Reasons for Smoking and Personality

A questionnaire was given to 25 male and 36 female students who smoked (M,,, = 24.4 yr., SD = 7.0), including Billingslea's inventory and the Keirsey and Bates (1984) personality test, a popular modification of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The mean scores (and SDs) on the Keirsey-Bates inventory were for extraversion 7.0 (2.1), for sensing 8.4 (4.6), for thinking 9.1 (4.3), and for judging 11.5 (4.2). Three Pearson correlations out of the 24 were significant: those who smoked because of tactile stimulation had lower sensing scores (r = -0.29), and those who smoked for relaxation had higher extraversion scores (r = 0.29) and lower sensing scores (r = -0.23). The personality test scores were not related to the number of packs smoked per day or to whether efforts had been made to quit ~moking.~ A factor analysis using SPSSX (PC extraction, varimax rotation) indicated two factors: (1) stimulation, handling and relaxation, and (2) tension reduction, craving and habit-reflex. Factor 1 correlated only with sensing scores (r = -0.35), while Factor 2 did not correlate significantly with any scale scores. Although the psychometric properties of Billingslea's inventory are not known, the present results might stimulate further exploration of these issues

Big Five personality traits · Cronbach's alpha · Extraversion and introversion · Eysenck Personality Questionnaire · Personality · Personality Assessment Inventory · Psychometrics · Test (biology · Varimax rotation · Clinical Psychology · Cognitive and psychological constructs research · Psychology · Social Psychology