Personality

Evidence in literature suggests that factors of personality are theoretically and empirically linked to counterproductive work behavior (CWB). This paper advances that personality is related to CWB through the prediction of a relationship between personality trait neuroticism factors volatility and withdrawal and CWB factors deviance and withdrawal. Further, workplace stressors are tested as moderators for personality and CWB dimensions. Useful data were provided by 542 working participants. The study affirms a personality-behavior connection between subscales of Neurotic personality, volatility, and withdrawal, with the two behavioral manifestations of counterproductive work behavior, deviance, and withdrawal. Moderating results are modest, with results indicating a moderating effect limited to only organizational constraints on the volatility-deviance relationship.

The ability to regulate emotional expression serves as an important mechanism in the adaptation of an individual. One important individual difference related to emotional regulation is agreeableness. We examined two competing theories that link agreeableness to the ability to control emotional reactivity when involved in an aggressive situation. The person-environment fit hypothesis emphasizes social behavior as a product of how the individual and situation interact with each other. The temperament hypothesis suggests that agreeableness is linked to temperamental bases of effortful control, specifically the regulation of anger. Female college students (N = 40) participated in a study that was designed to examine individual differences in emotional self-regulation in a simulated two person social interaction. Physiological responses to perceived aggression and observations of aggressive behavior were related to self-reports to examine hypotheses about links among personality and aggression. The patterns of results were different for high and low agreeable persons when they were targets of aggression.

The better than average effect refers to the tendency of individuals to perceive themselves as above average on various dimensions of social desirability (Messick, Boldizar, & Samuelson, 1985). Most research suggests that the effect results from motivations to inflate levels of self-esteem (Alicke, 1985). The present study challenged that an information-processing mechanism driven by selective exposure of persons to the behaviors of others may instead promote an overall negative dispositional asymmetry within a population. When subjects were asked to make assessments regarding a target's level of trait across situations permitting various levels of selective exposure, the data indicated an increased tendency to rate others more negatively when selective exposure was maximized. It was hypothesized that subjects had committed more "false negative attribution errors" and had corrected more "false positive attribution errors" upon drawing their conclusions.

Two experiments were conducted to assess subject accuracy in the attribution of trait constructs. It was hypothesized that subjects attributed trait constructs by averaging behavior across time, not by assessing covariation of behavior. In Experiment 1 subjects were given raw sets of baseball batting statistics and asked to attribute ability to the hitters. Major findings included that subjects were accurate in their attributions. In Experiment 2, subjects were given behavioral scores to use to place people on a trait scale. Varying numbers of scores were presented. The hypothesis that subjects would become increasingly accurate in their attributions as more information was gained was supported in the data. Other findings included that as more information was given, subjects viewed the behavior as more dependent on the situation. The findings are discussed in defense of the use of trait constructs in trait attribution.

An experiment was designed to test the differences in trait ascriptions of actors and observers. Hypotheses were derived from Monson and Snyder's (1977) causal attribution model such that actor's attributions about themselves would be more strongly affected by their behavioral history (i.e., traits), and that the trait attributions offered by observers would be more strongly influenced by the actor's momentary behavior. It was found that extraverted actors attributed more extraverted traits to themselves than did observers. It was also found that observers attributed traits to actors that were consistent with the behavior that actors exhibited. However, it was also found that introverted actors also attributed more extraverted traits to themselves than did observers. It was hypothesized that a strong social desirability component was operating to moderate the expected effects. Implications for the Jones and Nisbett (1972) hypothesis and for future research were discussed.

Many psychologists have promoted the use of personality traits and
other dispositional constructs for the prediction of human behavior.
However, other psychologists have concluded that individuals do not
exhibit sufficient cross-situational consistency in their behavior to
warrant the use of dispositional measures as predictors of behavior
(e.g., Mischel, 1968; Nisbett, 1980). The present research was
designed to demonstrate that cross-situational consistency correlation
coefficients may be inadequate indicators of the utility of
dispositional constructs. In particular, it was proposed that a
consideration of the situational constraint present within a situation
and the degree of the opportunity to self-select into a situation are
important factors which aid in the specification of when personality
traits can and cannot be used successfully to predict human behavior.

Professional psychologists have frequently examined cross-situational correlations in behavior. Based upon low correlations in the range of 0.15 to 0.30, many professional psychologists have questioned the utility of using personality traits to describe and predict behavior. In contrast, the "naive psychologist" appears to have an inordinately high expectation that the behaviors that individuals exhibit are strongly related to the traits that they possess. This discrepancy in the views of professional psychologists and naive psychologists has been termed the "consistency paradox". Based upon the many errors and biases that have been documented in the attribution process, most psychologists have assumed that the viewpoint held by the professional psychologist is correct and that held by the naive psychologist is wrong. The results of several studies are presented suggesting that naive psychologists are capable of accurately detecting traits through a behavior averaging process even when cross-situational correlations reach zero.

A basic difference between the perspectives of actors and observers is the amount of information each has to make attributional inferences. Jones and Nisbett (1971) suggested these informational differences lead to an inverse relationship between trait and situational attributions, such that better-known others receive more situational attributions while lesser-known others receive more trait attributions. We hypothesized that attributors typically ignore their perceptions of situational variability when constructing their trait attributions as these perceptions are biased by the number of available observations. Subjects were given two or eight samples of behavior for a series of different targets and asked to independently make both trait and situational attributions. Subjects with access to eight observations perceived more behavioral variability and made more trait attributions than those with access to two observations. Furthermore, attributors' perceptions of situational variability were more closely related to measures of biased "sample variances" than to measures of "estimated population variances."

Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Karl Marx suggested that there is a relationship between economic and political institutions and that behaviors and attitudes are influenced by this. Viewing this postulate as a conception which posits the economic mode of production as the locus of causality for culture, this examination of capitalism as culture, investigates how education and its pedagogical techniques, as a means of "enculturation," reflects the capitalist economic mode of production. Building on the theoretical notions in the Sociology of knowledge and Structuralism, this hermeneutical analysis discusses how pedagogical techniques and curriculum arrangements of public schools in capitalist societies correlate with the organization of labor (for it is that role of the self which is dominant in capitalist societies). Data for this research was gathered through the content analysis of pedagogical techniques and curriculum arrangements adopted by The School Board of Broward County, Florida. Results show that the current shift in the organization of labor (from industrial to post-industrial) parallels, and therefore correlates with, the shift in curriculum and pedagogical arrangements' of The School Board of Broward County, Florida; as such it is a legitimate claim to suggest that the socialization of the self is determined by its relation to the mode of production.

The purpose of this study was to correlate readiness for self-directed learning with validated indices of personality type, determine which of these indices are significantly related with readiness for self-directed learning, and then predict readiness for self-directed learning from personality type. This study used the MBTI Form-M and SDLRS Form-A to assess personality type and readiness for self-directed learning. The null hypothesis of no significant correlation between any of the eight-indicator scale scores on the MBTI and SDLRS total score was rejected. The scale indicators of Extroversion (E), Introversion (I), Judging (J), and Perceiving (P) were all significantly related to SMRS scores. Extroversion (E) and Judging (J) were positively related to SMRS scores at the p < .01 level of significance. Introversion (I) and Perceiving (P) were negatively related to SDLRS scores at the p < .01 level of significance. The null hypothesis that none of the eight scale indicators of the MBTI would be a significant predictor of readiness for self-directed learning was rejected. The ANOVA comparisons showed that Extroversion (E) and Judging (J) were significant and should be retained as part of the regression model. Extroversion (E) was significant at the p < .003 level of significance. Judging (J) was significant at the p < .008 level of significance. The multiple regression model that included both Extroversion (E) and Judging (J) as independent variables to predict readiness for self-directed learning was significant at the p < .000 level of significance. The predictor variables that were used in the regression model accounted for 25.1% of the variance in SDLRS scores with and adjusted R-square value of .251. The demographic profile of the students in the ORM program suggested that these learners are a full standard deviation above the norm of adults in the United States on their SDLRS total score. Consequently, further research is needed to support or refute the relationship between personality and self-directed learning.