1- Introduction

2- Method

3- Results

4- Discussion

References

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in personality traits among violent, theft, and illegal drug use criminals, comparing them with normal adults. Inmates (N = 645) and normal adults (N = 4546) in Japan responded to a questionnaire, including the Big Five personality traits. Results indicated that violent criminals tended to show lower Agreeableness and higher Extraversion than other criminals. Theft criminals tended to display low Conscientiousness. Illegal drug use criminals showed higher Extraversion and Openness. Inmates tended to show higher Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, and Conscientiousness than normal adults. Characteristics of personality traits of criminals were discussed.

Introduction

There is a certain number of criminals who are imprisoned again after completing their jail terms and getting out of prison. For example, in the United States, a study of offenders, who were released from prison after serving a sentence of imprisonment in 2005, reported that 49.3% of offenders were rearrested within 8 years (Hunt & Dumville, 2016). In Japan, among those who were released from prison in 2006, the ratio who became inmates again, within 10 years, was 47.6% (Research and Training Institute, Ministry of Justice, Japan, 2016). Taking the above fact into consideration, how The Ministry of Justice, Japan, will prevent the repetition of crimes is a major challenge for the construction of a society where people can live safely in peace. There are various factors involved in committing a crime; however, to prevent re-offending, it is necessary to take an effective approach to each individual’s problem, as well as to give guidance and support to overcome their problems. Therefore, Japanese prisons are seeking to enhance effective treatment based on research, according to individual offender’s characteristics. This study examines personality characteristics of criminals for each type of offense, comparing their personality traits with normal adults. Personality traits play an important role to understand the addictive nature and genetic factors of criminals because of their stability across the lifespan and relationships with genes and the central nervous system (Miller, Lynam, & Leukefeld, 2003). Many psychologists now agree that the Big Five personality traits (Goldberg, 1990; McCrae & John, 1992) constitute an important overall personality structure of an individual’s personality. The Big Five personality traits represent Openness (e.g., intellectual curiosity and creativity), Conscientiousness (e.g., orderliness and persistence), Extraversion (e.g., sociality and positive affect), Agreeableness (e.g., cooperation and trust), and Neuroticism (e.g., anxiety, depression, and emotional instability), and their scores are relatively stable across the life span (Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000). The five-dimension structure is found across different cultures (e.g., McCrae, Terracciano, & 78 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005) and a behavioral genetic study also supports them (Yamagata et al., 2006). The Big Five personality traits link to antisocial behaviors. Largescale longitudinal studies in Estonia (Mõttus, Guljajev, Allik, Laidra, & Pullmann, 2012) and in the United Kingdom (O’Riordan & O’Connell, 2014) showed that oncoming antisocial behaviors are significantly affected by low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and high Neuroticism. Meta-analytic research, aggregating 15 studies (Miller & Lynam, 2001) and 30 studies (Jones, Miller, & Lynam, 2011), also concluded that low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and high Neuroticism predicts antisocial behaviors.

1- Introduction

2- Methods

3- Results

4- Discussion

5- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Time spent watching television during childhood and adolescence has been linked to socio-emotional and physical health problems in adulthood. It is unclear whether excessive television viewing is a risk factor for internalising mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. Longitudinal associations between television viewing in childhood and adult diagnoses of anxiety and depression were investigated in a population-based birth cohort from Dunedin, New Zealand. Mean weekday television viewing time was reported by parents and adolescents between ages 5 and 15 years (1977–1987). Diagnoses of any anxiety disorder and major depression were made using standard criteria from symptoms reported for the previous year at ages 18, 21, 26, 32, and 38 years (between 1990 and 2012). Analyses adjusted for sex, parent and teacher reports of worry/fearfulness at age 5, and socioeconomic status during childhood. Diagnoses were counted if present at any of these assessments. Approximately half of all participants met criteria for anxiety disorder or depression during at least one adult assessment. Participants who had watched more television during childhood and adolescence were more likely to have a diagnosis of anxiety in sex-adjusted analyses (OR [95% CI] 1.22 [1.05, 1.41], p = 0.01), although this association weakened after adjustment for early childhood worry/fearfulness and socioeconomic status. There was no association between television viewing and depression in sex- or fully-adjusted analyses. Excessive television viewing during childhood and adolescence may be a risk factor for developing an anxiety disorder in adulthood, but does not appear to influence the long-term risk for major depression.

Introduction

Television and other screen-based media play a major role in modern life, affecting social interactions, family routines, and leisure activities, all of which impact upon child development. Watching television is a particularly common and enduring experience in childhood: American children spend more hours interacting with screen based media than any other waking activity (Rideout, 2015). Excessive childhood television viewing time has been linked to several long-term social, physical and mental health problems in adulthood including unemployment, obesity, poor fitness, raised blood cholesterol, smoking, sleep problems, attention difficulties, and externalising problems such as antisocial behaviour (Owens et al., 1999; Hancox et al., 2005; Landhuis et al., 2007; Johnson et al., 2002; Robertson et al., 2013). However, there has been little research into the long-term effects of television viewing in childhood and internalising mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Several cross-sectional studies of children and adolescents have reported an increased risk of depression (Bickham et al., 2015; Primack et al., 2009) anxiety (Maras et al., 2015) and psychological distress among those with greater total screen time, television viewing, and lower physical activity levels (Hamer et al., 2009; Cao et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2016a), although some studies have found no association (Casiano et al., 2012). In adults, a longitudinal study of university graduates found that time spent watching television or using computers was associated with an increased risk of internalising mental health disorders up to 6 years later (Sanchez-Villegas et al., 2008). Although many children now have access to a wide variety of other media beyond television, television is still the most accessible screenbased medium and television viewing times remain high (Rideout, 2015; AAP Council on Communications and Media, 2016; Reid Chassiakos et al., 2016), with many new media platforms being used to watch television programs. Hence the influence of excessive television viewing on long-term risk for health remains highly relevant and is also a worthwhile target for interventions aimed at decreasing screen time. We investigated the long-term associations between childhood and adolescent television viewing and adult internalising disorders in a population-based birth cohort study followed to age 38.

1. Introduction

2. Conceptual Framework

3. Methodology

4. Findings

5. Conclusion

References

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between five-factor personality traits and job satisfaction among workers of five star hotels within Alanya district of Antalya province. In line with this purpose, the study was conducted with workers from all departments of the hotels included in the study sample. During the study, a total of 471 workers from 12 five star hotels in Alanya districtof Antalya province were contacted. Based on the correlation analysis results, a statistically significant relationship was identified between intrinsic satisfaction and the openness and conscientiousness dimensions. On the other hand, no statistically significant relationship was observed between extrinsic satisfaction and the five-factor personality traits. Furthermore, a statistically significant relationship was also observed between general job satisfaction and the openness and conscientiousness dimensions. Based on the regression analysis, it was determined that the extraversion dimension had a more significant effect than the openness dimension. The extraversion dimension had a negative effect on extrinsic job satisfaction, while the openness dimension had a positive effect. The extraversion and openness dimensions had a weak but statistically significant effect on general job satisfaction. The extraversion dimension had a negative effect on general job satisfaction, while the openness dimension had a positive effect.

Introduction

As is known, job or occupation constitutes a very important part of human life. Along with “economical” function of the job which meets important physical needs of human life, it also contributes to psychological and social functions of the individual to a high degree (Tan, 1992, p. 87). In order to create a harmony between the worker and his/her job, individual’s abilities and personality must correspond to his/her job. Organizations are able to bring the people with right qualifications to the proper position only after long and expensive trainings. If the abilities and personality of the individual does not correspond to the job, it may become totally impossible to make the individual right for his/her position. Thus, many organizations today recruit people through meticulous processes. Many organizations benefit from personality tests which were developed specifically for this purpose in recruitment and promotion processes. The purpose of these tests is measuring individual’s abilities and knowledge along with determining whether his/her personality matches the personality traits required for the position (Kinik, 2007, p. 1).

Growing income inequality over the last three decades (Duncan & Murnane, 2011) along with stagnation in wages and employment opportunities have increased the likelihood that children born into poverty will experience persistent exposure over the life course (Chetty, Hendren, Kline, Saez, & Turner, 2014). There is evidence that income volatility has also increased, particularly among lower-income families least able to absorb downward income shocks (Hardy & Ziliak, 2014). Finally, poverty is seldom a unique feature of families; it is often associated with other disadvantages such as low parental education and single parenthood which may serve to compound the adverse effects of poverty on children’s mental health (Evans, Li, & Whipple, 2013). Internalizing behaviors such as emotional problems and externalizing behaviors such as conduct problems are among the most common health concerns experienced by children and youth worldwide (Gore et al., 2011). The environment of poverty exposes children to various adversities that contribute to their externalizing and internalizing behaviors (Evans et al., 2013). Yet, more research is needed to better understand the extent to which stable and changing patterns of poverty exposure from birth elevate children’s risk for externalizing and internalizing behaviors over the early life course, whether other disadvantages such as low maternal education and single parenthood exacerbate the risk associated with specific patterns of poverty exposure, and whether this risk is stronger for externalizing or internalizing behaviors. We classify children from birth to age 14 into five patterns of poverty exposure: always or never poor – stable patterns; a single transition into or out of poverty, or fluctuations in and out of poverty – changing patterns. We then model children’s mental health trajectories as a function of their poverty classifications and two important covariates: low maternal education and single parenthood. The three primary objectives of this study are to: (1) compare the mental health trajectories of children exposed to five patterns of poverty; (2) determine if associations between child mental health trajectories and patterns of poverty exposure vary as a function of low maternal education or single parenthood (statistical interactions); and (3) assess the extent to which the associations between child mental health trajectories and poverty exposures, low maternal education and single parenthood differ for two types of mental health outcomes: externalizing and internalizing behaviors.