Individual differences in intention to fake job interviews: Personality, self-monitoring, and the theory of planned behaviour

When job applicants lie in job interviews, they can deprive a more honest candidate of a job and deprive an organisation of the best employees. To better understand job interview faking, the present study examined the effect of general dispositions and domain-specific beliefs on the intention to fake job interviews. A community sample of 313 participants completed measures of personality (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness) and self-monitoring, and a domain-specific measure of beliefs about faking job interviews based on the theory of planned behaviour, which measured attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Results indicated that the measure of attitudes was the strongest predictor of intention to fake. In line with the compatibility principle, the domain-specific measures based on the theory of planned behaviour correlated much more strongly with intentions to fake job interviews than did the general measures of personality or self-monitoring. Of the dispositional measures, lower conscientiousness, higher neuroticism, and higher self-monitoring was associated with greater intention to fake job interviews. The findings support a model whereby the effect of personality on intentions is partially mediated by domain-specific beliefs.

The relationship between personality traits and psychotic like experiences in a large non-clinical adolescent sample

Objective: The relationship between personality and psychosis is well established. It has been suggested that this relationship may be partly accounted for by higher levels of depression in individuals with certain personality traits. We explored whether the link between personality and psychotic symptoms is already apparent in adolescence, and if this association would still hold when depression was controlled for. Method: 654 secondary school students were surveyed via self-report questionnaires measuring the Five-Factor model of personality (NEO-FFI), depression (CES-D) and psychotic-like experiences (CAPE). Results: Positive associations were found between Neuroticism and all CAPE-subscales except Magical Thinking, which was in turn associated with all other personality traits when at high levels. Agreeableness was negatively associated with all CAPE-subscales, while Openness to Experience was only positively associated with Persecutory Ideas and Magical Thinking. After controlling for depression, many of the significant associations remained. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the chance of having psychotic like experiences is more likely for adolescents with certain personality traits. These associations are not fully explained by depression, especially when psychotic experiences are at higher levels. Future research is needed to investigate if these personality traits might put a person at risk for the development of full-blown psychosis.

Examining the prevalence of type-D personality in an Australian population

© 2015 The Australian Psychological Society. Objective: Type-D personality is a construct that describes a tendency to simultaneously experience negative emotions and inhibit self-expression for fear of negative social judgement. The link between type-D and poor health outcomes may be partly mediated by two prominent psychosocial mechanisms, poor-quality health-related behaviour and poor perceived-social support. Method: The present study replicated and extended a 2008 UK and Irish prevalence study, utilising a sample from the Australian general population. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between type-D personality and subjective levels of social support, health-related behaviours and neuroticism, as well as examining the estimated prevalence rate of type-D in the general Australian population. Nine hundred and fifty five Australian participants over the age of 18 (194 male and 761 female) completed four measures assessing levels of type-D personality, quality of health-related behaviours, perceived-social support and neuroticism. Results: As hypothesised, the estimated prevalence rate was not found to be significantly different from the rate obtained by Williams etal. (2008). In addition, type-D individuals reported significantly lower perceived-social support and poorer-quality health behaviours than non-type-D individuals. Conclusions: The results of this study provide further support for the association of type-D personality with poor health-related behaviours and poor perceived-social support, as well as demonstrating the applicability of the type-D construct to the Australian general population for the first time. General healthcare applications are discussed, as well as the potential for type-D personality research to influence public illness prevention in general.

Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks

© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. According to the “pace-of-life syndrome” concept, slow-fast life-history strategies favored under different ecological conditions should lead to co-adaptations between metabolic rate and personality traits such as activity, exploration, and boldness. Although the relationships between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and personality traits have been recently tested several times, we still do not know whether personality is related to the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of free-living individuals in their natural habitat. The objectives of this study were to assess the links between RMR, DEE, and two personality traits (exploration in an open-field and docility during handling) in wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Using a multivariate mixed model, we found that exploration and docility were significantly correlated at the among-individual level, confirming the presence of a behavioral syndrome within our population. We also found that exploration, but not docility, was negatively correlated with DEE. Hence, fast explorers show lower DEE levels than slow explorers, independently of RMR and docility. This result adds to an increasingly large (and complex) literature reporting the impacts of personality traits on the biology, ecology, and physiology of animals in their natural environment.

How servant leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior: the roles of LMX, empowerment, and proactive personality

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht While the link between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been established, the individual-level mechanisms underlying this relationship and its boundary conditions remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the salience of the mediating mechanisms of leader–member exchange (LMX) and psychological empowerment in explaining the process by which servant leaders elicit discretionary OCB among followers. We also examine the role of followers’ proactive personality in moderating the indirect effects of servant leadership on OCB through LMX and psychological empowerment. Analysis of survey data collected from 446 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a large Chinese state-owned enterprise suggests that while servant leadership is positively related to subordinate OCB through LMX, psychological empowerment does not explain any additional variance in OCB above that accounted for by LMX. Moderated mediation tests confirm the moderating effect of proactive personality through LMX. By providing a nuanced understanding of how and when servant leadership leads followers to go above and beyond their job role, our study assists organizations in deciding how to develop and utilize servant leaders in their organizations.

Brain substrates of social decision-making in dual diagnosis: cocaine dependence and personality disorders

Cocaine dependence frequently co-occurs with personality disorders, leading to increased interpersonal problems and greater burden of disease. Personality disorders are characterised by patterns of thinking and feeling that divert from social expectations. However, the comorbidity between cocaine dependence and personality disorders has not been substantiated by measures of brain activation during social decision-making. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare brain activations evoked by a social decision-making task-the Ultimatum Game-in 24 cocaine dependents with personality disorders (CDPD), 19 cocaine dependents without comorbidities and 19 healthy controls. In the Ultimatum Game participants had to accept or reject bids made by another player to split monetary stakes. Offers varied in fairness (in fair offers the proposer shares ~50 percent of the money; in unfair offers the proposer shares <30 percent of the money), and participants were told that if they accept both players get the money, and if they reject both players lose it. We contrasted brain activations during unfair versus fair offers and accept versus reject choices. During evaluation of unfair offers CDPD displayed lower activation in the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex and higher activation in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and superior frontal and temporal gyri. Frontal activations negatively correlated with emotion recognition. During rejection of offers CDPD displayed lower activation in the anterior cingulate cortex, striatum and midbrain. Dual diagnosis is linked to hypo-activation of the insula and anterior cingulate cortex and hyper-activation of frontal-temporal regions during social decision-making, which associates with poorer emotion recognition.

Cultural intelligence (CQ) in virtual, cross-cultural interactions: generalizability of measure and links to personality dimensions and task performance

Previous studies have focused on investigating CQ in face-to-face contexts but very few have assessed CQ in virtual, cross-cultural interactions. This study highlights the relevance of cultural intelligence (CQ) as an intercultural capability in cross-cultural communications that are virtual. This two-study research (study 1: n = 274; study 2: n = 223) conducted in call centers in the Philippines (a) assesses the generalizability of the four-factor CQ model (i.e., cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioral CQ) as applied in the virtual context and (b) tests the relationship between CQ, personality dimensions (i.e., openness to experience and extraversion) and supervisor’s ratings of task performance. Study 1 results show that the structural validity of the four-factor CQ model was supported with minor issues in some ofthe items indicating the need to modify the CQ measure when utilized in the virtual context. Study 2 results show that CQ is positively and significantly related to openness to experience and extraversion. In addition, results show that CQ predicts task performance highlighting the importance of developing CQ among call center representatives and other working professionals who virtually engage and interact with clients and customers from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Personality and English as a foreign language learning in Aceh: a sociocultural approach

 This study explores the reciprocal relationship between personality and foreign language classroom learning from sociocultural perspectives. The findings indicate that personality and previous life experience impacted on the participants’ responses to the classroom communicative events in complex ways. Self-development occurred depending on the way participants utilized events and social circumstances.

Investigating the effects of personality traits on pair programming in a higher education setting through a family of experiments

Evidence from our systematic literature review revealed numerous inconsistencies in findings from the Pair Programming (PP) literature regarding the effects of personality on PP's effectiveness as a pedagogical tool. In particular: i) the effect of differing personality traits of pairs on the successful implementation of pair-programming (PP) within a higher education setting is still unclear, and ii) the personality instrument most often used had been Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), despite being an indicator criticized by personality psychologists as unreliable in measuring an individual's personality traits. These issues motivated the research described in this paper. We conducted a series of five formal experiments (one of which was a replicated experiment), between 2009 and 2010, at the University of Auckland, to investigate the effects of personality composition on PP's effectiveness. Each experiment looked at a particular personality trait of the Five-Factor personality framework. This framework comprises five broad traits (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), and our experiments focused on three of these - Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. A total of 594 undergraduate students participated as subjects. Overall, our findings for all five experiments, including the replication, showed that Conscientiousness and Neuroticism did not present a statistically significant effect upon paired students' academic performance. However, Openness played a significant role in differentiating paired students' academic performance. Participants' survey results also indicated that PP not only caused an increase in satisfaction and confidence levels but also brought enjoyment to the tutorial classes and enhanced students' motivation.

An empirical investigation of personality traits of software testers

Software testing is the process of an execution based investigation of some aspects of the software's quality. The efficiency of the process depends on the methods and technologies used, but crucially also on the human testers. Software testers typically attempt to anticipate and expose ways software may be defective, a fundamentally different task set to those of other software development practitioners. This raises the question of whether the personality of software testers may be different to other people involved in software development. To test this hypothesis, we collected personality profiles using the big five factor model of around 200 software development practitioners. Analysis of this data indicates that software testers are significantly higher on the conscientiousness factor than other software development practitioners, while other factors remain broadly consistent.

Physical health comorbidities in women with personality disorder: data from the Geelong osteoporosis study

BACKGROUND: Associations between common psychiatric disorders, psychotic disorders and physical health comorbidities are frequently investigated. The complex relationship between personality disorders (PDs) and physical health is less understood, and findings to date are varied. This study aims to investigate associations between PDs with a number of prevalent physical health conditions. METHODS: This study examined data collected from women (n=765;≥25years) participating in a population-based study located in south-eastern Australia. Lifetime history of psychiatric disorders was assessed using the semi-structured clinical interviews (SCID-I/NP and SCID-II). The presence of physical health conditions (lifetime) were identified via a combination of self-report, medical records, medication use and clinical data. Socioeconomic status, and information regarding medication use, lifestyle behaviors, and sociodemographic information was collected via questionnaires. Logistic regression models were used to investigate associations. RESULTS: After adjustment for sociodemographic variables (age, socioeconomic status) and health-related factors (body mass index, physical activity, smoking, psychotropic medication use), PDs were consistently associated with a range of physical health conditions. Novel associations were observed between Cluster A PDs and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD); Cluster B PDs with syncope and seizures, as well as arthritis; and Cluster C PDs with GORD and recurrent headaches. CONCLUSIONS: PDs were associated with physical comorbidity. The current data contribute to a growing evidence base demonstrating associations between PDs and a number of physical health conditions independent of psychiatric comorbidity, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Longitudinal studies are now required to investigate causal pathways, as are studies determining pathological mechanisms.

Personality disorders in the community

Just under half of all people with psychiatric disorders, have a co-existing chronic physical illness. However, less attention has been paid the physical health outcomes of
individuals living with these disorders in the general population, or their
treatment seeking behaviors. In absence of these data, we do know those living
with PD encounter disability and suffer significantly. The aims of this thesis,
were to investigate the prevalence of PDs, and associations with physical
health comorbidities, and health service utilization, in population-based
samples (≥20 years), from Australia, and the United States (US).

Personality differences and hotel web design study using targeted positive and negative association rule mining

As people have unique tastes, the way to satisfy a small group of targeted customers or to be generic to meet most people's preference has been a traditional question to many fashion designers and website developers. This study examined the relationship between individuals' personality differences and their web design preferences. Each individual's personality is represented by a combination of five traits, and 15 website design-related features are considered to test the users' preference. We introduced a data mining technique called targeted positive and negative association rule mining to analyze a dataset containing the survey results collected from undergraduate students. The results of this study not only suggest the importance of providing specific designs to attract individual customers, but also provide valuable input on the Big Five personality traits in their entirety.

Exploring the role of personality and resilience in the stress response: a comparison of military and civilian samples

In the context of emergency services and first responders (i.e. military), the ability to select personnel who have the innate ability to work well in highly charged environments would be advantageous. While there have been some efforts to explore the relationship between personality traits and physiological reactivity in the context of the emergency services, differences in stress responses between civilians and military personnel have not yet been investigated. Therefore the aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between personality, resilience and physiological stress responses. Fifteen civilians and 16 military personnel completed online personality (IPIP) and resilience (CD-RISC) inventories prior to commencing the experimental component of the study. The Mannheim Multi-component Stress Test (MMST) which utilises cognitive, audio, visual and motivational components was employed to elicit an acute stress response. Measures of correct responses and reaction time were sampled during the MMST. Prior to and following exposure to the MMST, positive and negative affect were measured (PANAS), and heart rate was sampled continuously across the study period. Results indicated that Military participants rated significantly lower than civilians on neuroticism; however there were no differences between groups for resilience or any of the other personality traits. Military participants displayed less emotional reactivity and less negative affect following the MMST testing period, and appeared to perform better on the MMST when compared to the civilian sample. However, there was no significant difference in heart rate measures between groups. Collectively, these results provide support for the broaden and buildhypothesis and the transactional stress theory. The results also build on previous empirical stress literature and support the effectiveness of the MMST in laboratory induced stress. Suggestions for future research in the area of resiliency and stress will be discussed. From an applied context, further research in this area may assist in military recruitment processes to place individuals in roles to which they are most suited within the Defence Force.