Although the relationship between personality and quality of life has been extensively studied, openness has received relatively little attention. This is despite its importance in the Big Five model and its ability to change over time. To close this gap, our study explored the link between openness and quality of life. Additionally, we examined whether this relationship is influenced by Dimensions of Openness to Emotion (DOE) and self-efficacy, as research suggests both may play significant roles in the personality–quality of life relationship. A total of 419 participants in a community-based convenience sample of the French-speaking regions of Switzerland and of France aged 20–66 years completed the NEO-FFI-R inventory, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Dimensions of Openness to Emotion scale, and the WHOQOL-12 measuring quality of life. GAMs, Network and Mediation analysis were conducted with R software. Our analysis suggested that the different facets of DOE relate to quality of life in two contrasting ways, with openness influencing it both positively and negatively, depending on the specific facet: the somatic dimensions of DOE had a negative association, while the cognitive dimensions of DOE had a positive one. Openness contributes to quality of life, especially for individuals who are moderately open to their bodily sensations and who use thoughtful and context-adjusted emotion regulation strategies.

There is an abundant literature on the links between quality of life and neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. Several studies have even explored how these links are mediated by variables such as self efficacy and openness to emotion. However, less attention has been paid to the influence of the openness and agreeableness, as results have pointed to moderate to weak predictive values. The aim of the present study was to shed light on the roles of all five personality factors, especially openness and agreeableness, exploring both their direct effects on quality of life and their indirect effects, mediated by self-efficacy and emotional openness. The effects of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness on quality of life were consistent with previous findings in the literature. Openness had only indirect effects on quality of life: positive when mediated by self-efficacy, and negative when mediated by emotional openness. Agreeableness had a positive direct effect, but a negative indirect effect via self-efficacy. These results, together with possible applications and future avenues for research, are discussed.

Abstract Successful aging is a topic of world-wide interest, yet much work focuses on specific and highly industrialized countries, such as the USA. The present study investigated lay perspectives of the concept of successful aging in young, middle-aged, and older adults from Romania. Ninety-three participants aged between 20 and 84 years were asked about definitions and determinants of successful aging. Based on a previous study, codes were developed to capture common themes among the answers, resulting in 14 categories. Participants mentioned four themes on average to describe successful aging, which varied by sociodemographic, health and psychological variables: individuals of younger age, with higher levels of education, in better health and those more satisfied with their aging mentioned more themes. Regarding specific topics, Social resources and Health were mentioned most frequently, followed by Quality of life, Financial situation, and Attitudes/Mechanisms. Young adults were more likely to mention Social resources, Success/Respect, and Aging themes, while older adults mentioned more often Meaning of life themes. Finally, we found that the themes mentioned were related to self-perception of aging, particularly among older adults: Older adults more satisfied and with positive views own aging were more likely to mention Social resources, Independence, and Attitudes/Mechanisms themes, while those with negative views on aging were more likely to mention Micro-environment themes. In sum, findings support the multidimensionality of lay perspectives of successful aging and offer insights on the understanding of successful aging in Eastern Europe, including topics and links to general and personal aging experiences.

The evidence for characteristics of persons with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) associated with amyloid positivity is limited. In 1640 persons with SCD from 20 Amyloid Biomarker Study cohort, we investigated the associations of SCD-specific characteristics (informant confirmation, domain-specific complaints, concerns, feelings of worse performance) demographics, setting, apolipoprotein E gene ( APOE ) ε4 carriership, and neuropsychiatric symptoms with amyloid positivity. Between cohorts, amyloid positivity in 70-year-olds varied from 10% to 76%. Only older age, clinical setting, and APOE ε4 carriership showed univariate associations with increased amyloid positivity. After adjusting for these, lower education was also associated with increased amyloid positivity. Only within a research setting, informant-confirmed complaints, memory complaints, attention/concentration complaints, and no depressive symptoms were associated with increased amyloid positivity. Feelings of worse performance were associated with less amyloid positivity at younger ages and more at older ages. Next to age, setting, and APOE ε4 carriership, SCD-specific characteristics may facilitate the identification of amyloid-positive individuals.

We analyzed the psychometric properties of the Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model (SIFFM) in a French-speaking Swiss sample and compared the French version to the original English version. A community-based sample of 260 participants (183 women and 77 men, aged 20 to 88 years, Mage = 46.23, SDage = 16.37) were assessed using the SIFFM and the NEO-FFI-R. Forty of the participants agreed to be filmed or to be assessed by two investigators simultaneously. The internal consistency coefficients of the five dimensions of SIFFM ranged from .63 to .84. An exploratory factor analysis within the confirmatory factor analysis framework showed that the structure of the French version of the SIFFM was in line with the structure suggested by the Five-Factor Model. Except for the modesty and dutifulness subscales, each facet scale had its highest factor loading on the factor representing the targeted domain. Moreover, a principal axis joint factor analysis of the SIFFM and NEO-FFI-R domains suggested that the convergent validity between the two instruments was adequate. Furthermore, the interrater reliability coefficients for the SIFFM scores were high. The French version of the SIFFM shows acceptable psychometric properties, comparable to those of the English version, and may be an informative assessment method and an alternative to self-report measures.

The classical nosographical approach to personality disorders leads to a set of categories that may be considered to be both conceptually and empirically problematic. In this regard, the DSM-5 includes an alternative dimensional model for which the Personality Inventory Disorders (PID-5) has been developed. Our study compares this alternative dimensional model in regards to both personality disorder categories and normal personality dimensions. The 537 participants in our study, 65.4% of whom were women, completed both the PID-5 and the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) screening questionnaire. Among these participants, 273 participants (64.1% women) also completed the revised version of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI-R). A multiple factor analysis indicated that two higher-order principal dimensions described the relationships between the PID-5 and both the IPDE and the NEO-FFI-R. These relationships were analyzed in greater detail using a Principal Axis Factor Analysis. Five and four, respectively, intercorrelated lower-level factors were considered after a parallel analysis that confirmed to a certain extent that normal and abnormal personalities share a common underlying structure. Finally, a multiple regression bootstrap series confirmed the close associations between the PID-5 and both the IPDE and the NEO-FFI-R scales. Our results indicate that the PID-5 offers an alternative perspective for describing symptom syndromes with personality pathology.

We investigated the relationship between personality and quality of life (QoL) considering emotion regulation and self-efficacy beliefs as mediating factors. A total of 409 participants from the French-speaking regions of Switzerland and from France completed questionnaires on personality, emotion regulation, self-efficacy beliefs, and QoL. Our findings revealed that specific personality traits have significant direct and indirect effects on QoL, mediated by emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Particularly, neuroticism was strongly and negatively related to emotion regulation and QoL, but not significantly linked to self-efficacy, whereas extraversion and conscientiousness were positively associated with all variables. This is the first study to demonstrate that both emotion regulation and self-efficacy are important mechanisms that link specific personality traits to QoL, suggesting that they channel and modulate the personality effects. However, more work is needed to understand these relationships in more detail (e.g., how the personality traits concurrently influence each other as well as emotion regulation and self-efficacy).

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between major recent life events that occurred during the last 5 years, social and personal resources, and subjective quality of life (QoL).A total of 1801 participants from the general population (CoLaus/PsyCoLaus study) completed the Life Events Questionnaire, the Social Support Questionnaire, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory Revised, and the Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life.Major life events were modestly associated with the QoL (about 5 % of the explained variance). However, QoL was significantly related to perceived social support and personality traits (about 37 % of the explained variance). Particularly, perceived social support, extraversion and conscientiousness personality dimensions were positively linked to life satisfaction, whereas a high level of neuroticism was negatively associated with QoL.This study highlights the negative but temporary association between critical events and QoL. However, a combination of high conscientiousness and extraversion, and positive social support may explain better variances for a high-perceived QoL.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits, tobacco consumption, physical inactivity, obesity markers and metabolic components as cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs). A total of 2543 participants from the general population (CoLaus|PsyCoLaus) had provided complete information on physical health and unhealthy behaviors and completed the Revised NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Our results show a strong cross-correlation between obesity markers and metabolic components suggesting that their combination could represent an important CVRF. Moreover, socio-demographic characteristics, tobacco consumption, and physical inactivity were associated with both obesity markers and metabolic components latent traits. The conscientiousness personality trait was significantly associated with obesity markers, but played a modest role. Indeed, higher conscientiousness was associated with lower level of obesity indicators. However, no link between personality and metabolic components were found. In sum, our data suggest that health related behaviours have more effect on the development of cardiovascular diseases than personality traits.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been defined as a transitional state between normal aging and dementia. In many cases, MCI represents an early stage of developing cognitive impairment. Patients diagnosed with MCI do not meet the criteria for dementia as their general intellect and everyday activities are preserved, although minor changes in instrumental activities of daily living (ADL) may occur. However, they may exhibit significant behavioral and psychological signs and symptoms (BPS), also frequently observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Hence, we wondered to what extent specific BPS are associated with cognitive decline in participants with MCI or AD.Methods: Our sample consisted of 164 participants, including 46 patients with amnestic (single or multidomain) MCI and 54 patients with AD, as well as 64 control participants without cognitive disorders. Global cognitive performance, BPS, and ADL were assessed using validated clinical methods at baseline and at two-year follow-up.Results: The BPS variability over the follow-up period was more pronounced in the MCI group than in patients with AD: some BPS improve, others occur newly or worsen, while others still remain unchanged. Moreover, specific changes in BPS were associated with a rapid deterioration of the global cognitive level in MCI patients. In particular, an increase of euphoria, eating disorders, and aberrant motor behavior, as well as worsened sleep quality, predicted a decline in cognitive functioning.Conclusions: Our findings confirm a higher variability of BPS over time in the MCI group than in AD patients. Moreover, our results provide evidence of associations between specific BPS and cognitive decline in the MCI group that might suggest a risk of conversion of individuals with amnestic MCI to AD.

Selon le modele de demandes-controle (Karasek, 1979), les conditions de travail les plus nefastes sont caracterisees par des exigences mentales elevees et par une latitude decisionnelle faible. Peu d'etudes se sont penchees sur le role des ressources individuelles en lien avec ce modele. Pour cette raison, notre etude examine les effets mediateurs des traits de la personnalite et des valeurs culturelles sur la relation entre les conditions psychosociales du travail et le bien-etre. En comparant deux echantillons de travailleurs, en Suisse (n = 585) et en Afrique du Sud (n = 818), nos resultats indiquent que les memes ressources et vulnerabilites individuelles n'interagissent pas de la meme maniere avec l'environnement de travail pour les travailleurs suisse que ceux d'Afrique du Sud. Ces resultats peuvent contribuer a l'amelioration des competences culturelles dans les organisations ou la gestion de la diversite culturelle des travailleurs devient une realite complexe.

In most Western postindustrial societies today, the population is aging, businesses are faced with global integration, and important migration flows are taking place. Increasingly work organizations are hiring crossnational and multicultural workteams. In this situation it is important to understand the influence of certain individual and cultural characteristics on the process of professional integration. The present study explores the links between personality traits, demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, income, and nationality), work engagement, and job stress. The sample consisted of 618 persons, including 394 Swiss workers (200 women, 194 men) and 224 foreigners living and working in Switzerland (117 women, 107 men). Each participant completed the NEO-FFI, the UWES, and the GWSS questionnaires. Our results show an interaction between age and nationality with respect to work engagement and general job stress. The levels of work engagement and job stress appear to increase with age among national workers, whereas they decrease among foreign workers. In addition, work engagement was negatively associated with Neuroticism and positively associated with the other four personality dimensions. Finally, job stress was positively associated with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, and negatively associated with Extraversion. However, the strength of these relationships appeared to vary according to the worker’s nationality, age, sex, education, and income.

In this cross-sectional study, we explored the relationship between premorbid personality and its changes over 5 years, and cognitive deterioration in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. The cognitive level of 54 patients was compared with that of 64 control subjects using the Mini Mental State (MMSE). Family members completed the NEO-PI-R (form R) twice, once to evaluate the participants' current personality and again to assess personality traits as they were remembered to be 5 years earlier. Furthermore, the family filled in the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline (IQCODE), the Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scales to assess their proxies' cognitive level and daily living functioning. Regarding the relationship between personality characteristics and cognitive status, we observed trends for premorbid personality and significant links for personality changes in the clinical group. Thus, changes in neuroticism and conscientiousness were associated with cognitive deterioration, whereas decreased openness to experience and conscientiousness over time predicted loss of independence in daily functioning in the clinical group. Our study suggests that premorbid features can be considered as latent traits linked to the neuropathology underlying the disease process, while personality changes are probably the consequences of the pathological process. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale (HVIC) and the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS). The sample consisted of 1,403 working individuals from Switzerland (N = 585) and from South Africa (N = 818). Principal component factor analyses indicated that a two-factor structure replicated well across the two countries for both scales. In addition, the HVIC four-factor structure replicated well across countries, whereas the responsibility dimension of individualism of the AICS replicated poorly. Confirmatory factor analyses provided satisfactory support to the original theoretical models for both the HVIC and the AICS. Equivalence measurement indices indicated that the cross-cultural replicability properties of both instruments are generally acceptable. However, canonical correlations and correlations between the HVIC and AICS dimensions confirm that these two instruments differ in their underlying meaning of the individualism and collectivism constructs, suggesting that these two instruments assess individualism and collectivism differently.

ObjectiveThe origins of behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPS) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are still poorly understood. Focusing on individual personality structure, we explored the relationship between premorbid personality and its changes over 5 years, and BPS in patients at an early stage of AD.MethodA total of 54 patients at an early stage of AD according to ICD‐10 and NINCDS‐ADRDA criteria and 64 control subjects were included. Family members filled in the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire to evaluate their proxies' current BPS and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised twice, the first time to evaluate the participants' current personality and the second time to assess personality traits as they were remembered to be 5 years earlier.ResultsBehavioral and psychological symptoms, in particular apathy, depression, anxiety, and agitation, are frequent occurrences in early stage AD. Premorbid personality differed between AD patients and normal control, but it was not predictive of BPS in patients with AD. Personality traits clearly change in the course of beginning AD, and this change seems to develop in parallel with BPS as early signs of AD.ConclusionsPremorbid personality was not associated with BPS in early stage of AD, although complex and non‐linear relationships between the two are not excluded. However, both personality and behavioral changes occur early in the course of AD, and recognizing them as possible, early warning signs of neurodegeneration may prove to be a key factor for early detection and intervention. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Objective: To investigate personality traits in patients with Alzheimer disease, compared with mentally healthy control subjects. We compared both current personality characteristics using structured interviews as well as current and previous personality traits as assessed by proxies.Method: Fifty-four patients with mild Alzheimer disease and 64 control subjects described their personality traits using the Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model. Family members filled in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, Form R, to evaluate their proxies' current personality traits, compared with 5 years before the estimated beginning of Alzheimer disease or 5 years before the control subjects.Results: After controlling for age, the Alzheimer disease group presented significantly higher scores than normal control subjects on current neuroticism, and significantly lower scores on current extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness, while no significant difference was observed on agreeableness. A similar profile, though less accentuated, was observed when considering personality traits as the patients' proxies remembered them. Diachronic personality assessment showed again significant differences between the 2 groups for the same 4 domains, with important personality changes only for the Alzheimer disease group.Conclusions: Group comparison and retrospective personality evaluation are convergent. Significant personality changes follow a specific trend in patients with Alzheimer disease and contrast with the stability generally observed in mentally healthy people in their personality profile throughout their lives. Whether or not the personality assessment 5 years before the current status corresponds to an early sign of Alzheimer disease or real premorbid personality differences in people who later develop Alzheimer disease requires longitudinal studies.