Self-reliance and some personality traits: sex differences

The aim of this investigation was to examine the relations between self-reliance and some well-known personality traits such as sensation seeking, Eysenckʹs personality dimensions, shyness, Machiavellianism, as well as self rated physical attractiveness. The data, obtained on a sample of 150 male and 211 female university students, were analysed separately for each sex. Stepwise multiple regression demonstrated that a relatively high percentage of the total variance can be attributed to the set of predictors used in this study, but separate analyses for males and females revealed a somewhat different pattern of results. Self-reliant males are less shy and neurotic, show higher thrill and adventure seeking and lower dissimulation than their less self-reliant peers. Similarly to the males, self-reliant female students are low in neuroticism and shyness. Furthermore, they are more extraverted, have a lower score on the EPQ Lie scale and rate themselves higher on the physical attractiveness scale.