Despite the ubiquity of music and its importance to one’s identity, there has been limited research on individual differences in music preferences. The aim of this dissertation was to examine how music preferences vary across individual differences in stable traits (e.g., gender, personality) and states (e.g., mood) over three studies. The focus of Study 1 was on the influence of the listener’s mood on emotion-based music preferences. The typical preference for happy- over sad-sounding music was found to be mood-dependent, evident after happy and neutral but not sad mood inductions. When the music was emotionally ambiguous (i.e., with cues to both happiness and sadness), happy listeners liked the music more than other listeners, whereas sad listeners perceived it to be more sad-sounding. Study 2 examined how emotion-based music preferences develop. Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short pieces expressing emotions that varied in arousal and valence: happiness (high, positive), scariness (high, negative), peacefulness (low, positive), or sadness (low, negative). Adults preferred pieces with a positive valence (happy and peaceful), whereas children preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions (happy and scary). Identification accuracy was predictive of a positive-valence bias among 5- and 8-year-olds. A number of other findings related to accuracy and gender differences were also evident. Study 3 examined whether personality differences affect the influence of exposure on liking. Undergraduates completed the Big Five Inventory and provided liking ratings for novel music excerpts as well as for excerpts they heard 2, 8, or 32 times. Higher scores on Openness-to-Experience were related to greater liking for novel excerpts and more rapid satiation. In sum, these three studies highlight that music preferences vary as a function of individual differences and the listening context.

Kreativitet mäts vanligtvis på två sätt. Divergent Tänkande (DT), som återspeglar flexibilitet och originalitet, och kreativ effektivitet, som beskriver en persons kreativa livsprestationer. Kreativitet är robust förknippat med intelligens och personlighetsdraget Öppenhet. Intelligens har visat sig vara förknippat med kortare responstid och högre tidsmässig precision i timing-uppgifter. Då tidsmässig precision alltså är förknippat med intelligens, och intelligens i sin tur med kreativitet, frågade vi hur kreativitet är relaterat till Tidsprecision. Resultaten visade att DT inte var signifikant korrelerat med någon annan variabel. Kreativ effektivitet var däremot signifikant korrelerat med Öppenhet och Tidsprecision. En samtidig multipel regression med Tidsprecision, Öppenhet och intelligens som prediktorer förklarade 28% av variansen i kreativ effektivitet, men bara Öppenhet hade ett signifikant bidrag. / Creativity is typically gauged in two ways. Divergent Thinking (DT), which reflects flexibility and originality, and creative effectiveness, which describes a person’s creative life achievements. Creativity is robustly associated with intelligence and the personality trait Openness to expirence. Intelligence has been shown to be associated with shorter response time and higher temporal precision in timing tasks. Since timingprecision is thus associated with intelligence, and intelligence in turn with creativity, we asked how creativity relates to timingprecision. The results showed that DT was not significantly correlated to any other variable. However, creative effectiveness was significantly correlated with Openness and timingprecision. A simultaneous multiple regression with timingprecision, Openness, and intelligence as predictors explained 28% of the variance creative effectiveness, but only Openness had a significant contribution.

A major concern with using personality tests in the selection process is the prevalence of applicant faking behavior which can influence the rank order of applicants such that fakers are hired at an elevated frequency. This study examined the effects of the detection/consequence warning and a more applicant-friendly warning on faking and perceived procedural justice. I hypothesized that a positive warning (reasoning warning) and a detection/consequence warning would show similar mean personality trait levels compared to honest responses, with all means showing less socially desirable responding than no warning prompt. Results suggested that the detection/consequence warning is more effective at reducing faking behavior in the selection context, and the content of the warning has no impact on perceived procedural justice.

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Published Article / The relationship between the big five personality traits, Extraversion, Agreeableness Neuroticism, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience and deep and surface approaches to learning forms the basis of this article. The findings of a research study in this milieu will be presented to prove that earlier studies in this field have been upheld, but that an important deviation has occurred on certain levels of personality. A students way of learning implies the type of learning that is taking place. Ultimately we as lecturers want to encourage deep learning as this stimulates retention of information, important in production of students that are ready for employment.

The purpose of this research was to identify motivational factors that would predict organisational commitment and citizenship behaviour. One important motivational factor is empowerment, which is an intrinsic motivator (Spreitzer, 1995, p. 121 table 5 ), this study examined the contribution of each of its four dimensions in predicting affective commitment and citizenship behaviours targeted towards both individuals and the organisation. I also investigated the association that leader-member exchange and three personality factors (extraversion, emotional stability and openness to experience) had with both empowerment and organisational outcomes (affective commitment, citizenship behaviours). I further examined empowerment mediation effects. This research was conducted among ten occupational groups at The Waikato District Health Board in New Zealand. 872 questionnaires were distributed and a final sample of 306 responses (35.1%) was obtained. The results, consistent across all occupational groups and other demographics, suggested that although extraversion, emotional stability and openness to experience individually contributed to empowerment, affective commitment and citizenship behaviours, when their contribution towards affective commitment and citizenship behaviour was examined simultaneously with empowerment and LMX contributions, personality contribution decreased. The regression equation results showed emotional stability as the only significant personality contributor towards citizenship behaviours. In addition, leader member exchange contribution was significant only towards affective commitment whereas empowerment was the strongest predictor of the three organisational outcomes explored. Moreover, two of the four empowerment dimensions were also found to mediate the relationship between LMX and affective commitment. However, no empowerment mediation effects were found between LMX and citizenship behaviours. Overall, this research provides valuable information on how to increase employee's affective commitment and extra role behaviours by adjusting organisation's structures and policies and fostering employees' perception of empowerment. Recommendations for further research and practical implications for organisations are discussed in the final chapter.

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the role of Big Five personality dimensions (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism and Agreeableness) and justice perceptions (procedural, distributive, informational and interactional justice) on social loafing in a field setting. Another purpose was to explore potential moderation effects of personality and justice dimensions on social loafing. Data was gathered both from employees and their supervisors working in three leading software companies in Ankara, Turkey. The study was conducted in two phases. In the pilot study, social loafing and perceived coworker social loafing scales were developed. Task visibility scale was adapted to Turkish. The internal consistency reliabilities of the scales were tested by a pilot study with a sample of 53 employees. In the main study, hypothesis and potential moderation effects were tested by gathering data from 156 participants. Results supported only two hypotheses proposing positive relations between extraversion &amp / social loafing and neuroticism &amp / social loafing. Investigating potential moderators, distributive justice turned out to be moderator on the relation between extraversion and social loafing. Moreover, conscientiousness had moderation effect on the relation between informational justice and social loafing. The results were discussed along with practical implications, limitations of the study and future directions.

In the media, one type of prejudice is often discussed as isolated from other types of prejudice. For example, after Breivik’s massacre, intolerance toward Muslims was intensely debated (for good reasons). However, his manifesto also disclosed extreme attitudes towards women and gays, a fact which passed without much notice. Still, in understanding why some individuals are so extremely intolerant compared to others, the psychological unity underlying different kinds of prejudice (e.g., racism, sexism) needs to be considered. This psychological unity, referred to as generalized prejudice, provided the starting point for personality theories on prejudice because it suggests that some people are simply more biased than other people in principle. Today it is well known that two basic personality characteristics, agreeableness and openness to new experiences, are powerful predictors of prejudice. However, more precisely what these variables can, versus cannot, explain has received little attention. Consequently, the aim of this thesis was to provide a more fine-grained analysis of generalized prejudice and its personality roots. Paper I demonstrated that personality mainly accounts for variance shared by several prejudice targets (generalized prejudice) whereas group membership mainly predicts unique variance in prejudice towards a particular target group. Thus, personality and group membership factors explain prejudice for different reason, and do not contradict each other. Paper II demonstrated, across three studies, that agreeableness and openness to experience are related to self-reported (explicit) prejudice, but not automatically expressed (implicit) biases. Personality seems informative about who chooses to express devaluing sentiments, but not who harbors spontaneous biases. Finally, Paper III examined the assumption that personality explains (explicit) generalized prejudice because some people simply favor their own group over all other groups (ethnocentrism). Providing the first direct test of this assumption, the results from three studies suggest that while agreeableness and openness to experience explain generalized prejudice, they do not account for purely ethnocentric attitudes. This indicates a fundamental difference between ethnocentrism and generalized prejudice. All in all, self-reported personality seems to have little to do with spontaneous group negativity or simple ingroup favoritism. However, personality strongly predicts deliberate and verbalized devaluation of disadvantaged groups. / I media diskuteras ofta fördomar mot en viss grupp som helt skilda från fördomar mot andra grupper. Efter Breivik’s massaker debatterades till exempel intolerans mot muslimer i stor utsträckning, men det diskuterades inte mycket kring att han även uttryckt extrema åsikter om kvinnor och homosexuella. Likväl är den gemensamma nämnaren i sådana attityder av yttersta vikt för att förstå varför vissa individer är mer intoleranta än andra. Tidigare forskning visar att personer som är mer rasistiska än andra också tenderar att vara mer sexistiska, samt nedvärdera till exempel, handikappade människor. Den gemensamma nämnare i sådana attityder kallas generaliserad fördomsfullhet och utgör grundbulten i personlighetsteorier om fördomar då det pekar på att somliga alltid tycks ogilla/nedvärdera utsatta grupper. Idag är det även välkänt att två personlighetsvariabler, vänlighet och öppenhet för nya erfarenheter, beskriver vem som uttrycker mer fördomar än andra. Däremot har det inte ägnats mycket kraft åt frågan vad exakt det är som dessa variabler förklarar, respektive inte förklarar. Syftet med avhandlingen var därmed att erbjuda en mer detaljerad analys av kopplingen mellan personlighet och generaliserad fördomsfullhet. Artikel I visade att personlighet förklarar den gemensamma nämnaren i olika typer av fördomar, medan grupptillhörighet (exempelvis kön) förklarar skillnader som är unika för fördomar mot en viss grupp (kvinnor). Personlighet och grupptillhörighet kompletterar alltså varandra som förklaringar snarare än att vara motsägelsefulla, såsom vissa forskare menat. Tre studier från Artikel II visade att vänlighet och öppenhet till nya erfarenheter hänger samman med viljekontrollerade fördomar, men inte spontana negativa associationer. Målet med Artikel III var att undersöka om personlighet förklarar fördomar av anledningen att vissa alltid favoriserar sin egen grupp över andra grupper (så kallad etnocentrism). Denna tanke har tagits för givet inom forskning om fördomsfullhet, men antagandet har inte testats empiriskt. Resultaten från tre studier pekar på att, till skillnad från generaliserad fördomsfullhet, så visar etnocentrism i sig inte på några starka samband med personlighet. Sammanfattningsvis så hänger varken vänlighet eller öppenhet ihop med spontan gruppnegativitet eller att ogilla ”de andra”. Däremot så pekar personlighetsfaktorer i stor utsträckning på vem som väljer att uttryckligen nedvärdera utsatta grupper.

The new economy is characterised by globalisation, increased competition, and rapid changes. In order to remain competitive, organisations need to be proactive and innovative to survive. This is mirrored in the South African retail industry which is developing into a dynamic industry driven by changes in technology, shifts in consumer behaviour, saturating markets, and increased competition as a result of globalisation. In light of these increased demands on organisations to be more flexible, adaptable, and competitive, new demands have subsequently been placed on leaders. The retail industry is highly labour-intensive and requires effective leadership at all levels, and Transformational Leadership (TL) has been shown to be an effective leadership style to improve various organisational outcomes. In recent years, personality has been used as a means to predict TL behaviours in leaders. One model of personality that has proved its utility in identifying leadership characteristics has been the Five Factor Model of Personality. However, not much is known about the relationship between TL and the Big Five personality factors in the retail industry. The current study utilised a quantitative research approach in which 101 leaders in a retail organisation in South Africa were assessed on TL and the Big Five personality factors, using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Fifteen Factor Plus Personality Questionnaire. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the statistical relationship between TL and the Big Five personality factors. Results indicated that there were no statistically significant relationships between three of the Big Five personality factors, namely extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness, and any of the TL dimensions or the composite TL score. There are two statistically significant relationships between one Big Five personality factor, namely agreeableness, and two TL dimensions, namely inspirational motivation (.196; p < .05), and individualised consideration (.200; p < .05). Only one Big Five personality factor, namely emotional stability, is statistically significantly related to all the TL dimensions as well as the composite TL score, ranging from a low of .539 (p < .01) for idealised behaviour to a high of .556 (p < .01) for the composite TL score. The study concluded that the Big Five personality factors should be used with caution to identify and develop potential TL behaviours in the diverse South African retail context. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)