Lesser possession of financial resources greatly impacts livelihood and well-being. This state of scarcity manifests itself in individuals through alterations in cognitive functioning and decision...Show moreLesser possession of financial resources greatly impacts livelihood and well-being. This state of scarcity manifests itself in individuals through alterations in cognitive functioning and decision-making. This situation affects individual on different levels, depending on available resources and contextual means. This research is concerned about the role of personality traits, particularly impulsivity, on decision-making under situations of scarcity. Prior research has found that impulsivity affects decision-making, manifesting itself in rash action and impulsive behavior. Here, we apply these findings and discuss the degree of impulsivity and its moderating role in the relationship of financial scarcity and risk preference. This effect was investigated through a multiple-scaled questionnaire. One task, the lottery choice task, and two scales, the Psychological Inventory of Financial Scarcity (PIFS) and a shortened version of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-15), were administered and utilized for the analysis. A total of 100 participants based in United Kingdom were involved in the questionnaire. The results yield no significance between impulsivity and the relationship of financial scarcity and risk preference. Future research may look deeper into cultural differences and biases that may be involved in the decision-making process, as well as looking into different instruments that measures the trait impulsivity itself.Show less
Personality is predictive of the development of psychopathology. The Hierarchical Topology of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a new nosology of psychopathology, embracing a transdiagnostic, dimensional...Show morePersonality is predictive of the development of psychopathology. The Hierarchical Topology of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a new nosology of psychopathology, embracing a transdiagnostic, dimensional approach, in which symptoms define the disorder in a bottom-up manner. It aims to include dimensions of personality traits. Recently, preliminary items for maladaptive personality traits of the internalizing spectrum have been developed. This study aims to explore the validity and influence of these novel items by correlating them with symptoms of three major internalizing disorders (MDD, GAD, stress) in cross-sectional network analysis. The data is gathered from self-reports of 453 active students within the Netherlands. All items had a positive relationship with each other. The individual maladaptive traits correlated positively with different types of disorders. Some items had a moderately strong correlation with each other. While cross-sectional analyses do not allow to draw inferences about directionality and causality, they suggest the explored items to be correlating with psychopathology and thus as valid measurements. Future research is suggested to perform longitudinal network analysis on HiTOP items to map out maladaptive personality traits to prevent the development of mental disorders and find targets for clinical interventions.Show less
Physically attractive people are rated more favorably by others and even have higher personal and professional life success. It has been shown that clothing style and smiling influence...Show morePhysically attractive people are rated more favorably by others and even have higher personal and professional life success. It has been shown that clothing style and smiling influence attractiveness in previous research; but how about our personality traits? Crucially, our personality traits might also influence our judgements about attractiveness. Our personality traits, especially extraversion and agreeableness, may be effective on whom we find attractive and may explain the reason behind it. The present thesis aims to examine whether clothing and the facial expressions of the other person can moderate the relationship between our personality traits and judgements about attractiveness. It also aims to bring insight into when we feel ourselves attractive, and the role of the other person in the interaction. Thirty-one (N = 31) participants were recruited to examine the moderation. Participants were presented with videos of models, in two different conditions for clothing: provocatively dressed vs. conservatively and three different conditions for the facial expressions; smile, coy smile vs. neutral expression. Participants were then asked to rate the attractiveness of the person that they saw in the video and how attractive that person would find them in return. They are then asked to fill out questionnaires including the MINI-IPIP to measure extraversion and agreeableness. Moderation analyses showed that neither the clothing type, nor the facial expression of the people they are interacting with did not moderate the relationship between the personality traits and ratings of attractiveness. These findings are explained in the context of moderation models, and future research is discussed.Show less
Little is yet known about the causes and risk factors of bipolar disorder. Previous research has shown that bipolar disorder patients have different personality trait profiles than healthy...Show moreLittle is yet known about the causes and risk factors of bipolar disorder. Previous research has shown that bipolar disorder patients have different personality trait profiles than healthy individuals. This quantitative study aimed to gain more knowledge about the differences between patients with an early age at onset or a later age at onset. The participants were asked to fill in the NEO-five factor inventory (NEO-ffi) and the severity indices of personality problems -short form (SIPP-sf) to measure five domains of personality traits and five domains of personality functioning. The data of these domains were placed in separate regression models against the age at which bipolar disorder developed. The data from these models showed only a significant Beta value for neuroticism even after correcting for the current mood. This result suggests that there is an association between neuroticism and developing bipolar disorder earlier on in life. No other significant associations were found in this study. The importance of this study is that future research can be done to work on screening programs for these type of risk factors so future cases of bipolar disorder might be prevented.Show less
It has been suggested that power provides both opportunities for promoting the achievement of one's own goals and responsibilities for the outcomes of those who are dependent on the power-holder....Show moreIt has been suggested that power provides both opportunities for promoting the achievement of one's own goals and responsibilities for the outcomes of those who are dependent on the power-holder. In our study we investigated whether sex and gender identity influence the construal of power as either opportunity or responsibility in a variety of power contexts, while also examining the possible moderating role of personality traits. Power was manipulated by priming participants in a high or low power condition, by requesting them to describe a situation in which they felt powerful or powerless. There were also questions about the meaning they ascribed to that power, while their gender identity was measured by a recently developed scale. Our results showed that participants in the high power condition were more likely to construe their power as both an opportunity and a responsibility than the participants in the low power condition and that femininity is associated with the construal of power as a responsibility irrespective of the level of power. Females construed their power as a responsibility more than males only when we controlled for neuroticism, openness to experience and their stability of power. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.Show less
