Final Project: [Personality Scale Analysis]
[Ta’Mya Boxdell]
23 May, 2025
Introduction
This study looks at how personality traits such as, neuroticism and extraversion might work together to predict a conscientiousness. Conscientiousness is important because it’s linked to being organized, responsible, and gal-drive. Previous research by YU and Hu (2022) showed that neuroticism and extraversion affect mental health, especially during stressful times like the COVID-19 pandemic. Another study by Jylhä and Isometsä (2006) also found that these traits are related to anxiety and depression. Using data from Dincer (2021), this study explores whether neuroticism and extraversion can help explain differences in how conscientious people are.
Literature Review
Article 1 Summary
Zainal and Newman (2022) conducted a longitudinal study examining how Big Five personality traits predict mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data collected over time, they found that higher levels of neuroticism were strongly associated with increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness appeared to serve as protective factors. The study highlights the importance of personality in understanding vulnerability to mental health struggles, especially during times of crisis.
Article 2 Summary
Jylhä and Isometsä (2006) conducted a study examining the relationship between personality traits and symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population. They found that higher levels of neuroticism were significantly associated with increased symptoms of both anxiety and depression, while higher levels of extraversion were associated with fewer symptoms. These findings support the idea that personality traits, particularly neuroticism and extraversion, play a crucial role in mental health outcomes. # Hypothesis
Neuroticism, extraversion, and their interaction will significantly predict conscientiousness in young adults.
Descriptive Statistics Present the descriptive statistics for your variables. Include appropriate measures of central tendency (mean, median), variability (standard deviation, range), and frequency distributions where applicable. Use R code chunks to generate and display your results.
Loading required libraries
# Load necessary libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(psych)
library(knitr)
psyc <- read.csv("psyc.csv")## vars n mean sd median trimmed mad min max range skew
## gender* 1 315 1.50 0.50 2 1.51 0.00 1 2 1 -0.02
## age 2 315 20.24 2.62 20 20.07 2.97 5 28 23 0.06
## openness 3 315 4.85 1.54 5 4.96 1.48 1 8 7 -0.60
## neuroticism 4 315 4.58 1.82 5 4.65 1.48 1 9 8 -0.27
## conscientiousness 5 315 4.81 1.79 5 4.93 1.48 1 9 8 -0.42
## agreeableness 6 315 4.84 1.72 5 4.94 1.48 1 8 7 -0.41
## extraversion 7 315 4.93 1.47 5 4.98 1.48 1 8 7 -0.40
## Personality* 8 315 3.72 1.44 4 3.86 1.48 1 5 4 -0.54
## kurtosis se
## gender* -2.01 0.03
## age 2.88 0.15
## openness -0.16 0.09
## neuroticism -0.64 0.10
## conscientiousness -0.62 0.10
## agreeableness -0.44 0.10
## extraversion 0.08 0.08
## Personality* -1.34 0.08Statistical Analysis
Analysis
Perform your chosen analysis. Make sure your output shows.
##
## Call:
## lm(formula = conscientiousness ~ neuroticism * extraversion,
## data = psyc)
##
## Residuals:
## Min 1Q Median 3Q Max
## -4.5628 -1.1864 0.3284 1.3293 3.9191
##
## Coefficients:
## Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)
## (Intercept) 3.73656 1.01270 3.690 0.000265 ***
## neuroticism 0.37884 0.20259 1.870 0.062430 .
## extraversion 0.15592 0.19572 0.797 0.426247
## neuroticism:extraversion -0.06322 0.03899 -1.621 0.105941
## ---
## Signif. codes: 0 '***' 0.001 '**' 0.01 '*' 0.05 '.' 0.1 ' ' 1
##
## Residual standard error: 1.772 on 311 degrees of freedom
## Multiple R-squared: 0.02573, Adjusted R-squared: 0.01633
## F-statistic: 2.738 on 3 and 311 DF, p-value: 0.04359Post-hoc Power Analysis
Run a post-hoc power analysis with the pwr package. Use
the pwr.f2.test function for multiple regression power
analysis.
##
## Multiple regression power calculation
##
## u = 3
## v = 311
## f2 = 0.026
## sig.level = 0.05
## power = 0.6594232Results Interpretation
The regression model predicting conscientiousness from neuroticism, extraversion, and their interaction were significant, F(3, 311) = 2.74, p = .044, but with a 2.6% variance. Neuroticism showed a positive trend toward predicting conscientiousness (p = .062), while extraversion and the interaction were not significant. This suggests that neuroticism might be weakly associated with conscientiousness, but there isn’t enough evidence.
Graph and Table
Include at least one table and one graph that effectively summarize your analysis and findings. Use R code chunks to generate these visualizations.
#Example R code for creating a graph
# You will be performing a median split
# Median split for Experience to visualize the linear x linear interaction
psyc <- psyc %>%
mutate(neuroticism_group = ifelse(neuroticism >= median(neuroticism, na.rm = TRUE), "High Neuroticism", "Low Neuroticism"))
# Plot the interaction using the median split
ggplot(psyc, aes(x = extraversion, y = conscientiousness, color = neuroticism_group)) +
geom_point() +
geom_smooth(method = "lm", se = FALSE) +
labs(title = "Effect of Extraversion on Conscientiousness by Neuroticism Group (Median Split)", x = "Extraversion", y = "Conscientiousness"
) +
scale_color_manual(values = c("High Neuroticism" = "darkgreen", "Low Neuroticism" = "darkorange")) +
theme_apa()
# Create a summary table by Species
# Summary table for Extraversion by neuroticism_group
summary_extraversion <- psyc %>%
group_by(neuroticism_group) %>%
summarise(
Mean.Extraversion = mean(extraversion),
SD.Extraversion = sd(extraversion),
Min.Extraversion = min(extraversion),
Max.Extraversion = max(extraversion)
)
# Summary table for Conscientiousness by neuroticism_group
summary_conscientiousness <- psyc %>%
group_by(neuroticism_group) %>%
summarise(
Mean_Conscientiousness = mean(conscientiousness),
SD.Conscientiousness = sd(conscientiousness),
Min.Conscientiousness = min(conscientiousness),
Max.Conscientiousness = max(conscientiousness)
)# Display the table using knitr::kable()
kable(summary_extraversion, caption = "Descriptive Statistics for Extraversion by Neuroticism Group")| neuroticism_group | Mean.Extraversion | SD.Extraversion | Min.Extraversion | Max.Extraversion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Neuroticism | 4.913295 | 1.505222 | 1 | 8 |
| Low Neuroticism | 4.943662 | 1.423086 | 1 | 8 |
kable(summary_conscientiousness, caption = "Descriptive Statistics for Extraversion by Neuroticism Group")| neuroticism_group | Mean_Conscientiousness | SD.Conscientiousness | Min.Conscientiousness | Max.Conscientiousness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Neuroticism | 4.907514 | 1.779274 | 1 | 9 |
| Low Neuroticism | 4.697183 | 1.794355 | 1 | 8 |
Discussion
Discuss the implications of your results for psychological theory or practice. Address the following points:
Implications:The results suggest that neuroticism and extraversion have only a weak relationship with conscientiousness. This supports previous research showing personality traits are related but do not strongly predict one another.
Limitations: One limitation is that the sample size, while decent, may not be large enough to detect stronger effects. Also, the data is self-reported, which can introduce bias or inaccuracies. Additionally, the study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show how these traits change over time.
Future Directions: Future research could use a longitudinal design to examine how personality traits evolve and influence each other over time. It would also be helpful to include more diverse samples to improve generalization. Finally, exploring additional factors like stress or social support could clarify how these traits interact in predicting conscientiousness.
References
List the articles you reviewed in APA format. Do not worry about the indentations.
Yu, T., & Hu, J. (2022, March 6). Extraversion and neuroticism on college freshmen’s depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of social support. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.822699/full
Jylhä, P., & Isometsä, E. (2006). The relationship of neuroticism and extraversion to symptoms of anxiety and depression in the general population. Depression and Anxiety, 23(5), 281-289. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20167
Dincer, B. (2021, April 1). Personality scale analysis. Kaggle. https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/brsdincer/personality-scale-analysis?resource=download