Personality, psychophysiology, and performance

Abstract

Research relating personality variables to physiological responsivity and to motor performance is reviewed. Trait anxiety is not related to physiology but ego strength is related to change in physiological levels. Skin conductance is most consistently related to ego strength across experimental conditions and across subjects. Other physiological variables are also related to ego strength in certain subjects under certain conditions. Data relating ego strength to other personality variables and to psychomotor performance is also reviewed. A theory relating personality to physiological change is proposed.