Bruce Kirkcaldy

Job satisfaction amongst psychosocial workers

Abstract The job satisfaction profile of persons working within the counselling and helping professions (educators, remedial pedagogens, and pedagogens in a disabled workshop setting) was compared to the population norm scores. There was evidence of a general ‘burned-out’ profile: psychosocial workers exhibited greater general job pressure and dissatisfaction, complained more about their relationship to coworkers, and felt unable to pursue their recreational and recovery needs. Furthermore, this characteristic profile is not affected by work context (child-care institutes, remedial centres or disabled workshops), age or gender (females were somewhat less career-motivated compared to males). Neuroticism was positively correlated with job pressure and dissatisfaction. Extraverts were inclined to be more dissatisfied with their work and yielded higher career motivation scores compared to introverts. There was some indication that the combinative effects of trait Psychoticism and Neuroticism may relate to a composite ‘fusing’ general job dissatisfaction, and job pressure.

Performance and carcadian rhythms

SummaryPhysiological studies frequently neglect effects due to individual differences, thus inflating the error variance term. Psychological determinants of endogenous arousal are examined in association with somatic functioning and circadian rhythms. Frontalis EMG and heart rate did not appear to display clear phasic circadian rhythms. The subjective perception of activation displayed a cubic trend, independent of sex, exhibiting two peaks, at 08.00–11.00 and 17.00–20.00. Peak performance on a choice reaction time task depended very much on whether it was executed in a free response or experimenter determined tempo condition, indicating the importance of stipulating the task demand characteristics. There was a certain stability in extraverts (cortically less aroused) across periods throughout the day with respect to physiological measures; the same was not true for introverts, who exhibited a complex interaction with time of day — stable introverts possessing higher cardiac rates than unstables in the earlier part of the day, the position reversing itself in the late evening. Personality variables can exercise moderating influences on physiological activity associated with performance.

Psychological Characteristics of Breast Cancer Patients

Two breast cancer groups (mastectomised or chemotherapeutic intervention) and a control group of healthy female nurses were given a demographic questionnaire and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The personality profiles of all three groups emerged as significantly different from each other on all scales with the exception of social introversion and psychopathic deviance. Both cancer groups displayed inflated scores on the clinical scale Depression. A separate series of univariate F tests revealed that the mastectomised patients were characterised by elevated scores on the clinical scales Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Masculinity-Femininity and Schizophrenia compared to normals. The discriminant analysis confirmed that between the clinical groups the mastectomised patients exhibited higher scores (compared to those receiving chemotherapy) along the scales Hypochondriasis, Paranoia, Psychaesthenia, Schizophrenia and Hypomania, the latter 4 scales constituting the psychotic tetrad.

Sex and personality differences in occupational interests

Abstract Females differed significantly compared to males along several interest dimensions—they displayed less interest in technical trades and technical-scientific occupations, and were more inclined to select design-oriented and social-educational occupations. High trait neurotics were inclined to choose social-educational interests—as did extraverts. Extraversion was negatively correlated with the higher order ‘task-related’ interest factor, and positively correlated with ‘person- and nature-related’ interests (factor III). Psychoticism was negatively correlated with interest in commercial and administrative jobs (both loaded on the ‘task related’ factor). Ss characterized as dissimulants (L+) showed a greater affinity towards nutritional trades and administrative organisations.

The interrelationship between state and trait variables.

Abstract Sexes could be discriminated in terms of their personality profiles—females being less toughminded than males and tending to be more emotional. None of the state factors were shown to be different between sexes. Factorial analysis revealed that the 15 state scales were intimately interrelated: the first two factors extracted resembled fairly closely, E and N. Canonical analysis showed that personality traits are good predictors of emotional state. Discrimination analysis demonstrated that stables and unstables were clearly distinguishable in terms of state profile (exhibiting 12 significant differences along the 15 state scales).

Individual differences in tonic activity and reactivity of somatic functioning

Abstract Extraversion was negatively correlated with resting HR. On execution of a visual choice RT task, both as a free-response-speed and experimenter-paced (high-signal-frequency) task, the differences observed between introverts and extraverts in tonic HR disappeared. Neurotics displayed resting frontalis EMG values which were not different from those observed for stables; differences did emerge, however, during choice RT tasks (under both conditions), neurotics displaying significantly higher tensional values compared to stables. Females characterized by high HRs at rest were likely to score low on the Social Desirability scale, the direction being opposite to that observed in males.

Personality profiles of adolescent hypertensives

In a large-scale epidemiological investigation involving over 8000 adolescents, a sample of 96 newly diagnosed (non-hospitalised) hypertonics were compared to a healthy group of schoolmates matched in terms of age, sex, and educational attainment. Both groups were administered the Freiburg Personality Questionnaire; a strategy of correlational, factorial, and discriminant analyses was implemented in order to identify trait differences between non-medicated hypertensives and controls. Univariate primary scale comparisons between groups revealed that male hypertensives exhibited significantly diminished scores on the primaries, aggressivity, and dominance, coupled with less openness to expression (dimensions which were positively loaded on a higher order factor associated with positive affectivity or extraversion-introversion). Female hypertensives revealed identical between-group differences, but female hypertensives were additionally characterised by reduced scores on the trait depressiveness. Furthermore, female hypertensives were more introverted and less emotionally labile than their normative counterparts.

Differential psychomotor skills in a clinical group

Abstract Schoppes Motoric Performance Series (MLS) was administered to a group of psychiatric patients. Three factors emerged after principal component analysis with varimax rotation, the first two of which represented about 60% of the total variance and corresponded to a speed and precision factor. Zonal analysis revealed that MLS profiles of high and low trait neurotic patients were not significantly different from each other. Extraverts were inclined to exhibit inferior performance compared to introverts as witnessed by elevated scores on the subtests associated with lack of precision (steadiness and line-tracing error rates, steadiness error duration, as well as insertion of small pins). Introverted and extraverted neurotics did not differ significantly in MLS components. High and low P Ss displayed similar MLS profiles with the exception of the subtest, line-tracing (duration), in which high trait P individuals tended to perform faster. The dissimulating group (L +) required significantly longer to complete the two pin insertion tasks (both loaded on the speed factor) indicating inferior hand- and finger-dexterity, compared to low L-scoring patients. Several interactions, P × L, emerged as statistically significant. P − were less precise (steadiness error time), and required considerably less time to execute the line-tracing task, than P + Ss, for high L-scoring individuals only. P − L − individuals yielded the lowest tremor scores of all four groups.

Personality profiles of psychiatric groups

Abstract The German EPQ was administered to three groups: psychotics, endogenous depressives and normals. Both groups of psychiatric patients were characterized by lowered E and inflated L scores. The endogenous depressives were more neurotic than either psychotics or normals, and lower on L than psychotics.

The relationship between occupational interests and personality variables in a psychiatric group

Abstract An abnormal group of psychotics and undifferentiated psychiatric patients displayed a common preference towards vocations associated with nutrition, design and social education and were more inclined to avoid technical and scientific occupations. The more introverted individuals expressed more interest for agriculturally-orientated occupations than extraverts, the latter group characterized by significantly greater interest towards commercially-related vocations involving a high degree of social involvement. Neurotics preferred both nutritional and agricultural occupational areas compared to their more stable counterparts. Furthermore, such high trait N S s were less likely to select commercial trades. Persons with high scores on the P dimension were less inclined to choose administrative jobs than low P individuals. The more conformist P + individual (P + L +) exhibited a marked preference for creative, ‘gestalt’-oriented vocations. Low L scoring S s expressed significantly more interest towards nutritional trades, and were likely to avoid commercial occupations.