Self-control as a personality measure

Abstract

The study examined the interrelationships of a self-report measure of self-control, based in the General Theory of Crime advanced by Gottfredson and Hirschi [Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.], the Conscientiousness scale from the Five Factor model of personality, the BIS/BAS scales of Carver and White [Carver, D. S., & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioural inhibition, behavioural activation and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: the BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(2), 319-333.], and self-report measures of imprudent behaviour and criminal intent. The Self-Control scale showed some overlap with the Conscientiousness and BAS scales, but no significant relationship with the BIS measure. Conscientiousness predicted both imprudent behaviour and criminal intent and the Self-Control scale and BIS predicted criminal intent. The results indicate similarity between the self-control measure and existing personality scales as well as some unique variance in self-control of predictive value.