Are Listeners Perceived as Leaders?

Listening is known to strongly correlate with leadership perception. As leadership theories distinguish between people-oriented (consideration) and task-oriented (initiating structure) leaders, we sought to identify parallel listening behaviors: person-oriented listening versus fact-oriented listening. A survey of employees from multiple organizations (N?=?238) suggested that both person-oriented listening and considerate leadership are better measured with subscales differentiating constructive and destructive listening and considerate and inconsiderate leadership. Second, results suggested that the highest correlations for each leadership scale were (a) leadership consideration with person-oriented listening (r = .71), (b) leadership inconsideration with destructive listening (r = .67), and (c) initiating-structure leadership with fact-oriented listening (r = .23). The pattern of relationships was further explored with a path analysis. Based on the data, it appears that measuring listening could benefit from using separate scales for constructive versus destructive listening, and that key aspects of leadership perception are highly correlated with listening behaviors.     

Revisiting the Listening Styles Profile (LSP-16): A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach to Scale Validation and Reliability Estimation

The Listening Styles Profile (LSP-16) was developed to measure an individual's preferred listening style. One frequent criticism of the LSP-16 is the consistently low estimates of internal consistency. The following study addresses this concern using confirmatory factor analysis to assess both the latent constructs of the scale (i.e., People, Content, Action, Time) and the scale's reliability. Results suggest that listening style is multidimensional; however, additional scale development is needed to increase subscale reliability estimates. Suggestions for future research and development are provided.     

Improving the Performance of the Listening Competency Scale: Revision and Validation

Measuring latent traits is central to quantitative listening research and has been the focus of many studies. One such prominent measurement instrument, based on the Wolvin and Coakley (1993) listening taxonomy, was developed by Ford, Wolvin, and Chung (2000). Subsequent validation research (Mickelson & Welch, 2012)called for revisiting and modifying individual items of the Listening Competency Scale. The research presented here outlines the process of revising the items to create a revised scale with a more unified, affective view of listening behavioral practices through self-report and documents the confirmatory analytic results for the revised scale.     

Big Five Personality Traits and Ambiguity Management in Career Decision-Making

Although ambiguity aversion has been found to impede the process and outcome of career decision-making, knowledge regarding the association between personality characteristics and ambiguity aversion is limited. Thus, the author examined the prediction of the Big Five personality traits for ambiguity aversion and the mediation of tolerance and confidence in ambiguity management. The results obtained with a U.S. sample (N = 239) revealed the following: (a) neuroticism positively predicted ambiguity aversion; (b) extraversion did not predict ambiguity aversion; (c) agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness negatively predicted ambiguity aversion; and (d) confidence in ambiguity management mediated the relationships between agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness and ambiguity aversion. These findings highlight the differential roles of the Big Five personality traits in ambiguity management and the importance of confidence in ambiguity management. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Exploring the Relationship between Listening Style Preference and Personality

Previous listening research has found a variety of personality traits linked to listening style. Researchers in temperament and personality often address the association between temperament type, personality, and social behavior (e.g., communication preferences, miscommunication, and conflict). This study extends this research. Among the results: People Listening Style is moderately associated with the Myers-Briggs Personality Types Feeling and Intuiting. Additional correlational results are presented.     

The Big Five personality traits and earnings: A meta-analysis

The past two decades have witnessed increased interest in the relationship between personality and labor market outcomes, as well as the emergence of the Five-Factor Model as the key reference framework for the study of personality. In this paper, we provide the first meta-analytical review of the empirical literature on the association between personal earnings and the Big Five personality traits. The analysis combines the results of 62 peer-reviewed articles published from 2001–2020, from which we retrieved 896 partial effect sizes. Overall, the primary literature provides robust support for a positive association between personal earnings and the traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion, while simultaneously revealing a negative and significant association between earnings and the traits of Agreeableness and Neuroticism. We find no evidence of a substantial publication bias. Meta-regression estimates suggest that Openness and Conscientiousness are positively associated with earnings even when primary researchers control for individual cognitive abilities and educational attainments. Similarly, the studies that include labor market control variables exhibit weaker associations between earnings and Extraversion and Agreeableness. The results of the primary studies seem unaffected by the time at which the Big Five are measured, as well as by the scale and number of inventory items. Meta-regression estimates suggest that the results of the primary literature are not stable across cultures and gender, and that the ranking and academic field of the journal matter.     

Gender Differences in the Effects of Personality Traits on Party Identification in the United States

This study examines whether the Big Five personality traits have different effects on male and female party identification in the United States. Research has found associations between personality traits and partisanship in the United States. However, there is solid evidence of gender differences in personality traits, and past studies have not yet considered whether personality-partisanship relationship might be gender-differentiated. This study finds that with the increase of agreeableness, women tend to be Republicans, but men tend to be Democrats. Furthermore, as openness to experience increases, women are more likely to be strong partisans, but men are more likely to be independents or leaning partisans. To sum up, this study provides evidence that the effects of the Big Five personality traits on party identification vary by gender and suggests that it is wrong to assume that the Big Five personality traits have the same impacts on male and female party identification.     

Evidence of Big Five and Aggressive Personalities in Gait Biomechanics

Behavioral observation techniques which relate action to personality have long been neglected (Furr and Funder in Handbook of research methods in personality psychology, The Guilford Press, New York, 2007) and, when employed, often use human judges to code behavior. In the current study we used an alternative to human coding (biomechanical research techniques) to investigate how personality traits are manifest in gait. We used motion capture technology to record 29 participants walking on a treadmill at their natural speed. We analyzed their thorax and pelvis movements, as well as speed of gait. Participants completed personality questionnaires, including a Big Five measure and a trait aggression questionnaire. We found that gait related to several of our personality measures. The magnitude of upper body movement, lower body movement, and walking speed, were related to Big Five personality traits and aggression. Here, we present evidence that some gait measures can relate to Big Five and aggressive personalities. We know of no other examples of research where gait has been shown to correlate with self-reported measures of personality and suggest that more research should be conducted between largely automatic movement and personality.     

Physician’s Listening and Adherence to Medical Recommendations among Persons with Diabetes

Every year, millions of people die of diabetes-related complications. Despite this risk, patients’ nonadherence to lifesaving medical recommendations remains a persistent crisis. One factor that could increase adherence is the formation of an alliance with the medical staff. This alliance, in turn, may increase when the patient perceives that the health care staff is willing to listen. To test this model, we asked people with diabetes, N = 76, to report (a) perceptions of listening by their nurse and physician, (b) their working alliance with the medical-staff members, and (c) several indicators of adherence with medical recommendations. The results suggested that listening is highly correlated with working alliance, r = .84, both with the nurse and the physician. Furthermore, both listening by the physician, r = .27, and alliance with the physician, r = .44, were associated with medication adherence. Listening by the physician, and alliance with the physician were not associated with adherence to life-style recommendations, but hinted at possible associations with glycemic control, r’s = .19, and .22, respectively. Our findings suggest that listening is an important facet of a working alliance, which in turn appears to positively affect the health of patients with diabetes.     

Involuntary job loss and changes in personality traits

Economists consider personality traits to be stable, particularly throughout adulthood. However, evidence from psychological studies suggests that the stability assumption may not always be valid, as personality traits can respond to certain life events. Our paper analyzes whether and to what extent personality traits are malleable over a time span of eight years for a sample of working individuals. Furthermore, we specifically look at changes in personality traits after a major adverse life event: involuntary job loss. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) from 2004 to 2014 – a period over which individuals’ Big Five personality inventory was measured three times. Our dataset allows us to exploit detailed employment information, particularly reasons for job termination and unemployment spells. We focus solely on plant closures as a reason for job termination. Job loss due to plant closure is widely used as a relatively exogenous event to identify causal effects. Our results suggest that personality traits are indeed malleable during adulthood. Although the Big Five measures are relatively stable within the overall population of workers, we find an increase in openness, that is, the willingness to seek new experiences, for the average displaced worker. This increase, however, is fully driven by individuals with high educational attainment and by those who find a new job immediately after dismissal. The other dimensions of the Big Five personality inventory remain nearly unchanged after an involuntary job loss. Our findings hold for a number of robustness checks and are supported by the results of a falsification test using a placebo treatment.     

Assessing Listening in Elementary and Junior High Schools: An Examination of Four Listening Tests

The major object of the Calgary Listening Inquiry Project (CLIP) was the undertaking of school-based studies derived from teacher-defined problems and concerns with listening instruction. Another objective was development, implementation, and assessment of effective strategies and materials for teaching and evaluating listening. Four tests—Listening Comprehension Tests (LCT), Alberta Listening Tests (ALT), Test of Adolescent Language (TOAL), and Thinking Creatively with Sounds and Words (TCSW)—were administered. Discussion concerns the nature of these tests and how the use and study of them helped teachers not only to acquire data about students' listening skills but also to develop a vocabulary about listening and to define their questions. Teachers developed a Listening Profile for use as a student checklist for listening skill development and two Listening Awareness Assessment Questionnaires to obtain student feedback and to involve students as participants in CLIP.     

The expected personality characteristics of alcohol-dependent individuals

The Big Five personality factors were used as a framework for examining the expected personality characteristics of individuals who are alcohol-dependent. In an experimental study, participants used a measure of the Big Five personality factors to rate two individuals, each described with either signs of alcohol dependence or not. The ratings of the participants showed that they expected the alcohol-dependent versions of both individuals to be less agreeable and less conscientious. The participants expected the alcohol-dependent college student to be more extraverted and the alcohol-dependent lawyer-father to be more neurotic. The expected personality characteristics of the alcohol-dependent versions of the two described persons were very similar to the actual personality characteristics of alcohol-dependent individuals. The results were consistent with prior findings regarding narrow-band personality traits related to the Big Five. The results help explain prior findings about the social handicap of problem drinking with regard to making friends, dating, marriage, and working. The findings have potential use in alcohol-problem prevention and treatment.     

Development of a short version of the Aging Males’ Symptoms scale: Mokken scaling analysis and Rasch analysis

The aim of this study was to develop a psychometrically sound short version of the 17-item Aging Males’ Symptoms (AMS) scale using Mokken scale analysis (MSA) and Rasch analysis. We recruited a convenient sample of 1787 men (age: mean (SD)?=?43.8 (11.5) years) who visited a men’s health polyclinic in Taiwan and completed the AMS scale. The scale was first assessed using MSA. The remaining items were assessed using Rasch analysis. We used a stepwise approach to remove items with χ² item statistics and mean square values while monitoring unidimensionality. The item reduction process resulted in a 6-item version of the AMS scale (AMS-6). The AMS-6 scale included a 5-item psychosomatic subscale (original items 1, 4, 5, 8, and 9) and a 1-item sexual subscale (original item 16). Analyses confirmed that the 5-item psychosomatic subscale was a Rasch scale. The AMS-6 correlated well with the AMS scales: the 5-item psychosomatic subscale correlated with the AMS scale (r between 0.50 and 0.92); the 1-item sexual subscale correlated with the sexual subscale of the AMS scale (r?=?0.81). A 6-item short form of the AMS scale had satisfactory measurement properties. This version may be useful for estimating psychosomatic and sexual symptoms as well as health-related quality of life with a minimal burden on respondents.     

A Contingency Framework for Listening to the Dying

Listening to the dying poses special challenges. This paper proposes a contingency framework for describing and assessing various circumstances when listening to the dying. It identifies current approaches to listening, applies the contingency framework toward effectively listening to the dying, and proposes a new type of listening called perspective-taking listening. The framework provides guidance in how to improve listening to a dying person.     

Social status and personality traits

We provide direct evidence on the relationship between social status and personality traits. Using survey data from the 2006–2012 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study, we show that self-perceived social status is associated with all the “Big Five” personality traits, after controlling for observable characteristics that arguably reflect one’s actual status. We also construct an objective status measure that in turn is associated with personality traits. Objectively measured status is positively but not highly correlated with its subjective counterpart. When incorporated in a regression specification, it still leaves room for significant correlations between personality traits and status perception: traits such as openness, conscientiousness and extraversion predict a higher self-positioning on the social ladder, while agreeableness and neuroticism predict a lower one.     

Effects of Strength of Accent on an L2 Interactive Lecture Listening Comprehension Test

This article reports on a study which aimed to determine the effect of strength of accent on listening comprehension of interactive lectures. Test takers (N = 21,726) listened to an interactive lecture given by one of nine speakers and responded to six comprehension items. The test taker responses were analyzed with the Rasch computer program WINSTEPS to investigate the relative difficulty of the items associated with the nine versions of the interactive lectures. Results indicated that comprehension of interactive lectures was diminished with quite light accents, as has been found with monologic lectures.     

Household finances and the ‘Big Five’ personality traits

Using data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey, we analyse the relationship between personality traits and financial decision-making focusing on unsecured debt and financial assets. Personality traits are classified according to the ‘Big Five’ taxonomy: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. We explore personality traits at the individual level and also within couples, specifically the personality traits of the head of household and personality traits averaged across the couple. We find that certain personality traits such as extraversion are generally significantly associated with household finances in terms of the levels of debt and assets held and the correlation is often relatively large. The results also suggest that the magnitude and statistical significance of the association between personality traits and household finances differs across the various types of debt and assets held in the household portfolio.     

The parents' share

A 5 item sexual permissiveness scale devised by Reiss, and 4 personality inventory scales purporting to measure psychoticism (P), neuroticism (N), extraversion (E) and propensity to dissimulate (L for lie scale) were administered to 427 male and 436 female subjects aged between 20 and 50 years. It was found that men were more permissive than women on all 5 items; that items are intercorrelated in a pattern which could be predicted from the Guttman‐type properties of the original scale; that high P scorers were more permissive than low P scorers; that high L scorers were less permissive than low L scorers; and that extraverts were slightly more permissive than introverts. All the findings relating to personality and permissiveness were in good agreement with findings from previous studies of the relation between personality and sexual attitudes. Assortative mating was studied for 241 couples who formed part of the original sample. Correlations for permissiveness were all positive, and reached significance for all but one of the scales. For the personality scales, assortative mating was found to be important only for neuroticism, a finding in agreement with previous studies.     

The Relation of Gender, Personality, and Intelligence to Judges' Accuracy in Judging Strangers' Personality From Brief Video Segments

Fifty-three men and 56 women viewed brief video segments of 32 male targets and rated them on three personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, and masculinity-femininity (M-F). Judges were assessed on general intelligence, Big Five traits, and gender-related traits. Two measures of accuracy were computed: 1) consensus accuracy, which measured the correlation between judges' ratings and corresponding ratings made by previous judges, and 2) trait accuracy, which measured the correlation between judges' ratings and targets' assessed personality. There was no gender difference in overall accuracy. However, women showed higher trait accuracy than men in judging neuroticism. Consensus accuracy exceeded trait accuracy, and extraversion and M-F were judged more accurately than neuroticism. M-F judgments showed the highest level of consensus accuracy. Judges' intelligence correlated positively with accuracy. Except for openness, personality traits were generally unrelated to accuracy.     

Do the Big-Five Personality Traits Predict Empathic Listening and Assertive Communication?

As personality traits can influence important social outcomes, the current research investigated whether the Big-Five had predictive influences on communication competences of active-empathic listening (AEL) and assertiveness. A sample of 245 adults of various ages completed the self-report scales. Both Agreeableness and Openness uniquely predicted AEL. Extraversion had the biggest influence on assertiveness but did not uniquely explain AEL variance. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism had small predictive influences on assertiveness. Further investigation into the pathways linking Big-Five facets to the different components of these communication competences is proposed and practical implications including understanding personality traits for successful leadership is discussed.