Interrelationship differences between personality traits in men and women

Abstract

The purpose of work was the estimation of differences of interrelationships between personality traits in men and women. Material and methods. The study involved 119 Ukrainian young people aged from 18 to 22 years (105 men and 14 women). The participants were proposed to answer questions of the Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory, Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory was used to study aggressiveness. The Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to investigate the anxiety traits. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire provided the estimation of extraversion–introversion ratio, neuroticism and the sincerity of answers. If the answers were not sincere, they were not taken into account. Statistical analysis of the results was carried out by methods of nonparametric statistics using the package “Statistica 6.0”. Results and discussion. According to the results, women and men did not differ by extraversion, neuroticism and anxiety traits, but women had a statistically significant lower aggressiveness index. This was mainly due to lower physical aggressiveness in the absence of a difference in verbal and indirect aggressiveness. It is possible that differences in aggressiveness index and physical aggressiveness between men and women are provided by features of interrelationships between personality traits. Although both men and women had strong reliable positive interrelationships between neuroticism and anxiety traits, women had some differences in the correlation between some personality traits. Conclusions. Women had a statistically significant lower aggressiveness index mainly due to lower physical aggressiveness. Both men and women had strong reliable positive interrelationships between neuroticism and anxiety traits. Moderate reliable negative correlation between extraversion and anxiety traits in men, and strong negative correlation between extraversion and neuroticism in women were found. Opposite character of correlations between neuroticism and aggressiveness index was revealed in women (strong negative correlation) and men (moderate positive correlation). Features of the relationships between personality traits in males and females are due to the determining role of sex hormones for the organization and modulation of neural networks related to behaviour. Thus, the study of differences between sex and stress hormones levels and their relationships with personality traits in men and women is necessary for understanding the aggressiveness development mechanisms.