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Related Concept Videos

Self-Report Tests of Personality01:22

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Self-report inventories are objective personality assessments that use multiple-choice items or numbered scales, typically ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). They are often called Likert scales after Rensis Likert. These inventories are widely used due to their ease of administration and cost-effectiveness. One of the most prominent examples is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), initially developed in the 1940s to assess abnormal personality traits.
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Human fear responses to certain stimuli, such as darkness, heights, deep water, and blood, can often arise despite the absence of direct negative experiences. This phenomenon is rooted in evolutionary psychology, which posits that humans have developed a predisposition to fear stimuli that historically posed significant survival threats. This predisposition, known as preparedness, suggests that early humans who developed a fear of potentially dangerous entities, such as venomous snakes and...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 28, 2025

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat
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Exploring the structure of fearlessness using self-report measures.

Kaela Van Til1, Joshua D Miller2, Nathan T Carter3

  • 1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

Journal of Personality
|May 30, 2023
PubMed
Summary

This study uncovered a six-factor hierarchical structure of self-reported fearlessness, including traits like assertiveness and adventurousness. These factors relate to external measures of boldness and anxiety.

Keywords:
fearlessnesspersonality

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Personality Science

Background:

  • Fearlessness is a construct relevant to personality and clinical research.
  • Empirical research on the structure of self-reported fearlessness is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the hierarchical structure of self-reported fearlessness.
  • To compare this structure with external criterion measures.

Main Methods:

  • Employed Goldberg's "bass-ackward" factor analysis on trait fear and fearlessness items.
  • Utilized a preregistered analytical approach with 619 participants and 562 informants.

Main Results:

  • A six-factor model best fit the data, revealing components such as Assertiveness, Low Anxiety, Sociability, Recklessness, Openness to Action, and Adventurousness.
  • Factor scores correlated with criterion variables including boldness, fear, anxiety, psychopathy, basic personality traits, and impulsivity.

Conclusions:

  • The study elucidates the multifaceted nature of trait fearlessness at varying levels.
  • Findings highlight how different facets of fearlessness relate to and diverge from various psychological outcomes.