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Family resemblances in personality

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Abstract

Parent-offspring regressions, sibling correlations, and other measures of family resemblance in personality were computed for 54 personality traits, assessed by several psychometric personality tests as part of the Hawaii Family Study of Cognition. Considering all scales, the results suggest that a small familial/heritable component exists with regard to individual differences in personality, but did not demonstrate that some domains of personality are more familial or heritable than others.

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The results reported here were made possible by the collaboration of a group of investigators (G. C. Ashton, R. C. Johnson, M. P. Mi, and M. N. Rashad at the University of Hawaii and J. C. DeFries, G. E. McClearn, S. G. Vandenberg, and J. R. Wilson at the University of Colorado) supported by NSF Grant GB 34720, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant MH 06669, National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Addiction Grant AA 01762. The present report is based on a dissertation presented by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree.

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Ahern, F.M., Johnson, R.C., Wilson, J.R. et al. Family resemblances in personality. Behav Genet 12, 261–280 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067847

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