The relationship between personality trait change and major life events is currently undergoing extensive investigations within the field of personality psychology. A debate has risen regarding whether or not major life events can bring about trait change, and how typical trait change patterns over the adult lifespan can be explained. It is valuable to understand how traits change because they predict important future outcomes. The Five-Factor Theory described by McCrae and Costa (2008a) states that traits are purely biological entities, and trait change is explained to result from processes of intrinsic biological maturation, unaffected by life events. This thesis reviewed the literature regarding the relationship of trait change and life events, and the research of potential biological bases of traits in the brain together with a brain developmental perspective of intrinsic maturation. Gaining an insight in the relationship between personality traits and the brain is a goal within a young field of research called personality neuroscience, and an agenda of the Five-Factor Theory. Major life events do cause trait change, but the relationship is complex. A brain developmental perspective of intrinsic maturation did not entirely correspond with patterns of typical trait change in young adulthood. The Five-Factor Theory is challenged and modifications are suggested. Neurobiological correlates of five-factor traits reveal issues and potentials for future research.

This study examined the construct validity of the RiTE as a multidimensional measure of spirituality in relation to the five-factor model of personality in a sample of 325 college students. Results of correlational and regression analyses provided support for the notion that the dimensions of ritualistic, theistic, and existential spirituality tapped by the RiTE, are empirically distinguishable. Overall, our findings provide further evidence for the construct validity of the RiTE and for the potential value of measuring spirituality as a multidimensional phenomenon in the study of religious processes.

Thesis (M.Ed.) (Clinical Psychology) --University of Limpopo, 2008. / There is a considerable literature linking aspects of personality, parenting, and risk behaviors such as alcohol abuse. Three hundred African university students participated in a study of the relationship between personality, assessed with the NEO PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992), and alcohol use. Personality traits did not predict alcohol use among the students. It was also predicted that the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979) would mediate the relationship between personality and alcohol use. Results of the current study revealed no significant relationship between parenting and alcohol use. The results are discussed with regards the use of the NEO PI-R’s validity in the population used. Keyword: Five Factor Model; Parental bonding; Abstainers; Moderate drinkers; Heavy drinkers. / N/A

The fast development of the tourism industry has created both positive and negative impacts on host communities. Reacting to these impacts, host residents hold various attitudes towards tourism and tourists. It has come to common agreement that a supportive host community plays a vital role in the successful and long-term development of community tourism. In order to explain the antecedents of community attitudes towards tourism, researchers have investigated the topic from both the extrinsic perspective (such as stage-based models) and the intrinsic perspective (such as the Social Exchange Theory). Nevertheless, there are still several important research gaps and deficiencies within the existing literature. First, the influence of psychological factors (personality) on attitudes towards tourism is somewhat neglected. Second, when examining the relationship between community attitudes towards tourism and the influential factors, the majority of previous studies do not distinguish the orthogonal dimensions of attitudes (such as positive dimension and negative dimension). Third, the existing literature has not addressed the issue of whether specific attitudes towards tourism will lead to a corresponding behaviour when interacting with tourists, and what other factors are determinant in host-guest interactive behaviour. Aiming to address such research gaps and deficiencies, this study has a major objective of developing a theoretical model (encompassing attitude element) to understand the antecedents of host-guest interaction. A quantitative approach was employed for the entire project. A self-administrated questionnaire survey was used to collect primary data. A total of 878 useful questionnaires were returned for analyses. Stratification sampling methods were utilized in communities where population database was accessible, while random sampling methods were used in other communities. The findings from this study confirmed the two major hypotheses in terms of community attitudes towards tourism. First, there was a significant relationship between an individual's personality and his/her attitudes towards tourism. Residents being high on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness traits and low on the Neuroticism trait tended to be more positive towards tourism than their counterparts. Second, while some factors were found to be influential on both positive and negative dimensions of attitudes towards tourism, others only demonstrated influences on one dimension. The Resident-Tourist Interaction Model developed in this study provided a comprehensive theoretical framework in modelling and predicting host residents' interactive behaviour towards tourists. Drawing on the evaluation results of three leading behavioural theories belonging to the school of cognition, the Model identified attitudinal, volitional, social, motivating and habitual factors for the prediction of resident-tourist interactive behaviour. Motivating factor (intention) was the critical and immediate element for action, which, in turn, was best predicted by subjective norms. External factors (gender, age and personality traits) only moderated the predictive power of the Model by less than two percent. The Model was valid and reliable for the current data. The present study advanced resident-tourist interactive behavioural study by establishing a sound theoretical framework. It also consolidated the body of knowledge in understanding community attitudes towards tourism. Findings from this study have significant practical implications for community tourism planning and management.

The focal objective of this thesis was to examine the potential advantage of introducing the self-schema concept, indexed by response time, into personality assessment. The basic rationale for the use of response time is that a self-schema facilitates response time for self-referent information as it permits people to make assessments easier and automatic. A self-schema is a cognitive structure containing the generic knowledge that people have about themselves, influencing all aspects of the processing of self-relevant information in order to organize, summarize and explain their behavior. Paper I examined the self-schema proposition that the relation between personality score and response time for the Big Five personality factors is curvilinear in accordance with the inverted-U effect. Using more appropriate statistical methods than in previous studies, Study 1 and Study 2 confirmed the existence of the inverted-U effect for all Big Five factors. Thus the results provided support for the self-schema perspective as people scoring low or high on the Big Five traits responded faster than those scoring in the middle. Previous research has shown that the Big Five personality factors Openness to Experience and Agreeableness are powerful predictors of prejudice. The main question in Paper II was whether this prediction could be improved by including a measure of self-schema (schematicity). The results of Study 3 demonstrated that response time significantly improved the prediction of generalized prejudice from the mentioned personality factors and disclosed both an additive and a moderating effect. Thus, the relation between personality trait score and generalized prejudice is moderated by how schematic a person is. Paper III examined the potential linkage between heritability and self-schema. In Study 4, 5, and 6, the relation between heritability and response time for the Big Five personality facets (subfactors) was examined. The results revealed that personality response time is related to personality heritability so that shorter response times are associated with higher heritabilities. Putting the present results into the context of self-schemas, this means that Big Five personality facets with a large heritability on the average would have higher schematicity than those with small heritability estimates. The results of the present thesis extend previous work in the area of self-schema. The findings suggest that self-schema, measured by response time, may be a useful additional tool to fine-tune personality assessment. Also, the findings put emphasis on the importance of considering possible curvilinear relationships and interaction effects in order to better comprehend the rationale underlying self-schemata processing.  Finally, the results imply that the heritability of personality traits should be taken into account when we construct theories and models in personality psychology. The implications of these results are discussed and directions for future research are highlighted.

In recent years there has been an increased interest in measuring animal personality. It is argued that personality in animals is expressed through the behaviours they display. In this study personality has been investigated in a group of eight captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Data from focal samplings were analysed by using behavioural codings and the Five-factor model consisting of Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. The results revealed that the dolphins display both distinct personality differences as well as similarities in these factors. By calculating coefficients of association it was found that the dolphins also prefer the company of certain individuals over others. Knowledge of individual personality differences and its implications can be helpful in aspects such as management and reintroduction programs, evolution and genetics and in providing a complementary perspective to explain other behavioural and cognitive studies.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka sambandet mellan de fem personlighetsdimensionerna; neuroticism, extraversion, öppenhet, sympatiskhet och samvetsgrannhet, och om de kan predicera vuxnas alkoholkonsumtion och alkoholrelaterade problem i ett svenskt urval. En webbenkät skickades till ett urval av anställda inom socialförvaltningen i Stockholms Län. Resultaten tyder på ett negativt samband mellan öppenhet och frekvensen av högkonsumtion av alkohol samt alkoholrelaterade problem. De indikerar vidare ett positivt samband mellan extraversion och kvantiteten av alkoholkonsumtionen vid ett typiskt tillfälle man dricker alkohol samt frekvensen av högkonsumtion av alkohol. / The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between the five personality dimensions; neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, and if they can predict adults alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in a Swedish sample. A webbased-survey was sent to a sample of municipality employees in Stockholms county. The results indicate a negative association between openness and the frequency of binge drinking and alcohol-related problems. They further imply a positive association between extraversion and the quantity of alcohol consumption at a typical instance when alcohol is consumed and the frequency of binge drinking.

The aim of this study was to investigate people’s ability to detect deception and if variables such as birth order, personality and suspiciousness affect this ability. The study was conducted at Växjö University with students as participants (n = 278). A film of two people arguing both for and against their own personal opinions was constructed and participants assessed credibility on a categorical scale (Honest/Dishonest). Neither birth order nor level of suspiciousness revealed significant differences as pertains to credibility attribution. In this study, personality traits showed small differences in that a low degree of Conscientiousness and possibly a high degree of Openness can predict lie bias (more correct classified lies). This study also showed that a truth and lie bias is predicted by positive respectively negative opinions. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka eventuella skillnader mellan människor och deras förmåga att upptäcka vilseledande information. Syskonplacering, personlighet och misstänksamhet ställdes mot deltagarnas trovärdighetsklassificeringar. Studien genomfördes på Växjö universitet och deltagarna bestod av studenter (n = 278). En film med två personer vilka argumenterade för och emot sina personliga åsikter konstruerades där deltagarna bedömde trovärdighet genom en kategorisk skala (Ärlig/Oärlig). Inga skillnader fanns mellan varken syskonplacering eller misstänksamhet och trovärdighetsbedömning. Personlighet gav små skillnader i trovärdighetsbedömning genom att låg grad av Conscientiousness och eventuellt hög grad av Openness predicerade lögnbias (fler korrekt klassificerade lögner) i denna studie. Studien visade även att sannings- och lögnbias prediceras av positiva respektive negativa åsikter i talarens påståenden.

<p>The aim of this study was to investigate people’s ability to detect deception and if variables such as birth order, personality and suspiciousness affect this ability. The study was conducted at Växjö University with students as participants (n = 278). A film of two people arguing both for and against their own personal opinions was constructed and participants assessed credibility on a categorical scale (Honest/Dishonest). Neither birth order nor level of suspiciousness revealed significant differences as pertains to credibility attribution. In this study, personality traits showed small differences in that a low degree of Conscientiousness and possibly a high degree of Openness can predict lie bias (more correct classified lies). This study also showed that a truth and lie bias is predicted by positive respectively negative opinions.</p> / <p>Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka eventuella skillnader mellan människor och deras förmåga att upptäcka vilseledande information. Syskonplacering, personlighet och misstänksamhet ställdes mot deltagarnas trovärdighetsklassificeringar. Studien genomfördes på Växjö universitet och deltagarna bestod av studenter (n = 278). En film med två personer vilka argumenterade för och emot sina personliga åsikter konstruerades där deltagarna bedömde trovärdighet genom en kategorisk skala (Ärlig/Oärlig). Inga skillnader fanns mellan varken syskonplacering eller misstänksamhet och trovärdighetsbedömning. Personlighet gav små skillnader i trovärdighetsbedömning genom att låg grad av Conscientiousness och eventuellt hög grad av Openness predicerade lögnbias (fler korrekt klassificerade lögner) i denna studie. Studien visade även att sannings- och lögnbias prediceras av positiva respektive negativa åsikter i talarens påståenden.</p>

Bakgrund:CAPM räcker i flera tillfällen inte till för att estimera framtida avkastning. Vissa av prisavvikelsernafrån CAPM är väldokumenterade och har bestått över tid, vilket har lett till uppkomsten avkorrigerande faktorer. En modell som använder sig av två sådana korrigerande faktorer är Fama ochFrenchs tre-faktormodell. Den har testats flertalet gånger på den svenska marknaden där den visat gehögre förklaringsgrader än CAPM. År 2012 samt år 2014 presenterades två nya multifaktormodeller,som genom test på börsmarknaden i USA lyckats fånga upp prisavvikelser bättre än trefaktormodellen.Syfte:Denna studie ämnar undersöka om Fama och Frenchs fem-faktormodell samt Hue, Xue, Zhang´s Qfaktormodelltillför förklaringsvärde för Stockholmsbörsens avkastning i jämförelse med Fama-Frenchs trefaktormodell. Studien analyserar även modellernas konjunkturkänslighet samt faktorernasbetydelse.Metod:Forskningsprocessen är av deduktiv karaktär. Befintliga teorier i form av multifaktormodeller förprissättning av aktier testas med hjälp av empiriska observationer från den svenska marknaden.Studien tillämpar ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt och ekonometriska verktyg används för attsäkerställa statistisk signifikans.Resultat:Studien visar att Q-faktormodellen inte tillför förklaringsvärde jämfört med FF3M. FF5M ger resultatsom marginellt överträffar FF3M gällande dess förklaringsgrad. Anledningen till att FF5M presterarbättre bör rimligen ligga i faktorn HML. Resultaten visar också att modellerna är instabila i kortatidsperioder men tenderar ge bättre prediktioner i lågkonjunktur relativt till högkonjunktur. / Background:CAPM isn’t in some cases sufficient for explaining expected stock return. Some of CAPM´smispricing errors are well documented and time persistent which has led rise to the usage of correctivefactors. One model that make use of two such corrective factors are the Fama and French three factormodel. It´s been comprehensively tested on the Swedish market where it has shown to achieve higherexplanatory power then the CAPM. In the year of 2012 and 2014 two new Asset Pricing Models wereintroduced, which on the US stock market better captured many of the best known anomalies.Aim:The aim of the study is to test if the Fama and French five factor model as well as the Q-factor model,could contribute to increased explanatory power beyond the three factor model. The study also analyzethe models cyclical sensitivity as well as the individual factor significance.MethodologyThe knowledge building process takes a deductive approach. Existing theories in the form of assetpricing models are tested based on empirical observations in the Swedish market. The research take aquantitative approach and make use of econometric tools in order to ensure statistic accuratesignificance.Result:This research shows no contribution of explanatory power for the Q-factor model, beyond thatachieved from the Fama and French three factor model. The five factor model achieve marginallyhigher explanatory power compared to the tree factor model. The most likely reason why FF5Machieve better results than the Q-factor model is believed to lie in the usage of the factor HML. Theresults also shows that all of the tested models are very instable when used in a short time perspective.Although there are some clear indication on increasing explanatory power in recession compared to inan ongoing bull market.