Personality

Overview

Personality is a hypothetical construct made up of various components. Broadly defined, personality is an individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour that influence his or her interactions with the environment. There are many different psychometric tests available to measure personality, yet each do so in slightly different ways.

Key Points

Regardless, there have been several personality traits linked with harmful gambling including sensation-seeking, dissociation, novelty-seeking, low trait self-control or willpower, and emotional vulnerability. Personality disorders (severe forms of personality traits) are often comorbid with harmful gambling. Rates of antisocial personality disorder, antisocial traits, and delinquency are elevated and may underlie some forms of harmful gambling.

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References

Odlaug, B. L., Schreiber, L. R., & Grant, J. E. (2013). Personality dimensions and disorders in pathological gambling. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 26(1), 107-112.

Bagby, R. M., Vachon, D. D., Bulmash, E. L., Toneatto, T., Quilty, L. C., & Costa, P. T. (2007). Pathological gambling and the five-factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(4), 873-880.

Myrseth, H., Pallesen, S., Molde, H., Johnsen, B. H., & Lorvik, I. M. (2009). Personality factors as predictors of pathological gambling. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(8), 933-937.

Abdollahnejad, R., Delfabbro, P., & Denson, L. (2015). Personality disorders and erroneous beliefs in pathological gambling. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 13(3), 376-390.