Relationships between Karolinska Personality Scales and the new factors and facets of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire

Abstract

Psychobiological models of personality are of great use in clinical and research settings given their potential to construct working hypotheses on biological and behavioural correlates, as well as to predict vulnerability to mental disorders. Two personality models are rooted in this psychobiological tradition: Zuckerman`s Alternative Five Factors and the Karolinska Personality Scales (KSP). A new instrument (ZKA-PQ) has been recently developed by Aluja, Kuhlman & Zuckerman (2010) to measure the Alternative Five Factors. The ZKA-PQ incorporates four new facets by each trait. This article analyses areas of overlap and differences between the ZKA-PQ and Karolinska Personality Scales. The total sample comprised 584 subjects (294 men and 290 women). The results suggest that sensation seeking (ZKA-PQ) is mainly associated with monotony avoidance (KSP), neuroticism (ZKA-PQ) with anxiety scales, aggressiveness (ZKAPQ) with every KSP aggression scale, and extroversion (ZKA-PQ) with the detachment scale (KSP). The discussion mainly centres on the information provided by the ZKA-PQ facets beyond basic personality traits, since in certain cases they qualify these general patterns, adding relevant information on the nature of the ZKA-PQ and Karolinska scales.