The resilient, the restraint and the restless: Personality types based on the Alternative Five-Factor Model

Which emotion regulation strategy is efficient for whom? Reappraisal and suppression efficiency for adaptive and maladaptive personality profiles

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explore the efficiency of different emotion regulation strategies, specifically reappraisal and suppression, in relation to adaptive and maladaptive personality profiles.

BACKGROUND

Personality conditions emotions and influences emotion regulation. Of the available regulation strategies, reappraisal (reinterpreting the situation) is described as an efficient strategy, whereas suppression (not displaying the experienced emotion) carries higher physiological and cognitive costs. Little is known, however, about the influence of personality on these efficiencies.

METHOD

We tested the personality structure of 102 participants (Meanage = 20.75, SDage = 2.15), based on the Five-Factor Model and the Maladaptive Personality Trait Model. Experience, expressivity, and physiological arousal were recorded during the viewing of emotionally charged positive and negative images while participants reappraised, suppressed, or viewed the images without regulating their emotions.

RESULTS

We identified two clusters for adaptive personality ("Adaptive Resilient" and "Anti-resilient") and two for maladaptive personality ("Maladaptive Resilient" and "Under-controlled"). The major finding was for emotional experience in maladaptive personalities, where reappraisal was efficient in the Maladaptive Resilient profile, while none of the strategies brought relief in the Under-controlled profile.

CONCLUSION

This study, which systematically contrasts personality and efficiency of emotion regulation strategies, is one of the first attempts to refine the understanding of how personality influences the emotional regulation process.

Temperament, Life Satisfaction, and the Role of Psychological Flexibility

Abstract: Temperament is related to well-being. Establishing mediators of this relationship, especially mediators which can be influenced through psychological interventions, may contribute to tailoring these interventions to people’s needs determined by temperament. Psychological flexibility may be considered such a mediator. This study aims to examine the relationships between temperament traits and structures, satisfaction with life, and psychological flexibility, with the latter as a possible mediator of the relationship between temperament structures and life satisfaction. 538 participants (18–93 years old) took part in the study. They filled a set of self-reported questionnaires. Psychological flexibility explained a significant part of the variance in life satisfaction above and beyond temperament traits. People with harmonized temperament structures and higher stimulation processing capabilities (sanguine) exhibited higher psychological flexibility and satisfaction with life. Three temperament structures: phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic in comparison to sanguine were found to be linked to lower satisfaction with life through lower psychological flexibility. The results suggest a meaningful role of stimulation processing capabilities in the development of both psychological flexibility and satisfaction with life.

Personality type matters: Perceptions of job demands, job resources, and their associations with work engagement and mental health

This three-wave study examined whether the pattern of associations of job demands and job resources with work engagement and mental health depends on personality types. In a representative sample of the German workforce (N = 13,665), the Big Five personality traits could be used to cluster participants into five personality types: ordinary, resilient, strained, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled. As predicted, job demands were associated with mental health and job resources were primarily associated with work engagement. However, these relationships differed across personality types. We conclude that research and practice could take a more personality-driven stance towards employee perceptions of job demands and job resources and their associations with work engagement and mental health.

Creating a measure to operationalize engaged well-being at work

BACKGROUND

Mental well-being and work engagement are both desirable, positive states of mind that help employees to better function in the workplace. While occupational researchers have argued in favor of considering both states concurrently, it is less clear how this might be translated to provide an instrument characterizing the workforce accordingly. The present study describes empirical efforts to operationalize a construct called engaged well-being.

METHODS

We used employee-level data (n = 13,538) from three waves of the German linked personnel panel (LPP; 2012-2017). Exploratory factor analysis and a combination of hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses linked with within-sum-of-squares statistics were used to identify distinct profiles describing mental well-being and work engagement concurrently. These profiles were then used as the basis to identify cut-offs to create replicable categories of engaged well-being. Using the longitudinal data from a subgroup providing data across more than one wave, we observed whether the newly constructed indicator changed over time.

RESULTS

The exploratory factor analysis suggested that both states were two distinct factors. Cluster analysis linked with within-sum-of-squares statistics suggested a four-cluster solution: engaged well-being (46.9%), disengaged well-being (27.5%), engaged strain (8.8%), and disengaged strain (16.8%). One cut-off for each state was identified to replicate the cluster solution. Across observation periods, we could observe changes in engaged well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Our measure of engaged well-being can be used to simultaneously characterize a workforce's mental well-being and work engagement. Changes in this measure over time suggest its potential utility in organizational interventions. Future studies are needed to further explore both the antecedents, correlates, and potential effects of engaged well-being.

Personality Types as Moderators of the Acceptance of Information Technologies in Organizations: A Multi-Group Analysis in PLS-SEM

This study aims to examine the influence of personality types on the acceptance of information technologies at work. Based on the model of the five dominant personality traits and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, 155 users of Enterprise Resource Planning systems were examined in two Chilean organizations. A cluster analysis applied to personality traits identified three different types of personalities. Subsequently, a multi-group analysis in Partial Least Squares of the technology acceptance model detected statistically significant differences among these types of personalities. Specifically, although for all personality types, the intention to use technology is explained in more than 60 percent, the strength of the antecedent variables changes radically depending on the type of personality. These findings indicate that personality type plays an essential role as a moderator of technology acceptance at work. This study is one of the first attempts where personality types, instead of specific personality traits, have been associated with technology acceptance models. In it, we performed an analysis of statistically significant differences among the types. Its practical implications are to identify the personality type of employees and adapt the implementation of innovations accordingly. This can help organizations to implement technology successfully, which, in turn, contributes to their sustainability.