Associations of Social Personality Factors with Personal Habits

Abstract

125 university students indicated how frequently they performed 15 different personal habits that ordinarily are socially disapproved, e.g., nail-biting, nose-picking. They also responded to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Social Desirability Scale, the Hong Psychological Reactance Scale, and the Social Interest Scale. The sexes differed in the frequencies with which they performed 6 of the 15 habits: men were more likely to pick their noses, to spit, to pick at scabs, or to repeat another's speech; while women were more apt to giggle or to pull hair. Persons who scored higher in Social Desirability tended to report less frequent performance of 12 of the 15 habits, while people who scored higher on Psychological Reactance tended to report more frequent performance of 8 of the 15 habits. A total habits score resulting from the sums of the frequency ratings of each of the 15 habits correlated positively with Psychological Reactance and negatively with Social Desirability. Scores on Narcissism and Social Interest did not significantly correlate with most habits. These results suggest that the approval motive and the disposition to resist limitation on one's freedoms may be factors affecting the rates of many of these personal habits.