Personality Topics in Honor of Jerry S. Wiggins

A Special Issue of Multivariate Behavioral Research

Lewis R. Goldberg

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135067045
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 2004. The overall purpose of this text is to introduce beginning researchers to the study of educational and social policy, how it has been examined from a scholarly perspective, and the salient issues to consider in conceptualizing and conducting policy research. The emphasis is on introduce, as the various policy fields within the public sector (for example, education, energy, health, labor) are much too diverse to include in depth in a single volume on theoretical concepts and research methods. The focus is not so much on the substance of policymaking as on understanding the interplay between how policy is made and implemented and the various conceptual approaches and methods researchers can use to frame and conduct policy studies. The underlying assumption is that a critique of the substantive, theoretical, and methodological issues involved in studying policy can help researchers conduct policy studies that are more informative in guiding policy development and more effective in assessing the impact of policy reforms. This introduction to theories and methods of conducting policy research is intended to give prospective researchers an appreciation of the relationship among policy. problems, empirical methods, and practice, and to contribute to building their skills in conceptualizing and conducting policy research that answers important questions. The text includes examples of studies to illustrate the diversity of methodological techniques, and discusses issues related to the design and conduct of original educational policy studies. Studying Educational and Social Policy: Theoretical Concepts and Research Methods is designed primarily for graduate courses in educational policy and educational research and is appropriate as well for research methodology courses in other disciplines, including statistics and research methodology in the social sciences, organizational studies, public policy, and political science.

On the Relationship Between Circumplexes: Affect and Wiggins’ IAS

Michelle S. M. Yik and James A. Russell

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Boston College

This article offers a new method to describe the relationship between two circumplexes, illustrated empirically with Wiggins’ (1995) Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS) and Yik, Russell, and Steiger’s (2004) 12-Point Affect Circumplex Scales (12-PACS). Michael Browne’s CIRCUM-extension procedure was used to place each circumplex within the other. Simulations showed this procedure can reveal the number of dimensions of overlap between the two and can estimate the magnitude and location of the overlap. The IAS space overlaps the 12-PACS space on one axis, which falls at 35° within the 12-PACS space (pleasant activated versus unpleasant deactivated) and at 71° within the IAS space, which is close to where Extraversion (Factor I of the Five Factor Model) also lies.

Since the introduction of the circumplex by Guttman in 1954, a circular ordering of variables has proved useful in a variety of domains (Fabrigar, Visser, & Browne, 1997; Plutchik & Conte, 1997). Examples include interpersonal behaviors (Leary, 1957), interpersonal dispositions (Wiggins, 1979), emotions (Russell, 1980), vocational interests (Holland, 1973), interpersonal problems (Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990), psychopathology (Widiger, Trull, Clarkin, Sanderson, & Costa, 1994), parent-child relationships (Schaefer, 1959), and color perception (Shepard, 1962). Techniques for testing circumplexity within a domain have evolved from visual inspection (looking for a cosine pattern of correlations¹) to Browne’s (1992) structural equation modeling procedure (Tracey, 2000). The purpose of the present article is to help propel a similar evolution in describing the relationship between circumplexes. We propose a method for this purpose and illustrate our technique empirically with two known circumplexes: Wiggins’ (1995) Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS) and Yik et al.’s (2004) 12-Point Affect Circumplex Scales (12-PACS).

Interpersonal Dispositions

Based on seminal work by Sullivan (1953) and Leary (1957), and later work by Lorr and McNair (1965), Benjamin (1974), and Kiesler (1983), Wiggins and his colleagues built a descriptive model and accompanying scales (IAS) for interpersonal behaviors and dispositions. Developed from the universe of interpersonal adjectives contained in Goldberg’s (1977) master pool, the IAS underwent extensive development, with the final model in the form of a circumplex (Wiggins, 1995). An early version of the scales consisted of 16 facets, named and ordered alphabetically (A through P). In a later version, adjacent facets were combined, resulting in eight octants, each coded by a two-letter combination (e.g., PA, BC), arranged in a circular order. With the early methods of testing circumplexity, the IAS repeatedly appeared to be a circumplex (Kiesler, 1996; Tracey & Schneider, 1995; Wiggins, 1995). However, when Gaines et al. (1997) examined the IAS with general structural equation modeling, they concluded that it does not conform to an ideal circumplex. Gurtman and Pincus (2000) then used Browne’s (1992) CIRCUM, a structural equation modeling approach specifically designed to test circumplexity, and showed that the IAS excel in the structural requirements of a circumplex model. The current study provides an opportunity to confirm Gurtman and Pincus’s results.

Another purpose was to extend the IAS’ nomological network by examining its lawful relations to yet another important domain, affect. The IAS have been found to be embedded in a network of constructs, such as interpersonal problems (Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990), personality disorders (Wiggins & Pincus, 1989), mate selection (Buss & Barnes, 1986), manipulation tactics (Buss, 1989), and nonverbal behaviors (Gifford, 1991), to name a few. Wiggins himself followed Foa and Foa’s (1974) theory in emphasizing dominance and love as the underlying processes defining the eight IAS variables. Dominance and love thus provide a specific rotation of the two-dimensional space. An alternative rotation of the axes yields Extraversion and Agreeableness of the Five Factor Model (McCrae & Costa, 1989; Pincus, 2002; Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990).² As McCrae and Costa (1989) pointed out, “The five-factor model provides a larger framework in which to orient and interpret the circumplex, and the interpersonal circle provides a useful elaboration about aspects of two of the five factors” (p. 593). Examining the relation of the IAS to affect provides another datum on the question of rotation.

Momentary Affect

Various dimensional models have been proposed to characterize the covariations of self-reported momentary affective feelings. Major models include Russell’s (1980) circumplex, Thayer’s (1996) energetic and tense arousal, Larsen and Diener’s (1992) eight combinations of pleasantness and activation, and Watson and Tellegen’s (1985) positive and negative affect. All four models have been shown to fit comfortably within the same two-dimensional affective space defined by the bipolar axes of pleasure and arousal (Yik, Russell, & Feldman Barrett, 1999). This integrated model shows cross-language generalizability (Russell, 1983; Russell, Lewicka, & Niit, 1989; Yik & Russell, 2001, 2003; Yik, Russell, & Ahn, 2003; Yik, Russell, Oceja, & Fernández Dols, 2000; Yik, Russell, & Suzuki, 2003) with replications in Chinese, Croatian, Estonian, Greek, Gujarti, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Spanish. Watson and Tellegen’s (1985) Positive Affect and Negative Affect structure was replicated in Japanese (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1984), Hebrew (Almagor & Ben-Porath, 1989), Castillian Spanish (Joiner, Sandín, Chorot, Lostao, & Marguina, 1997), and Tagalog (Church, Katigbak, Reyes, & Jensen, 1999).

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of one version of the integrated model, the recently developed 12-Point Affect Circumplex (12-PAC; Yik et al., 2004). The space is arbitrarily carved into 12 segments (Segments I to XII), 30° apart, on the metaphor of a clock. On the right hand side are the more pleasant states; on the left hand side the more unpleasant ones. On the upper half are the more activated states; on the lower half the more deactivated ones. Each segment thus represents a unique blend of pleasure and arousal. For instance, Segment I (characterized by a vector at 60°) captures states that are pleasant and very high in arousal, Segment II (a vector at 30°) captures those very pleasant and moderate in arousal. Actual affective states can fall anywhere on any vector throughout the space. The model is thoroughly bipolar in that any state has a bipolar opposite 180° away. It is also a circumplex in which affective dimensions fall in a circular ordering along the perimeter rather than cluster at the axes. The circumplical nature of momentary affective states has received strong empirical support (Remington, Fabrigar, & Visser, 2000; Yik et al., 2004).

Figure 1 A 12-Point Affect Circumplex (12-PAC; Yik, Russell, & Steiger, 2004). Figure shows a schematic diagram of the hypothetical locations of the 12 segments. Dashed line indicates the axis of overlap with the IAS circumplex.

On the Relation between Affect and Personality

At least since Galen proposed that temperament consists of emotions, investigators have speculated on close ties between personality and affect. Recently, Plutchik (1997) asserted that both phenomena come from the same biological source. Indeed, he speculated that many domains show a circumplex structure because they share the same biological source.

Affect and personality are known to be correlated (Carver, Sutton, & Scheier, 2000; Fossum & Feldman Barrett, 2000; Gross, Sutton, & Ketelaar, 1998; Lucas & Fijita, 2000; Moskowitz, Brown, & Côté, 1997). The superfactors of Extraversion and Neuroticism, for example, yield robust relations to affect (Costa & McCrae, 1980, 1984; Diener & Emmons, 1984; Izard, Libero, Putnam, & Haynes, 1993; McCrae & Costa, 1991; Meyer & Shack, 1989; O’Malley & Gillett, 1984; Thayer, Takahashi, & Pauli, 1988; Warr, Barter, & Brownbridge, 1983; Watson & Clark, 1992, 1997; Williams, 1981; Yik & Russell, 2001; Yik, Russell, Ahn, Fernández Dols, & Suzuki, 2002). The question that stimulated our study was how to describe the relation between a specific model of personality, Wiggins’ (1995) IAS, and a specific model of affect, Yik et al.’s (2004) 12-PACS — both of which happen to be ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction to this Special Issue
• Giving the Self a Voice in MMPI Self-report: Jerry Wiggins and the Content Scales
• Interpersonal Perceptions of the Five-Factor Model of Personality: An Examination Using the Structural Summary Method for Circumplex Data
• On the Relationship Between Circumplexes: Affect and Wiggins’ IAS
• Where is the Personality in Personality Disorder Assessment?: A Comparison Across Four Sets of Personality Disorder Scales
• The Impact of Item Characteristics on Item and Scale Validity
• Two Replicable Suppressor Situations in Personality Research
• Psychometric Properties of the HEXACO Personality Inventory
• The Early Development of the Interpersonal System of Personality (ISP)