As interações entre o sistema nervoso central e os sistemas imune e endócrino são o objeto de estudo da psiconeuroimunologia. Protocolos de indução de estresse têm sido amplamente utilizados como métodos confiáveis de investigação da relação entre transtornos psiquiátricos, aspectos psicológicos, traços de personalidade, ansiedade e a resposta imune. O procedimento de simulação de falar em público (SFP) é um protocolo experimental validado que reconhecidamente é capaz de ativar o eixo hipotálamo-hipófise-adrenal (HPA) e produzir respostas de estresse em sujeitos humanos. Esse método foi utilizado para: 1) Comparar a reatividade imunológica de indivíduos com diagnóstico de fobia social com a de indivíduos sem qualquer diagnóstico psiquiátrico; 2) Investigar se ocorrem alterações imunes subseqüentes à exposição a um estressor agudo induzido em laboratório e 3) identificar e correlacionar parâmetros imunológicos com traços de personalidade, humor, níveis de ansiedade e medidas fisiológicas. Os traços de personalidade foram investigados por meio dos seguintes instrumentos: Inventário de Temperamento e Caráter (TCI), Escala de Afeto Positivo e Negativo (PANAS), Inventário de Ansiedade Traço (IDATE-T), Inventário de Depressão de Beck (BDI), Inventário de Estratégias de ?Coping? de Folkman e Lazarus e Adaptação da Escala de Percepção de Estresse (PSS). Os sintomas de ansiedade foram avaliados por meio da Escala Analógica Visual de Humor (VAMS), da Escala de Sintomas Somáticos (ESS) e do IDATE-Estado. As variáveis psicofisiológicas avaliadas foram pressão arterial sistólica (PAS), diastólica (PAD), batimentos cardíacos (BPM), resposta galvânica da pele (GSR) e temperatura. Os níveis plasmáticos de catecolaminas (adrenalina, noradrenalina e dopamina) e hormônios do eixo HPA (cortisol e ACTH) também foram dosados. Realizou-se a contagem de células imunes polimorfonucleares e mononucleares no sangue periférico e mediu-se a atividade citotóxica de células NK e neutrófilos. Dosou-se proteínas de fase aguda e imunoglobulinas (A, D, G, M e E) a produção de citocinas no sangue por ELISA e RT-PCR. Os dados foram submetidos a análises de variância para dados com medidas repetidas testando efeitos de grupo, sexo, momento experimental e interações. As correlações entre as variáveis foram testadas por regressões múltiplas e coeficientes de correlação de Pearson. Os resultados apontam que o SFP foi eficiente para induzir estresse e produzir alterações detectáveis em diversos dos parâmetros investigados. As diferenças entre fóbicos sociais e controles são significativas para traços de personalidade e atuam ao longo do tempo para as medidas psicofisiológicas. Alterações imunes e hormonais estiveram mais frequentemente associadas ao gênero do que ao grupo experimental, e afetaram mais homens. Além disso, as alterações imunes foram de pequena magnitude afetando componentes inespecíficos da resposta imune. Conjuntamente, os resultados apontam uma relativa ativação do eixo HPA em fóbicos mas que não corresponde a alterações imunes de mesma magnitude. Mais estudos com uma amostra maior e a investigação de outros parâmetros são necessários para compreender melhor como a fobia social afeta o sistema imune de homens e mulheres e investigar se as alterações podem aumentar a susceptibilidade a doenças nesse grupo de sujeitos. Uma vez que essa interação seja melhor compreendida poderá subsidiar estratégias mais adequadas para abordar e elaborar estratégias de prevenção e intervenção capazes de promover comportamentos saudáveis. / Interactions among the nervous, immune and endocrine systems are the object of study of Psychoneuroimmunology. Stress protocols have been broadly used as reliable means to investigate the relationship among psychiatric disorders, psychological aspects, personality traits, anxiety and immune response has been studied using these interactions. The Simulated Public Speaking (SPS) is a validated experimental procedure known to activate the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and produce stress responses in human subjects. This method was used to: 1) compare the immune reactions of individuals with a diagnosis of social phobia to that of individuals without any psychiatric diagnosis; 2) investigate if immune alterations occur subsequent to the exposure to an acute laboratory induced stressor; 3) identify and correlate immune parameters with personality traits, mood, anxiety levels and physiologic measures. Personality traits were investigated with Cloninger?s Temperament and Character?s Inventory (TCI), Positive and Negative Affects Scale (PANAS), State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI?T), Beck?s Depression Inventory (BDI), Lazarus?s Coping Strategies Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Anxiety symptoms were investigated along the procedure with the Bodily Symptoms Scale (ESS), STAI-E and the Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS). Psychophysiologic variables assessed were Systolic (PAS) and Diastolic (PAD) Blood Pressure, Heart Rate (BPM), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and temperature. Plasmatic circulating levels of cathecolamines (Adrenaline, Noradrenaline and Dopamine) and HPA axis hormones (Cortisol, ACTH) were assessed. Peripheral blood cell population counts were obtained for polymorphonuclear (PMN) and mononuclear cells. Cytotoxic activity of neutrophils and NK cells was assessed, as well as cytokine production by ELISA and RT-PCR. Acute phase proteins and immunoglobulins (A, D, G, M, and E) were dosed on peripheral blood. Data was submitted to variance analysis for data with repeated measures testing effects of group, sex, experimental moment and interactions on variables. Correlations among variables were tested by multiple regressions and Pearson?s correlation deltas. The results show SPS was efficient in inducing stress and produce detectable alterations in several of the parameters investigated. Differences between social phobics and controls are significant for personality traits and, along time for psychophysiologic measures. Hormonal and immune alterations were more often associated to gender rather than to the group subjects belonged to, with men being more susceptible to the procedure. Also, immune changes were of small magnitude, usually affecting inespecific components of the response. Together, the results point to a relatively higher activation of the HPA-axis in social phobics, but one that does not correspond to immune responses of the same magnitude. Further studies with a larger sample and investigation of other parameters are necessary to better understand how social phobia affects the immune system of men and women and to investigate if the alterations can increase susceptibility to diseases in this group of individuals. Once this interaction is better understood it may provide the basis for an improved design to approach and elaborate prevention/intervention strategies and promote healthy behaviours.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:38:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_11784_ARIANA DA ROS DISSERT FINAL.pdf: 3303769 bytes, checksum: e65de578a04b8e1a3930b6cff91dee54 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-29 / A presente pesquisa compõe o Projeto de Pesquisa Modelo hierárquico dos antecedentes do comportamento de persistência discente em cursos superiores na modalidade a distância, juntamente com a dissertação Traços de personalidade e persistência discente em cursos de graduação na modalidade a distância, defendida no PPGGP/UFES. Pertence à área de concentração em Gestão de Operações no Setor Público, por buscar compreender o fenômeno da persistência discente em cursos EAD da UFES e propor medidas que possibilitem reduzir a evasão nesses cursos. Trata-se de uma pesquisa quantitativa, com o propósito de investigar os traços de personalidade que explicam a persistência discente nos cursos de Licenciatura em Ciências Biológicas, Física, Pedagogia e Química, ofertados na modalidade a distância EAD pela UFES, fazendo uso do Modelo Metateórico de Motivação e Personalidade 3M, de Mowen (2000). Foi realizada pesquisa bibliográfica sobre esse modelo e as teorias de evasão e persistência discentes, sendo a coleta de dados realizada por levantamento de campo do tipo survey, com questionário estruturado, alcançando 169 respostas válidas. Os dados foram analisados por regressões lineares múltiplas no software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS, confirmando 14 das 32 hipóteses delimitadas. Os resultados confirmam a possibilidade de uso do modelo 3M para a compreensão da Persistência Discente, comprovando que os traços de personalidade exercem influência de forma hierárquica, do traço mais abstrato ao mais superficial, a saber: Conscienciosidade, Introversão e Necessidade de Excitação (elementares), Orientação para Tarefas e Autoeficácia (compostos) e Satisfação (situacional) sobre o comportamento da Persistência Discente (superficial). Por fim, é apresentada, no apêndice D, proposta de manual para orientação na interpretação das hipóteses confirmadas para a persistência discente em cursos ofertados na modalidade EAD pela UFES, no qual são analisadas, individualmente, as 14 hipóteses confirmadas após aplicação do questionário estruturado aos cursos EAD objetos da pesquisa. Palavras-chave: persistência discente, ensino superior, educação a distância, modelo 3M, modelo hierárquico, traços de personalidade, gestão pública. / The present research composes the Research Project "Hierarchical model of the antecedent of the persistence behavior of students in higher courses in the distance modality", together with the dissertation "Personality traits and student persistence in undergraduate courses in distance modality", defended in the PPGGP / UFES. It belongs to the area of concentration in Operations Management in the Public Sector, for seeking to understand the phenomenon of student persistence in EAD courses of the UFES and propose measures that enable to reduce evasion in these courses. This is a quantitative research with the purpose of investigating the personality traits that explain the persistence of undergraduate courses in Biological Sciences, Physics, Pedagogy and Chemistry, offered in the distance modality - EAD by UFES, using the Model Motive of Motivation and Personality - 3M, de Mowen (2000). A bibliographical research was carried out on this model and the theories of student evasion and persistence. The data collection was done by field survey, with a structured questionnaire, reaching 169 valid answers. Data were analyzed by multiple linear regressions in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences - SPSS, confirming 14 of the 32 delimited hypotheses. The results confirm the possibility of using the 3M model to understand "Persistence", proving that personality traits influence hierarchically, from the most abstract to the most superficial, namely: Conscientiousness, Introversion and Need for Excitement (elementary), Task and Self-efficacy Guidance (composite) and (Situational) Satisfaction on the behavior of Student (Surface) Persistence. Finally, Appendix D proposes a manual for guidance in interpreting the confirmed hypotheses for student persistence in courses offered in the EAD modality by the UFES, in which the 14 confirmed hypotheses after the application of the structured questionnaire are analyzed individually. EAD research objects.

Personality can be defined as a set of psychological features that may determine the way to think, act and feel, as a factor that may directly influence an individual's interests. Since the creation of the first software's description, computer systems are created with a goal of generate results based on the user's input data, not taking into account who is the user or which are their interests. Developing a non-intrusive approach to collecting keystroke dynamics data from the users, and the use of an auto evaluation questionnaire of personality, this paper was written focused in identify approaches that can prove the correlation between these information, while building a knowledge base to develop a framework based on neural networks to extract personality traits from keystroke dynamics data. / A personalidade pode ser definida como um conjunto de características psicológicas capazes de determinar o padrão de pensar, agir e sentir, sendo este um fator capaz de influenciar diretamente os interesses de um indivíduo. Desde a concepção da primeira descrição de software, sistemas computacionais são criados com o objetivo de gerar resultados baseados nos dados de entrada dos usuários, sem se preocupar com quem ele é ou quais são seus interesses. Através do desenvolvimento de um método não intrusivo para coleta de dados do ritmo de digitação dos usuários, e a aplicação de um questionário de autoavaliação de personalidade, este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar abordagens capazes de comprovar a existência da correlação entre tais informações, visando a construção de um conhecimento base para a criação de um framework baseado em redes neurais para a extração de traços da personalidade a partir dos dados do ritmo de digitação.

Previous studies have successfully demonstrated that there are variations in attitudes towards blended synchronous learning among students in higher education, but few have studied underlying factors. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits and attitudes among students in blended synchronous learning environments. The research question asked in this paper was: What type of relationships are there between personality traits and students’ attitudes towards their education in blended synchronous learning environments? This was done by deploying a web based survey to 352 students at Mid Sweden University in Sweden which in the end had a response rate of 25%. Further, a quantitative approach was chosen as the most suitable way to test these relationships and both bivariate and multivariate regressions was used. The findings in the study indicates that personality traits are linked to a different set of attitudes among the students. The conclusions were that there exist significant relationships between Conscientiousness and Neuroticism and students estimated study achievement. There was also a positive significant correlation between Extraversion and that students prefer to study in groups and significant correlations between Extraversion and Conscientiousness and that students prefer to study independently was also found. Finally, there exist significant relationships between Conscientiousness and Neuroticism and students' perceived learning ability through blended synchronous learning environments. / Undervisningsmetoderna har förändrats de senaste åren och att universitet och högskolor erbjuder distansundervisning blir allt vanligare i Sverige såväl som globalt. Hybrida lärmiljöer syftar till kombinationen av klassrumsundervisning och distansutbildning i realtid. Studenters attityder i dessa lärmiljöer har tidigare studerats, men få studier har undersökt bakomliggande faktorer. Studenters attityder i hybrida lärmiljöer är viktiga att undersöka då exempelvis en viss personlighetstyp kan korrelera med en viss attityd, vilket i sin tur skulle kunna skapa klyftor och olika syn på utbildningen och undervisningsmetoden. Denna studie har besvarat forskningsfrågan: Vilka samband finns mellan personlighetsdrag och studenters attityder till sin utbildning i hybrida lärmiljöer? Forskningsfrågan besvarades utifrån en kvantitativ ansats där en enkätundersökning användes som forskningsstrategi och datainsamlingsmetod. Ett webbaserat frågeformulär distribuerades till 352 studenter som studerade i en hybrid lärmiljö vid Mittuniversitetet. Svarsfrekvensen uppgick till 25% och för att analysera resultatet användes bivariata och multivariata regressioner. Resultaten indikerade på att personlighetsdrag i vissa fall var kopplade till attityder hos studenterna. De slutsatser som denna studie resulterade i tyder på att det fanns signifikanta samband mellan Samvetsgrannhet samt Neuroticism och studenternas uppskattade studieprestation. Det fanns även ett positivt signifikant samband mellan Extraversion och att studenterna föredrar att studera i grupp och det fanns även signifikanta samband mellan Extraversion samt Samvetsgrannhet och att studenterna föredrar att studera självständigt. Avslutningsvis fanns det även signifikanta samband mellan Samvetsgrannhet samt Neuroticism och studenternas upplevda inlärningsförmåga via hybrida lärmiljöer.

Ungdomsbrottslighet är ett utbrett problem i världen och inte minst i Sverige. I denna studie undersöktes förekomsten av ungdomsbrottslighet och i vilken grad personlighet (Cloningers biopsykosociala modell för unga), familjeförhållanden och vänners brottsliga beteende relaterar till detta. Vidare studerades i vilken grad brottsligheten skiljer sig åt beroende på kön och bostadsområde. Studien genomfördes på ett urval om 1461 ungdomar i årskurs 7 och 8 som en del i projektet LoRDIA. Resultaten beskriver ett tydligt positivt samband mellan ungdomars brottsliga beteende och personlighetsdraget Novelty Seeking (sensationssökande, d.v.s. att individen är impulsiv, utforskande och spänningssökande). Vidare återfanns ett negativt samband mellan brottslighet och familjesammanhållning och ett positivt samband mellan brottslighet och vänners brottsliga beteende vilket tyder på att en god sammanhållning inom familjen verkar som en skyddande effekt mot brottslighet medan umgänge med kriminella vänner ökar risken för brottsligt beteende. Studien visade vidare att det finns tydliga könsskillnader i ungdomars brottsmönster. Förutom att killar begår fler brott än tjejer visade det sig att personlighetsdraget Novelty Seeking, som har ett generellt statistiskt signifikant samband med brottslighet, inte gav ett signifikant samband för killar boende i ett sämre socioekonomiskt område. Studien framhåller att både individuella karaktäristika och sociala band är viktiga för förståelsen av förekomsten av ungdomsbrottslighet. / Juvenile delinquency is a widespread problem in the world and not least in Sweden. This study examined juvenile delinquency and the extent to which personality (the Cloningers biopsychosocial model for the young), family relationships and friends' criminal behavior relate to this. Furthermore, the extent to which crime differs depends on gender and residential area. The study was conducted on a selection of 1461 adolescents in 7th and 8th grade as a part of the LoRDIA project. The results describe a pronounced positive relationship between youngster's criminal behavior and the personality trait Novelty Seeking (i.e. the individual is impulsive, exploratory and sensational seeking). Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between crime and family cohesion and a positive correlation between crime and friends' criminal behavior, which suggests that good cohesion within the family seems to be a protective effect against crime while dealing with criminal friends increases the risk of criminal behavior. The study further showed that there are pronounced gender differences in youth patterns of crime. In addition to boys committing more crimes than girls, it appeared that the personality trait Novelty Seeking has not a generally statistically significant relationship with crime for boys living in a worse socioeconomic area. The study emphasizes that both individual characteristics and social ties are important for understanding the existence of juvenile delinquency.

Cette thèse par articles étudie les origines de la sophistication politique. Les chapitres un, deux et trois étudient l'impact d'une série de variables sur les connaissances politiques tandis que le chapitre quatre examine l'impact des connaissances politiques sur la façon dont les individus mettent à jour leurs opinions. Le premier article explore les effets de l'éducation collégiale, l'intérêt politique et les capacités cognitives sur le développement des connaissances politiques. Nous montrons que l'enseignement collégial général a un impact relativement petit sur le développement des connaissances politiques, mais l'enseignement collégial en sciences sociales et humaines a un impact positif sur la connaissance politique, mettant en évidence un effet substantiel de l'éducation. De plus, nous démontrons que les habiletés cognitives déterminent le niveau de connaissances générales, tandis que l'intérêt politique et l'éducation affectent également la variation des connaissances politiques au fil du temps. Le deuxième article étudie l'impact des aptitudes verbales à l'âge de cinq ans sur trois indicateurs importants de la sophistication politique: les connaissances politiques à 16 ans, ainsi que l'intérêt politique et la participation à 30 ans. Il est démontré que les aptitudes verbales à l'âge de 5 ans ont un impact fort et non linéaire sur les connaissances politiques à 16 ans, et l'intérêt politique à 30 ans, tandis que leur impact sur la participation future est fort et linéaire. Enfin, l'impact des variables parentales sur les connaissances politiques est considérablement réduit lorsque les compétences verbales précoces sont prises en compte. Le troisième article examine l'impact de l'ouverture aux expériences sur la sophistication politique. Il est soutenu que c'est l'intellectualisme qui explique la relation trouvée entre l'ouverture et l'information politique dans les recherches passées et que les nouvelles recherches utilisant le Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) ne devraient pas reproduire ce résultat. L'article soutient que c'est parce que l'échelle TIPI évalue l'aspect esthétique de l'ouverture et est mal adapté pour capturer sa composante intellectuelle. Il est également démontré que l'impact de l'intellectualisme en tant que trait de personnalité tient aussi lorsque les habiletés cognitives sont prises en compte. Le dernier article a deux objectifs. Le premier est de considérer l'impact des connaissances politiques sur les perceptions du biais médiatique. Le second est d'étendre la recherche sur les perceptions des biais médiatiques à un électorat non américain. Nous constatons que, comme c'est le cas aux États-Unis, les conservateurs sont plus enclins à croire en l'existence de biais médiatiques. Il est également démontré que les citoyens les plus informés sont plus susceptibles de penser que les médias sont biaisés, mais ils ne sont pas plus susceptibles de percevoir ces biais lorsqu'ils ne sont pas d'accord avec un journaliste. Par conséquent, il appert que les citoyens plus informés ne sont pas plus susceptibles de faire montre de raisonnement motivé. / This thesis by articles investigates the origins of political sophistication. Chapters one, two, and three investigate the impact of a series of variables on political knowledge, while Chapter four looks at the impact of political knowledge on how individuals update their opinions. The first paper explores the effects of college education, political interest, and cognitive abilities on the development of political knowledge. It is shown that general college education has a minimal impact on political knowledge development, but college education in social sciences and humanities has a positive impact on political knowledge, highlighting a substantive effect of education. Moreover, it is shown that cognitive skills determine one's general knowledge level, while political interest and education also affect political knowledge variation over time. The second paper looks at the impact of early verbal skills on political sophistication. This paper investigates the impact of verbal skills at five years of age on three important indicators of political sophistication: political knowledge at 16, as well as political interest and turnout at 30. It is shown that verbal skills at 5 years of age have a strong and non-linear impact on political knowledge at 16, and political interest at 30, while their impact on future turnout is strong and linear. Finally, the impact of parental variables on political knowledge is significantly reduced when early verbal skills are accounted for. The third article looks at the impact of openness to experience on political sophistication. This paper seeks to investigate this relation by distinguishing two different aspects of openness to experience that are sometimes overlooked: the aesthetic and the intellectual components of openness. It is argued that the latter explains the relation found between openness and political knowledge in past research, and that new research using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) should not be expected to replicate this finding. The paper argues that this is because the TIPI scale assesses the aesthetic aspect of openness and is ill suited to capture its intellectual component. It is also shown that the impact of intellectualism as a personality trait also holds when cognitive skills are taken into account. The last paper has two goals. The first is to consider the impact of political knowledge on perceptions of media bias. The second is to extend research on media bias perceptions to a non-American electorate. It is shown that, as found in the US, Conservatives are more prone to believe in the existence of media bias. It is also shown that the most knowledgeable citizens are more likely to think that the media are biased, but they are not more likely to perceive bias when they disagree with a journalist. These results hold true even when a variety of potential confounding factors such as personality traits are taken into account.

The purpose of this study was to gain an awareness of the behavioural characteristics, physical mannerisms and relational techniques exhibited by young adolescent girls in South Africa who may be susceptible to, or have been traumatised by being bullied. A literature study and an empirical investigation were conducted to establish whether victims of bullying have distinct personality traits, as well as to determine if specific parenting styles affect the vulnerability of their adolescent daughters. The effectiveness of bullying prevention strategies in adolescent relationships was also explored. A questionnaire was developed to ascertain how adolescents perceive victims of bullying. Eight semi-structured interviews using photographs and a cartoon as projective techniques were conducted with victims to gather data and to enrich the findings. This study has demonstrated that international research about victimisation is pertinent to South African children. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Previous studies have shown that we can measure personality not only of humans but of animals as well including domestic cats (Felis catus). Results of studies have also shown that personality of the domestic cat might be influenced by various factors e.g. age, gender or breed of the cat. Although only a few studies were focused on association between owner personality and behavioral profile of their cat. The aim of our study was to explore association between the personality of the owners and the behavioral profile of their cats assessed by their owners. We used correlations for analysing data. The sample included 404 respondents (women), who filled in a Czech translation of BFI-2 and a Czech translation of the Feline Five Questionnaire for their cats (the cat sample consists of 194 males and 210 females). Our results showed a set of correlations between personality factors of the owner and behavioral factors of her cat. The strongest positive correlation was measured between consciousness of the owner and extraversion of her cat. One possible explanation of these associations is based on the Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis, which means that the owner chooses an animal that is similar to her in various characteristics. According to another theory the owner projects her own characteristics into...

<p>Security breaches nowadays are not limited to technological orientation. Research in the information security domain is gradually shifting towards human behavioral orientation toward breaches that target weaknesses arising from human behaviors (Workman et al., 2007). Currently, social engineering breaches are more effective than many technical attacks. In fact, the majority of cyber assaults have a social engineering component. Social Engineering is the art of manipulating human flaws towards a malicious objective (Breda et al., 2017). In the likely future, social engineering will be the most predominant attack vector within cyber security (Breda et al., 2017). Human failures, persuasion and social influences are key elements to understand when considering security behaviors. With the increasing concerns for social engineering and advancements in human factors-based technology, phishing emails are becoming more prevalent in exploiting human factors and external factors. Such factors have been researched upon in pairs, not overall. Till date, there is not much research done to identify the collaborative links between authority, urgency, risk perception and human factors such as personality traits, and knowledge. This study investigates about phishing email characters, external influences, human factors influences, and their collaborative effects. </p>

The purpose of this study was to examine whether differences were found in occurrence of three personality traits from the Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy, in regards to students within different educations in universities and colleges in Sweden. Previous research and findings have shown that students with different educations tend to show traits from the Dark Triad of varying degrees. Data to the study was collected through a self-assessment survey named Short Dark Triad (SD3). The survey was translated to Swedish, then sent to 22 different educations at 33 Swedish universities and colleges. 1055 participants were gathered in the study with a distribution of 709 women and 346 men. The results were mostly supported by previous research, however a few results were not supported by previous research. For example, economy students did not get higher scores on Machiavellianism when compared to students at law and political science.