Personality and Mental Health: Arabic Scale of Mental Health, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and NEO Five Factor Inventory

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore associations of mental health and personality factors through two studies. Two separate convenience samples of volunteer Kuwaiti college students took part in the study ( n1 =193, n2=128). Their ages ranged between 18 and 32 years. They responded, in small group sessions, to the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and to Costa and McCrae's Five Personality Factors in their Arabic forms. In addition, both samples responded to the Arabic Scale of Mental Health (ASMH). In the first study, scorers on the ASMH were significantly correlated ( r) with Neuroticism (–.63), Extraversion (.57), and Lie (.22) scores. Two orthogonal components were retained and labeled “Mental health and Extraversion versus Neuroticism,” and “Psychoticism versus Lie.” In Study 2, mental health scores were significantly positively correlated with Conscientiousness (.62), Extraversion (.59), Agreeableness (.34), and Openness (.26) scores, and negatively with Neuroticism (–.62) scores. Two orthogonal components were retained and labeled “Mental health, Agreeableness, Extraversion versus Neuroticism,” and “Openness, Conscientiousness, and Mental health.” It was concluded that the salient associations of the ASMH were with positive traits and scores on Extraversion, Conscientiousness (positive), and with Neuroticism (negative), indicating good construct validity of the ASMH.