An Investigation into the Relationship between Neuroticism, Extraversion and Cognitive Test Performance in Selection

Abstract

This research reports an investigation into the relationship between neuroticism, extraversion and cognitive test performance in a real selection situation. Strong support is found for the proposition that neuroticism is associated with lower performance on numerical reasoning tests in stressful situations and that the obtained scores provide a significant under-estimate of the neurotic's true ability in such circumstances. The state-trait model of anxiety and the concept of cognitive interference appear to provide an adequate explanation of the findings. The implications of these findings for the assessment of cognitive ability in selection are discussed.

A process model of self-regulation and leadership: How attentional resource capacity and negative emotions influence constructive and destructive leadership

“…Finally, while our measure of self-regulation might be impervious to self-response inflation, self-report measures of negative emotion are not and can result in non-normal data that might confound the interpretation of results (e.g., Crawford & Henry, 2004;Dobson, 2000). Although not a major issue in this study, this does highlight a potential risk in future research using self-report emotion measures.…”

“…We have developed and tested a simple and practical way to manipulate and measure self-regulation that is impervious to the influence of "response distortion," i.e., attenuation of undesirable traits like anger, and inflation of desirable traits like conscientiousness (see Bolino & Turnley, 2003;Tett & Simonet, 2011;Vasilopoulos, Reilly, & Leaman, 2000). Response distortion can not only confound the interpretation of empirical results (e.g., De Hoogh et al, 2005;Dobson, 2000), but weaken confidence in leadership selection decisions (see Hogan, Hogan, & Roberts, 1996;Spillane, 2012). We believe that our experimental procedure could be used in organizations to identify those leaders who are more vulnerable to self-regulatory impairment and destructive leadership, thereby reducing the prevalence and negative impact of such harmful behavior.…”

In the heat of the moment: On the effect of state neuroticism on task performance

“…Test-anxiety can be interpreted as a state anxiety due to testing conditions (Hembree, 1988). Test-anxiety is related to neuroticism in that it taps into negative emotionality, and there is some evidence suggesting that trait neurotics are more likely to experience test anxiety (Dobson, 2000;Moutafi et al, 2006). Correlations between test-anxiety and cognitive performance tend to be consistently stronger (meta-analytic r = -.33, Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997) than between trait neuroticism and cognitive performance (meta-analytic r= -.15).…”

Genel Bilişsel Yetenek Ölçümlerinde Süre ve Performans İlişkisinde A Tipi Kişiliğin Rolü

“…Bununla birlikte, anksiyete ve dışa dönüklük kişilik özelliklerinin incelendiği araştırmalarda, benzer biçimde zihinsel hız/performans arasındaki genel kanının aksine bulgulara ulaşıldığı görülmektedir. Örneğin kaygı düzeyi yüksek bireylerin, zaman kısıtlı zekâ testlerinden daha düşük puanlar aldıkları (Siegman, 1956), nevrotik bireylerin, normal şartlarda dengeli kişilerle aynı performansı gösterirken; stresli durumlarda, özellikle sayısal muhakemede anlamlı biçimde düşük performans gösterdikleri (Dobson, 2000); içedönüklerin zaman kısıtlaması olmayan testlerde daha başarılı oldukları (Rawlings ve Carnie, 1989) 1990) bildirilmektedir. Bu durumda bilişsel hız değişkeninin bilişsel yeteneğin yordanmasında ne kadar sağlıklı bir değişken olarak kullanılabileceği sorgulanabilir bir konu olarak öne çıkmaktadır.…”