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Biomedical subjects

D M Buss

Publications and source records attributed to D M Buss.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Manipulation in close relationships: five personality factors in interactional context.

This research had three basic goals: (a) to identify manipulation tactics used in close relationships; (b) to document empirically the degree of generality and specificity of tactical deployment across relationship types (mates, friends, parents); and (c) to identify links between five major personality dimensions and the usage of manipulation tactics. Twelve manipulation tactics were identified through separate factor analyses of two instruments based on different data sources: Charm, Reason, Coercion, Silent Treatment, Debasement, and Regression (replicating Buss et al., 1987), and Responsibility Invocation, Reciprocity, Monetary Reward, Pleasure Induction, Social Comparison, and Hardball (an amalgam of threats, lies, and violence). The Big Five personality factors were assessed through three separate data sources: self-report, spouse report, and two independent interviewers. Personality factors showed coherent links with tactics, including Surgency (Coercion, Responsibility, Invocation), Desurgency (Debasement), Agreeableness (Pleasure Induction), Disagreeableness (Coercion), Conscientiousness (Reason), Emotional Instability (Regression), and Intellect-Openness (Reason). Discussion focuses on the consequences of the five personality factors for social interaction in close relationships.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Narcissistic acts in everyday life.

This article presents a series of studies on narcissism, a personality syndrome receiving increasing theoretical and practical attention. Four empirical studies were carried out to (a) identify narcissistic acts in everyday life, (b) identify the acts subsumed by dispositions that are seen as central components of narcissism, (c) identify which acts and which dispositions are most and least central to narcissism, (d) test the hypothesis that the conceptually specified component dispositions of the narcissistic personality disorder indeed covary sufficiently to merit the designation of narcissism as a syndrome, (e) identify sex differences in the acts through which narcissism is manifested, (f) validate the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (a major personality instrument developed to assess narcissism), and (g) locate narcissistic act performance within each of three major taxonomies of personality psychology.

Empathy↗
PubMed1991

Conflict in married couples: personality predictors of anger and upset.

This research had two central goals: to examine the role of personality in (a) performing actions that anger spouses, and (b) eliciting anger-provoking actions from spouses. Personality data on a sample of married persons (N = 214) were obtained from three sources--self-report, spouse-observer report, and independent interviewers' reports. In a separate session, subjects recorded which of 147 upsetting actions their spouses had performed in the past year. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly). Discussion of this research focuses on the implications of personality for conflict in marital relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Toward a biologically informed psychology of personality.

This article describes nine ways in which biological approaches can inform issues of central and long-standing concern to personality psychologists. These include: (a) developing an adequate description of human nature, (b) providing several solutions to the puzzle of within-species genetic variability, (c) identifying the most important ways in which individuals differ, (d) giving precision to the concepts of adaptation and adjustment, (e) identifying the origins of personality dispositions, (f) providing insight into personality development and the life course, (g) providing conceptual and evidential standards for invoking personality types as opposed to personality dimensions, (h) addressing the psychophysiology of personality, and (i) focusing attention on psychological mechanisms as evolved dispositional strategies.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1989

Conflict between the sexes: strategic interference and the evocation of anger and upset.

Advances an evolution-based model of strategic conflict between men and women. Conflict is predicted to occur whenever the reproductive strategy adopted by one sex interferes with that adopted by the opposite sex. Three empirical studies tested hypotheses based on this model. Study 1 (N = 528) examined sex differences in sources of anger and upset (e.g., about sexual aggressiveness or withholding) among 2 samples of Ss differing in age and martial status. Study 2 (N = 60) assessed the perceived magnitude of upset each sex would experience when confronted by each source. Study 3 (N = 214) tested predictions within married couples about sex differences in sources of marital and sexual dissatisfaction. These studies provide modest support for the strategic conflict model and implicate the negative emotions of anger and upset as proximate mechanisms that alert men and women to strategic interference. The diversity of upset elicitors discovered here, such as being condescending, possessive, neglecting, abusive, inconsiderate, moody, and self-centered, point to the limitations of this evolutionary model and the need to develop more comprehensive models of conflict between the sexes.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Structure of act-report data: is the five-factor model of personality recaptured?

We examined the correspondence between the structure of act-report data and 5-factor models emerging from trait-rating data. Twenty categories were selected as markers for the 5-factor model and retrospective act reports were constructed for the target categories. One hundred eighteen men and women comprising 59 dating couples completed self-based and observer-based act reports. Several factor analyses tested different assumptions. Retaining total act performance (TAP) produced a blend of the traditional 5 factors. Removing TAP closely reproduced the 5-factor model in both principal-components and procrustes analyses. Correlations between the derived act factors and trait ratings from 6 data sources support a reinterpretation of the traditional trait labels. Discussion focuses on the implications of different assumptions on the formulation of a basic model of personality structure.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The evolution of human intrasexual competition: tactics of mate attraction.

Darwin's theory of sexual selection suggests that individuals compete with members of their own sex for reproductively relevant resources held by members of the opposite sex. Four empirical studies were conducted to identify tactics of intrasexual mate competition and to test four evolution-based hypotheses. A preliminary study yielded a taxonomy of tactics. Study 1 used close-friend observers to report performance frequencies of 23 tactics to test the hypotheses. Study 2 replicated Study 1's results by using a different data source and subject population. Study 3 provided an independent test of the hypotheses in assessing the perceived effectiveness of each tactic for male and female actors. Although the basic hypotheses were supported across all three studies, there were several predictive failures and unanticipated findings. Discussion centers on the heuristic as well as predictive role of evolutionary theory, and on implications for other arenas of intrasexual competition.

Achievement↗
PubMed1987

Tactics of manipulation.

Manipulation is one means by which environments are altered to correspond to characteristics of individuals. We conducted two studies to identify the manipulation tactics that people use to elicit and terminate the actions of others. Factor analyses of four instruments revealed six types of tactics: charm, silent treatment, coercion, reason, regression, and debasement. Tactics of manipulation showed strong individual difference consistency across contexts. The charm tactic, however, was used more frequently for behavioral elicitation, whereas the coercion and silent treatment tactics were used more frequently for behavioral termination. Manipulation tactics covaried significantly across self-based and observer-based data sources with personality scales of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Ambitious-Lazy, Arrogant-Unassuming, Quarrelsome-Agreeable, and Calculating and with characteristics of subjects' social environments. We draw implications for an interactionist framework of person-environment correspondence, for an expansion of the taxonomic task that faces personality psychology, and for identifying links between personality and other scientific disciplines.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Selection, evocation, and manipulation.

This article proposes three key mechanisms by which personality and social processes are intrinsically linked. Selection deals with the manner in which individuals choose to enter or avoid existing environments. Evocation is defined by the ways in which individuals unintentionally elicit predictable reactions from others in their social environments. Manipulation deals with the tactics that individuals use intentionally to alter, shape, exploit, or change the social environments they inhabit. Empirical findings from 57 dating couples (undergraduates), and previous research within social, personality, and developmental psychology, are used to illustrate the heuristic value of this framework.

Humans↗