The COVID-19 pandemic, a health emergency with international consequences, has brought serious impact on all aspects of society and affects not only health and economy, but psychological functioning ...and mental health as well. This research was conducted in order to examine and further our understanding of emotional reactions to the ongoing pandemic. Change in emotional reactions during the pandemic and relations with specific pandemic related behaviors and personality traits from the revised Reinforcement sensitivity theory were explored. The research was conducted in Serbia for 35 days while the country was in a state of emergency, as a citizen science project. Out of the 1526 participants that joined the study, 444 (67% female) had measures for all five weeks. Longitudinal changes in four emotional states during the pandemic were examined: worry, fear, boredom, and anger/annoyance. Results indicate a decrease in all four emotional states over time. The biggest decrease was present in case of worry, followed by fear and boredom. Regression analysis showed that personality dimensions, as well as behavioral responses in this situation significantly predicted emotional reactions. Findings revealed the Behavioral activation system was significantly related to worry, fear and boredom, Fight with boredom and anger, and the Behavioral inhibition system with anger. Adherence to protection measures, as well as increased exposure to the media, had significant positive relations with worry and fear. These results indicate that both stable characteristics and specific pandemic-related behaviors are significantly related to emotional response during the pandemic.
Objective
This study examined whether phenotypic correlations between psychopathological dimensions and personality traits of different hierarchical levels originate from common genetic and ...environmental sources of variance.
Method
Participants were 386 monozygotic and 204 dizygotic twins. The Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) was applied along with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R). The results of the CFA confirmed the hypothesis of the internalizing and externalizing dimensions underlying PDSQ scales.
Results
The results indicated a significantly greater role of genetic compared to environmental factors in the relationship between internalizing psychopathology and personality traits. Facets of neuroticism showed positive genetic links with internalizing disorders, while negative genetic links were shown for all facets of extraversion except excitement‐seeking, competence, self‐discipline, achievement striving, actions, and trust. Lower‐order personality traits were shown to be associated with internalizing disorders more intensively than the broader domains to which they belong, both at the phenotypic and genetic levels.
Conclusions
High neuroticism, together with several facets from the domain of extraversion and conscientiousness seems to represent an increased genetic susceptibility to the disorders from the internalizing spectrum. Results also suggest that specific environmental factors which are not shared with personality traits contribute to the internalizing symptoms.
The paper presents validation of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Questionnaire
(RSQ), measuring the constructs of the Revised Reinforcement Sensitivity theory
(RST). The research was conducted on a ...sample of 565 participants, using three
measures of the constructs of the Revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory
- the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System
(BIS/BAS) scale, Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory Personality
Questionnaire (RST-PQ), and Reinforcement Sensitivity Questionnaire. The results
of confirmatory factor analysis suggest good internal validity of the RSQ, while
the results of principal components analysis show that the RSQ scales are
significantly related to other RST measures.
The main aim of this study was to explore reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship with personality traits using a person-centered approach. Sample of 471 Serbian citizens was ...collected during the first 7 weeks of the pandemic. Cluster analysis revealed three clusters based on reactions to the pandemic: Adapted, Antagonized, and Passive. Adaptive type is characterized by stable emotional reactions and adherence to behavioral guidelines. Antagonized cluster is characterized by lowered adherence to behavioral guidelines, while Passive cluster is characterized by increased fear and boredom. Clusters differed significantly on HEXACO and PANAS traits. Similarity of obtained clusters with prototypes that commonly emerge using personality traits for classification, stresses the importance of basic individual differences in pandemic-induced behavior.
•Identification of three clusters based on reactions to COVID-19 Pandemic•Adaptive type shows stable emotional reactions, adherence to behavioral guidelines.•Antagonized cluster is characterized by lowered adherence to behavioral guidelines.•Passive cluster is characterized by increased fear and boredom.•Significant differences between clusters on HEXACO and PANAS traits
•Serbian adaptation of the BFI-2 demonstrates robust psychometric properties•The strong convergent validity was demonstrated between the BFI-2 domain scores and the IPIP-50, BFI + 2 and HEXACO-60 ...scale scores.•The six-component solution yields Honesty-Humility and Negative Valence, while seven-component adds Positive Valence.•Honesty-Humility and Negative Valence overlap with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, while Positive Valence with Extraversion.
The Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), as a comprehensive measure encompassing the Big Five domains and their facets, has undergone numerous validations in various languages. To validate a Serbian adaptation of the BFI-2, data from two samples, comprising a total of 1016 adult participants, along with a US sample (N = 1000), were utilized. The originally proposed factor structure of Serbian adaptation of the BFI-2 was confirmed, along with partial scalar invariance across Serbian and US samples. Convergent validity was established in relation to an alternative Big Five measure, as well as six-factor and seven-factor models. Criterion validity was confirmed through correlations with various behavior, cognitive, and emotional indicators. These findings contribute to evidence supporting the cross-cultural validity of BFI-2.
•Five- to seven-factor solutions emerge in personality-descriptive terms in Serbian language.•Procedural factors substantially affect the results of psycho-lexical studies.•Two- and three-factor ...solutions are the most robust across methods.
The aims of the paper are to provide the optimal structure of personality–descriptive terms in the Serbian language, and to address crucial procedural issues in psycho-lexical studies. In Study 1, a non–restrictive methodology for the selection of personality descriptors was applied. In Study 2, we compared the structures obtained using a standard adjective item format versus a contextualized format. In Study 3, the effects of using different categories of description on the trait structure were studied. In Study 4, the descriptors used in three previous studies were analyzed jointly. The results suggest that the outcomes of psycho-lexical studies are affected by various procedural factors, pointing to two- and three-factor solutions as the most robust across methods.
This study examines cultural differences in genetic and environmental influences on Five-Factor Model (FFM) across Croatian, German and Serbian cultures. Participants were 1021 monozygotic and 722 ...dizygotic twin pairs and NEO Five-Factor Inventory– NEO-FFI is used to assess FFM personality traits. Results show a similar pattern of genetic and environmental contribution to the variance of all FFM dimensions, indicating that culture has no significant effect on the genetic and environmental variance of personality traits. The best fitted common factor - common AE pathway models show that FFM dimensions are accounted for by the common latent factor. Although FFM dimensions clearly share some common sources of variance, the effects of specific genetic and environmental factors are more pronounced than common ones. Different patterns of genetic and environmental correlations across three samples may reflect the way that the synergy of personality traits responds to the specificities of a particular culture, as well as possible subtle differences in item translation, testing conditions, and measurement error.
•Genetic and environmental covariance across the FFM was accounted for by a single underlying latent factor.•All FFM traits have their own specific sources of genetic and environmental variance.•Culture has no significant effect on the genetic and environmental variance of personality traits.•Patterns of environmental correlations between personality traits differ subtly across cultures.•Results point to the potential of variety of modern life situations to elicit an emotional tension.
This study examines the aetiology of the relationship between personality traits and perceived parenting in light of cross‐cultural differences. The sample consisted of 188 Serbian and 394 German ...twin pairs. Personality traits were measured using the NEO‐personality inventory. A Blocks Environmental Questionnaire (BEQ) was applied to measure two dimensions of perceived parenting: support and organisation. Genetic factors account for 63–79% of the variance for BEQ dimensions in both samples, while around 50–60% of the variance in Big Five personality scores could be attributed to genetic factors. The exception was Neuroticism in the Serbian sample, where the genetic effect was somewhat smaller. The results indicated similar etiological pathways of the relationship between personality traits and perceived parenting, with some cultural differences related to Neuroticism and Extraversion. Negative Neuroticism‐Support and positive Extraversion‐Organisation environmental relationships were stronger in the Serbian sample. Genetic overlaps were more significant in the German sample, except for the relationship of Organisation with Conscientiousness and Extraversion. This indicates that the relationship between personality and perceived parenting is largely genetically mediated, but that the environmental effect may play an important role in individual adaptation to the family setting.
Epigenetic modifications of the membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase (
-
) gene may affect the enzymatic degradation of dopamine, and consequently, human behavior. This study investigated the ...association between membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNA methylation (DNAm) differences in 92 monozygotic (MZ) twins with phenotypic manifestations of cognitive, behavioral, and personality indicators associated with reward-related behaviors and lack of control. We used pyrosequencing to determine DNAm of the regulatory region of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase in saliva DNA. Results of intrapair differences in the percentage of membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm at each of five CpG sites show that there are associations between phenotypic indicators of lack of control and membrane bound catechol-O-methyltransferase DNAm differences on CpG1, CpG2 and CpG4, suggesting the common epigenetic patterns for personality traits, cognitive functions, and risk behaviors.
•Personality types based on rRST dimensions were examined among prisoners and non-prisoners.•Three clusters were identified – Approaching, Avoidant, and Controlled.•Types were stable across ...sub-samples.•Types were significantly related to physical violence and attitudes toward violence.
The aims of this study are to identify personality types based on the constructs of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory, and to examine the relations between personality types, violent behavior and attitudes toward violence in prison and non-prison samples. The study was conducted on a sample of 716 males (including 107 prison inmates). The clusters named approaching, avoidant and controlled were extracted. Cluster solutions obtained in prison and non-prison samples showed great similarity. Differences between clusters with regard to violent behaviors and attitudes toward violence were examined in each of the sub-samples separately. In the non-prison sample, the clusters differ with regard to all indicators of violence, except for violence toward parents, while in the prison sample the clusters do not differ with regard to violence toward partner and unknown people. In prison sample, participants with multiple prison sentences are most frequent in the approaching cluster.
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