Julie A. Pozzebon

Personality and Values as Predictors of Self- and Peer-Reported Behavior

We examined the validity of self-reported personality traits and values in predicting self- and peer reports of behavior. Self- and peer reports were obtained from 252 undergraduate students on the HEXACO Personality Inventory, the Schwartz Value Survey, and scales assessing value-expressive behaviors. Self-reports of personality and of values correlated moderately with self-reports of value-expressive behaviors. Correlations with peer reports of these behaviors were almost as large, thus, indicating that the validity of the personality and values variables did generalize across criterion rating sources. Both personality traits and values provided incre- mental validity beyond the other domain in predicting the behavior criteria, with the personality variables yielding slightly higher validity, on average.

Is low anxiety part of the psychopathy construct

Low anxiety has traditionally been considered a feature of psychopathy, but there has been mixed research support for this conceptualization. We investigated the PPI-R-SF Stress Immunity subscale (a measure of low anxiety) in relation to 2 widely used self-report psychopathy scales in a sample of 346 undergraduate students. Results indicated that PPI-R-SF Stress Immunity was nearly unrelated to other indicators of psychopathy, showing a near-zero loading on the common psychopathy factor defined jointly by the scales of the PPI-R-SF and SRP-III. Stress Immunity also showed a pattern of personality and temperament correlates much different from those of other psychopathy subscales. Finally, Stress Immunity had a slight negative correlation with self-reports of diverse antisocial acts. These results suggest that despite its historical importance in the conceptualization of psychopathy, low anxiety is likely not a core feature of psychopathy.

Major Changes Personality, Ability, and Congruence in the Prediction of Academic Outcomes

In a sample of 346 college students, we compared students of different academic major areas in their personality characteristics, mental abilities, and vocational interests, and we examined the congruence between vocational interests and academic major as a predictor of academic outcomes (grade point average, satisfaction, and change of major). Results were mainly consistent with predicted differences between the four academic major groups (arts/humanities, business, science, and helping/child related), and several of the observed differences were moderately large. However, congruence between interests and major was unrelated to academic outcomes.

Psychometric Characteristics of a Public-Domain Self-Report Measure of Vocational Interests: The Oregon Vocational Interest Scales

We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales—Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition—showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

Psychopathic Sexuality: The Thin Line Between Fantasy and Reality

In two studies, we explored the relations between psychopathic traits and sexual fantasy content. In Study 1, we rated content themes in the fantasy narratives of 195 men and women recruited at a Canadian university. In Study 2, we administered a sexual fantasy questionnaire to a sample of 355 Canadian undergraduate students. In Study 1, we found that psychopathic traits predicted themes of anonymous, uncommitted, and nonromantic sexual activity after controlling for participant sex. In Study 2, we found that psychopathy added to the prediction of self-reported engagement in unrestricted, dominant, submissive, deviant, and adventurous sexual activity, even after controlling for participant sex and level of fantasizing about that activity. Furthermore, an interaction between psychopathy and level of fantasizing was observed for unrestricted and deviant sexual behavior, such that participants who reported high levels of fantasizing about these sexual themes were more likely to engage in that behavior if they also reported high levels of psychopathic traits. These findings suggest that psychopathy is related not only to interest in particular sexual behaviors, but also to whether individuals will translate these fantasized behaviors into reality.

Gender Differences in Object of Desire Self-Consciousness Sexual Fantasies

In a recent review article, Bogaert and Brotto (2014) discussed “object of desire self-consciousness,” a perception that one is romantically and sexually desirable in another’s eyes. They argued that this perception is more relevant to women’s sociosexual functioning than it is to men’s. In the present study, we attempted to find direct evidence that object of desire themes are linked more to women’s sexual desire and arousal than they are to men’s by examining the differences in content between men’s and women’s sexual fantasies. A total of 198 men and women reported on arousing themes in sexual fantasies using three methodologies: endorsement of items on a sexual fantasy questionnaire, sentence completion of sexually-charged scenarios, and open-ended sexual fantasies. The men and women also rated their attractiveness and were rated for attractiveness by two female experimenters. On all three fantasy composites, women endorsed more object of desire themes than did men, and these effects occurred independent of the subjective and observer-rated attractiveness measures. The results were discussed in relation to theorizing that object of desire self-consciousness can function as part of many women’s self-schemata or scripts related to romance and sexuality.