The Relationship Between Acoustic Characteristics and Personality Dimensions in Patients With Dysphonia

Objectives: Voice is influenced by personality. However, it is still questionable which acoustic features are influenced by personality traits. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between acoustic characteristics and personality dimensions. Methods: Thirty-three participants with dysphonia and 33 participants without dysphonia were recruited to take part in this cross-sectional study. Personality dimensions were evaluated by the revised NEO personality inventory, and acoustic characteristics by using the Praat software. The tasks included prolongation of the vowel /a/, expression of declarative and interrogative sentences, reading, and connected speech. The acoustic features included fundamental frequency range, jitter, shimmer, harmonic-to-noise ratio, intensity, and duration. SPSS V. 23 was used for statistical analysis. For correlation analysis, the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were employed. Results: In individuals with dysphonia, a significant relationship was observed between personality dimensions and the following acoustic features: A. extraversion and intensity in connected speech (P=0.045) and the reading task (P=0.036); B. openness and shimmer in /a/ vowel prolongation (P=0.003); C. openness and the harmonic-to-noise ratio in /a/ the vowel prolongation task (P=0.017); and D. agreeableness and duration in expressing interrogative sentences (P=0.019). Discussion: In Persian-speaking participants with and without dysphonia, some acoustic characteristics were significantly correlated with the mean score of the personality test (revised NEO personality inventory). It seems that each voice feature is influenced by personality dimensions. This finding indicates that changes in acoustic characteristics of voice due to personality can be evaluated in laboratory and hearing examinations.

How Accurate Are National Stereotypes? A Test of Different Methodological Approaches

We compared different methodological approaches in research on the accuracy of national stereotypes that use aggregated mean scores of real people's personality traits as criteria for stereotype accuracy. Our sample comprised 16,713 participants from the Central Europe and 1,090 participants from the Baltic Sea region. Participants rated national stereotypes of their own country using the National Character Survey (NCS) and their personality traits using either the Revised NEO Personality Inventory or the NCS. We examined the effects of different (i) methods for rating of real people (Revised NEO Personality Inventory vs. NCS) and national stereotypes (NCS); (ii) norms for converting raw scores into T–scores (Russian vs. international norms); and (iii) correlation techniques (intraclass correlations vs. Pearson correlations vs. rank–order correlations) on the resulting agreement between the ratings of national stereotypes and real people. We showed that the accuracy of national stereotypes depended on the employed methodology. The accuracy was the highest when ratings of real people and national stereotypes were made using the same method and when rank order correlations were used to estimate the agreement between national stereotypes and personality profiles of real people. We propose a new statistical procedure for determining national stereotype accuracy that overcomes limitations of past studies. We provide methodological recommendations applicable to a wider range of cross national stereotype accuracy studies. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

Evaluating Circumplex Structure in the Interpersonal Scales for the NEO-PI-3

Scales to assess the eight octants and two axes of the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) using items from the revised NEO Personality Inventory were introduced by Traupman et al. Item changes in the revised and renormed third edition of the NEO instrument (NEO-PI-3) have affected item content in all eight octant scales, underscoring the need to reexamine the IPC scales. The current study examines the circumplex structure of the revised octant scales in the NEO-PI-3 and their correlations with the Dominance and Warmth scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory in 568 undergraduate students. The data show perfect fit to circumplex structure, suggesting equivalent or better assessment of the IPC with the NEO-PI-3 octant scales. Convergence of the eight octants with the Personality Assessment Inventory interpersonal scales further supports their saturation with interpersonal content and appropriate location within the IPC.