Personality and Individual Differences

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is a well-established risk factor for suicidality in adolescence and young adulthood. However, the specific mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. Existing research and theoretical frameworks suggest alterations in cognitive and affective processes may account for this association. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) exacerbates negative affect and arousal states and may contribute to sustained distress. It is therefore plausible that ACEs may be associated with high IU, and in turn, high IU may be associated with increased suicide risk...

Alexithymia is a clinically relevant personality trait characterized by poor emotional awareness and associated with several psychological and physical health concerns. Individuals with high alexithymia tend to engage in experiential avoidance and this may mediate psychological distress. However, little is known about what specific processes of experiential avoidance are involved, and the nature of the relation between alexithymia, experiential avoidance, and psychological distress remains unclear at a latent construct level...

OBJECTIVES: Irritability and sleep problems are common symptoms that span a range of internalizing and externalizing mental health disorders. While poor sleep has been associated with symptoms related to irritability (e.g., anxiety and depression), few studies have directly tested the association between sleep quality and irritability and whether the association is direct or mediated by a separate mechanism. METHOD: The present study used self-report measures to test whether sleep is associated with irritability in 458 adults aged 19-74 years (58 % female; 79 % White), and whether this association is mediated by emotion regulation...

This article presents findings on the personality traits of individuals who identified as either Vaxxers (V) or Anti-Vaxxers (AV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study administered measures of Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy), trait emotional intelligence, and personality to a sample of 479 participants (283 Vs and 196 AVs) recruited via mTurk. Results indicated that Vaxxers scored higher on HEXACO Honesty and Conscientiousness while Anti-Vaxxers scored higher on the Dark Triad and trait emotional intelligence...

There is increasing evidence that dysfunctional personality traits, related to psychological maladjustment and psychopathology, can play an important role in a person's ability to cope with major stressful events. Relatively little is known about the specific effect of the emotional component on the relationship between maladaptive personality traits and psychological stress. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the maladaptive personality traits of psychoticism, detachment, and negative affect, and psychological stress, considering the effects of COVID-19-related worries and emotional dysregulation...

Given the importance of friendships during challenging times and the mixed associations between personality traits and disease-related behaviors, we investigated the correlations between personality traits and perceptions of friendships during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected as part of a longitudinal investigation of the correlations between the pandemic and various cooperative relationships. In this investigation, we found that agreeableness and neuroticism predicted participants being more concerned about COVID-19 and bothered by friends' risky behavior, and extraversion predicted enjoying helping friends during the pandemic...

We examined the association between intellectual humility (IH)-a willingness to consider credible new information and alternative views and revise one's own views if warranted-and adherence to experts' health behavior recommendations in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 1 ( N = 541) results showed that people higher in IH are more likely to engage in recommended health behaviors (e.g., mask-wearing, social distancing)-even when controlling for political affiliation. Additional analyses focused specifically on mask-wearing produced initial evidence consistent with mediation of the IH-mask-wearing relationship by the beliefs that mask-wearing 1) is an effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and 2) protects others...

Purpose in life is associated with less perceived stress and more positive worldviews. This study examined whether people with more purpose adopt a mindset that views stress as beneficial rather than harmful and whether this mindset is one mechanism between purpose and less stress. We used a short-term longitudinal study ( N =2,147) to test stress mindset as a mediator between purpose in life measured prior to the pandemic and stress measured early in the pandemic. We also tested Covid-related worry as a mechanism, given the measurement period spanned pre-pandemic to the first shutdowns in the United States...

As COVID-19 continues to incur enormous personal and societal costs, widespread vaccination against the virus remains the most effective strategy to end the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy is rampant and has been steadily rising for decades. Seeking to remedy this, personality psychologists have begun to explore psychological drivers of vaccine hesitancy, including the Big Five. Openness to Experience presents itself as a vexing case as previous attempts to study its association with vaccine hesitancy have yielded mixed findings...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, attention has been drawn to conspiracy theories. To date, research has largely examined commonalities in conspiracy theory belief, however it is important to identify where there may be notable differences. The aim of the present research was first to distinguish between typologies of COVID-19 conspiracy belief and explore demographic, social cognitive factors associated with these beliefs. Secondly, we aimed to examine the effects of such beliefs on adherence to government health guidelines...

Governments around the world are increasingly considering vaccine mandates to curb the spread of COVID-19. In May 2022, we surveyed 394 residents of South Dakota to examine predictors of popular attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. We investigated the role of Big Five personality traits, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation, as well as partisan self-identification, evangelical identity, and COVID-19 vaccination status. Results showed that Big Five personality traits (openness and emotional stability), right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, evangelical identity, and partisan self-identification are linked to attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccine mandate...

Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism) are associated with nonadherence to COVID-19 prevention measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks, although the psychological mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. In contrast, high threat-sensitivity may motivate compliance, and maybe seen in relation to vulnerable dark traits (secondary psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism and borderline personality disorder). The relationship between vulnerable dark traits and COVID-19 prevention behaviour has not been examined...

The coronavirus pandemic strongly impacted the higher education system, challenging university students, who were required to make a considerable effort in terms of revising their personal study approach and managing their emotions. The present study aimed to examine the impact of Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) on Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies directly, and indirectly through the mediation of COVID-19 perceived stress (PS) and Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). 1055 Italian university students ( mean age  = 22...

This study investigated whether personality traits moderate the effects of a 12-month physical or combined physical and cognitive training interventions on physical and cognitive functioning. Participants were community-dwelling 70-85-year-old adults ( n =314). They were randomly assigned to physical training (weekly supervised walking/balance and strength/balance training, home exercises 2-3x/wk and moderate aerobic activity) or to a physical and cognitive training group (the same physical training and computer training on executive functions 3-4x/wk)...

Dramatic social changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the dating scene and the likelihood of people starting new relationships. What factors make individuals more or less likely to start a new relationship during this period? In a sample of 2285 college students ( M age  = 19.36, SD  = 1.44; 69.2% women; 66.7% White) collected from October 2020 to April 2021, anxiously attached and extraverted people were 10-26% more likely to start a new relationship. Avoidantly attached and conscientious people were 15-17% less likely to start a new relationship...

Men with elevated psychopathic traits have been characterized by unique patterns of nonverbal communication, including more fixed and focused head positions during clinical interviews, compared to men scoring low on measures of psychopathy. However, it is unclear whether similar patterns of head dynamics help characterize women scoring high on psychopathic traits. Here, we utilized an automated detection algorithm to assess head position and dynamics during a videotaped clinical interview (i.e., the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R]) in a sample of n = 213 incarcerated women...

A greater sense of purpose in life is an aspect of well-being associated with markers of cognitive health across adulthood, including subjective cognition. The current research extends this work to examine how purpose is associated with cognitive failures, which are momentary lapses in cognitive function, whether this association varies by age, sex, race, or education, and whether it is accounted for by depressed affect. Adults across the United States ( N =5,100) reported on their sense of purpose in life, recent cognitive failures in four domains (memory, distractibility, blunders, names), and depressed affect...

Awareness of the potential psychological significance of false news increased during the coronavirus pandemic, however, its impact on psychopathology and individual differences remains unclear. Acknowledging this, the authors investigated the psychological and psychopathological profiles that characterize fake news consumption. A total of 1452 volunteers from the general population with no previous psychiatric history participated. They responded to clinical psychopathology assessment tests. Respondents solved a fake news screening test, which allowed them to be allocated to a quasi-experimental condition: group 1 (non-fake news consumers) or group 2 (fake news consumers)...

Self-determination theory proposes that intrinsic aspirations protect against negative mental health outcomes by satisfying people's basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The present study investigated this relationship using two four-wave prospective longitudinal studies which followed undergraduate students across the Canadian academic calendar (September to May). The first was conducted across 2018-19 and the second across 2019-20. By comparing these two samples, we examined whether baseline levels of intrinsic aspirations moderated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of depressive symptoms...

Research suggests that specific behavior patterns may be related with the outcome and vulnerability of a COVID-19 infection; nevertheless, much of this information has been obtained by means of psychological paradigms that are not based on research conducted using experimental designs. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to identify behavior patterns associated with COVID-19 outcome and vulnerability from the point of view of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory. A total of 464 college students from Mexico-City participated in the study...