AN INVESTIGATIVE STUDY ON PERSONALITY AND GENDER AS PREDICTOR OF COPING WITH SUSPECTS IN POLICE CUSTODY
ABSTRACT
The psychology of personality is a very broad topic, to which people have taken diverse theoretical approaches (McAdams & Olson 20 I 0). Personality is easy to observe but hard to pin down. According to Allport (1961), personality is the dynamic organization within the person of the psychological and physical systems that underlie that person’s patterns of actions, thoughts, and feelings. What dynamics are assumed, however, and what systems are proposed to underlie those dynamics vary greatly across theoretical viewpoints. Evidences have pointed to the robustness of personality traits in explanation of subjective well-being (Costa, & McCrae, 1998; David & Suls, 1999). This has been admitted and applied in psychology, sociology and management (Clayson & Sheffect, 2006). The Five Factor Model ((Costa & McCrae, 1989) has been widely used in investigating the role of personality on life satisfaction. These factors of personality traits are extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience and conscientiousness. Extroversion focuses mainly on quantity and intensity of relationship (Dneve & Cooper, 1998). Extraverted individuals tend to be sociable, gregarious and assertive (Costa & McCrae, 1992). They are prone to reward in interpersonal relationship (Watson & Clark, 1997), and are predisposed to experience positive emotion (Costa & McCrea, 1992). Agreeable individuals are friendly and cooperative. Related behaviours include being flexible, trusting, forgiving and tolerant (McCrae & Costa, 1986). Associated behaviours of conscientious individual include being careful, thorough, responsible, organized and achievement-oriented (McCrae & Costa, 1986). Openness to experience describes imaginative and carouse tendencies. Highly open people are original, cultured, broadminded and intelligent (McCaer & Costa, 1986). Individuals high in neuroticism experience more negative life event than others (Magnus, Diener, Fujita, & Pavot, 1993). Related behaviours are being anxious, depressed, emotional, worries and insecure.
