Five Factor personality models have been widely used in industrial and organizational psychology and business to predict job satisfaction and performance. For example, low Neuroticism scores are predictive of less professional fulfillment (Judge et al., 2002). Despite occupational variability, Conscientiousness is consistently predictive of job performance (Barrick and Mount, 1991). But the domains of Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion are constrained in their predictive ability to those occupations (sales) that require greater social competency and persuasion (Barrick and Mount, 1991) and therefore may be less predictive of job performance across occupations. Among the Five Factor personality measures (NEO Personality Inventory; Costa and McCrae, 1992; Big Five Inventory; Goldberg, 1993; International Personality Item Pool-Five Factor Model; Goldberg et al., 2006; Ten Item Personality Inventory; Gosling et al., 2000) Neuroticism has not been shown to predict competency or business success. Other models of personality, like the six-factor HEXACO (i.e., Honesty–Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) framework (Ashton and Lee, 2007) may have more value in organizational settings, due to its inclusion of a sixth facet, Honesty–Humility, a factor demonstrated to predict integrity and ethical decision-making beyond other measures of the traditional Big Five (Lee et al., 2008).
To construct this new temperament inventory, we first extracted from a literature review traits linked with any neurochemical system. Four suites of characteristics emerged; each suite was associated primarily with one of four broad brain systems: the (1) dopamine; (2) serotonin; (3) testosterone; and (4) estrogen/oxytocin systems (Fisher et al., 2010a,b; Brown et al., 2013). Using factor analysis, we developed a 56-item questionnaire, the FTI, and determined that these four clusters, based on the physiological literature, could be identified (Fisher et al., 2010b). We proposed four temperament dimensions and referred to them respectively as the Curious/Energetic scale; the Cautious/Social Norm Compliant scale; the Analytical/Tough-minded scale; and the Prosocial/Empathetic scale on the FTI (Fisher et al., 2010b; Brown et al., 2013). Then, in two experiments using fMRI, scores on each of the four FTI scales were significantly correlated with activations in some of the predicted brain regions, including known dopamine-rich regions and regions influenced by sex hormones (Brown et al., 2013).
In the present study we further characterize the FTI with three new investigations: (1) we examine its correlations with five demographic variables. (2) We carry out a convergent validity analysis with an established measure of personality, the short form of the NEO-Personality Inventory Revised, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; Costa and McCrae, 1992). (3) We replicate our factor analysis results of the FTI with another method, Eigen Analysis.
The five variables were chosen because they are known to have associations with biological mechanisms; included are: gender; religiosity; level of education; political orientation; and attitude regarding the importance of sex in a relationship
The purpose of the present investigation is: (1) To determine any possible correlations between these four broad temperament dimensions and five demographic variables know to have biological components; (2) To expose additional facets of the FTI by comparing it with a well known psychometric measure, thus further defining these proposed four broad temperament dimensions.
Predictions
Based on sex differences associated with bound and bioavailable testosterone, estrogen, and oxytocin, we predicted that men would score higher on the Analytic/Tough-minded scale, while women would score higher on the Prosocial/Empathetic scale. For example, endogenous testosterone is associated with diminished emotion recognition, eye contact and social sensitivity (Lutch); and reduced empathy (Knickmeyer et al., 2006), while prenatal estrogen priming is associated with agreeableness, cooperation, theory of mind (Baron-Cohen, 2003), and empathy and nurturing (Knickmeyer et al., 2006). More references for the predictions and rationale for all the predictions can be found in Section “Materials and Methods.”
