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- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(author)
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A Quantification of Agentic and Communal Values in Adolescents’ Life Narratives
- 2014
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In: 167th American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, New York, New York, USA..
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background Life stories emphasize the narrative and self-organizing aspects of human behaviors and complement personality traits in explaining human identity. In contrast to most research on narratives in which the analysis is restricted to the researcher’s subjective evaluations and interpretations, we used computational methods to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and narratives events. Meta-cognitive strategies and principles that guide agentic (self-directedness; e.g., being autonomous, responsible and having self-control), communal (cooperativeness; e.g., showing empathy, helping behavior, and social tolerance), and transcendental (self-transcendence; e.g., the sense of being part of the whole universe) behavior were of special interest. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives. Method Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last three months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened? How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using semantic spaces, a computational method in which the Latent Semantic Analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives. This representation was used to study whether it predicted the personality measures. Results Only Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were predicted by the semantic representation of the narratives. High levels of Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were associated with plural pronouns (e.g., us), whereas low levels were associated with singular pronouns (e.g., one-self, mine). Conclusions Agentic and communal values are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences.
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| 2. |
- Garcia, Danilo, 1973, et al.
(author)
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Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events
- 2015
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In: Psychology of Well-Being. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2211-1522. ; 5:8, s. 1-20
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: We used a computational method to quantitatively investigate the relationship between personality and written narratives of life events. Agentic (i.e., self- directedness), communal (i.e., cooperativeness), and spiritual (self-transcendence) traits were of special interest because they represent individual differences in intentional val- ues and goals, in contrast to temperament traits, which describe individual differences in automatic responses to emotional stimuli. We also investigated which pronouns were most common in relation to personality constructs that were significantly related to the narratives. Methods: Personality was assessed among 79 adolescents at one point in time using the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO-PI-R) and the temperament and char- acter inventory (TCI). Six months later, adolescents were asked to write down the most positive or the most negative event that had happened to them in the last 3 months. Adolescents were explicitly instructed to answer the following questions within their narratives: What happened? Who were involved? Why do you think it happened? How did you feel when it happened? How do you think the involved persons felt? The descriptions were quantified using a computational method in which the latent semantic analysis algorithm generates a semantic representation of the narratives. Results: Only self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence were related to the semantic representation of the narratives. Moreover, cooperativeness and self- transcendence were associated with less frequent usage of singular pronouns (e.g., me respectively mine). Conclusions: Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are involved when adolescents describe positive and negative life experiences. Moreover, high levels of communal and spiritual traits are related to less self-focused narratives.
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| 3. |
- Mousavi, Fariba, et al.
(author)
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Agency, Communion, and Intelligence among Twins
- 2014
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In: 26th Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. San Francisco, California, USA.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Background: Recent research suggests that agentic (e.g., self-acceptance, self-control, goal-directed behavior) and communal (e.g., social affiliation, social tolerance, empathy and helpfulness) meta-cognitive strategies and principles are connected to higher levels of well-being and lower levels of dysfunction and suffering among adolescents. Using Cloninger’s model of personality, comprising 4 temperament (Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence, and Persistence) and 3 character (Self-directedness (i.e., agency), Cooperativeness (i.e., communion) and Self-transcendence) dimensions, it has been suggested that interventions targeting Self-directedness and Cooperativeness can lead to alleviation of destructive behaviour patterns, mental disorders and increased positive emotions, life satisfaction, sense of meaning, and well-being as a whole. Moreover, in contrast to the temperament dimensions, shared environmental effects influence Self-directedness and Cooperativeness during adolescence; this may not be the case earlier in childhood or later in adulthood. Hence, as environmental influences shift from adolescence to adulthood, interventions during this period in the life span might be successful. Nevertheless, using other models of personality, personality traits associated to agency have been linked to intelligence and academic performance. If so, interventions aimed to increase agency and communion might be constrained by fluid intelligence. The present study uses twin data from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) to test the relationship between personality and cognitive ability. Method: Data was from a normal population sample of 370 15-year-old twins from the CATSS (159 girls and 211 boys), enriched for various types of mental health problems. Personality was measured using the Temperament and Character Inventory and intelligence with the fourth version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC-IV). Correlation analyses were conducted using random-selected twins from each dyad and separately for monozygotic and dizygotic twins, as well as for girls and boys. Results: There were no significant correlations between character and WISC-IV scales. The only significant, if weak, correlations between intelligence and personality dimensions were those between the temperament dimension of Persistence and different WISC-IV scales: Verbal Comprehension (r = .29, p < .01), Perceptual Reasoning (r = .22, p < .01), Working Memory (r = .20, p < .01), and the Full WISC-IV scale (r = .26, p < .01). This relationship could also be discerned between Persistence and the WISC-IV sub-scales: Vocabulary (r = .27, p < .01), Similarities (r = .24, p < .01), Comprehension (r = .22, p < .01), Matrix Reasoning (r = .23, p < .01), Digit Span (r = .16, p < .05) and Letter-Number Sequencing (r = .18, p < .05). The strength of these correlations was not significantly different between monozygotic and dizygotic twins (zobs between -0.19 and 0.13) or between girls and boys (zobs between -0.77 and 0.03). Conclusions: Persistence, a temperament dimension that measures heritable individual differences in eagerness of effort, ambition, perfectionism, and resistance to discouragement despite frustration and fatigue, is weakly linked to measures of cognitive abilities. This link does not seem to be moderated by zygocity or gender. More importantly, no relevant relationships were found for agency nor communion (i.e., Self-directedness or Cooperativeness) and cognitive ability. Hence, interventions aimed at improving Self-directedness and Cooperativeness should not be limited by variations in intelligence.
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| 4. |
- Mousavi, Fariba, et al.
(author)
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Personality and intelligence: persistence, not self-directedness, cooperativeness or self-transcendence, is related to twins’ cognitive abilities
- 2015
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In: PeerJ. - : PeerJ. - 2167-8359. ; 3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background. A person-centered approach focusing on the interaction of an individual’s temperament-character-life events is essential in the path of individuals’ well-being. In this context, three character traits, Self-directedness (e.g., self-acceptance, self-control, goal-directed behavior), Cooperativeness (e.g., social affiliation, social tolerance, empathy and helpfulness) and Self-transcendence (e.g., spiritual acceptance, transpersonal identification), measured using Cloninger’s model of personality are suggested to help the individual to regulate and resolve the conflicts derived from her/his temperament combinations as a reaction to life events. However, if character is related to the individual’s cognitive ability, then this association might limit any intervention that focuses on character development. We used data from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) to investigate the relationship between personality and cognitive ability. Method. The sample consisted of 370 15-year-old twins (159 girls/211 boys), 192 of whom screen-positive with various types of mental health problems. We used the Temperament and Character Inventory to measure personality and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC-IV) to measure intelligence. The relationship was investigated using correlation analyses using random-selected twins from each dyad and separately for monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Additional analyses investigated the genetic and environmental effects on personality and cognitive ability in this specific sample. Results. There were no significant correlations between the WISC-IV indices and any of the character traits (i.e., Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence). Persistence was significantly related, if weak, to four WISC-IV indices: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and the Full WISC-IV Scale. Post-hoc cross-twin/cross-trait analyses showed that the Persistence-cognitive ability correlation might depend on common genetic effects. The WISC-IV indices showed a relatively large genetic influence, while earlier findings about the etiology of temperament and character traits using the whole CATSS sample were replicated in this sub-sample of twins. Conclusions. The results indicate that what individuals make of themselves intentionally (i.e., their character) was not associated to intelligence. Persistence, a temperament dimension that measures heritable individual differences in eagerness of effort, ambition, perfectionism, and resistance to discouragement despite frustration and fatigue, was weakly linked to intelligence. Suggesting that, at least during adolescence, interventions targeting character development are not limited by the individual’s intelligence.
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