of Western students (dispositionalists) and East Asian students (situationalists). Finally, in support of the underlying mechanism, Study 4 showed that activating dispositional or situational knowledge facilitated the encoding of negative and positive behaviors, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality is associated with perceived health and functional status in older primary care patients.

Using data collected on 265 primary care medical patients 60 years of age and older, the authors examined the personality bases of subjective health (perceived health, functional status) after controlling for observer-rated depression and medical burden. Four hypotheses were tested: High Neuroticism is associated with poorer perceived health, low Extraversion is associated with poorer perceived health, low Openness to Experience is associated with worse functional status, and age moderates the relationships between personality and subjective health. Findings supported the notion that personality is associated with subjective health, moreover, this effect appeared to grow more pronounced with increasing age. This study underscores the conceptual and heuristic value of examining moderators of the links between personality variables and health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Types of social support: Relation to stress and academic achievement among prospective teachers.

Examined the relationship between social support, anxiety and academic achievement among 3 groups differing along demographic variables of age, sex, and marital status. 81 students preparing to qualify as elementary teachers completed 2 anxiety measures and a social support questionnaire that measures a quantitative dimension and perceived satisfaction with 3 types of support (emotional, instrumental, and cognitive). Results indicate a positive correlation between the 2 anxiety measures, nonsignificant negative contribution of anxiety to GPA, and a differential effect of various support types to stress related anxiety among the 3 groups. Stepwise multiple regression analysis of social support variables to anxiety found emotional support negatively related to teaching anxiety, while satisfaction with instrumental support negatively related to trait anxiety. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Cognitive Predictors of Domain and Life Satisfaction: Exploring the Theoretical Precursors of Subjective Well-Being.

Central variables of social cognitive theory were adapted to forge an integrative model of well-being, which was designed to offer greater utility for therapeutic and self-directed change efforts than the dominant personality view of well-being. The authors present 2 studies using versions of the social cognitive model to predict domain-specific and overall life satisfaction. In both studies--one nomothetic, the other idiographic in measurement approach--findings indicated that satisfaction in particular life domains is predicted by domain-specific social cognitive variables (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived goal progress, environmental resources). Domain satisfaction in valued life domains also explained unique variance in overall life satisfaction, even after controlling for trait positive affectivity or extraversion. Implications for theory, research, and counseling aimed at well-being promotion and maintenance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prototype salience and implicit personality theories.

Based on a model of personality prototypes developed by N. Cantor and W. Mischel (see record 1977-25296-001) it was reasoned that people use beliefs about personality (e.g., extraversion, introversion) to process information about people. Prototypes serve to organize the matrix of perceived trait relationships, to organize implicit personality theories. It was argued in the present study that perceived trait and behavior relationships among prototype-relevant stimuli should be strengthened when the relevant prototype was salient. In Exp I, 45 undergraduates rated the extent to which introverted or extraverted traits and behaviors implied one another under conditions in which the stimulus person was identified as an extravert, an introvert, or was not identified. As expected, perceived extraverted trait relationships were stronger when the extraverted prototype was salient, and introverted trait and behavior relationships were perceived as higher when the introverted prototype was salient. However, neither pattern of results differed strongly from the no-salience control conditions. In Exp II (96 Ss), the salience of mature and immature prototypes was manipulated by having Ss work on unrelated tasks involving these variables before they worked on a behavior implication task. Results strongly support the prototype salience model. It is suggested that implicit personality theories play an active role in information processing. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality, self-estimated intelligence, and uses of music: A Spanish replication and extension using structural equation modeling.

This study replicates and extends a recent study on personality, intelligence and uses of music [Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2007). Personality and music: Can traits explain how people use music in everyday life? British Journal of Psychology, 98, 175–185] using Spanish participants and structural equation modeling. Data from 245 university students showed that, in line with our hypotheses, individuals higher in Neuroticism were more likely to use music for emotional regulation (influencing their mood states), those higher in Extraversion were more likely to use music as background to other activities, and those higher in Openness were more likely to experience music in a cognitive or intellectual way. As predicted, self-estimates of intelligence were also linked to cognitive use of music, though not when individual differences were considered. On other hand, contrasting with initial predictions, Extraversion was positively rather than negatively linked to emotional use of music. Small incremental effects of gender (over personality) were also found on the emotional use of music. Results are discussed in regards to previous findings on personality traits as determinants of uses of music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)