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This research was designed to investigate the relationship between Trait-based Individual differences (neuroticism and extraversion) and glare subjective responses as well as the actual contrast sensitivity when exposed to the same manipulated glare condition. In addition, the relationship between the glare subjective responses and actual contrast sensitivity was investigated. To examine the trait-based individual differences, the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) was used while the subjective glare experience was examined utilizing modified glare discomfort rating scale. The visual performance was measured through the contrast sensitivity level using adjustable contrast level of the Landolt's C target. This investigation compared 36 individuals (9 high neuroticism scorers, 9 low neuroticism scorers, 9 high extraversion scorers, and 9 low extraversion scorers) on subjective discomfort glare rating responses and visual contrast sensitivity. The study is directed toward improving our understanding of influencing factors on the experience of discomfort glare, which may eventually be applied to the design of glare measurement methods, and toward training and selection of drivers and workers who may work under conditions of glare. Results indicated significant effect of extraversion trait on rating response while insignificant effect on visual related performance was found. The relationships between rating response and visual performance were also found to be quite low in this study. In conclusion, the expected model was supported but only on the extraversion trait. / Master of Science

Scholars have long been interested in the complex relationships between personality and motivation. However, much of their understanding has been limited to The Big Five personality factors (namely, Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), and a proliferation of motivation constructs emanating from a large number of different theories and sub-theories. This study adds to the body of personality psychology and motivation science literature by examining the relationships between The Big Five personality factors and The MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation (MMAM) components (i.e., eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring). The MMAM is comprised of five components that summarize the many instructional implications derived from motivation theories and research to provide instructors with a holistic, conceptual understanding of them. The results of this study may provide evidence as to whether or not the personality traits of college students influence their academic motivation beliefs. To obtain data, I surveyed college students using two self-report instruments. The first instrument, the Big Five Inventory (BFI), measured college students on The Big Five personality factors. The second instrument, the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation Inventory (MMAMI), measured the academic motivation beliefs of college students as related to the MMAM. Data were obtained from 305 college students at a single university in southwest Virginia enrolled in an online course. Exploratory Factory Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to answer the following research question: To what extent do the Five Factor Model factors relate to the MMAM components? Due to the lack of substantiated knowledge regarding the relationships between The Big Five personality factors and the MMAM components, specific hypotheses were not generated. The measurement models for the Big Five personality factors and the MMAM fit well. However, the structural model, in which the Big Five factors were modeled to predict the MMAM components, did not adequately fit the data for these college students. Yet, there were a number of significant pathways between The Big Five personality factors and the MMAM components. Openness and Conscientiousness had a significant, negative impact on eMpowerment, while Extraversion had a significant, positive impact on eMpowerment, Usefulness, and Interest. Additionally, Agreeableness had a significant, positive impact on Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring, while Neuroticism had a significant, negative impact on Success. Findings indicated that personality factors can relate to or predict academic motivation. In other words, students' academic motivation beliefs are, to a certain degree, influenced by some of their personality traits, and these differences in traits may manifest themselves in the classroom. In the future, researchers could examine the extent to which students with different personality traits display varying preferences as to the types of pedagogical methods or strategies that motivate them academically. / Ph. D.

Previous studies have shown that the FFM factor neuroticism was negatively correlated with Need for Cognition. Anxiety has been shown to be highly correlated with neuroticism. It has also been shown that women tend to score higher on both neuroticism and anxiety. Need for Cognition has been shown to predict long term academic success. This study aims to contribute to the current understanding of anxiety, neuroticism and Need for Cognition by examining these three constructs together. The study will also analyzes how gender can affect the relationships between the constructs. 272 participants responded to three questionnaires measuring the constructs. 86 were men, 183 were women and 3 defined themselves as "other". 246 of the respondents were university students and 26 responded did not currently study at university. Results indicate that anxiety is a negative predictor for Need for Cognition. This is speculated to be because anxiety has an effect on working memory which in turn is associated with Need for Cognition. Gender differences are significant regarding all three constructs. Findings are complicated by a negative suppressor effect. Results, limitations, and future research are discussed. / Tidigare studier har visat att FFM faktorn neuroticism var negativt korrelerad med Need for Cognition. Ångest har visat sig vara starkt korrelerat med neuroticism. Det har också visat sig att kvinnor tenderar att skatta högre på både neuroticism och ångest. Need for Cognition har visat sig förutsäga långsiktig akademisk framgång. Denna studie syftar till att bidra till aktuell kunskap om ångest, neuroticism och Need for Cognition genom att undersöka dessa tre konstrukt tillsammans. Studien analyserar också hur kön påverkar relationerna mellan konstruktionerna. 272 deltagare svarade på tre enkäter som mäter dessa konstrukt. 86 var män, 183 kvinnor och 3 definierade sig som "övrigt". 246 av de svarande var universitetsstuderande och 26 svarande studerade inte för närvarande på universitet. Resultaten tyder på att ångest kan vara en negativ prediktor för Need for Cognition. Detta spekuleras kunna bero på att ångest har en effekt på arbetsminnet, som i sin tur kan påverka Need for Cognition. Det fanns signifikanta könsskillnader gällande alla tre konstrukt. Resultaten kompliceras av en negativ suppressor effekt. Resultat, begränsningar och framtida forskning diskuteras.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka personlighet och dess eventuella kausala samband med konstnärlig kreativitet. Femfaktormodellen användes för att undersöka personlighetsdragen öppenhet, extroversion och neuroticism. Begreppet kreativitet beskrivs genom tidigare forskning och konstnärlig kreativitet utgör grunden för studien. En kortare pilotstudie genomfördes för att testa förståelsen av mätinstrumentet för kreativitet, som tidigare översatts från engelska till svenska. I undersökningen ingick 89 respondenter som besvarade en online-enkät utlagd i facebookgruppen “studenter vid högskolan i Skövde”. Resultatet visade att personlighetsdraget öppenhet predicerar konstnärlig kreativitet. Resultaten för personlighetsdragen extroversion och neuroticism visade inte på någon predicering av konstnärlig kreativitet. Dock visade resultatet att facetten sällskaplighet för personlighetsdraget extroversion predicerar den konstnärligt kreativa domänen dans, medan personlighetsdraget neuroticism och facetten depression predicerar den konstnärligt kreativa domänen kreativt skrivande. Därigenom kunde följande slutsats dras: ett flertal av studiens respondenter uttrycker sig på ett konstnärligt kreativt sätt och vilken typ av konstnärligt kreativt uttryckssätt som individen föredrar beror på individens personlighet. / The purpose of this study was to investigate personality and it’s potential causality with artistic creativity. The five-factor model was used to investigate the personality traits openness, extraversion and neuroticism. Creativity is described by earlier research and artistic creativity creates the basic of this study. A short pilot-study was performed to evaluate the understanding of the instrument for creativity, that had been translated earlier from english to swedish. The sample used consisted of 89 respondents, who participated in an online-survey posted at a facebook-group named “studenter vid högskolan i Skövde”. The results showed that the personality trait openness predicts artistic creativity. The results of the personality traits extraversion and neuroticism did not show any predictability of artistic creativity. However, the results showed that the facet gregariousness from the personality trait extraversion predicts the artistic creative domain of dance, while the personality trait neuroticism and the facet depression predicts the artistic creative domain creative writing. Thereby the following conclusion could be made: several respondents of this study are expressing themselves in an artistic creative way and what kind of artistic creative expressions they use is defined by the personality of the person.

It is estimated that approximately 30% of individuals worldwide are affected by mental health problems during their lifetime. Currently, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders and a leading cause of non-lethal disability worldwide. However, despite exposure to known risk factors for MDD, human responses to it vary widely. Whilst some individuals develop MDD, others develop only mild and transient symptoms or no depressive symptomology at all. This ability to 'bounce back' from or 'escape' the development of psychiatric illness is referred to as psychological resilience (Chapter 1). Scientific and clinical interest in resilience has grown exponentially over recent decades, but wide discrepancies are still found in both its definition and measurement. As such, resilience is rarely measured directly, but inferred from the measurement of two specific points of convergence; adversity (its antecedents) and positive adaptation (its consequences). Whilst the study of adversity and positive adaptation has informed our knowledge of resilience it often fails to consider other putative risk factors for MDD (such as genetics), or potential protective factors that may foster resilience despite risk. More recently, examining protective factors have become a focus of research in relation to resilience. This research suggests that numerous protective factors coalesce to contribute to resilient outcomes which give rise to a dynamic resilience process that varies contextually and temporally. Although investigating resilience may be expected to reveal similar findings to studying MDD itself, it does represent a new facet to scientific and clinical research. Specifically, resilience focuses on intervention long before the development of MDD when effects on subsequent suffering may be ameliorated. For this reason, it is imperative to address the concept of resilience, concentrating on the core components of adversity, positive adaptation and protective factors, to move beyond description towards an understanding of individual differences in resilience (Chapter 2). In this thesis, three studies will be presented which aim to examine psychological resilience from multiple perspectives to further delineate the concept. In Chapter 3, the associations and interactions between neuroticism and general intelligence (g) on MDD, and psychological distress were examined in GS:SFHS (Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study) to investigate whether g mitigates the detrimental effects of neuroticism on mental health, as such an association has previously been identified for physical health and mortality. A larger replication was also performed in UK Biobank using a self-reported measure of depression. Across two large samples it was found that intelligence provides protection against psychological distress and self-reported depression in individuals high in neuroticism, but intelligence confers no such protection against clinical MDD in those high in neuroticism. In Chapter 4, a new dataset is presented which was designed to investigate psychological resilience and mental health. Specifically, the STRADL (Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally) dataset aimed to re-contact existing GS:SFHS participants to obtain repeat measures of MDD and psychological distress in addition to obtaining data on resilience, coping style and adverse life experiences. This dataset has the potential to identify mechanisms and pathways to resilience but also elucidate causal mechanisms and pathways of depression sub-types. Chapter 5 investigated whether neuroticism and resilience are downstream mediators of genetic risk for depression, and whether they contribute independently to such risk. Specifically, the moderating and mediating relationships between polygenic risk scores (PRS) for depression, neuroticism, resilience, and both clinical and self-reported MDD were examined in STRADL. Regression analyses indicated that neuroticism and PRS for depression independently associated with increased risk for both clinical and self-reported MDD, whereas resilience associated with reduced risk. Structural equation modelling suggested that polygenic risk for depression associates with vulnerability for both clinical and self-reported MDD through two partially independent mediating mechanisms in which neuroticism increases vulnerability and resilience reduces it. In Chapter 6, the proportion of phenotypic variance that is attributable to genetic and shared-familial environment was estimated for resilience and three main coping styles; task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented coping. Bivariate analyses were conducted to estimate the genetic correlations between these traits and neuroticism. Our results indicate that common genetics affect both resilience and coping style. However, in addition, early shared-environmental effects from the nuclear family influence resilience whereas recent shared-environment effects from a spouse influence coping style. Furthermore, strong genetic overlap between resilience, emotion-oriented coping, and neuroticism suggests a relationship whereby genetic factors that increase negative emotionality lead to decreased resilience. These studies highlight the necessity for complementary multivariate techniques in resilience research to elucidate tractable methodologies to potentially identify mechanisms and modifiable risk factors to protect against psychiatric illness (Chapter 7).

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka relationen mellan personlighetsdrag och ensamhet enligt definitionen av femfaktormodellen, och bringa klarhet i om denna association beror på könstillhörighet eller invandrarstatus. För att beskriva sambandet mellan personlighetsdrag och ensamhet har Kindling-hypotesen anammats. Kortfattat beskriver Kindling-hypotesen att oönskade  personlighetsdrag kan lämna “psykologiska ärr” på en individs personlighet, som i sin tur intensifierar upplevd ensamhet. Totalt inkluderades 171 respondenter i studien (i åldrarna 18-36; 71,3 % var kvinnor, och 28,7 % män).  Resultaten påvisade att det fanns en positiv association mellan neuroticism och ensamhet, och en negativ association mellan samvetsgrannhet och ensamhet. Slutsatsen som kunde dras från studien är att neuroticism samt samvetsgrannhet har en roll i relation till ensamhet. / The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits according to the Big Five model of personality and loneliness, and bring to light whether this association is moderated by gender or immigrant status. In order to describe the relation between personality traits and loneliness, the Kindling Effect has been used. Briefly, the Kindling Effect describes how unwanted personality traits can leave “psychological scars” in an individual’s personality, which in turn intensifies perceived loneliness. 171 respondents were included in a survey (aged 18-46; 71.3 % were women and 28,7 % men). The results showed that there was a positive association between neuroticism and loneliness, and a negative association between extraversion and loneliness. These results suggest that extraversion and neuroticism plays an important role in relation to loneliness.

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Det finns individuella skillnader i hur vi påverkas av stress och ett sätt att identifiera skillnaderna är att undersöka hur personlighetsdrag predicerar upplevd stress. Detta kan tillämpas vid rekrytering till yrken med särskilda krav på stresstålighet. Lazarus transaktionsmodell är ledande inom stressforskning och inom personlighetsteorier representerar femfaktormodellens (FFM) neuroticism, extraversion, öppenhet, samstämmighet och samvetsgrannhet de grundläggande personlighetsdragen. Enligt tidigare forskning utgör neuroticism en särskild sårbarhet för stress. Tre hypoteser prövades och undersökningens syftet var att predicera hur personligheten påverkar benägenheten att uppleva stress utifrån FFM, på dimensions- och facettnivå, samt att undersöka skillnader i upplevd stress beroende på kön. Etthundratolv studenter svarade på en enkät innehållande NEO-PI-R som mäter personlighetsdimensionerna samt Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) som mäter upplevd stress. Korrelationsanalyser, t-test och hierarkiska multipla regressioner gjordes. Hypoteserna om neuroticism och stress får stöd i resultatet men inte hypotesen om kön och stress. Oväntade resultat beträffande andra personlighetsdimensioner framkommer och möjliga orsaker till detta diskuteras.

While research highlights a number of risk factors for suicide, not all individuals displaying these characteristics will go on to attempt suicide. Depressed mood is a proximal indicator of suicide, with deterioration in already depressed mood increasing the likelihood of a suicide attempt. The overall aim of this thesis was to empirically test the Cognitive Model of Suicide by Wenzel and Beck (2008). This model proposes that each of the three components, dispositional vulnerabilities, mood disturbance and suicide related cognitions, may influence each other to enhance the propensity for a suicidal crisis. The thesis starts by examining the relationship between two personality characteristics (neuroticism and trait aggression) and current depressed mood, and then focuses on the relationship between suicidality and current depressed mood. Although autobiographical memories have been implied as a possible risk factor for suicidality, meta-analytical studies have highlighted discrepancies between sampling techniques which may limit interpretablity. Therefore, the first series of studies aimed to establish a protocol for assessing autobiographical memories. The second and third series of studies aimed to investigate whether the relationships between current depressed mood and specific personality factors (neuroticism and trait aggression) were indirectly influenced by other known risk factors that may affect cognitive processing of information (rumination, overgenerality, impulsivity). Moreover, these studies aimed to determine whether the same cognitive processing factors effected current depressed mood in non-suicidal and suicide attempt groups. The final series of studies aimed to determine whether these risk factors (neuroticism, trait aggression, brooding, impulsivity, and overgenerality) mediated the relationship between suicidality and current depressed mood. Findings indicated that compared to the non-suicidal group, individuals in the suicide attempt group was more likely to be influenced by the effects of trait aggression and brooding, and that the combination of these factors were positively associated with current depressed mood. In contrast, neuroticism and impulsivity appeared to influence individuals who had experienced suicidal ideation more than individuals who report never having suicidal thoughts or attempting suicide. Compared to the non-suicidal group, however, neuroticism and impulsivity did not show a significant association for current depressed mood in the suicidal ideation group. Findings supported the Interacting Sub-Systems model and are discussed in relation to the Cognitive Model of Suicide model.