Do Students With Different Majors Have Different Personality Traits? Evidence From Two Chinese Agricultural Universities

This paper explores whether a Student’s choice of major leads to certain personality traits and the reasons for this phenomenon. Specifically, we look at evidence from two Chinese universities, both of which specialize in agricultural studies. Using the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) questionnaire and the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) questionnaire, we collected data from two groups of students: those who study agriculture-related majors (ARM), and those who study non-agriculture-related majors (NARM). The surveys all showed no significant change in personality traits during Students’ freshman year. However, after 3 years of university study, significant personality trait changes were noted between seniors in the ARM and NARM groups. Whereas ARM seniors tended to be socially shy and lower in communicative competence, NARM seniors were better at expressing themselves and communicating with others. Although a Student’s choice of profession has an influence on their personality traits, it is not the only factor. The differences between ARM and NARM training models and curricula are also undoubtedly significant. Moreover, the bias against ARM in Chinese society further magnifies the differences in personality traits among students with different majors.

Anxiety Effect on Communication Skills in Nursing Supervisors: An Observational Study

Communication represents an essential skill in nurse managers’ performance of everyday activities to ensure a good coordination of the team, since it focuses on the transmission of information in an understandable way. At the same time, anxiety is an emotion that can be caused by demanding and stressful work environments, such as those of nurse managers. The aim of the present study was to analyze the impact of anxiety management on nurse managers’ communication skills. The sample comprised 90 nursing supervisors from hospitals in Madrid, Spain; 77.8% were women, and 22.2% were men, with an average of 10.9 years of experience as nursing supervisors. The instruments used for analysis were the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire: version five (16PF5) and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaires, validated for the Spanish population. The results showed that emotional stability was negatively affected by anxiety (r = −0.43; p = 0.001), while apprehension was positively affected (r = 0.382; p = 0.000). Nursing supervisors, as managers, were found to possess a series of personality factors and skills to manage stress and communication situations that prevent them from being influenced by social pressure and the opinion of others.

Empirical Foundations

The authors review the published, peer-reviewed studies relevant to two questions: What psychological constructs underlie police officer suitability and fitness? and What assessment instruments provide empirically validated measures of these constructs? In addressing the second question, the authors focus on examples of research related to the most commonly used instruments in these suitability and fitness evaluations (i.e., current versions of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, California Psychological Inventory, Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and Personality Assessment Inventory). The discussion is limited to a review of studies published in peer-reviewed journals and pertaining only to versions of the test currently supported by the test’s publisher.

PERSONAL DIFFERENCES OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY

Introduction. The autobiographical memory is a subjective reflection of the passed life path segment, which is the fixation, preservation, interpretation and reproduction of significant events and states. Autobiographical memory always operates with a “personally related experience”. Personality differences are always manifested in autobiographical memories. They are of great interest to researchers. The purpose of the article is to find out the personality differences of autobiographical memory. Materials and Methods. Theoretical analysis of literature on the research problem; the free retrieval of events technique, The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) by Raymond B. Cattell (Form-C); correlation analysis. Results. The authors conducted an empirical study, which involved people aged 18 to 82 years. The results of the study allow saying about the personal differences of autobiographical memory in terms of the number of reproduced events with different signs and events from diverse fields of life. Confident, calm, emotionally stable people tend to remember the positive events (from free event replay list) more, unlike restless, emotionally unstable and underconfident people. The relationships between personal characteristics and the number of memories from various fields of life were revealed. Discussion and Conclusions. The autobiographical memory as a kind of long-term memory organized according to the semantic principle provides for each person the formation of the past subjective history and the experience of oneself as a unique subject. The obtained data can be used in the practice of the consulting psychologist, in the process of student’s education in general psychology, personality psychology and differential psychology courses. Keywords: autobiographical memory, event retrieval, personality, positive memories, negative memories, neutral memories, fields of life.

The connection between drugs of abuse and personality disorders

IntroductionPatients who are suffering from different type of drugs have special individual and psychological problems. These changes are important for regulation and to control their behaviour.ObjectivesTo study the psychological characteristics and personal resources of the patients who are suffering from abuse of drugs.MethodsFifty patients were studied, 63.3% men and 36.7% women and in the ages of 18–21 years. Following psychodiagnostic methods are used: Kettel's sixteen personality factor test, Leonhard-Shmishek's personality test, scale of reactive and personal anxiety Spielberger-Hanin.ResultsAmount those patients were suffering from different type of drugs: synthetic cannabinoids-66.7%, 20% were dependent on synthetic cathinone and 13.3% were dependent on opiates (heroin). According to Leonhard-Shmishek's scales, the most often of personality disorders were dysthymic type, hyperthymic type and explosive type. According to Kettel's scale were indicated the leading individually-psychological properties in more than half of the subjects is the development of abstract thinking, free thinking, impulsiveness, lack of confidence to the authorities, the high emotional tension, emotional instability and irresponsibility. An analysis of global factors indicative of the severity indices of extraversion. According to Spielberger-Hanin's scale, 80% of patients with substance abuse had mild level of situational and personal anxiety, which can be identified as an important psychotherapeutic resource.ConclusionsAccording to scales, the most often of personality disorders were dysthymic type, hyperthymic type and explosive type. Eighty percent of patients with drug abuse had mild level of situational and personal anxiety. This feature is main of predictor as an important psychotherapeutic resource.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DIAGNOSTICS OF PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS USING K. PEARSON AND H. MARR’S “12 ARCHETYPES” TEST

The archetype of the personality is studied from the position of the culturological analysis, but its psychological component is not investigated. It should be noted that the archetype is capable to predetermine the behavior of the person; therefore, researching of an archetype of the personality is topical. The paper presents the results of the empirical research conducted with the help of “12 archetypes” test (K. Pearson and H. Marr). This test defines the dominating archetype of the personality, but its results are low-informative. 120 students of the Pacific State Medical University (60 young men and 60 girls at the age of 20 – 25 years) participated in the research. In the research “12 archetypes” test (K. Pearson and H. Marr), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, R. Kettell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (Form C) and V. I. Garbuzov’s questionnaire for diagnostics of the dominating instinct were used. The results allowed expanding the test. Detailed descriptive characteristics of each archetype of Pearson’s system were received.