A new agenda for personality psychology in the digital age?

What if some people just do not like science? How personality traits relate to attitudes toward science and technology

As societal discussion on the public opinion of science and technology ignites over and over again, understanding where such opinions are rooted is increasingly relevant. A handful of prior studies have suggested personality traits as a root of science and technology attitudes. However, these report mixed findings, and employ small student or convenience samples. This leaves considerable uncertainty regarding personality traits' relation to attitudes toward science and technology. If in fact stable psychological predispositions play a role, this has considerable implications for science policy and science communication. This article investigates the relationship between the big five personality traits and science attitudes in Germany and the Netherlands. Findings indicate that personality traits are related to science attitudes but only very weakly so, among them openness to experience and negative emotionality are most notably related to science attitudes, whereas extraversion, in contrast to prior studies, shows no relation to science and technology attitudes.

On the Willingness to Pay for social media/messenger services taking into account personality and sent/received messages among WhatsApp users

WhatsApp has billions of users worldwide. Instead of paying a subscription fee, users provide their data for the use allowance. This data is used by Meta - the company behind WhatsApp - to obtain insights into user characteristics and monetize those insights. However, this data business model is among others criticized for fostering a loss of privacy that arises when platforms analyze user data, and for the use of design elements to attract users to the platform when they are not online or to extend their online time. Therefore, an increasing number of scientists are discussing whether other payment models are needed to overcome those disadvantages, like a monetary payment model. However, users would probably only pay for improved social media products. This paper provides an empirical basis for understanding the user perspective and, in particular, whether and how much users are willing to pay for improved social media products. For this, 2924 WhatsApp users' perspectives on this topic were investigated. They were asked whether and how much they are willing to pay money for a messenger/social media service when its quality would be improved. Variables potentially influencing Willingness to Pay (i.e., personality, sent/received messages) were studied as well. 47% of the participants were unwilling to pay for a healthier messenger service, and about a quarter were willing or stayed neutral. Further analysis revealed that more agreeable people were more willing to pay. Further: Higher Extraversion was associated with more sent/received messages, but the number of sent/received messages was not linked to Willingness to Pay. The present study shows that many users still are not willing to pay for social media (here messengers), which indicates that the advantages of paying for social media with money instead of with one's own data might need to be better communicated.

Predicting Big Five personality traits from smartphone data: A meta-analysis on the potential of digital phenotyping

OBJECTIVE

Since the first study linking recorded smartphone variables to self-reported personality in 2011, many additional studies have been published investigating this association. In the present meta-analyses, we aimed to understand how strongly personality can be predicted via smartphone data.

METHOD

Meta-analytical calculations were used to assess the association between smartphone data and Big Five traits. Because of the lack of independence of many included studies, analyses were performed using a multilevel approach.

RESULTS

Based on data collected from 21 distinct studies, extraversion showed the largest association with the digital footprints derived from smartphone data (r = .35), while remaining traits showed smaller associations (ranging from 0.23 to 0.25). For all traits except neuroticism, moderator analyses showed that prediction performance was improved when multiple features were combined together in a single predictive model. Additionally, the strength of the prediction of extraversion was improved when call and text log data were used to perform the prediction, as opposed to other types of smartphone data CONCLUSIONS: Our synthesis reveals small-to-moderate associations between smartphone activity data and Big Five traits. The opportunities, but also dangers of the digital phenotyping of personality traits based on traces of users' activity on a smartphone data are discussed.

Issues and opportunities of digital phenotyping: ecological momentary assessment and behavioral sensing in protecting the young from suicide

Digital phenotyping refers to the collection of real-time biometric and personal data on digital tools, mainly smartphones, and wearables, to measure behaviors and variables that can be used as a proxy for complex psychophysiological conditions. Digital phenotyping might be used for diagnosis, clinical assessment, predicting changes and trajectories in psychological clinical conditions, and delivering tailored interventions according to individual real-time data. Recent works pointed out the possibility of using such an approach in the field of suicide risk in high-suicide-risk patients. Among the possible targets of such interventions, adolescence might be a population of interest, since they display higher odds of committing suicide and impulsive behaviors. The present work systematizes the available evidence of the data that might be used for digital phenotyping in the field of adolescent suicide and provides insight into possible personalized approaches for monitoring and treating suicidal risk or predicting risk trajectories. Specifically, the authors first define the field of digital phenotyping and its features, secondly, they organize the available literature to gather all the digital indexes (active and passive data) that can provide reliable information on the increase in the suicidal odds, lastly, they discuss the challenges and future directions of such an approach, together with its ethical implications.

Big Five personality traits and coping strategies of Italian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic first wave

Introduction

Little is known about the role personality traits may have played for university students in diminishing and compensating for the negative impact of COVID-19 in its early phases, promoting adaptive coping. University students represent a population which was consistently obliged to follow social distance rules due to the early shift of many organizations from face-to-face to online learning. Therefore, it is worth exploring whether the Big Five traits acted as risk or protective factors after the outbreak of a disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic for Italian university students.

Methods

We involved a sample of 2,995 university students who completed an online survey in March 2020. We measured the Big Five personality traits through the Big Five Inventory-2-XS and their coping strategies through the Robust-Pandemic Coping Scale. The latter assessed four COVID-19-related coping dimensions, namely Despair (e.g., including helplessness and feeling lack of control), Aversion (e.g., referring to oppositive strategies), Proactivity (e.g., comprising problem solving and information seeking), and Adjustment (e.g., concerning reappraisal and assertiveness).

Results

Preliminarily, two Linear Mixed Models indicated that university students had higher scores in Conscientiousness, followed by Open-Mindedness, and then Agreeableness. These three traits were, in turn, higher than Extraversion and Negative Emotionality, which did not differ among them. Concerning coping, university students reacted more frequently utilizing adaptive strategies (with Proactivity used more frequently than Adjustment) rather than maladaptive strategies (with Despair higher than Aversion). A Path Analysis examining the relations between the Big Five traits and the four coping dimensions showed that Negative Emotionality can be considered as a risk factor, and that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Open-Mindedness can be conceptualized as protective factors. More interestingly, we found that Extraversion entailed both a risk and a protective role for Italian university students after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discussion

Notwithstanding limitations, these findings can be the basis for developing disaster preparation and prevention actions, aiming at promoting students' positive coping towards current and future disasters.

The relationship between parenting behavior and the personality of kindergarten children

According to Cloninger's biosocial model of personality touching upon temperament and character, personality development is a lifelong adaptive process that begins in early childhood. Similarly, theories of parenting behavior and attachment predict that associations between personality and parenting behavior should be found in young children. The present study therefore had the goal to investigate, whether associations between parenting behavior and personality in terms of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions previously found in adolescence and adults can already be observed in kindergarten children. This study assessed personality in a sample of 324 kindergarten children (169 girls/155 boys) aged 3-6 years (M _age = 4.59, SD = 0.90). Parents rated their children's temperament and character using the JTCI 3-6 R questionnaire, which has been specifically developed to measure personality dimensions in three to six-year-olds according to Cloninger's model. Character traits (especially Self-Transcendence), which reach mature levels in adults, may not be reliably assessed in three-year-old children. Parenting behavior was documented using the DEAPQ-EL-GS self-report questionnaire measuring the parenting behavior dimensions Responsiveness and Demandingness. Correlation analyses revealed that responsive parenting behavior was positively related to the personality dimensions Reward Dependence, Self-Directedness, and Self-Transcendence. Demanding parenting behavior was positively related to the personality dimension Novelty Seeking, but negatively related to the personality dimensions Persistence, Self-Directedness and Cooperativeness. Although the cross-sectional design of our study prevents unequivocal conclusions about the causal direction of these associations, our results highlight possible differential consequences of responsive vs. demanding parenting behavior for personality development in children in line with theories of parenting behavior and attachment. Our results thus advance earlier work in adolescents and adults, by showing that parenting behavior influences the development of the child's personality according to Cloninger's biosocial model already in three to six-year-olds.

Co-Transformation of Digital Health and eSport in Metaverse: Moderating Effects of Digital Personality on Mental Health in Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)

Mental health issues (e.g., social exclusion, depression, anxiety, and burnout) became highly prevalent in the global eSport industry. Likewise, the eSport trend in China also dramatically increased, while the attitudes and behaviours of the players also impacted their intentions to utilize video gaming. As China became the epicentre of the online video gaming industry, especially MOBA, it primarily influenced young athletes to adopt video gaming strategies for training purposes. Still, preventive measures are needed for video gaming addictions by athletes to improve their overall eSport performance. To conduct this study, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 400 athletes aged 18-27 years; the response rate was adequate after screening, out of which 345 were finalized for the data analysis. The results indicate that metaverse-based digital healthcare significantly impacts eSport performance. Moreover, mental health significantly mediated the relationship between metaverse-based digital health and eSport performance. In addition, the digital personality also significantly moderated the relationship between metaverse-based digital healthcare and eSport performance. This research holds tremendous significance both from theoretical and practical perspectives. The study adds valuable insights to the growing body of literature regarding eSport gaming and mental health. The beneficial and constructive intuitions regarding eSport from a psychological perspective can be gained from this study, along with its pros and cons on the mental health of young Chinese athletes.

Digitale Phänotypisierung in der Psychologie – ein Quantensprung in der psychologischen Forschung?

Zusammenfassung. Digitale Phänotypisierung stellt einen neuen, leistungsstarken Ansatz zur Realisierung psychodiagnostischer Aufgaben in vielen Bereichen der Psychologie und Medizin dar. Die Grundidee besteht aus der Nutzung digitaler Spuren aus dem Alltag, um deren Vorhersagekraft für verschiedenste Anwendungsmöglichkeiten zu überprüfen und zu nutzen. Voraussetzungen für eine erfolgreiche Umsetzung sind elaborierte Smart Sensing Ansätze sowie Big Data-basierte Extraktions- (Data Mining) und Machine Learning-basierte Analyseverfahren. Erste empirische Studien verdeutlichen das hohe Potential, aber auch die forschungsmethodischen sowie ethischen und rechtlichen Herausforderungen, um über korrelative Zufallsbefunde hinaus belastbare Befunde zu gewinnen. Hierbei müssen rechtliche und ethische Richtlinien sicherstellen, dass die Erkenntnisse in einer für Einzelne und die Gesellschaft als Ganzes wünschenswerten Weise genutzt werden. Für die Psychologie als Lehr- und Forschungsdomäne bieten sich durch Digitale Phänotypisierung vielfältige Möglichkeiten, die zum einen eine gelebte Zusammenarbeit verschiedener Fachbereiche und zum anderen auch curriculare Erweiterungen erfordern. Die vorliegende narrative Übersicht bietet eine theoretische, nicht-technische Einführung in das Forschungsfeld der Digitalen Phänotypisierung, mit ersten empirischen Befunden sowie einer Diskussion der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen sowie notwendigen Handlungsfeldern.

Linguistic measures of personality in group discussions

This investigation sought to find the relationships among multiple dimensions of personality and multiple features of language style. Unlike previous investigations, after controlling for such other moderators as culture and socio-demographics, the current investigation explored those dimensions of naturalistic spoken language that most closely align with communication. In groups of five to eight players, participants (N = 340) from eight international locales completed hour-long competitive games consisting of a series of ostensible missions. Composite measures of quantity, lexical diversity, sentiment, immediacy and negations were measured with an automated tool called SPLICE and with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. We also investigated style dynamics over the course of an interaction. We found predictors of extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, but overall fewer significant associations than prior studies, suggesting greater heterogeneity in language style in contexts entailing interactivity, conversation rather than solitary message production, oral rather than written discourse, and groups rather than dyads. Extraverts were found to maintain greater linguistic style consistency over the course of an interaction. The discussion addresses the potential for Type I error when studying the relationship between language and personality.

Correlation between Parenting Style by Personality Traits and Mental Health of College Students

At present, the mental health of college students in China is relatively poor. This work is aimed at analyzing the correlation between family parenting style and college students' mental health and providing a realistic basis for improving the mental health level of college students. Firstly, this work detailed the family parenting style, the influencing factors of family parenting style, and the theoretical basis of personality traits. Then, 300 college students in Anhui Province were selected as the research objects who answered the questionnaire on parenting style and the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short for Chinese. Finally, statistical software was used to visually analyze the personality characteristics of college students, the overall situation of mental health, the impact of parents' education on college students' mental health, and the family parenting style of college students. According to the score of anxiety, the top 27% of the research objects are classified as the high-anxiety group, while the bottom 27% are classified as the low-anxiety group. The results show significant gender differences in the psychoticism and neuroticism dimensions of personality traits (P < 0.05). Besides, the educational level of parents has a certain influence on the mental health of college students, and the influence of mothers is even greater. College students feel more rejection, emotional warmth, and overprotection from mothers. Meanwhile, college students with mothers of different educational levels have significant differences in the scores of various dimensions of the mother's rearing style. However, there is no difference in this respect among college students with fathers of different educational levels. The average scores of emotional warmth from parents of the high-anxiety group are significantly lower than those of the low-anxiety group (P < 0.001). Moreover, the high-anxiety group has much lower average scores than the low-anxiety group in severe punishment, overprotection, and rejection of father and excessive interference, severe punishment, and rejection of mother (P < 0.001). There is no significant difference in their average scores of the partiality of father or mother between the high-anxiety group and the low-anxiety group. The results show that the parenting style based on personality traits has an impact on college students' mental health. This signifies that parenting style based on personality traits has an effect on college students' mental health.

Creative productivity of elderly scientists

The article presents the results of studying the personality characteristics of elderly scientists who have maintained scientific productivity for a long time. The problem that has to be solved and has got a huge scientific and practical significance is to find the psychological preconditions for the peak achievements of scientists and to define the social and psychological factors that contribute to maintaining the high productivity of elderly scientists for a long time.

The aim of the study is to determine the key personality traits of famous elderly scientists at the stages of their professional development.

Research methods. The presented data were obtained using the research interview “Life Values and Life Path”, developed by V.S.  Mukhina. Empirical material was collected in the course of interviewing famous Russian scientists of older age (from 65 to 94 years old), involved in research activities and making a significant contribution to the development of the humanities and technical sciences. When forming the sample, we followed the logic of V.S. Mukhina, who interviewed older scientists who are the founders and leaders of well-known scientific schools, who have a doctorate in science, the academic title of professor, membership in the academy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences or Russian Academy of Education and continue active scientific work. Data on the peak achievements of older scientists were taken from the scientometric databases of the Russian Science Citation Index and the Russian State Library.

Results. The data representing the peak achievements of the elderly scientists were taken from the scientometric databases and interpreted according to the provisions of differential and acmeological analysis for professional activities of scientists. The analysis of interviews, autobiographical descriptions and peak achievements of the elderly scientists allowed to reveal that the peak achievement (acme) is the joint result of psychological preconditions (personal traits of scientists, physical conditions) and social conditions of professional activity (social status of a scientist, belonging to a scientific school, availability of organizational and financial resources). The several productive periods, which are called within the acmeology field as “micro-acme”, can be indicated in the scientific work of elderly scientists throughout the period of their scientific activity. At the same time, the peak achievements of scientists as a rule are spaced in time with an optimal combination of preconditions and conditions for scientific creativity.

Exploring Online and In-Store Purchase Willingness: Associations With the Big Five Personality Traits, Trust, and Need for Touch

Nowadays, customers can utilize both online and in-store retail channels. Consequently, it is crucial for retailers to understand the possible drivers of retail channel selection, including customers’ personalities, degrees of trust, and product touch preferences. Unfortunately, current omnichannel research only scarcely addresses the effects of personality, trust, and desire to touch a product before purchasing it on willingness to purchase and how those effects vary between online and in-store shopping. Thus, we conducted an exploratory study. Our analysis of survey data (N = 1,208)—which controls for respondents’ age, gender, and education—reveals that across both the willingness to purchase in-store and online, a higher level of e-vendor trust is a significant, positive predictor. However, we also identify several channel-related differences, including that Trust Propensity, as well as the Big Five traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are significantly positively related to in-store, but not online, purchase willingness. We also find that Instrumental Need for Touch (defined as goal-motivated touch of a product) is positively related to in-store, but negatively related to online, purchase willingness. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future research and discuss how retail managers might enhance customer experiences in their physical and online stores.

Willingness to accept (WTA), willingness to pay (WTP), and the WTA/WTP disparity in Chinese social media platforms: Descriptive statistics and associations with personality and social media use

The amount of money individuals were willing to accept (WTA) to discontinue using prominent Chinese social media platforms (WeChat/QQ), the willingness to pay (WTP) for using these platforms, as well as WTA/WTP disparities were investigated in between-groups and within-subjects design studies to examine their existence, size, and psychological correlates in the form of personality and social media use habits. Individuals were recruited at Chinese universities in three separate surveys. For between-groups investigations, four samples were investigated: WTA and WTP samples for investigations in the context of WeChat as well as WTA and WTP samples for QQ. For within-subjects investigations, individuals completed items on WTA and WTP for WeChat/QQ, the Big Five Inventory, time spent on WeChat/QQ, and the short Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. Two samples providing data on WeChat and QQ, respectively, were investigated. Across study designs and for both WeChat and QQ we found evidence for high WTA and comparatively low WTP scores, thus, large WTA/WTP disparities. Individual differences in the disparities were negatively associated with Openness across social media platforms. The results reveal a generally low acceptance to pay for social media use, which is important against the background of discussions on monetary payment models. Moreover, a complex interplay between individual characteristics, characteristics of the service, and how and why the service is used seems to underly WTA and the WTA/WTP disparity. Finally, methodological implications of the present results for forthcoming studies assessing valuation (WTA, WTP) in the context of social media are discussed.

The future of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales: A reflection on seven pressing matters

The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were designed to provide researchers in the mental sciences with an inventory to assess primary emotional systems according to Pankseppian Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT). The original ANPS, providing researchers with such a tool, was published in 2003. In the present brief communication, about 20 years later, we reflect upon some pressing matters regarding the further development of the ANPS. We touch upon problems related to disentangling traits and states of the primary emotional systems with the currently available versions of the ANPS and upon its psychometric properties and its length. We reflect also on problems such as the large overlap between the SADNESS and FEAR dimensions, the disentangling of PANIC and GRIEF in the context of SADNESS, and the absence of a LUST scale. Lastly, we want to encourage scientists with the present brief communication to engage in further biological validation of the ANPS.

Empirical evidence for robust personality-gaming disorder associations from a large-scale international investigation applying the APA and WHO frameworks

Disordered gaming has gained increased medical attention and was recently included in the eleventh International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization (WHO) after its earlier inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth revision) (DSM-5) as an emerging disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Although many studies have investigated associations between personality and disordered gaming, no previous research compared the differential associations between personality and disordered gaming with time spent gaming. Due to the novelty of the WHO diagnostic framework for disordered gaming, previous research focused mainly on the associations between personality and disordered gaming in relation to the APA framework. Beyond that, these studies are generally limited by small sample sizes and/or the lack of cross-cultural emphasis due to single-country sampling. To address these limitations, the present study aimed to investigate the associations between personality and gaming behavior in a large and culturally heterogeneous sample (N = 50,925) of individuals from 150 countries. The results obtained suggested that low conscientiousness and high neuroticism were robustly associated with disordered gaming across both the APA and WHO frameworks. Interestingly, personality associations with weekly time spent gaming were smaller. The findings of the present study suggest that personality is of higher importance to predict disordered gaming compared to weekly time spent gaming.

EEG-Based Personality Prediction Using Fast Fourier Transform and DeepLSTM Model

In this paper, a deep long short term memory (DeepLSTM) network to classify personality traits using the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is implemented. For this research, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model for predicting personality is used. There are four groups in MBTI, and each group consists of two traits versus each other; i.e., out of these two traits, every individual will have one personality trait in them. We have collected EEG data using a single NeuroSky MindWave Mobile 2 dry electrode unit. For data collection, 40 Hindi and English video clips were included in a standard database. All clips provoke various emotions, and data collection is focused on these emotions, as the clips include targeted, inductive scenes of personality. Fifty participants engaged in this research and willingly agreed to provide brain signals. We compared the performance of our deep learning DeepLSTM model with other state-of-the-art-based machine learning classifiers such as artificial neural network (ANN), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), LibSVM, and hybrid genetic programming (HGP). The analysis shows that, for the 10-fold partitioning method, the DeepLSTM model surpasses the other state-of-the-art models and offers a maximum classification accuracy of 96.94%. The proposed DeepLSTM model was also applied to the publicly available ASCERTAIN EEG dataset and showed an improvement over the state-of-the-art methods.

The Potential of Digital Phenotyping and Mobile Sensing for Psycho-Diagnostics of Internet Use Disorders

Purpose of Review

The present paper provides an accessible overview on the potential of digital phenotyping and mobile sensing not only shedding light on the nature of Internet Use Disorders (IUD), but also to provide new ideas on how to improve psycho-diagnostics of mental processes linked to IUD.

Recent Findings

In detail, the psycho-diagnostic areas of prevention, treatment, and aftercare in the realm of IUDs are focused upon in this work. Before each of these areas is presented in more specificity, the terms digital phenotyping and mobile sensing are introduced against the background of an interdisciplinary research endeavor called Psychoinformatics. Obstacles to overcome problems in this emerging research endeavor—sensing psychological traits/states from digital footprints—are discussed together with risks and chances, which arise from the administration of online-tracking technologies in the field of IUDs.

Summary

Given the limited validity and reliability of traditional assessment via questionnaires or diagnostic interviews with respect to recall bias and tendencies to answer towards social desirability, digital phenotyping and mobile sensing offer a novel approach overcoming recall bias and other limitations of usual assessment approaches. This will not only set new standards in precisely mapping behavior, but it will also offer scientists and practitioners opportunities to detect risky Internet use patterns in a timely manner and to establish tailored feedback as a means of intervention.

Fear of missing out (FOMO): overview, theoretical underpinnings, and literature review on relations with severity of negative affectivity and problematic technology use

This article discusses the fear of missing out (FOMO) on rewarding experiences, an important psychological construct in contemporary times. We present an overview of the FOMO construct and its operational definition and measurement. Then, we review recent empirical research on FOMO’s relationship with levels of online social engagement, problematic technology and internet communication use, negative affectivity, and sociodemographic variables. Additionally, we discuss theoretical conceptualizations regarding possible causes of FOMO and how FOMO may drive problematic internet technology use. Finally, we discuss future directions for the empirical study of FOMO.

A meta-analysis on individual differences in primary emotional systems and Big Five personality traits

The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were constructed as a self-report assessment to measure individual differences in Jaak Panksepp's cross-species primary emotional systems: SEEKING, PLAY, CARE (positive emotions) and FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER (negative emotions). Beginning with the first published work on the ANPS in 2003, individual differences on the ANPS measures of these six primary emotional systems have been consistently linked to Big Five personality traits. From a theoretical perspective, these primary emotional systems arising from subcortical regions, shed light on the nature of the Big Five personality traits from an evolutionary perspective, because each of these primary emotional systems represent a tool for survival endowing mammalian species with inherited behavioral programs to react appropriately to complex environments. The present work revisited 21 available samples where both ANPS and Big Five measures have been administered. Our meta-analytical analysis provides solid evidence that high SEEKING relates to high Openness to Experience, high PLAY to high Extraversion, high CARE/low ANGER to high Agreeableness and high FEAR/SADNESS/ANGER to high Neuroticism. This seems to be true regardless of the ANPS inventory chosen, although much more work is needed in this area. Associations between primary emotional systems and Conscientiousness were in the lower effect size area across all six primary emotions, thereby supporting the idea that Conscientiousness rather seems to be less directly related with the subcortical primary emotions and likely is the most cognitive/cortical personality construct out of the Big Five. In sum, the present work underlines the idea that individual differences in primary emotional systems represent evolutionarily ancient foundations of human personality, given their a) meaningful links to the prominent Big Five model and b) their origins lying in subcortical areas of the human brain.

The dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of personality: An overview of the field

Personality psychology has long focused on structural trait models, but it can also offer a rich understanding of the dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of individual differences or entire persons. The field of personality dynamics, which works towards such an understanding, has experienced a renaissance in the last two decades. This review article seeks to act as a primer of that field. It covers its historical roots, summarizes current research strands - along with their theoretical backbones and methodologies - in an accessible way, and sketches some considerations for the future. In doing so, we introduce relevant concepts, give an overview of different topics and phenomena subsumed under the broad umbrella term 'dynamics', and highlight the interdisciplinarity as well as applied relevance of the field. We hope this article can serve as a useful overview for scholars within and outside of personality psychology who are interested in the dynamic nature of human behaviour and experience.

A comprehensive review of studies using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales in the psychological and psychiatric sciences

Jaak Panksepp's Affective Neuroscience Theory (ANT) belongs to the most prominent emotion theories in the psychological and psychiatric sciences. ANT proposes the existence of seven primary emotional systems deeply anchored in the mammalian brain. These emotional/motivational systems have been shaped by evolutionary processes and function as tools for survival in mammalian species. The systems are called SEEKING, LUST, CARE, and PLAY, as well as ANGER, FEAR, and SADNESS. Panksepp carved out these emotional systems via means of deep brain stimulation, brain lesion and pharmacological manipulation studies. Davis et al. (2003) designed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) against the background of findings from ANT. This self-report inventory is meant to enable researchers to assess individual differences in primary emotional systems. Seventeen years have passed since the first version of the ANPS has been published. Therefore, we now provide a comprehensive overview on studies using the ANPS including work from personality science, psychiatry and the neurosciences.

Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and social media's impact on daily-life and productivity at work: Do WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat Use Disorders mediate that association?

Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is the tendency to experience anxiety over missing out on rewarding experiences of others. It has been associated with daily-life disruptions, such as distractions during driving. FoMO has also consistently been a predictor of Internet, smartphone, and social networks use disorders. In the current work, we investigated the association between FoMO and social media use's impact on daily-life and productivity at work. In addition, we aimed to determine whether WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat Use Disorders mediate that relationship. The effective sample comprised 748 German-speaking study participants from the general population (age M = 38.63, SD = 12.10; 336 men, 412 women) who took part in an online survey study. Bivariate analyses showed that severity of all social networks use disorders were positively correlated with FoMO and social media's negative impact on daily-life and productivity at work. Furthermore, controlling for age and gender, mediation analyses showed that out of all platforms, only Snapchat Use Disorder did not mediate the association between FoMO and social media's negative impact on daily-life and productivity at work. These results provide further evidence about FoMO's central role in digital technology use-related disorders.

The association between the Big Five personality traits and smartphone use disorder: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Personality is one of the most frequently investigated variables to shed light on the putatively addictive use of the smartphone. By investigating associations between personality and individual differences in addictive smartphone use, researchers aim to understand if some personality traits predispose technology users to develop addictive behaviors. Here, based on existing empirical literature, we aimed at determining the strength of associations between Big Five personality traits and smartphone use disorder (SmUD) by a meta-analytic approach.

METHOD

For each Big Five personality trait, we performed a meta-analysis of correlations representing their association with SmUD. We also investigated possible publication bias and the moderating effects of age, gender, nationality, length of personality assessments, and time of publication.

RESULTS

We found n = 26 eligible studies. In line with both the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model and the framework on problematic mobile-phone use by Billieux, we observed a positive association between Neuroticism and SmUD (r = 0.25), while the association between Extraversion and SmUD was not significant. Partially in line with the aforementioned theoretical frameworks, Conscientiousness was negatively associated with SmUD (r = -0.16). Remaining traits showed smaller associations. No significant publication bias emerged. Moderator analyses showed that time of publication moderated the link between Conscientiousness and SmUD. Moreover, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness showed a heightened inverse association with SmUD among older samples.

CONCLUSIONS

The present meta-analysis provides robust empirical evidence that Big Five personality traits can help to understand individual differences in SmUD, supporting the usefulness of their assessment when planning and targeting interventions aimed at at-risk individuals.

‘Personality in its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled, Multi–sample Examination of the Relationships between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real–world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample ( N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re–examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

Associations between symptoms of problematic smartphone, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram use: An item-level exploratory graph analysis perspective

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Studies have demonstrated associations between both problematic smartphone and social networks use with everyday life adversities. However, examination of associations between problematic smartphone use (PSU) and problematic use of specific social networking platforms, especially on item-level data, has received relatively little attention. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to explore how items of problematic smartphone, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram use are associated.

METHODS

949 German-speaking adults participated in a web survey study. The participants were queried about their socio-demographics as well as levels of problematic smartphone, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram use. In addition to bivariate correlation analysis, exploratory graph analysis (EGA), a type of network analysis, was conducted.

RESULTS

The results showed that while problematic Facebook and Instagram use seem to be distinct phenomena, problematic smartphone and WhatsApp use were heavily intertwined. Furthermore, the only cross-platform symptom observed was the extent of reported pain in wrists and neck due to digital technology use. The EGA network models showed very good stability in bootstrap analyses.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

In general, the results of this study suggest that while Instagram and Facebook use may potentially constitute distinct problematic behaviors, problematic smartphone/WhatsApp use scales may be measuring highly similar or even the same construct.

Linking individual differences in satisfaction with each of Maslow's needs to the Big Five personality traits and Panksepp's primary emotional systems

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is one of the most impactful theories in motivation psychology and personality science. Therefore, it is surprising that studies linking individual differences in a person's current satisfaction with each of Maslow's needs to the Big Five personality traits are rare. In the present study of 850 participants, associations between the Need Satisfaction Inventory and the Big Five personality traits were examined for the first time. In addition, the administration of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales provided an evolutionary framework for the present research. Individual differences in the Need Satisfaction Inventory were assessed, but participants were also asked about the current importance of each of Maslow's needs in their lives. This latter approach to viewing Maslow's needs (general rated importance of each need in the life of a person) showed strong deviations from Maslow's proposed order in the classic pyramid depicting the hierarchy of needs.

Investigating the Relationship between Personality and Technology Acceptance with a Focus on the Smartphone from a Gender Perspective: Results of an Exploratory Survey Study

Prior research found that user personality significantly affects technology acceptance perceptions and decisions. Yet, evidence on the moderating influence of user gender on the relationship between personality and technology acceptance is barely existent despite theoretical consideration. Considering this research gap, the present study reports the results of a survey in which we examined the relationships between personality and technology acceptance from a gender perspective. This study draws upon a sample of N = 686 participants (n = 209 men, n = 477 women) and applied the HEXACO Personality Inventory—Revised along with established technology acceptance measures. The major result of this study is that we do not find significant influence of user gender on the relationship between personality and technology acceptance, except for one aspect of personality, namely altruism. We found a negative association between altruism and intention to use the smartphone in men, but a positive association in women. Consistent with this finding, we also found the same association pattern for altruism and predicted usage: a negative one in men and a positive one in women. Implications for research and practice are discussed, along with limitations of the present study and possible avenues for future research.

One Social Media Company to Rule Them All: Associations Between Use of Facebook-Owned Social Media Platforms, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and the Big Five Personality Traits

Currently, 2.7 billion people use at least one of the Facebook-owned social media platforms - Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Previous research investigating individual differences between users and non-users of these platforms has typically focused on one platform. However, individuals typically use a combination of Facebook-owned platforms. Therefore, we aim (1) to identify the relative prevalence of different patterns of social media use, and (2) to evaluate potential between-group differences in the distributions of age, gender, education, and Big Five personality traits. Data collection was performed using a cross-sectional design. Specifically, we administered a survey assessing participants' demographic variables, current use of Facebook-owned platforms, and Big Five personality traits. In N = 3003 participants from the general population (60.67% females; mean age = 35.53 years, SD = 13.53), WhatsApp emerged as the most widely used application in the sample, and hence, has the strongest reach. A pattern consisting of a combined use of WhatsApp and Instagram appeared to be most prevalent among the youngest participants. Further, individuals using at least one social media platform were generally younger, more often female, and more extraverted than non-users. Small differences in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism also emerged across groups reporting different combinations of social media use. Interestingly, when examined as control variables, we found demographic characteristics partially accounted for differences in broad personality factors and facets across different patterns of social media use. Our findings are relevant to researchers carrying out their studies via social media platforms, as sample characteristics appear to be different depending on the platform used.

Oxytocin and the stress buffering effect of social company: a genetic study in daily life

Social relationships are a crucial determinant of both mental and physical health. This effect is partly due to social buffering of stress. Animal studies suggest that social buffering is mediated via the oxytocin system, while studies in humans are sparse and limited by the low ecological validity of laboratory settings. In the present study, participants (N = 326) completed smartphone questionnaires four times a day over 4 to 5 days, measuring stressors, negative affect, and social context to assess social buffering. We found that under stress, participants reported a higher need for social company. Further, the impact of prior stressful events on momentary negative affect was attenuated by the perceived pleasantness of current social company. This social buffering effect was moderated by haplotypes of the oxytocin receptor gene, based on two well-described single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs2268498, rs53576). Effects were robust when controlling for gender and age, applying different data quality criteria, and even apparent in genotype-based analyses. Our findings demonstrate that social buffering and its modulation by oxytocin system characteristics have implications for life as lived outside the laboratory.

Age, gender, personality, ideological attitudes and individual differences in a person's news spectrum: how many and who might be prone to "filter bubbles" and "echo chambers" online?

Potential effects of demographics, personality, and ideological attitudes on the number of news sources consumed should be investigated. The number of news sources consumed, in turn, was seen as inverse proxy for the susceptibility to be caught in “filter bubbles” and/or “echo chambers” (online), which are hotly discussed topics also in politics. A sample of 1,681 (n = 557 males) participants provided data on demographics, the Big Five as well as Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) alongside the number of different news sources consumed and current voting preferences. Results showed that age (positively), gender (higher in males), Openness (positively), and RWA (negatively) predicted the number of different news sources consumed. The group of participants consuming news exclusively offline showed highest scores in Conscientiousness and lowest scores in Neuroticism compared to the “news feeds only” and the “news feeds and online” groups. However, less than 5% of the participants exclusively consumed news via news feeds of social networking sites. Participants who stated that they would not vote reported the lowest number of different news sources consumed. These findings reveal first insights into predisposing factors for the susceptibility to be caught in “filter bubbles” and/or “echo chamber” online and how this might be associated with voting preferences.