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Cognitive-Adaptive Perspectives on Personality
498
Abstracts
However, is unclear whether the intra-individual variability of the pre-stimulus activity in the EEG may explain the fluctuation in stimulus processing, and whether the association of ERPs and cognitive performance is a function of stimulus processing readiness. We explored this research questions in our current study. We present results based on the measurement of 210 healthy young adults, who have processed independent multiple facial perception and recognition tasks, so that we can separate state and trait measures at the behavioral level. We discuss how far the variability of the pre-stimulus EEG explains the intra-individual variance of ERPs and whether the pre-stimulus activity is associated with interindividual differences in face recognition ability and its variability.
completed measures of their supervisor’s leadership style (MLQ, Avolio and Bass, 2004), abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000) and corporate psychopathy traits (Babiak & Hare, in press) as well as selfreport measures of job satisfaction (MSQ, Weiss et al., 1967) and turnover intentions (Mathieu & Mathieu, 2010). Results: Corporate psychopathy was positively and significantly correlated with abusive supervision, Laissez-Faire leadership and employees’ turnover intentions and was negatively correlated with Transformational and Transactional leadership and with employees' job satisfaction. While it may not be possible to test for abusive supervision before hiring managers, our results indicate that underlying personality traits, in this case psychopathy, may be an indication of a manager’s propensity to use abusive supervision and a negative leadership style.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.222 doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.224 Moderating and mediating effects of alcohol expectancies on the association between Dark Triad personality traits and alcohol consumption K. Masui The present study investigated the relationships between the socalled Dark Triad (DT) personality traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism), alcohol expectancies, and alcohol consumption. Five hundred and sixty three participants completed questionnaires to assess the DT personality traits as well as both positive and negative alcohol expectancies. Participants also provided data regarding alcohol intake on each occasion and per month. Regression analysis results indicated that lower levels of negative alcohol expectancies increased alcohol consumption on each occasion in high Machiavellianism individuals. Higher levels of positive alcohol expectancies also increased alcohol use per month in these individuals. Additionally, lower levels of both positive and negative alcohol expectancies increased alcohol intake on each occasion in high psychopathy individuals. Positive alcohol expectancies mediated the relationship between narcissism and alcohol consumption per month. The present research provides further insights into the influences of the DT personality traits on alcohol consumption, and new evidence pertaining to mediating and moderating roles of alcohol expectancies on this relationship. The present findings may provide useful insights into more effective treatment of alcohol problems in individuals who possess these traits.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.223
The rise of the dark knight: Corporate psychopathy, leadership, and abusive supervision C. Mathieu, P. Babiak Dark leaders have been identified as abusive leaders who exhibit hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviors and rudeness towards employees. Abusive leadership has been shown to have negative impacts on both employees and organizations such as lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of commitment to the organization. However, very few studies have examined the underlying factors of dark leadership. This study proposes to test the relationship between corporate psychopathy traits, abusive supervision, the Full-Range model of leadership (Transformational, Transactional and LaissezFaire leadership), employees’ job satisfaction and intention to quit their job. Method: 98 employees from a non-profit organization have
Workplace Harassment: The influence of corporate psychopathy and the HEXACO model of personality C. Mathieu, P. Babiak Research on the negative impact of workplace harassment has been very prolific; however, very little is known about the predictors of such negative workplace behaviour or possible correlates with the perpetrators’ personalities. The present study is the first to test the relationship between a measure of corporate psychopathy, the B-Scan 360 and the HEXACO model of personality in a business sample. Moreover, the present study is the first to test the influence of corporate psychopathy and the HEXACO model of personality on General Workplace Harassment. Method: 175 employees from a public organization filled out measures of general workplace harassment perpetrated against them. They also completed the HEXACO (other) and B-Scan 360 (psychopathy in others) on the person who had perpetrated the harassment behaviours towards them. Results: Corporate psychopathy in others was positively correlated with emotional stability and negatively correlated with Honesty/ Humility, Extraversion, Openness and Conscientiousness. General workplace harassment was positively correlated with corporate psychopathy and Extraversion and negatively correlated with Honesty/Humility, and Agreeableness. Results show that corporate psychopathy was the strongest predictor of General Workplace Harassment even when controlling for the HEXACO model of personality. These results further demonstrate the construct validity of the B-Scan 360 and underscore the destructive impact of corporate psychopathy on organizations.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.225
Cognitive-Adaptive Perspectives on Personality G. Matthews The cognitive-adaptive theory of personality (Matthews, 2008) accepts the stability of individual differences in informationprocessing, but also addresses several issues that challenge traditional conceptions. First, personality trait measures capture processes at a variety of levels of abstraction from the neural substrate. Second, performance may be sensitive to emotion and stress processes that are dynamically sensitive to situational influences. Third, performance often depends on acquired skills and contextual
Abstracts
knowledge. The unifying principle that gives coherence to the various facets of personality is adaptation (though not necessarily Darwinian). Real-world expression of traits depends on dynamic interplay between contextualized skills, self-regulation and behaviors (the ‘adaptive triangle’). Individual differences in basic neural and processing functions typically influence trait expression directly rather than indirectly, through biasing acquisition of performance and self-regulative skills. Thus, performance correlates of traits observed in laboratory studies may be a legacy of the developmental process as much as a direct driver of adaptive behavior.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.226
Individual differences in unmanned vehicle operation: performance, stress and trust G. Matthews, J. Lin, R. Wohleber, L. Reinerman-Jones Operators of unmanned vehicles (UxVs) face various challenges associated with stress, workload and use of automation. We highlight the role of individual differences in subjective states, using data from simulation studies of ground vehicles (UGVs: n=151) and aerial vehicles (UAVs: n=101). States were measured with the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire. In both studies, distress correlated with poorer performance on attentionally demanding task components, especially under high workload. High task engagement facilitates sustained attention, but here it tended to be less predictive than distress. Low engagement was associated with neglect of subtasks under high workload in the UAV study. Previous studies link distress to impaired working memory and executive processing. The cognitive control of multi-tasking required for UxV operation may be disrupted by high distress. Automation may mitigate cognitive overload in UxV operation. In the UAV study, we investigated participants’ reliance on automation in performing surveillance tasks. Under high workload, we found that, although vulnerable to overload, distressed participants were less reliant on automation, i.e., their trust was miscalibrated to task demands. Personality factors including conscientiousness also predicted trust. Findings indicate the importance of management of multiple stress dimensions in UxV operations.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.227
The Genetics of Oxytocin and Social Cognition M. Melchers Social cognition is an important prerequisite for successful social interaction because it helps to gain information about behaviors, thoughts and feelings of interaction partners. Previous pharmacological studies have emphasized the relevance of the oxytocin system for social cognition and resulting social abilities, while knowledge on genetic contributions is still scarce. In this talk, three independent associations between endophenotypes for aspects of social cognition (emotion recognition, recognition of kinship relations, perception and storage of environmental details) and the rs2268498 polymorphism on the OXTR-gene are reported. The rs2268498 has repeatedly been linked to processes relevant to social functioning, and there is first evidence for a potential functionality of this polymorphism. Three independent samples were experimentally tested and genotyped for the rs2268498 polymorphism. T-allele carriers (TT and TC genotypes) exhibited significantly better performance in the emotion
499
recognition task, recognized more kinship relations correctly and could remember more situational details than carriers of the CCgenotype. As in previous studies, T-allele carriers exhibited better performance in measures of social processing indicating that the rs2268498 polymorphism is an important candidate for understanding the genetic basis of social functioning.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.228
The Association between Problematic Internet Use and Empathy in China and Germany M. Melchers, M. Li, Y. Chen, W. Zhang, C. Montag The spread of the Internet has changed social interactions and ways of working all over the world. Although the Internet simplified many areas of life, there are also downsides. A growing problem is problematic Internet use and the resultant risk for Internet addiction. Prevention or treatment of Internet addiction requires knowledge of potential etiological factors. One important aspect here is social functioning and empathy, as previous results indicate a possible relation between problematic Internet use and social skills. In the present study, N = 438 Chinese students and N = 202 German students answered questionnaires on Internet consume and questionnaires measuring empathy dimensions. Results indicate a higher proportion of participants with problems due to Internet consume in the Chinese compared to the German sample. Furthermore, we found negative associations between empathy and Internet addiction in both samples, especially with respect to the affective component of empathy. While the question of causality must be answered in future research, these findings might be important to understand why some users spend more time on the Internet than others.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.229
Who’s active on Whatsapp? Evidence from Psychoinformatics C. Montag, K. Błaszkiewicz, R. Sariyska, B. Lachmann, I. Andone, B. Trendafilov, M. Eibes, A. Markowetz Psychoinformatics refers to the collaboration of computer science and psychology to get insights into psychological variables by recording human-machine-interaction. A good starting point for this research endeavor is the study of smartphone behavior, because these small devices represent an important companion in our increasing digital life. In the talk data from N = 2418 smartphone users will be presented, whose devices have been tracked for the duration of four weeks. All participants also filled in information on sociodemographic variables and personality via the interface of the custom develop application called ‘Menthal’. In particular Whatsapp turned out to be one of the most important apps on smartphones. Age, gender and in particular Conscientiousness (negative) / Extraversion (positive) were robustly associated with Whatsapp usage. As daily smartphone/Whatsapp usage revealed alarming numbers (e. g. a mean of 161.95 minutes (SD = 83.36) of daily smartphone usage), an outlook on possible interventions will be given.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.230
Abstracts
However, is unclear whether the intra-individual variability of the pre-stimulus activity in the EEG may explain the fluctuation in stimulus processing, and whether the association of ERPs and cognitive performance is a function of stimulus processing readiness. We explored this research questions in our current study. We present results based on the measurement of 210 healthy young adults, who have processed independent multiple facial perception and recognition tasks, so that we can separate state and trait measures at the behavioral level. We discuss how far the variability of the pre-stimulus EEG explains the intra-individual variance of ERPs and whether the pre-stimulus activity is associated with interindividual differences in face recognition ability and its variability.
completed measures of their supervisor’s leadership style (MLQ, Avolio and Bass, 2004), abusive supervision (Tepper, 2000) and corporate psychopathy traits (Babiak & Hare, in press) as well as selfreport measures of job satisfaction (MSQ, Weiss et al., 1967) and turnover intentions (Mathieu & Mathieu, 2010). Results: Corporate psychopathy was positively and significantly correlated with abusive supervision, Laissez-Faire leadership and employees’ turnover intentions and was negatively correlated with Transformational and Transactional leadership and with employees' job satisfaction. While it may not be possible to test for abusive supervision before hiring managers, our results indicate that underlying personality traits, in this case psychopathy, may be an indication of a manager’s propensity to use abusive supervision and a negative leadership style.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.222 doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.224 Moderating and mediating effects of alcohol expectancies on the association between Dark Triad personality traits and alcohol consumption K. Masui The present study investigated the relationships between the socalled Dark Triad (DT) personality traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism), alcohol expectancies, and alcohol consumption. Five hundred and sixty three participants completed questionnaires to assess the DT personality traits as well as both positive and negative alcohol expectancies. Participants also provided data regarding alcohol intake on each occasion and per month. Regression analysis results indicated that lower levels of negative alcohol expectancies increased alcohol consumption on each occasion in high Machiavellianism individuals. Higher levels of positive alcohol expectancies also increased alcohol use per month in these individuals. Additionally, lower levels of both positive and negative alcohol expectancies increased alcohol intake on each occasion in high psychopathy individuals. Positive alcohol expectancies mediated the relationship between narcissism and alcohol consumption per month. The present research provides further insights into the influences of the DT personality traits on alcohol consumption, and new evidence pertaining to mediating and moderating roles of alcohol expectancies on this relationship. The present findings may provide useful insights into more effective treatment of alcohol problems in individuals who possess these traits.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.223
The rise of the dark knight: Corporate psychopathy, leadership, and abusive supervision C. Mathieu, P. Babiak Dark leaders have been identified as abusive leaders who exhibit hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviors and rudeness towards employees. Abusive leadership has been shown to have negative impacts on both employees and organizations such as lower levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of commitment to the organization. However, very few studies have examined the underlying factors of dark leadership. This study proposes to test the relationship between corporate psychopathy traits, abusive supervision, the Full-Range model of leadership (Transformational, Transactional and LaissezFaire leadership), employees’ job satisfaction and intention to quit their job. Method: 98 employees from a non-profit organization have
Workplace Harassment: The influence of corporate psychopathy and the HEXACO model of personality C. Mathieu, P. Babiak Research on the negative impact of workplace harassment has been very prolific; however, very little is known about the predictors of such negative workplace behaviour or possible correlates with the perpetrators’ personalities. The present study is the first to test the relationship between a measure of corporate psychopathy, the B-Scan 360 and the HEXACO model of personality in a business sample. Moreover, the present study is the first to test the influence of corporate psychopathy and the HEXACO model of personality on General Workplace Harassment. Method: 175 employees from a public organization filled out measures of general workplace harassment perpetrated against them. They also completed the HEXACO (other) and B-Scan 360 (psychopathy in others) on the person who had perpetrated the harassment behaviours towards them. Results: Corporate psychopathy in others was positively correlated with emotional stability and negatively correlated with Honesty/ Humility, Extraversion, Openness and Conscientiousness. General workplace harassment was positively correlated with corporate psychopathy and Extraversion and negatively correlated with Honesty/Humility, and Agreeableness. Results show that corporate psychopathy was the strongest predictor of General Workplace Harassment even when controlling for the HEXACO model of personality. These results further demonstrate the construct validity of the B-Scan 360 and underscore the destructive impact of corporate psychopathy on organizations.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.225
Cognitive-Adaptive Perspectives on Personality G. Matthews The cognitive-adaptive theory of personality (Matthews, 2008) accepts the stability of individual differences in informationprocessing, but also addresses several issues that challenge traditional conceptions. First, personality trait measures capture processes at a variety of levels of abstraction from the neural substrate. Second, performance may be sensitive to emotion and stress processes that are dynamically sensitive to situational influences. Third, performance often depends on acquired skills and contextual
Abstracts
knowledge. The unifying principle that gives coherence to the various facets of personality is adaptation (though not necessarily Darwinian). Real-world expression of traits depends on dynamic interplay between contextualized skills, self-regulation and behaviors (the ‘adaptive triangle’). Individual differences in basic neural and processing functions typically influence trait expression directly rather than indirectly, through biasing acquisition of performance and self-regulative skills. Thus, performance correlates of traits observed in laboratory studies may be a legacy of the developmental process as much as a direct driver of adaptive behavior.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.226
Individual differences in unmanned vehicle operation: performance, stress and trust G. Matthews, J. Lin, R. Wohleber, L. Reinerman-Jones Operators of unmanned vehicles (UxVs) face various challenges associated with stress, workload and use of automation. We highlight the role of individual differences in subjective states, using data from simulation studies of ground vehicles (UGVs: n=151) and aerial vehicles (UAVs: n=101). States were measured with the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire. In both studies, distress correlated with poorer performance on attentionally demanding task components, especially under high workload. High task engagement facilitates sustained attention, but here it tended to be less predictive than distress. Low engagement was associated with neglect of subtasks under high workload in the UAV study. Previous studies link distress to impaired working memory and executive processing. The cognitive control of multi-tasking required for UxV operation may be disrupted by high distress. Automation may mitigate cognitive overload in UxV operation. In the UAV study, we investigated participants’ reliance on automation in performing surveillance tasks. Under high workload, we found that, although vulnerable to overload, distressed participants were less reliant on automation, i.e., their trust was miscalibrated to task demands. Personality factors including conscientiousness also predicted trust. Findings indicate the importance of management of multiple stress dimensions in UxV operations.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.227
The Genetics of Oxytocin and Social Cognition M. Melchers Social cognition is an important prerequisite for successful social interaction because it helps to gain information about behaviors, thoughts and feelings of interaction partners. Previous pharmacological studies have emphasized the relevance of the oxytocin system for social cognition and resulting social abilities, while knowledge on genetic contributions is still scarce. In this talk, three independent associations between endophenotypes for aspects of social cognition (emotion recognition, recognition of kinship relations, perception and storage of environmental details) and the rs2268498 polymorphism on the OXTR-gene are reported. The rs2268498 has repeatedly been linked to processes relevant to social functioning, and there is first evidence for a potential functionality of this polymorphism. Three independent samples were experimentally tested and genotyped for the rs2268498 polymorphism. T-allele carriers (TT and TC genotypes) exhibited significantly better performance in the emotion
499
recognition task, recognized more kinship relations correctly and could remember more situational details than carriers of the CCgenotype. As in previous studies, T-allele carriers exhibited better performance in measures of social processing indicating that the rs2268498 polymorphism is an important candidate for understanding the genetic basis of social functioning.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.228
The Association between Problematic Internet Use and Empathy in China and Germany M. Melchers, M. Li, Y. Chen, W. Zhang, C. Montag The spread of the Internet has changed social interactions and ways of working all over the world. Although the Internet simplified many areas of life, there are also downsides. A growing problem is problematic Internet use and the resultant risk for Internet addiction. Prevention or treatment of Internet addiction requires knowledge of potential etiological factors. One important aspect here is social functioning and empathy, as previous results indicate a possible relation between problematic Internet use and social skills. In the present study, N = 438 Chinese students and N = 202 German students answered questionnaires on Internet consume and questionnaires measuring empathy dimensions. Results indicate a higher proportion of participants with problems due to Internet consume in the Chinese compared to the German sample. Furthermore, we found negative associations between empathy and Internet addiction in both samples, especially with respect to the affective component of empathy. While the question of causality must be answered in future research, these findings might be important to understand why some users spend more time on the Internet than others.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.229
Who’s active on Whatsapp? Evidence from Psychoinformatics C. Montag, K. Błaszkiewicz, R. Sariyska, B. Lachmann, I. Andone, B. Trendafilov, M. Eibes, A. Markowetz Psychoinformatics refers to the collaboration of computer science and psychology to get insights into psychological variables by recording human-machine-interaction. A good starting point for this research endeavor is the study of smartphone behavior, because these small devices represent an important companion in our increasing digital life. In the talk data from N = 2418 smartphone users will be presented, whose devices have been tracked for the duration of four weeks. All participants also filled in information on sociodemographic variables and personality via the interface of the custom develop application called ‘Menthal’. In particular Whatsapp turned out to be one of the most important apps on smartphones. Age, gender and in particular Conscientiousness (negative) / Extraversion (positive) were robustly associated with Whatsapp usage. As daily smartphone/Whatsapp usage revealed alarming numbers (e. g. a mean of 161.95 minutes (SD = 83.36) of daily smartphone usage), an outlook on possible interventions will be given.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.230