Write up about the Conference
The first world conference on personality aimed to bring together researchers from a broader spread both geographically (beyond Australia-Asia, or Europe) and in terms of subject areas (beyond only personality or only intelligence). It was successful in gathering about 350 paper and poster presentations from delegates representing over 50 countries, on topics covering personality, intelligence, and individual differences. During the 5-day conference, it featured 3 pre-conference workshops, 10 keynote addresses, over 70 parallel sessions of invited/proposed symposia, and paper presentations. On the last day of the conference, the delegates were invited to join, as founding members, an international organization of personality and individual differences psychologists. The next conference has been scheduled for 2016, in Salvador, Brazil.
Feedback on paper presented
he most significant feedback came from two keynote speakers who mentioned the same problem tackled by the paper, namely, the association of Anger Experience with both Neuroticism and Agreeableness, rather than only with the former trait domain. The bi-dimensionality of Anger Experience, which they apparently found in reviews of the literature in their respective areas (Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Psychopathology), goes against the common belief of Anger Experience’s exclusive link with Neuroticism. When I informed them that our studies found confirmatory results of a direct test of such a hypothesis (that Anger Experience is linked to both Neuroticism and Agreeableness), both expressed interest.
Future directions of research presented
1) The standardized scale that we used to assess Anger Experience was constructed by us. In the future, we plan to do a study making use of more established instruments measuring Anger Experience.
2) The evidence presented in the three studies reported in the paper took the form of self-reported behaviors, feelings, and thoughts typical of the participants. As suggested by one member of the audience during the presentation, data can also take the form of self-report of (mild) anger experience after experimental induction.
3) Finally, it would be a significant contribution to consolidate the findings from different areas, as mentioned in 7.3, and document the consequences of leaving the apparently erroneous classification of Anger Experience as it is now.
Other important contacts and insights
– Khairul Mastor, PhD, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and Magdalena Halim PhD, Atma Jaya Indonesia Catholic University: I organized a symposium on the Five-Factor Model of personality traits at the upcoming joint convention of the Asean Regional Union of Psychologists and the Psychological Association of the Philippines to be held at Miriam College in October, 2013 with these two colleagues from Southeast Asia, both on the teaching staff of their respective universities. Research collaboration possibilities, began during the conference, will continue in Manila in October.
– Seyedmehdi Ghazinour, PhD, Umea University, Sweden: Dr. Ghazinour is involved in a 2-country study of mental health programs for the Swedish and South African police. He had meant to include the Philippines as the third country when the project began some years ago, but got no replies when he tried to get in touch with Filipino psychologists. We had initial discussions on the prospects of integrating my plans of studying the personality of the police personnel in the Philippines with his research.
Short write-up of one’s participation (to be used to feature/publicize the grantee’s participation in the conference)
I attended the pre-conference workshop on R given by Prof. William Revelle, PhD, a well-known personality psychologist from Northwestern University in the US, and author of the Psychology Package in R. The first keynote address, by Oliver John of the University of California at Berkeley, was given in the evening, followed by the welcome reception for the delegates. I made my presentation in one of the parallel sessions the next day, which seemed to have maintained audience interest all throughout. I also presented a poster later in the afternoon of the second day, on the relationship of personality traits to Bahala Na. The rest of the second day, as well as the third and fourth days, were spent attending the various parallel sessions and keynote addresses. I also met with two Southeast Asian colleagues from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the Atma Jaya Indonesia Catholic University to discuss prospects for research collaboration. On the last day of the conference, the delegates formally founded an international organization of personality psychologists, agreed to publish an online journal, and set the second conference in Salvador, Brazil, in 2016.
