Five Factor model of personality and structure of psychopathological symptoms in adolescents

Cognitive Ability, Personality, and Psychopathology: A Stormy Relationship

Cognitive and non-cognitive traits are frequently analyzed in isolation. However, there is an increasing acknowledgment that their interplay should be considered for enhancing our understanding of human psychological differences. Testing both traits in the same sample of individuals is desirable when addressing their relationships. Here, for that purpose, 299 university students from Spain (mean age = 18.5 years., 83% female) completed a cognitive ability battery comprised by nine tests, the NEO-FFI for assessing the big five personality traits, and the SCL-90-R for evaluating a range of subjective psychopathological symptoms. This resulted in 23 cognitive and non-cognitive variables that were submitted to a data reduction providing four factors: (1) neuroticism/p, (2) cognitive ability/g, (3) agreeableness/A, and (4) introversion/I. Summary factor scores revealed a positive correlation between p and I (0.47), along with negative correlations of A with p (-0.26) and with g (-0.24), and a negative correlation between A and I (-0.16). These factors were related to some degree even when the assessment of the cognitive and non-cognitive variables cannot be considered straightforwardly comparable because the former was performance based, whereas the later was based on self-reports. Conceptual and methodological implications are discussed regarding the three-way relationship among cognitive ability, personality, and subjective psychopathological symptoms.

The General Factor of Environmental Sensitivity: Relationships with the General Factor of Personality

Environmental sensitivity is a meta-concept that describes individual differences in susceptibility to both positive and negative environmental influences and has been repeatedly reported to correlate with other established personality traits, including the Big Five. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the general factor of environmental sensitivity (GFS) and the general factor of personality (GFP). A total of 1,046 adult participants (52% female; Mage = 45.15, SDage = 12.70) completed a self-report psychological questionnaire on an online form. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that GFS had a strong negative correlation with GFP (r = -.41, 95% CI [-.52, -.30], p < .001). Focusing on the relationship with the Big Five, individuals with higher environmental sensitivity were emotionally unstable and introverted. The trait of environmental sensitivity may be described not only in relation to the Big Five but also in relation to GFP, which is assumed to be an indicator of social effectiveness.

A Developmentally Informed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Strength of General Psychopathology in Childhood and Adolescence

Considerable support exists for higher-order dimensional conceptualizations of psychopathology in adults. A growing body of work has focused on understanding the structure of general and specific psychopathology in children and adolescents. No prior meta-analysis has examined whether the strength of the general psychopathology factor (p factor)-measured by explained common variance (ECV)-changes from childhood to adolescence. The primary objective of this multilevel meta-analysis was to determine whether general psychopathology strength changes across development (i.e. across ages) in childhood and adolescence. Several databases were searched in November 2021; 65 studies, with 110 effect sizes (ECV), nested within shared data sources, were identified. Included empirical studies used a factor analytic modeling approach that estimated latent factors for child/adolescent internalizing, externalizing, and optionally thought-disordered psychopathology, and a general factor. Studies spanned ages 2-17 years. Across ages, general psychopathology explained over half (~ 56%) of the reliable variance in symptoms of psychopathology. Age-moderation analyses revealed that general factor strength remained stable across ages, suggesting that general psychopathology strength does not significantly change across childhood to adolescence. Even if the structure of psychopathology changes with development, the prominence of general psychopathology across development has important implications for future research and intervention.

Depressive personality traits and temperament and character personality traits in a clinical sample: Results from regression and network analyses

Personality and psychopathology are highly relevant and easily relatable constructs. The current study investigated the relationships between dependency and self-criticism, sociotropy and autonomy depressive personality traits, and Cloninger's temperament and character personality traits postulated as vulnerability factors for depression, in relation to depressive and general psychopathology symptoms in a clinical sample of 100 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. The results showed that self-directedness, a character trait of the temperament and character model, was positively associated with dependency, self-criticism, sociotropy, and autonomy. Applying more in-depth analyses with regression models revealed associations between self-directedness and depressive personality styles dependency and sociotropy, and general psychopathology symptoms was a significant clinical indicator in these relationships. Going beyond the regression models, network analysis showed that self-directedness is associated with self-criticism, sociotropy, autonomy, and general psychopathology symptoms. The relationship between self-directedness and sociotropy, self-criticism and autonomy suggests that these depressive personality traits may be attributable to aspects of self-determination, maturity, responsibility, discipline, and self-acceptance. General psychopathology research informed by literature incorporating personality traits has far-reaching implications for understanding individual differences as well as increasing efforts to contribute to the amelioration of disabling psychological disorders like major depressive disorders.

Contribution of Social Psychology Research to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Bibliometric and Content Analysis of Spanish Publications

This study analyses the publications by Spanish institutions indexed by the Web of Science in the thematic category of "Psychology, Social". The objectives are to determine whether such publications address topics related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to what extent the research conducted contributes to achieving the goals proposed in each of the SDGs. Publications were classified by their relationship with the SDGs using OSDG tool, and an in-depth content analysis was performed to validate the results. A corpus of 1,632 papers published by Spanish institutions was identified. The results show that 34% percent of the papers address matters related to the SDGs; 23% of these are related to Goal 3 (good health and well-being), and 5%, to Goal 5 (gender equality). For achieving SDG 3 goals, the reviewed papers evidence the need that institutions, governments and society to provide, especially for children and adolescents, healthy social environments to prevent harmful social relationships while improving individual skills to manage emotions in everyday life and promoting cultural integration. Regarding SDG 5, it should be a priority the application of effective strategies to change stereotypes, assigned sexual roles and sexist attitudes that sustain inequality and violence against women.

Development of a 50-Item Abridged Form of the Junior Spanish Version of the NEO Questionnaire (JS NEO-A50)

Abstract. The aim of this psychometric study was to construct an abridged 50-item form, 10 for each of the five factors of personality, of the Junior Spanish version of the NEO-PI-R (JS NEO-A50). Two separate studies were conducted. In Study 1, 400 high school students completed two personality scales to examine the factor structure (exploratory factor analysis), convergent validity, and reliability of the JS NEO-A50. In Study 2, an independent sample of 385 adolescents completed the JS NEO-A50 and several outcome measures to replicate the factor structure (exploratory structural equation model) and examine criterion validity, respectively. The five-factor structure found in Study 1 was satisfactorily replicated in the second, independent sample. Sources of reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) and validity (convergent) were adequate. Also, the outcome measures assessed in Study 2 were related to personality traits in the expected direction. Life satisfaction was significantly predicted by emotional stability; symptoms of behavioral problems were predicted by low scores in both agreeableness and conscientiousness while internalizing emotional symptoms were mainly predicted by emotional instability; finally, academic performance was mainly predicted by conscientiousness. We conclude that the JS NEO-A50 is a sound inventory to measure the five broad personality domains in Spanish-speaking adolescents.