Personality, Ideology, Intelligence, and Self-Rated Strengths
Affiliation(s)
Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, UK.
Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK. Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, UK.
ABSTRACT
This study looked at the individual difference correlates of self-rated character strengths and virtues. In all, 280 adults completed a short 24-item measure of strengths, a short personality measure of the Big Five traits and a fluid intelligence test. The Cronbach alphas for the six higher order virtues were satisfactory but factor analysis did not confirm the a priori classification yielding five interpretable factors. These factors correlated significantly with personality and intelligence. Intelligence and neuroticism were correlated negatively with all the virtues, while extraversion and conscientiousness were positively correlated with all virtues. Structural equation modeling showed personality and religiousness moderated the effect of intelligence on the virtues. Extraversion and openness were the largest correlates of the virtues. The use of shortened measured in research is discussed.
Cite this paper
Furnham, A. & Ahmetoglu, G. (2014). Personality, Ideology, Intelligence, and Self-Rated Strengths. Psychology, 5, 908-917. doi: 10.4236/psych.2014.58102.
Furnham, A. & Ahmetoglu, G. (2014). Personality, Ideology, Intelligence, and Self-Rated Strengths. Psychology, 5, 908-917. doi: 10.4236/psych.2014.58102.
References
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03331551 [4] Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural Equations with Latent Variables. New York, NY: Wiley. [5] Brdar, I., & Kashdan, T. (2010). Character Strengths and Well-Being Croatia. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 151-154.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.12.001 [6] Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit. In K. A. Bollen, & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing Structural Equation Models (pp. 136-162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. [7] Cawley, M., Martin, J., & Johnson, J. (2000) A Virtues Approach to Personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 997-1013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00207-X [8] Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2008). The Numerical Reasoning Test 20-Items (NRT-20). Goldsmiths: University of London. [9] De Raad, B., & van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2011). A Psycholexical Study of Virtues in the Dutch Language, and Relations between Virtues and Personality. European Journal of Personality, 25, 43-52.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/per.777 [10] Duan, W., Ho, S., Yu, B., Tang, X., Zhang, Y., Li, T., & Yuen, T. (2012) Factor Structure of the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire. Research on Social Work Practice, 22, 680-688.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049731512450074 [11] Furnham, A. (2001). Self Estimates of Intelligence: Culture and Gender Differences in Self and Other Estimates of General and Multiple Intelligences. Personality and Individual Difference, 31, 1381-1405.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00232-4 [12] Furnham, A. (2008a). Personality and Intelligence at Work. London: Routledge.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203938911 [13] Furnham, A. (2008b). Relationship among Four Big Five Measures of Different Lengths. Psychological Reports, 102, 312-316.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.102.1.312-316 [14] Furnham, A., & Lester, D. (2012). The Development of a Short Measure of Character Strength. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28, 95-101.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000096 [15] Furnham, A., & McManus, I. C. (2004). Student Attitudes to University Education. Higher Education Review, 36, 29-38. [16] Furnham, A., Keser, A., Yilmaz, G., & Ahmetoglu, G. (2014). Gender and Culture Differences in Self-Rated Character Strengths and Virtues. Under Review. [17] Herzberg, P., & Brahler, E. (2006). Assessing the Big-Five Personality Domains via Short Forms. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 139-148.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.22.3.139 [18] Kanazawa, S. (2010). Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73, 33-57. [19] Kristjansson, K. (2010). Positive Psychology, Happiness and Virtue. Review of General Psychology, 14, 296-310.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020781 [20] Linley, P., Maltby, J., Wood, A., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. (2007). Character Strengths in the United Kingdom: The VIA Inventory of Strengths. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 341-351.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.12.004 [21] Lynn, R., & Kanazawa, S. (2008). How to Explain High Jewish Achievement: The Role of Intelligence and Values. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 801-808.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.019 [22] Macdonald, C., Bore, M., & Munro, D. (2008). Values in Action Scale and the Big 5. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 787-799.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.10.003 [23] McManus, I. C., & Furnham, A. (2006). Aesthetic Activities and Aesthetic Attitudes: Influences of Education, Background and Personality on Interest and Involvement in the Arts. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 555-587.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000712606X101088 [24] McManus, I. C., Smithers, E., Partridge, P., Keeling, A., & Fleming, P. (2003). A Levels and Intelligence as Predictors of Medical Careers in UK Doctors: 20 Year Prospective Study. BMC Medical Education, 5, 38-46. [25] Muck, P., Hell, B., & Gosling, S. (2007). Construct Validation of a Short Five-Factor Model Instrument. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23, 166-175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.23.3.166 [26] Mulaik, S. A., James, L. R., Van Alstine, J., Bennett, N., Lind, S., & Stilwell, C. D. (1989). Evaluation of Goodness-of-Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 430-445.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.3.430 [27] Neto, J., Neto, F., & Furnham, A. (2013). Gender and Psychological Correlates of Self-Rated Strengths among Youth. Social Indicators Research.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0417-5 [28] Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006a). Moral Competence and Character Strengths among Adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 891-909.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.04.011 [29] Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006b). Methodological Issues in Positive Psychology and the Assessment of Character Strengths. In A. Ong, & M. van Dulmen (Eds.), Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology (pp. 292-305). New York: Oxford University Press. [30] Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Strengths of Character and Well-Being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 603-619.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.5.603.50748 [31] Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2006). Character Strengths in Fifty-Four Nations and Fifty US States. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 118-129.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619567 [32] Pearl, J. (2000). Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [33] Peterson, C., & Park, N. (2006). Character Strengths in Organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 1149-1154.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.398 [34] Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook of Classification. Washington DC: APA Press. [35] Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. (2006). Greater Strengths of Character and Recovery from Illness. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 17-26.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760500372739 [36] Peterson, C., Park, N., Pole, N., D’Andrea, W., & Seligman, M. (2008). Strength of Character and Posttraumatic Growth. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21, 214-217.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.20332 [37] Shryack, J., Steger, M., Krueger, R., & Kallie, C. (2010). The Structure of Virtue. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 714-719.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.007 [38] Tanaka, J. S., & Huba, G. J. (1985). A Fit Index for Covariance Structure Models under Arbitrary GLS Estimation. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 38, 197-201.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1985.tb00834.x [39] Toner, E., Haslam, N., Robinson, J., & Williams, P. (2012). Character Strengths and Wellbeing in Adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 637-642.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.014 [40] Vincent, C., & Furnham, A. (1997). Complementary Medicine. Chichester: Wiley. [41] Wonderlic, E. (1992). Wonderlic Personnel Test. Libertyville: WPTT.
[1] Akaike, H. (1973). Information Theory and an Extension of the Maximum Likelihood Principle. In B. N. Petrov, & F. Csaki (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Information Theory (pp. 267-281). Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. [2] Arbuckle, J. L., & Wothke, W. (1999). AMOS 4.0 User’s Guide. Chicago, IL: Smallwaters Corp. [3] Baddeley, A. (1968). A 3 Min Reasoning Test Based on Grammatical Transformation. Psychonomic Science, 10, 341-342.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03331551 [4] Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural Equations with Latent Variables. New York, NY: Wiley. [5] Brdar, I., & Kashdan, T. (2010). Character Strengths and Well-Being Croatia. Journal of Research in Personality, 44, 151-154.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.12.001 [6] Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit. In K. A. Bollen, & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing Structural Equation Models (pp. 136-162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. [7] Cawley, M., Martin, J., & Johnson, J. (2000) A Virtues Approach to Personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 997-1013.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00207-X [8] Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2008). The Numerical Reasoning Test 20-Items (NRT-20). Goldsmiths: University of London. [9] De Raad, B., & van Oudenhoven, J. P. (2011). A Psycholexical Study of Virtues in the Dutch Language, and Relations between Virtues and Personality. European Journal of Personality, 25, 43-52.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/per.777 [10] Duan, W., Ho, S., Yu, B., Tang, X., Zhang, Y., Li, T., & Yuen, T. (2012) Factor Structure of the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire. Research on Social Work Practice, 22, 680-688.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049731512450074 [11] Furnham, A. (2001). Self Estimates of Intelligence: Culture and Gender Differences in Self and Other Estimates of General and Multiple Intelligences. Personality and Individual Difference, 31, 1381-1405.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00232-4 [12] Furnham, A. (2008a). Personality and Intelligence at Work. London: Routledge.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203938911 [13] Furnham, A. (2008b). Relationship among Four Big Five Measures of Different Lengths. Psychological Reports, 102, 312-316.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.102.1.312-316 [14] Furnham, A., & Lester, D. (2012). The Development of a Short Measure of Character Strength. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 28, 95-101.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000096 [15] Furnham, A., & McManus, I. C. (2004). Student Attitudes to University Education. Higher Education Review, 36, 29-38. [16] Furnham, A., Keser, A., Yilmaz, G., & Ahmetoglu, G. (2014). Gender and Culture Differences in Self-Rated Character Strengths and Virtues. Under Review. [17] Herzberg, P., & Brahler, E. (2006). Assessing the Big-Five Personality Domains via Short Forms. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 22, 139-148.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.22.3.139 [18] Kanazawa, S. (2010). Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent. Social Psychology Quarterly, 73, 33-57. [19] Kristjansson, K. (2010). Positive Psychology, Happiness and Virtue. Review of General Psychology, 14, 296-310.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020781 [20] Linley, P., Maltby, J., Wood, A., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. (2007). Character Strengths in the United Kingdom: The VIA Inventory of Strengths. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 341-351.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.12.004 [21] Lynn, R., & Kanazawa, S. (2008). How to Explain High Jewish Achievement: The Role of Intelligence and Values. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 801-808.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.019 [22] Macdonald, C., Bore, M., & Munro, D. (2008). Values in Action Scale and the Big 5. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 787-799.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2007.10.003 [23] McManus, I. C., & Furnham, A. (2006). Aesthetic Activities and Aesthetic Attitudes: Influences of Education, Background and Personality on Interest and Involvement in the Arts. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 555-587.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000712606X101088 [24] McManus, I. C., Smithers, E., Partridge, P., Keeling, A., & Fleming, P. (2003). A Levels and Intelligence as Predictors of Medical Careers in UK Doctors: 20 Year Prospective Study. BMC Medical Education, 5, 38-46. [25] Muck, P., Hell, B., & Gosling, S. (2007). Construct Validation of a Short Five-Factor Model Instrument. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23, 166-175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.23.3.166 [26] Mulaik, S. A., James, L. R., Van Alstine, J., Bennett, N., Lind, S., & Stilwell, C. D. (1989). Evaluation of Goodness-of-Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 430-445.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.3.430 [27] Neto, J., Neto, F., & Furnham, A. (2013). Gender and Psychological Correlates of Self-Rated Strengths among Youth. Social Indicators Research.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0417-5 [28] Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006a). Moral Competence and Character Strengths among Adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 891-909.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.04.011 [29] Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2006b). Methodological Issues in Positive Psychology and the Assessment of Character Strengths. In A. Ong, & M. van Dulmen (Eds.), Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology (pp. 292-305). New York: Oxford University Press. [30] Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Strengths of Character and Well-Being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 603-619.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.5.603.50748 [31] Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2006). Character Strengths in Fifty-Four Nations and Fifty US States. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 118-129.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619567 [32] Pearl, J. (2000). Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [33] Peterson, C., & Park, N. (2006). Character Strengths in Organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 1149-1154.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.398 [34] Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook of Classification. Washington DC: APA Press. [35] Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. (2006). Greater Strengths of Character and Recovery from Illness. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 17-26.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760500372739 [36] Peterson, C., Park, N., Pole, N., D’Andrea, W., & Seligman, M. (2008). Strength of Character and Posttraumatic Growth. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 21, 214-217.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.20332 [37] Shryack, J., Steger, M., Krueger, R., & Kallie, C. (2010). The Structure of Virtue. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 714-719.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.007 [38] Tanaka, J. S., & Huba, G. J. (1985). A Fit Index for Covariance Structure Models under Arbitrary GLS Estimation. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 38, 197-201.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1985.tb00834.x [39] Toner, E., Haslam, N., Robinson, J., & Williams, P. (2012). Character Strengths and Wellbeing in Adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 637-642.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.014 [40] Vincent, C., & Furnham, A. (1997). Complementary Medicine. Chichester: Wiley. [41] Wonderlic, E. (1992). Wonderlic Personnel Test. Libertyville: WPTT.