Comparing persistent juvenile delinquents and normative peers with the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Comparing the Eysenck and HEXACO Models of Personality in the Prediction of Adult Delinquency

Drawing from self and peer reports of personality, the present study compares the structures of the HEXACO and Eysenck models of personality and the models‘ capacity to predict self reported acts of delinquency. Correlations amongst scales revealed that Psychoticism captures elements of both HEXACO Emotionality and Conscientiousness. The Eysenck Lie scale correlated positively with both self and peer reported HEXACO Honesty–Humility and Conscientiousness, suggesting that this validity scale includes substantive variance relating to the latter factors. Regression analyses of personality data from both rater sources revealed that Honesty–Humility and Psychoticism were strong predictors of delinquency that independently offered substantial incremental validity. For self reports, the Extraversion and Lie scales were also strong unique predictors of delinquency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Towards More Rigorous Personality Trait–Outcome Research

Much of personality research attempts to identify causal links between personality traits and various types of outcomes. I argue that causal interpretations require traits to be seen as existentially and holistically real and the associations to be independent of specific ways of operationalizing the traits. Among other things, this means that, to the extents that causality is to be ascribed to such holistic traits, items and facets of those traits should be similarly associated with specific outcomes, except for variability in the degrees to which they reflect the traits (i.e. factor loadings). I argue that, before drawing causal inferences about personality trait–outcome associations, the presence of this condition should be routinely tested by, for example, systematically comparing the outcome associations of individual items or facets, or sampling different indicators for measuring the same purported traits. Existing evidence suggests that observed associations between personality traits and outcomes at least sometimes depend on which particular items or facets have been included in trait operationalizations, calling trait–level causal interpretations into question. However, this has rarely been considered in the literature. I argue that when outcome associations are specific to facets, they should not be generalized to traits. Furthermore, when the associations are specific to particular items, they should not even be generalized to facets. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Perfis de Personalidade de Adolescentes que Cometeram Homicídio

Resumo O objetivo deste presente trabalho foi caracterizar perfis psicológicos em um grupo de adolescentes que cometeram homicídio. Participaram do estudo 33 adolescentes, do sexo masculino e feminino, com idades entre 14 e 19 anos, que cometeram homicídio e estão cumprindo medidas socioeducativas. Foram utilizados como instrumentos uma entrevista semiestruturada e o método de Rorschach (Sistema Compreensivo). Os adolescentes revelaram características que permitiram compreendê-los em três subgrupos: um grupo com componentes narcísicos patológicos mais frequentes, outro grupo que se destaca pela falta de habilidades sociais e interpessoais, com tendência a estabelecer relacionamentos conflituosos e com pouca capacidade de lidar com as demandas da vida diárias, e o último grupo apresentou juízo crítico e coerência rebaixados, como pensamentos excêntricos e desconsideração pelos comportamentos socialmente esperados. Os principais resultados permitiram constatar a insuficiência de recursos psicológicos que interferem na capacidade de adaptação ao meio em que vivem.

Do as You're Told! Facets of Agreeableness and Early Adult Outcomes for Inner-City Boys

With data from the middle cohort of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a prospective longitudinal study of inner-city boys, we examined whether Big Five agreeableness facets could be reliably recovered in this sample, and whether facets predicted educational, occupational, social, and antisocial life outcomes assessed a decade later. Caregivers described their adolescent boys' personalities using the Common California Q-Set; twelve years later, participants were interviewed and court records were obtained. Factor analyses recovered two facets: compliance and compassion. Compliance predicted more schooling and lower risk of unemployment, teenage fatherhood, and crime; compassion related to longer committed relationships. Findings highlight the value of studying personality at the facet level.