Psy410 report

Psy 410: Individual & Family Assessment
Done By: Mira Jamal & Wadima AlHamed
PSY 410:
Individual and Family Assessment—FALL 2012/2013
Is There A Relationship Between Personality Traits,
Psychological Well-Being, And A Person’s Preference for Horror
Films?
Prepared for
Dr. Man Chung
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi
Prepared by
Mira Jamal, M80000771
Wadima Alhamed, 200821531
January 28, 2013

Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between personality
traits, psychological well-being, and the aversion or interest in horror movies.
Methods: This study had 20 participants in total. They each completed the Five Factor
Personality Inventory (FFPI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and a
questionnaire on their preference and appreciation of horror movies, and its effects on them.
The participants chosen are university students between the ages of 18 and 26, with the
average age being 21.
Results: The results showed a significant correlation between psychological well-being
with neuroticism, openness and their ability to feel empathy for victims in horror movies.
However, we found no significant correlation between enjoyment of horror movies and
personality traits or psychological-well-being.
Conclusion: To conclude, people with high neurotic traits and low scores in openness, are
at a greater risk of having a lower level of psychological well-being. In addition, people with
a lower level of psychological well-being show less empathy towards victims in horror
movies.
Introduction
The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between personality traits,
psychological well-being, and enjoyment of horror movies. It will first take a look at the
characteristics that go under the Big Five personality traits, then look at the relationships
between personality traits and psychological well-being, and later, the relationships between
personality traits and enjoyment of horror movies. Finally, the study will look at the
relationship between levels of psychological well-being and interest in horror movies.
Personality Traits
Personality involves “characteristics whose unique organization define an individual
(Domino, & Domino, pg. 67, 2006). The 5 main personality traits that will be looked at in
this study are Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openess, and Neuroticism.
Agreeableness involves characteristics which revolves around social harmony. These
may include friendliness, helpfulness, showing consideration, selflessness, avoiding conflict,
and often comprimising their interest or opinion for others. (Johnson, n.d.). A high score
would reveal adaptability and getting along with others, whereas a low score would reveal
skepticism, doubt in other people’s ideas, and unwilling to get involved. (Laura, 2011).
Conscientiousness involves characteristics of an individual that show control and
independence. They are often action-oriented, and look to making their own decisions. They
love organisation, and can be reliable (Johnson, n.d.). High scores in conscientiousness reveal
focus, and organization, whereas low scores reveal traits such as unorganization, flexibility,
and easilty distracted (Laura, 2011).

Extraversion’s personality traits include assertiveness, being action oriented, and the
want for opportunities where they can feel excited, gain attention, and express their thoughts
and opinions (Johnson, n.d.). Low scores in this factor would reveal that the person is an
introvert, likes to stay out of the focus, and does not talk or express themselves as much
(Laura, 2011).
Openness to experience describes a person who is curious, open to new ideas,
imaginative, and creative (Johnson, n.d.). High scores show a broad intellectual curiosity and
and independence. Low scores show that the individual will prefer familiarity, unenthusiastic
about new experiences, and an unadventurous trait (Laura, 2011).
Neuroticism involves characteristics of worry, misery, emotional instability, and a
struggle of coping with daily activities (Johnson, n.d.). High scores show that the individual
often has negative feelings which can lead to anxiety, anger, or depression. On the other
hand, low scores reveal that the individual has the ability to control their stress and feel calm
(Laura, 2011).
Personality traits and psychological-well-being
Research shows that a high score on neuroticism could have a negative effect on a person’s
well being (Garcia, & Erlandsson, 2011). This means that a person with a high score of
neuroticism is more likely to have a high score on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
questionnaire.
Personality traits and enjoyment of horror movies
People who have a low score in Agreeableness show a large interest in heavy metal music,
and horror movies (Durham, 2009). In addition, people who are extraverts are more likely to
want to be around the action and seek opportunities for excitement (Laura, 2011). People who
enjoy the thrill of getting scared and turn to dark entertainment usually have the personality
traits that include low Conscientiousness, low Agreeableness and high Extraversion
(Rentfrow, Goldberg & Zilca, R., 2011). There was a gap on literature that looked at
relationships between openness scores and enjoyment of horror movies.
Psychological Well-Being and interest in horror movies
Due to the gap on literature that has studied or looked for correlations between psychological-
well-being and a person’s enjoyment of horror films, we decided to use our own research to
investigate if there is a link between the two.
We would speculate that if a person were neurotic, with a greater risk of low levels of
psychological well-being, they would most likely enjoy horror movies for the sake of seeing
others in a shoddier situation than themselves.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if there are any relationships between a person’s
interest in horror movies in accordance to their personality traits or psychological well-being.
Our findings can be helpful by providing a greater understanding behind people’s enjoyment
of getting scared through horror movies.

Research question
Is there a relationship between personality traits, psychological-well-being, and a person’s
desire or hatred towards horror films?
Hypothesis (H1): A high score on neuroticism will have a positive correlation with the
overall HADS score.
Hypothesis (H0): Neuroticism score does not have a correlation with a person’s score on
HADS.
Hypothesis (H2): A person with low Agreeableness will enjoy horror movies.
Hypothesis (H0): Low Agreeableness is not related to a person’s enjoyment of horror
movies.
Hypothesis (H3): A person with a low Extraversion score will enjoy horror movies.
Hypothesis (H0): A low Extraversion score is not correlated to enjoyment of horror movies.
Hypothesis (H4): People who have a low score on the Conscientiousness personality trait
will have a high interest in horror movies.
Hypothesis (H0): There is no correlation between a person’s Conscientiousness score, and
interest in horror movies.
Hypothesis (H5): People who have a low level of psychological well-being enjoy horror
movies.
Hypothesis (H0): There is no relationship between a person’s psychological-well being and
enjoyment of horror movies.
Hypothesis (H6): People who have a low level of openness have a lower level of
psychological well-being.
Hypothesis (H0): There is no relationship between Openness and a person’s psychological-
well being.
Methods
The procedure
A total of 20 participants (F=10, M=10) were used in this study with an average age of 21
(range: 18-26). The majority were UAE Nationals, with only 2 participants being of
European descent. All the participants were single, living with their families, and studying in
university- meaning they all have a high school diploma and are currently studying for their
bachelor degree. The female participants were recruited by randomly asking them on the
Zayed University campus to fill out the questionnaires on FFPI, HADS, and horror movies.
However, male participants were chosen by asking female students on campus to pass on the
questionnaire to their brothers, or males they may know. Participants of the study were told

that we were doing a study to find correlations between personality traits, psychological-well-
being, and their interest in horror movies. Once the questionnaires were completed, the
participants were asked to drop off the questionnaires directly. A total of 30 questionnaires
were given out, 20 responded, 7 declined (as they did not have the time), and 3 people did not
respond.
Demographic information of participants
Mean SD
Age 21.25 0.51299
N %
Male 10 50
Female 10 50
Single 20 100
Married 0 0
Divorced 0 0
Separated 0 0
Widowed 0 0
High School Degree 20 100
University Degree 0 0
Studying in University 20 100
Living Alone 0 0
Living with Family 20 100
The questionnaires:
1. The Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI)-(McCrae & Costa, 1987) measures
participants’ personality traits, which are separated into sub-scales of the Big Five
factors of personality: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, and
Conscientiousness. It contains a total of 60 statements (12 per personality trait), which
can be completed in around 20-25 minutes. Participants are required to rate the
statements on a Likert scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly
agree) that have scores assigned to them (0-4). Once completed, the scores are added
up to give a total for each personality factor with a total score of 48 for each domain.
“In the normal population, the five factor scores appear to be internally consistent,
stable and valid,” with the alpha being at 0.85 (Hendriks, Hofstee & Raad, 1999).
2. Hospital and Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)-(Zigmond & Snaith, 1983) is
used to measure anxiety and depression levels. It has a total of 14 questions, which
are in the form of a Likert scale (e.g. never, not often, sometimes, most of the time).
Each question is given the score of 0-3, which can then add up to a total of 21 for
anxiety and 21 for depression (42 total). HADS is a reliable questionnaire as it was
found to do well in assessing “the symptom severity and caseness of anxiety disorders
and depression in both somatic, psychiatric and primary care patients and in the

general population.” Cronbach's alpha of HADS is 0.83, which shows that it is
reliable (Bjelland, I., Dal, A.A., Haug, T.T., & Neckelmann, D., 2002).
3. Questionnaire on Horror Movies was self-created to allow us to measure the overall
enjoyment or detestation towards horror movies. It consists of a total of 10 questions,
which includes open-ended questions as well as Likert Scales. The questionnaire was
separated into two sections. The first section allowed us to gain some background
information on our participants’ preference of horror movies. E.g. the type of horror
movie (thriller, action, slasher, zombie, etc.). The section was scored through a Likert
scale (e.g. strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree), which allowed
us to sum up the answers out of a total score of 43- which would be the highest score
indicating a passion for horror movies. The questions also aimed to measure empathy
towards victims in horror movies, by asking participants to rate, on a scale of 1-8, if
they can sense the pain of the characters being violently killed, if they feel anger
towards the killer, and if they have any feelings that arise while watching a gruesome
scene. In addition, a few questions were added which allowed us to know if the
participants can identify with the killer and if they found horror movies to be funny.
Results
Five Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI)
Table 1- Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Personality N 20 9.00 33.00 21.5000 5.84448
Personality E 20 24.00 40.00 32.7500 5.08739
Personality O 20 14.00 38.00 26.9500 6.01292
Personality A 20 14.00 39.00 28.6000 6.98419
Personality C 20 16.00 44.00 32.7000 7.24823
FFPI- Looking at the descriptive statistics of each personality, we found that Extraversion
and Conscientiousness were almost the same, followed by Agreeableness, Openness, and the
lowest being Neuroticism.
HADS
Total HADS 20 4.00 25.00 12.7500 6.67182
HADS- The table shows that the majority of our participants did not have a low score on
psychological well-being. The results also show that 75% of the participants do not get a

frightened feeling in their stomach, and only 20% felt restless quite a lot, and a small 20%
often have a feeling of panic. We also found that only 25% of our participants occasionally
get a frightened feeling of butterflies in their stomach.
Horror Movies
Enjoy horror 20 .00 3.00 1.5500 1.23438
Empathy 20 .00 18.00 8.3500 5.36337
Funny 20 .00 4.00 1.2500 1.29269
Identify with killer 20 .00 4.00 1.4500 1.14593
Thriller jump 20 .00 3.00 1.5500 1.19097
Watch Alone 20 .00 3.00 .9000 .96791
Nightmare 20 .00 3.00 1.8000 1.05631
Experience 20 .00 1.00 .2000 .41039
Total Horror 20 4.00 30.00 17.1000 8.62615
Horror Movies- The table shows that we had a range of people who either enjoyed horror
movies or despised them. 45% of the respondents enjoyed horror movies only a little bit, with
35% who enjoyed horror a great deal. Only 3 out of the 20 respondents thought horror
movies were funny, with 40% finding nothing funny about horror movies. The results also
show that while 25% could not identify with the killer on any level, 15% said that they could,
with the remainder being neutral.
Table 4- Correlations between HADS and Personality Traits
N E O A C
HADS Pearson
Correlation
.709**
-.095 -.469*
-.077 -.298
Sig.(2-tailed) .000 .690 .037 .748 .202
N 20 20 20 20 20
The correlation results showed that Neuroticism and Openness were significantly correlated
to a lower level of psychological well-being. It also shows that there is no significant
correlation between Extraversion, Agreeableness, or Conscientiousness with a person’s
psychological well-being.
Table 5- Correlations between Total Horror and Personality Traits
N E O A C
Total Horror Pearson
Correlation
.152 .025 -.239 .030 .071
Sig. (2-tailed) .521 .918 .309 .902 .765

Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, are not
significantly correlated with people’s enjoyment of horror movies.
Table 6- Correlations between Total Horror, HADS, Feelings of Empathy, and
Identifying with the killer.
TH HADS Empathy
Identify with
killer
Total Horror Pearson
Correlation
1 .293 .900**
.379
Sig. (2-tailed) .210 .000 .100
N 20 20 20 20
HADS Pearson
Correlation
.293 1 .498*
.133
Sig. (2-tailed) .210 .025 .578
N 20 20 20 20
Empathy Pearson
Correlation
.900**
.498*
1 .213
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .025 .368
N 20 20 20 20
Identify with
killer
Pearson
Correlation
.379 .133 .213 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .100 .578 .368
N 20 20 20 20
1. A person’s enjoyment of horror movies (TH) is not significantly correlated to a
person’s psychological well-being.
2. A person’s a psychological well-being, is significantly related to their feelings of
empathy towards victims in horror movies.
3. Psychological well-being is not significantly related with the participants’ ability to
identify with the killer in horror movies.
Discussion
Correlation coefficients were carried out to make associations between psychological-
well-being, personality traits, and enjoyment or hatred towards horror movies. We first
looked at the correlations between Neuroticism and psychological well-being to either accept
or reject our first hypothesis. Looking at our results, we found that Neuroticism is
significantly correlated with psychological well-being, meaning that as the scores of
Neuroticism goes up, so does the score on the HADS. This means that we can accept H1.
From this finding, we can conclude that people who have neurotic traits are more susceptible
to suffer from anxiety or depression. As a result, we believe that finding neurotic traits in a
person can help with early detection of depressive or anxiety symptoms. Earlier research
supports our finding, as it states that a high score on neuroticism could have a negative effect
on a person’s well being (Garcia, & Erlandsson, 2011). Since the characteristics of
Neuroticism involve worry, misery, emotional instability, and excessive negative feelings,

our findings were no surprise. To have the proeeding characteristics may have an impact on
one’s psychological well-being (Laura, 2011).
One of our results that surprised us was our finding on the relationship between
openness and psychological well-being. Although we did not find literature that mentions the
correlation, our results showed a significant correlation between the two. This shows that the
less open to experience people are, the higher their score may be on the HADS. Looking at
the characteristics of a person who has a high score in Openness, the relationship that we
found makes a lot of sense. For example, a person who has a high score in Openness is more
likely to be imaginative, open to new ideas, up for new experiences, and curious about things.
We then thought of how these traits may correlate to avoiding depressive symptoms. As a
result, we turned to behavioral activation. Since the 1970s, this type of psychotherapy has
been used as a treatment for depression. It involves encouraging the client to get lively and
join activities that would give them pleasure (Kanter, et al, 2010). Looking at behavioral
activation and how it helps treat depression, we believe since people with openness are more
active and open to new ideas, meaning that they engage in behavioral activation on their own,
this could be the reason of having a higher level of psychological well-being.
People who are agreeable show signs of the need to keep social harmony (Johnson,
n.d.). We were expecting to find a relationship between Agreeableness and enjoyment of
horror movies for a number of reasons. The first reason being the literature we found which
stated that people who have lower scores on agreeableness tend to enjoy things that are more
hardcore and dark (Durham, 2009). However, our results did not match our literature. Since
our results showed a non-significant correlation between agreeableness and enjoyment of
horror movies, we could not accept our hypothesis. We were surprised at not finding a
relationship because of the characteristics (skeptical, argumentative, and unwilling) of people
who are not agreeable. They are more skeptical, argumentative, and unwilling (Laura, 2011).
Therefore, we thought people with those characteristics were more likely to enjoy conflict
and find a thrill in getting scared (Rentfrow, et al, 2011).
Another result that surprised us was the non-significant correlation between
Extraversion and horror movies. Due to personal experiences and encounters with people we
know who enjoy horror movies, we thought that people who are introverts are more likely to
enjoy horror movies. The reason behind this is because we think that people who are
expressive and outgoing may enjoy opportunities with excitement, but because of their
expressive behavior, they may find horror movies annoying. In addition, people who are
introverts tend to express less and have thought going through their mind that many people
do not know about (Johnson, n.d.). For this reason, we thought that introverts would enjoy
horror movies, where they can think about what is going on and have the ability to stay
focused throughout the movie. However, we may argue with our thought, and state that
extraverts would enjoy horror movies because of their action-oriented-personality (Johnson,
n.d.). Extroverts want to be excited and seek for attention, meaning that if they do watch
horror movies, they may get attention from others around them on a social standard, and not
miss out on the conversation. Regardless of our literature and own hypothesis, we found that
our results supported neither. Therefore, our third hypothesis is rejected.
Looking at the traits of people with high levels conscientiousness, we were expecting
to find that they would not enjoy horror movies, as they would want to control the situations

in the movie and probably yell at the character that’s about to get killed. However, our results
showed no significant relationship. Therefore, we cannot accept Hypothesis 4, despite of the
statement that people who turn to the “dark entertainment-preference,” usually have low
Conscientiousness (Rentfrow, et al, 2011). Although we were surprised about not finding a
relationship, we believe the reason we did not is because of our lack in variety of participants
that would accurately represent each personality trait.
The final point we would like to discuss revolves around our fifth hypothesis. We
believed that people who have low psychological well-being would enjoy horror movies, as
they would like to see others in a poorer condition than themselves. The reason we have this
idea came from an article, which stated that people can become depressed if they think
everyone else is happier than themselves (Steele, 2004). As a result, we thought we would
find a relationship between these two factors. However, our findings do not agree, and
showed that there is no significant correlation between enjoyment of horror and a person’s
psychological well-being. As a result, we could not accept H5, as well as our theory. We did
however find a significant correlation between a person’s score on HADS, and their feelings
of empathy towards the victims in the movies. The higher the score, the less empathetic the
participants were. Therefore we can come up with a new theory, stating that the more
neurotic a person is, with high feelings of anxiety and depression, the less likely they are to
feel empathic towards victims in horror movies.
Limitations
Although we were able to find significant correlations through our results, we did have
certain limitations. The biggest limitation was our lack of participants for the study. If we had
more people, the results may have changed on the traits. For example, neuroticism may or
may not have gone up. Similarly all the other scores may have changed. As a result of these
limitations, we believe that a more controlled group of people; a set amount of participants
who have a passion towards horror movies and a set amount of people with low
psychological well-being, would allow us to effectively compare their characteristics
(personality traits), with the other 2 factors.
Conclusion
To conclude, people with high neurotic traits are at greater risk of having low levels of
psychological well-being. People with a lower level of psychological well-being show less
empathy towards victims in horror movies. Although we did not find a correlation between
enjoyment of horror movies with personality traits or psychological well-being, we believe
that a more intense and controlled study should be done to gain stronger results.

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