Norman Livson

Cigarette Smoking Motives: Factorial Structure and Gender Differences in a Longitudinal Study

Research investigating the factorial structure of cigarette smoking motives (based on the Horn-Waingrow Smoking Survey) suggests considerable similarity in factor structure across different samples as well as stability of structure in repeated assessments. This study evaluates the replicability of six commonly found Horn-Waingrow factors in a sample of 109 men and women from three longitudinal studies and also reports on gender and other psychosocial differences. Principal component analyses exactly replicated previously reported factors, separately for each gender. Significant gender differences in level are shown for two smoking motives (Reduction of Negative Affect and Pleasure): Women more than men report that they smoke for these reasons. Also, there are significant differences in motives between current and former smokers and between smokers with and without smoking spouses.

Longitudinal Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analyses of California Psychological Inventory Data From Age 33 to 75: An Examination of Stability and Change in Adult Personality

Twenty aspects of personality assessed via the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough & Bradley, 1996) from age 33 to 75 were examined in a sample of 279 individuals. Oakland Growth Study and Berkeley Guidance Study members completed the CPI a maximum of 4 times. We used longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to ask the following: Which personality characteristics change and which do not? Five CPI scales showed uniform lack of change, 2 showed heterogeneous change giving an averaged lack of change, 4 showed linear increases with age, 2 showed linear decreases with age, 4 showed gender or sample differences in linear change, 1 showed a quadratic peak, and 2 showed a quadratic nadir. The utility of HLM becomes apparent in portraying the complexity of personality change and stability.

Pooled Estimates of Parent-Child Correlations in Stature from Birth to Maturity

Correlations between the heights of children throughout their development and their parentss mature heights differ widely in different growth studies. The range of values, however, is shown to be within the limits of sampling error, making it possible to estimate correlations for each age from birth to maturity. Mother-child correlations are generally higher than father-child correlations, and for both comparisons the correlation increases when the child reaches early adolescence. There is no relation between the heights of the parents and the timing of the childs growth spurt, but there probably is a relation between the heights of the parents and the amount the child grows during early adolescence.

Developmental Dimensions of Personality: A Life-Span Formulation

ABSTRACT The notion of developmental dimensions of personality is presented in the context of assumptions and methodologies that appear to follow directly from, and are therefore necessary to a life-span formulation of the proper tasks of a developmental-psychological conceptualization of personality. Certain assumptions are made regarding the nature of personality, its method and level of measurement, and the role of typologies within such a conceptualization. Genotypic continuity—predictability between developmental periods irrespective of the stability of the “same” personality characteristics over time—is regarded as axiomatic for this approach, and the canonical correlation technique is recommended for maximizing continuity, thus defined. Developmental dimensions, obtained in this manner, are regarded as facilitating links with current “dynamic” theories of personality development .

Adolescent personality antecedents of completed family size: A longitudinal study.

Comprehensive personality assessments, made independently for early and late adolescence, were employed to predict the subsequent family sizes of 52 women and 54 men with single continuous marriages throughout their parenting careers. (These participants have been studied longitudinally over a 40-year span in either the Oakland Growth Study or the Berkeley Guidance Study.) Final family size relates negligibly to earlier personality for men, but is substantially predictable highly significantpositive correlations demonstrated withintellectual competence of girls at both adolescent age levels and independently within the two cohorts studied. Alternative hypotheses to account for this unexpected result are presented, and further research is proposed to determine whether the relationship is cohort-specific (to women born in the 1920s) or, instead, likely to hold for current and future generations of women.

Adolescent personality antecedents of adult cigarette smoking: a longitudinal study

Comprehensive personality assessments, made independently for early and late adolescence, were employed to predict smoking onset and maximum number of cigarettes smoked per day as reported by adult smokers. Also, comparisons were made between adult smokers and nonsmokers. The results indicate that men who had been more sexually active as adolescents smoked more but that women who had been more emotionally constricted and under more conflict as adolescents were heavier smokers. Smoking started earlier for men who had showed little self-awareness and a rather macho orientation during their adolescence; early-smoking women tended to have been conventionally feminine. Personality differences between future smokers and nonsmokers were few but showed similar sex differences. The results suggest that manifesting once traditional sex-role characteristics for both adolescent boys and girls presages early onset and heavier adult cigarette smoking. Preventive antismoking educational campaigns aimed at youth might be guided by these findings because they suggest some motivational bases that may find later expression in smoking practices.

Variability in male stature as function of adolescent maturation rate.

Boys who mature very early and, to a lesser degree, those who mature later than average show less variation in stature than boys who are somewhat early in adolescent development. These variability differences are paralleled in the heights of the mothers and fathers except in the case of boys who mature very early; there is far less variability in height among these boys than among their parents.