Denis Bratko

University of Zagreb · Department of Psychology

Most Five-Factor Model (FFM) questionnaire items contain unique variance that is partly heritable, stable, and consensually observable, demonstrates consistent associations with age and sex, and predicts life outcomes beyond higher order factors. Extending these findings to the HEXACO model, we meta-analyzed single-item cross-rater agreement, herit...

Subjective well-being (SWB) is a multidimensional construct composed of (i) a cognitive component, which includes an assessment of life satisfaction, and two affective components, (ii) positive affect (PA) and (iii) negative affect (NA). These three components are theoretically independent and they may have different relations with other constructs...

Subjective well-being is a good indicator of the individual's psychological health. High levels of subjective well-being have been found in adolescents who are regularly physically active, less prone to negative emotions, more easily able to cope with life's problems and challenges, have a lower body mass index, and exhibit higher levels of life sa...

The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematize available empirical findings in the field of basic psychological needs and personality traits overlap. Study eligibility criteria were: three basic psychological needs defined within Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness), Five-factor model/Big Five model of personality traits,...

Most Five-Factor Model questionnaire items contain unique variance that 1) is heritable, stable, and observable; 2) demonstrates consistent associations with age and sex, and 3) is predictive of life outcomes over and above higher-order factors. This is consistent with items indexing a unique level of the personality trait hierarchy—nuances. Extend...

In the field of personality research, there has long been a consensus that personality structure is best captured with five broad factors. However, another model, HEXACO with six factors, is increasingly used. We aimed to investigate the overlap between those personality models, as well as their predictive validity for relevant outcomes. A total of...

Affect is involved in many psychological phenomena, but a descriptive structure, long sought, has been elusive. Valence and arousal are fundamental, and a key question-the focus of the present study-is the relationship between them. Valence is sometimes thought to be independent of arousal, but, in some studies (representing too few societies in th...

Self-determination theory postulates that three basic psychological needs – need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness – drive our motivation. However, little is known about the sources of individual differences in basic psychological needs, and about its shared etiology with personality. Self-report data on basic psychological needs and five-f...

Subjective well-being is a construct that was examined within numerous psychological research and its popularity has been growing over the last thirty years. It is defined as a combination of cognitive evaluation of one’s life and affective tendencies. However, there are certain inconsistencies and differences in its operationalization in the liter...

Background Decision making is one of the basic human activities. Indecisiveness, i.e. the stable tendency towards not making decisions in a timely manner, may influence the quality and speed in decision making and have long-term consequences for our professional and personal life. The goal of this research was to examine the position of indecisiven...

Social dominance orientation (SDO), i.e. the preference toward egalitarian or hierarchically arranged relations within a society may be studied from social/contextual, but also dispositional perspective. The aim of the present study was to explore genetic and environmental contribution to the individual differences in SDO, and its overlap with HEXA...

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of the Dark Triad traits (i.e. Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) with the positive and negative affective traits and their descriptors. Data was collected online on a total of 880 participants (age: M = 24.23, SD = 6.52, 176 male) via Short Dark Triad and PANAS scales. Bivariate corr...

Decades of research have shown that about half of individual differences in personality traits is heritable. Recent studies have reported that heritability is not fixed, but instead decreases across the life span. However, findings are inconsistent and it is yet unclear whether these trends are because of a waning importance of heritable tendencies...

In their target article, Ashton and Lee listed objections related to HEXACO personality model and refute them. We consider their arguments as strong and difficult to oppose. However, we are wondering whether putting emphasis on the fact that six factors are more suitable than five is really substantial for personality science. We believe that it ca...

This study examines cultural differences in genetic and environmental influences on Five-Factor Model (FFM) across Croatian, German and Serbian cultures. Participants were 1021 monozygotic and 722 dizygotic twin pairs and NEO Five-Factor Inventory– NEO-FFI is used to assess FFM personality traits. Results show a similar pattern of genetic and envir...

The goal of this study was to explore the raters' agreement and the effect of raters' and targets' gender on self- and parental intelligence assessments in the sample of Croatian twins. Twins were asked to assess their own and their parents' overall intelligence, as well as specific abilities from the Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Dat...

Research have shown that a relatively accurate judgement of some personality traits can be achieved even when judgements are based on very small amount of information, such as short videos or photographs. It has also been found that some cues leading to accurate judgment were related to characteristics of physical appearance such as dressing style....

The hypothesis that personality is more differentiated, or variable, for individuals higher in intelligence was tested in a large sample (N = 1,050) of young Croatian adults. Participants completed a measure of the Big Five personality factors in self-report format. Also administered was a verbal ability test as an estimate of intelligence. As the...

Exploring determinants of human happiness has been increasingly prevalent in studies over the last few decades. Aim of this study was primarily to explore age differences in life satisfaction in Croatian adults ranging in age from early 20s to 40s. Additionally, we aimed to predict life satisfaction based on gender, basic psychological needs satisf...

Background In order to adequately assess aggression in adolescence, the Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) was developed. It evaluates both forms and functions of aggression (i.e. proactive overt, proactive relational, reactive overt and reactive relational aggression). The goal of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Croatian versi...

Research in sport and exercise psychology indicates that motivational factors contribute to exceptional achievement, both in individual and team sports. Therefore, analysing differences between junior and senior athletes in contact ball sports in terms of their motivational differences may be an important information source for the selection proces...

Prosocial behavior is intended to benefit others rather than oneself and is positively linked to personality traits such as Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility, and usually negatively to the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy). However, a significant proportion of the research in this area is conducted solely on s...

In this paper, we explore the relationship between personality, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO) and anti-immigrant prejudice of Croatian youth (N = 1050). We base our hypotheses on the Dual-process motivational model of ideology and prejudice (DPM) and the meta-theoretical framework of McCrae and Costa’s five-f...

Prosocial behaviour covers a broad range of actions that are intended to benefit others rather than oneself, thus forming different types of prosocial tendencies which are linked to different individual characteristics. Moreover, there are some gender differences in the types of prosocial behaviour that males and females engage in. Therefore, the a...

Aim of this study was to examine the relationship between relative income, psychological needs satisfaction and life satisfaction in a sample of Croatian adults. Participants assessed their household income relative to Croatian average income, life satisfaction with Satisfaction with Life Scale, and level of basic psychological needs satisfaction w...

The aim of this study is to simplify the issue of the concept of heritability, to give an introduction to the behavioral genetic theory and methods, as well as to give an overview of the current knowledge about heritability of personality and the quantitative and molecular genetic approach to estimate heritability. Following that, results on herita...

Objectives The aim of this study was to obtain a heritability estimate of exercise behaviour in twins and to examine the genetic and environmental contributions to phenotypic associations between personality and exercise behaviour. Design Twin study was used, the sample including 339 twin pairs (105 MZ and 234 DZ), between 15 and 22 years of age (M...

Prosocial behavior includes a broad range of actions intended to benefit others rather than oneself. Determinants of prosocial behavior can be both situational and dispositional. The most pronounced dispositional determinants of prosocial behavior among personality traits are Agreeableness form the Five Factor model and, even more, Honesty-Humility...

Prosocial behavior covers the broad range of actions intended to benefit others rather than oneself. Research related to dispositional determinants of prosocial behavior showed that the best predictor of prosocial behavior is personality trait Honesty-Humility (HH) represented in the HEXACO model. The low pole of the HH was found to be essentially...

We tested a hypothesis that there is no genetic correlation between general factors of intelligence and personality, despite both having been selected for in human evolution. This was done using twin samples from Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Croatia, comprising altogether 1,748 monozygotic and 1,329 same-sex diz...

The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematize available findings in the field of personality heritability and test for possible moderator effects of study design, type of personality model, and gender on heritability estimates. Study eligibility criteria were: personality model, behavior genetic study design, self-reported data, essential statis...

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-...

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-...

This paper focuses on two phenomena that are quite unusual, but relatively often present in the literature about consumer behaviour and traditional brand management – brand personality and self-congruity. Here they are examined within the framework of tourists’ behaviour and destination management. Consequently, brand personality relates to the per...

Personality traits are documented as one of the best predictors of subjective well-being. While the relation between some personality traits and life satisfaction has been intensively investigated, research regarding some is still scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between life satisfaction and the Dark Tri...

Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show well-defined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor trait...

Abstract Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show welldefined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-fact...

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between parents' perfectionism and self-reported parenting behaviors. The study included 786 parents (417 mothers and 369 fathers) of high school students. Results showed that parents' positive and negative perfectionism were differently related to specific forms of child rearing practices. N...

The aim of this study was to compare personality resemblance in four independent Croatian samples using the same family study design, but different measures of five-factor personality traits. The family study design can provide evidence of familial aggregation of personality and of assortative mating. Father-mother correlations, father-offspring co...

Consensual stereotypes of some groups are relatively accurate, whereas others are not. Previous work suggesting that national character stereotypes are inaccurate has been criticized on several grounds. In this article we (a) provide arguments for the validity of assessed national mean trait levels as criteria for evaluating stereotype accuracy; an...

The objective of this study was to examine which genetic and environmental influences contribute to individual differences in sleep duration in a sample of Croatian adolescent/early adult twins, as well as to investigate the relationship between personality and sleep duration. Participants included 339 twin pairs (105 monozygotic and 234 dizygotic)...

Basic psychological needs have been shown to correlate phenotypically with life satisfaction and to predict life satisfaction over and beyond personality dimensions. Since it has been shown that correlations between personality dimensions and life satisfaction are completely due to overlapping genetic effects, the goal of this study was to test whe...

Manipulation tactics represent different ways people try to influence others to do something for them. All people use them and they enable people to get what they need and want. Previous studies have shown that phenotypic correlations between manipulation tactics and personality are due to overlapping genetic factors. This study examined the relati...

This study explores the origins of individual differences in impulsive buying from a behavioral genetics perspective. It also assesses whether phenotypic associations between personality and impulsive buying tendency can be attributed to overlapping genetic factors. Data were collected via mail for 339 twin pairs. Personality traits according to a...

Phenotypic and genetic associations between self-assessed intelligence, personality and measured IQ were explored using 732 Croatian twins (15–22 years old). Data was collected on cognitive ability, selfassessed intelligence (SAI), and Five-Factor Model personality traits via mail. Significant phenotypic associations were found: measured IQ correlat...

Earlier studies have established that a substantial percentage of variance in obesity-related phenotypes and in exercise behaviors is influenced by genetic and environmental effects. Heritability estimates from different countries range between 65 and 85% for body mass index (BMI), while this percentage is somewhat lower for exercise behavior (35-5...

Age trajectories for personality traits are known to be similar across cultures. To address whether stereotypes of age groups reflect these age-related changes in personality, we asked participants in 26 countries (N = 3,323) to rate typical adolescents, adults, and old persons in their own country. Raters across nations tended to share similar bel...

Self-perceived abilities (SPA), which play an important role in academic achievement, have been recently reported to be fully attributable to genetic and non-shared environmental influences. To replicate and extend this finding, 732 Croatian twins (15–22 years old) were assessed on cognitive ability, self-assessed intelligence (SAI), and Five Facto...

Cilj ove metaanalize bio je sistematizirati postojeće znanje o genetskom doprinosu individualnim razlikama u subjektivnoj dobrobiti (eng. subjective well-being) te dati smjernice za buduća istraživanja. Subjektivna dobrobit predstavlja tendenciju ka pozitivnim kognitivnim i afektivnim evaluacijama vlastita život. Dosadašnja istraživanja na području...

The relationship between personality and well-being is dynamic and therefore should be examined within aging perspective. In study presented here we compared the prediction of well-being from personality in two samples–223 adolescents attending high-school (16–19years; M=16.94, SD=0.51) and 134 older adults (54–90years; M=77.20, SD=7.39) living in...

We examined properties of culture-level personality traits in ratings of targets (N 5 5,109) ages 12 to 17 in 24 cultures.

The present chapter begins with a brief overview of the foundations and the methods used in behaviour and molecular genetics. That is followed by an overview of results from behaviour genetic studies of aggression, including information about heritability of aggression, genetic overlap between different types of aggression, sex differences in herit...

The purpose of this study was to explore genetic and environmental influences on general knowledge (GK) and its relationship with intelligence. The sample consisted of 71 MZ and 78 DZ twin pairs, aged on average 17 years. General knowledge was measured with a test consisting of 60 items measuring different domains of GK including geography, history...

College students (N=3,435) in 26 cultures reported their perceptions of age-related changes in physical, cognitive, and socioemotional areas of functioning and rated societal views of aging within their culture. There was widespread cross-cultural consensus regarding the expected direction of aging trajectories with (a) perceived declines in societ...

In the present study, we investigated the existence of an effect of measuring personality at different levels on parent-offspring correlations and subsequently on familial aggregation estimates. Personality was conceptualized at four levels: specific reactions level, domain level, higher-order factor level and general factor of personality. FFPI (H...

Previous studies of sex differences in manipulation tactics have mainly shown that women use them more often than men. In this study, we wanted to explore the nature of manipulation tactics used by men and women when manipulating people of the same and opposite sex. Data was collected on 678 individuals of 339 twin pairs. They all completed manipul...

Numerous models of emotional intelligence (EI) have proposed the existence of hitherto undiscovered mental abilities, competencies, and skills. The theory of trait emotional intelligence suggests that the content domains of these models invariably contain permutations of personality traits. The two studies in this article examine the heritability o...

This paper presents research conducted on the factor structure of rules in friendship relationships. Based on the previous research of other authors and the process of collecting the rules that young adults use in their friendship relationships, an IR-1 self-assessment measure was developed that consisted of 141 friendship-related rules which was a...

Recent researches of perfectionism clearly indicate that it is necessary to differentiate positive and negative aspects of perfectionism. This study investigated differential association of perfectionism with positive and negative aspects of life. AIM: A correlation research was conducted to examine the relation of perfectionism dimensions (high st...

Positive friendship relationships are connected to the psychological well-being and social adjustment of an individual. Relationship quality in friendships is influenced by the rules that participants use in the interaction with their partners. This paper presents the research of the factor structure of rules in friendship relationships. Based on t...

The aim of this study was to explore the aetiology of individual differences in manipulation tactics and the relationship between manipulation tactics and personality traits using a family study design. The sample used in the study consisted of 193 (60 male, 133 female) pupils of high-schools in Zagreb and their parents (152 male, 188 female). All...

The primary aim of this study was to conduct a bivariate genetic analysis investigating the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to stability and change in personality factors in the period from adolescence to young adulthood on a sample of Croatian twins. The sample used in this research was formed in 1992 based on a regist...

The editorial introduces the special issue on 'Consumer Personality and Individual Differences' and gives an overview of the ten papers included. New developments in the following areas are addressed: (1) hierarchical personality models applied to consumer behavior, (2) brand personality research, (3) the role of individual difference measures as m...

The paper presents the theoretical basis of behavioral genetics methods, as well as empirical evidence regarding individual differences in personality traits. The qu-estion whether and to what extent genetic and environmental factors affect persona-lity is one of the possible approaches to our understanding of individual differences. Behavioral gen...

Positive friendship relationships are connected to the psychological well-being and social adjustment of an individual. Relationship quality in friendships is influenced by the rules that participants use in the interaction with their partners. This paper presents the research of the factor structure of rules in friendship relationships. Based on t...

This paper examines the relationship of self and other-assessed personality with school grades in 255 (88 male) Croatian pupils. Conscientiousness was the strongest personality correlate of school grades for both self and peer-ratings. Grades were also negatively correlated with self-assessed Extraversion and Emotional Stability, and positively cor...

The goal of this research has been to add to the understanding of the life satisfaction concept through the comparison of two theoretical models. Costa and McCrae's model (Costa, McCrae, 1980; McCrae, Costa, 1991) of influence of personality dimensions on life satisfaction highlights the importance of extraversion and neuroticism, as well as the im...

The goal of this research has been to add to the understanding of the life satisfaction concept through the comparison of two theoretical models. Costa and McCrae's model (Costa, McCrae, 1980; McCrae, Costa, 1991) of influence of personality dimensions on life satisfaction highlights the importance of extraversion and neuroticism, as well as the im...

Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a “kernel of truth,” or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared...

Rad prikazuje rezultate istraživanja roditeljskih laičkih (implicitnih) teorija dječje inteligencije. Uzorak se sastojao od 108 roditelja predškolske djece. Cilj rada bio je ispitati razlikuju li se implicitne teorije očeva i majki, odnosno teorije roditelja različitog obrazovanja. Implicitne teorije mjerene su prilagođenim upitnikom koji su u svoj...

Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a "kernel of truth," or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared...

Previous research regarding sex and age differences for sensation seeking in English, American, Canadian, and Australian samples showed clear sex differences and a decline of sensation seeking across ages. The 1978 Form V of the Sensation Seeking Scale was administered to a Croatian sample of 151 high school students and their 226 parents. Analysis...

The paper presents the results of the family study of sensation seeking. The sample consisted of high school students and their parents: 151 offspring (95 females and 56 males), 148 mothers and 118 fathers. Both offspring and their parents completed Sensation Seeking Scale-Form V (SSS-V). Parents also completed the Parental Behaviour Scale (PBS). P...

In the present study, we investigated the structural invariance of the Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) across a variety of cultures. Self-report data sets from ten European and three non-European countries were available, representing the Germanic (Belgium, England, Germany, the Netherlands, USA), Romance (Italy, Spain), and Slavic branche...

Twelve circular areas of the same size (50) differing in light intensities from 1 lux to 1000 luxes in equal logarithmic steps were presented to 5 subjects 80 times each in a random order. Informational value of this set of stimuli was 3.585 bits. Reaction time (RT) to each stimulus presentation was registered in milliseconds. It was found that the...

The paper presents the main issues in the research of personality continuity and change. This kind of research is confronted with several theoretical, methodological, and practical problems. Theoretical problems include definitions of concepts, both of personality continuity and change. It is very useful to distinguish six different types of contin...

The study presents results of the longitudinal study of personality development from adolescence to young adulthood. Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 262 participants in two measurement points. The mean age of participants was 17.25 in the first measurement, and the test-retest interval was exactly four years. Dat...

The paper presents the main issues in the research of personality continuity and change. This kind of research is confronted with several theoretical, methodological, and practical problems. Theoretical problems include definitions of concepts, both of personality continuity and change. It is very useful to distinguish six different types of contin...

The study presents results of the longitudinal study of personality development from adolescence to young adulthood. Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire was administered to a sample of 262 participants in two measurement points. The mean age of participants was 17.25 in the first measurement, and the test-retest interval was exactly four years. Dat...

Five-factor model (Costa & McCrae, 1992) represents comprehensive framework for organizing individual differences into five broad dimensions: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Lower-level personality traits are expected to be correlated with these dimensions. The purpose of this study was to exp...

The purpose of this study was to explore the hemispheric differences in odor discrimination. The sample consisted of 89 participants. All of them were female and right-handed. Odors quality discrimination was tested with twelve pairs of odors presented to each nostril of every participant. Half of the participants had odors presented to their left...

The current study was designed to compare the socio-emotional characteristics of school children pet owners and children without pets and to examine whether the type of pet is a variable which can differentiate the socio-emotional development of their owners. The subjects, 425 girls and 401 boys, were students of fourth (n=265), sixth (n=295) and e...

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the United States have shown consistent changes between college age and middle adulthood. There appear to be declines in 3 of the 5 major factors of personality--Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness--and increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. To examine cross-cultural generalizability o...

The aim of this study was to examine therelations of masculinity and femininity with five-factorpersonality dimensions in Croatian adolescents. Sampleconsisted of 464 high school graduates, all of them Caucasian, and approximately 90% Croatian.Results were analyzed by multiple regression procedureusing masculinity, femininity, gender, and theirinte...

The aim of this study was to examine the relations of masculinity and femininity with five-factor personality dimensions in Croatian adolescents. Sample consisted of 464 high school graduates, all of them Caucasian, and approximately 90% Croatian. Results were analyzed by multiple regression procedure using masculinity, femininity, gender, and thei...

NEO—PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) was administered to a sample of 138 adolescents and their parents. Father-offspring correlations, mother-offspring correlations and regressions of offspring on midparent score were computed for 30 facet scales as well as for the five broad domains: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and...