European Journal of Personality

The experiment was designed to study the effect of personal control, operationalized in terms of choice between a more demanding and a less demanding task, on persons with different levels of reactivity. Subjects were randomly assigned and individually tested in a 2 (High reactivity/Low reactivity) × 2 (Low rate of stimulus presentation/ High rate of stimulus presentation) × 2 (Choice/No Choice) factorial experiment with 15 subjects per condition. The two principal dependent measures were the total number of correct responses in a serial RT task and the post‐task levels of anxiety, anger, and curiosity. The major finding was that while the availability of control had a positive effect on both task performance and affect, its role was situation‐specific, i.e. limited to the difficult task. Most probably the availability of control masks the variability of reaction due to individual differences in reactivity. However, high‐reactives are still left with the residual stress of unresolved emotions.

The present article reports the factor structure, reliability and validity of Fenigstein et al.'s (1975) Self‐Consciousness Scale (SCS) using British respondents from five samples of undergraduate students, two of 17‐year‐old school pupils, one of 13‐year‐old pupils, and one of 11‐year‐old pupils. Confirmatory factor analyses reproduced in most samples a 3‐factor structure consistent with the SCS subscales, although exploratory factor analyses suggested the Private subscale consists of several subfactors. Concordantly, alpha reliability coefficients were higher for Social Anxiety and Public than for Private, respectively. Test–retest reliability was reasonable for Social Anxiety, but poorer for Public and Private. In line with correlations found by other researchers, that between Public and Private Self‐consciousness was r = 0.33. Both of these subscales correlated positively with Neuroticism. Nevertheless, public and private were considered to be distinguishable constructs. In contrast, Social Anxiety correlated highly positively with Introversion and Neuroticism, and negatively with Self‐Esteem, indicating poor discriminant validity. Exploratory factor analyses of scales designed for young adolescents yielded recognizable private and public factors, with the predominance of a Private factor among 11‐year olds, but of a Public factor among 13‐year olds. Finally, conceptual problems surrounding the private–public distinction are articulated in relation to (a) similar alternative constructs, and (b) Tajfel and Turner's (1979) concept of social identity.

An action‐theoretical model of personality is presented, in which missing links between action‐theory and personality constructs are established. Background is the facts, (a) that current psychological theories of action are limited to situation‐ and action‐specific person variables, and (b) that in personality theory systematic relations between such variables and personality constructs are missing. The action‐theoretical model of personality is based on a differentiated expectancy‐value theory, whose situation‐specific constructs (various aspects of valences and expectancies) are logically connected with personality constructs of generalized self‐referential cognitions. The following action‐theoretical personality variables are proposed to be central for the study of person‐situation interactions: (a) self‐concept of own competence, (b) control orientations, (c) trust, (d) conceptualization level, and (e) value orientations. The model implies rules for the operationalization of its constructs and for prediction of behaviour. The structure of the action‐theoretical personality variables and their relations to other theories of personality are described.

The present research investigated in a dual task design the effects of extraversion level and structural task properties on the recall of an incidentally learned text. First, the hypothetical relation between arousal level and attentional selectivity was tested. Second, the relation between structural levels in the text and recall of text elements was studied. It was found that (a) extraverts performed significantly better on incidental recall compared to introverts; (b) the nuclear sentences at the top of the hierarchical structure were the best recalled sentences, independently of arousal level; (c) the effect of differences in arousal on recall was only significant in case of the top sentences. The effect was absent in case of specificúsecondary sentences.

This study examined the relationship between sensation seeking and preference for paintings. Twenty paintings were classified into four categories: simple/complex and representational/abstract. It was hypothesized that total sensation seeking score and subscales scores would be positively correlated with preferences for simple and, especially complex, abstract art, and negatively correlated with simple, and, especially complex, representational art. Alpha coefficients demonstrated that satisfactory classification of the paintings into four groups. As hypothesized, high scores on total sensation seeking and subscales were positively correlated with abstract art preferences and negatively correlated with representational art preferences. The results are discussed in terms of the major determinants of preferences for art of different types.