CORELATION BETWEEN SOMATIC COMPLAINTS, PERSONALITY TRAITS AND POSITIVITY

Background/Aim. Many recent studies have focused on investigation the differences in personality traits and its role in promoting health and in moderating vulnerability to adversities and illness. The aim of our study was to investigate the role of somatic complaints in moderating the relation-ship between personality traits operationalized in Cybernetic Battery of Conative Tests (KON-6) model and positivity. Methods. The sample consisted of 512 students, 23.83 years old in average, 56.3% were female, 23% reported the presence of somatic complaints. In investigation, the Positivity Scale measuring positivity and the KON-6 measuring the activity of 6 dynamic personality traits ? activity regulation system (?), organic function regulation system (?), defense reactions regulation system (?), attack regulation sys-tem (?), homeostatic system coordination(?) and regulation system integration (?) were used. Results. All of the conative personality traits were significantly correlated with positivity, except for ?. The subsample with somatic complaints reported higher scores in ? and ? traits, suggesting higher levels of anxiety and social reality impairment. The personality traits together with presence of somatic complaints significantly explained 26% of positivity variance, positively predicting positivity with higher activity of ?, and negatively with higher activity of ? and ?. The moderating role of somatic complaints was found in two specific relations. Positivity can be predicted in a reverse manner by homeostatic system coordination (?) but only in students with low somatic complaints, which was also the case for organic function regulation system (?) but only in the presence of high somatic complaints. Conclusion. The positivity represents a good organizational and regulation disposition for regulating the cognitive, dynamic and motoric functions. It is also partially moderated by presence of somatic complaints. Practical benefit of these findings represents a concrete support for developing positivity in people, in order to empower people?s health.


Introduction
An interesting question that attracted a researcher's attention for a long period of time were the differences in personality traits and their role in promoting health and in moderating vulnerability to adversities and illness.A personality can be viewed as the selfregulating system that is responsible for many different ways that people manage themselves and interact with the outside world.Also, individual differences in personality traits, self-beliefs, attitudes and habits are in different levels associated with biological variations affecting health and well-being.
In a psychological literature, it is well-known that self-esteem 1,2,3 , life satisfaction 4 and dispositional optimism 3 are repeatedly associated to well-being and successful adaptation.Life satisfaction refers to a person's general evaluation of various activities and relationships that make someone's life worth living 5 .Self-esteem denotes an individual's general self-regard and the level of self-acceptance 6 .Optimism refers to one's perspective on future personal and social events, in which there will be an abundance of good things and a scarcity of bad things 7 Also, in a few studies were shown a relatively high level of inter-correlation among the judgments people hold about themselves, their life and their future 8,9 .Caprara and colleagues further explored mentioned inter-correlation and discovered that this judgments leads to a common latent component affecting the ways people understand their experiences and prepare them to action 10 .This component was originally named positive thinking and then positive orientation or positivity 10,11,12 .
A question that further attracted attention of the researchers was a relation of positivity with other basic dispositions like the ones that are commonly investigated under the five-factor model 13,14 .
The results of research obtained on a large sample of Italian participants (N = 3589, 58% women) aged 17 to 75 years (M = 39.01),suggested that all dimensions of the Five-Factor Model correlated with positive orientation 15 .The psychological instruments used in the study were: The Positivity Scale, a short measure of positive orientation 15 and a short version of the Big Five Questionnaire 16 .Results revealed positive correlations between positive orientation and: energy (equivalent of extraversion; .38),emotional stability (reverse of neuroticism; .30),agreeableness (.29), conscientiousness (.25) and openness (.19) (all p < .01) 15.Summarizing the results, we can see that positive orientation is correlated with all of the basic personality traits in the Five factor model.Similar research was done by Miciuk, Jankowski, Laskowska & Oleś 17 , although with somewhat different results.But, also, in this research the strongest correlations were obtained between positive orientation, neuroticism and extraversion.However, it is important to note, that Caprara and colleagues 18 emphasize that Positive orientation, differs from other basic dispositions like the ones that are commonly investigated under the five-factor model 13,14 .Whereas the so-called Big Five is related to behavioral dispositions that enable people to deal with the fundamental tasks of agency and communion, positive orientation represents a basic attitude that is present and is important in facing major challenges of human life like illness, aging and death.
In our research we did not want to replicate previous research which used so called Big Five Model, but deliberately, we used another one model of personality.The idea behind this choice was to test the relation between positivity and personality in the context of another model and learn something more and further understand a status or a role of positivity.The model of personality traits used in this research is a reformulated basic cybernetic personality model 19 originally formulated by Powell and Royce 20 .We chose this model as it is designed inside the conceptual frame of neurological systems of regulatory functions and has it's good instrument which was successfully and frequently used in Serbia and ex-Yugoslavia.The instrument assesses the 6 personality dimensions which are conceptualized as manifestations of 6 neurological systems of regulatory functions.As we were interested also in the role that somatic complaints play in and its relation to personality dispositions and positivity, it looked like an interesting and good opportunity to use this model and understand better the relation between the positivity, personality and somatic complaints.
An important question for individual existence and functioning is on what structure, attitude, belief, view, individuals can rely on to sustain a good health.Having that in mind, an important question is, what is an impact of Positivity to human's health?
Research done in the context of biological base of positivity further supported the importance of Positivity for human health.Studies addressing biological base of Positivity attested biological underpinning of Positivity and its protective function under stress through immune response 21 .Also, an EEG study connected positive orientation to the activity of the brain structures that previous studies cite as mostly engaged in selfevaluative process 22 .
Having in mind all of the findings mentioned, the aim of our research was twofold: we investigated the relations between personality traits and positive orientation in a Serbian sample, and also evaluated potential moderating effect of present somatic complaints in this relation.

Methods
The total of 512 students were included in our investigation.All participants were serbian speaking individuals, in average 23.83 years old (Mod = 21, SD = 3.92, ranging from 18 to 40 years), 56.3% were female.The research was organized by following the principles of voluntaristic participation, without any kind of compensation.The total sample was collected by students of Faculty for law and business studies ''Dr Lazar Vrkatić'' in Novi Sad, Serbia, engeged in the snowball sampling principle. 23n our investigation we used The Positivity Scale 15 and The Cybernetic Battery of Conative Tests KON-6 24 The Positivity Scale 15 is an 8-items self report questionaire aimed to assess positive orientation, or in short the positivity.The respondents provide their responses by using a 5point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) for each of the items.All of the items are positively worded, except one (At times, the future seems unclear to me) which needs recoding into reverse values.The total score (ranging from 8 to 40) indicates the level of general positive orientation towards self (eg.On the whole, I am satisfied with myself), other people (eg.Others are generally here for me when I need them) and the future (eg.I have great faith in the future).The instrument is translated to Serbian by back-translation procedure with the consent of the author and under his supervision.In this research, the scale demonstrated an acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach α = .77).
The Cybernetic Battery of Conative Tests KON-6 24 was used to evaluate the conative personality dimensions.The instrument is designed to assess the 6 personality dimensions which are conceptualized as manifestations of 6 neurological systems of regulatory functions.The model was presented by Horga, Ignjatović, Momirović and  Gredelj (1982)  19 , as a result of reformulation of basic cybernetic personality model by Powell and Royce (1981)  20 .The activity of every system is operationalized with 30 items worded in the same direction, followed by a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (Not true at all) to 5 (Absolutely true), forming a score in a theoretical range from 30 to 150.
ACTIVITY REGULATION SYSTEM (ε) -EPSILON is conceptualized as the basic regulation system regulating the activation role of the reticular formation.The activity of ε directly determines the activation levels of the other remaining subsystems, including the cognitive and motor processors.It's basic function is keeping the balance between excitation and inhibition of neural activity and is related to the speed of informational processing within the central nervous system.Dysregulation of ε could lead to depressive or hypomanic reactions and could also affect the cognitive and motoric functioning.Behaviorally, this system is manifested throughout the extraversionintroversion dimension.Higher scores on this dimension indicate extraverted personality operationalized by items like I like to make people laugh or I like to make contacts with various unknown people.
ORGANIC FUNCTION REGULATION SYSTEM(χ) -CHI is conceptualized as a functional interaction of cortical systems for organic control and regulation with subcortical centers for the regulation of organ functions, predominantly located in the hypothalamic region.Dysregulation of χ, indicated by higher scores on this dimension, could lead to functional disorders of the basic organic systems, disorders of the sensory and motor system, and also could lead to increase of ideas hypochondria and subsequent hypochondriac behavior.This system is operationalized with items like Sometimes my hearts pounds so intensively that I have the impression it will explode or Something is wrong with my senses.
DEFENCE REACTIONS REGULATION SYSTEM (α) -ALPHA is conceptualized as a defense reaction center located in the limbic system.It modules the tonic excitation, probably on the basis of reactions formed under the influence of various forms of conditioning.This system is responsible for all of behavioral patterns caused or followed by anxiety, and regulates the reactions to situations which include explicit or implicit threat to the physical or psychological integrity.Most of the neurotic disorders could be associated to dysregulation of α, especially various states characterized by high levels of fear, anxiety, as well as emotional and sensory hypersensitivity.Higher scores indicate potential dysregulation of the system, which is operationalized with items like My feelings can be easily hurt or I am always frightened of doing something stupid.
ATTACK REACTION REGULATION SYSTEM (ζ) -SIGMA is conceptualized as an attack control center, also potentially located in the limbic system.It modulates and controls various behavioral patterns based on aggressive impulses, triggered by various stimuli and situations which a person interprets as a signal of frustrations.Dysregulation of this regulation system indicated by higher scores is manifested in various forms of aggressive reactions, externalizing behavior patterns and but also in poor control of impulses.The system is operationalized with items like I like to participate in a fight or I often have trouble because I cannot keep my mouth shut or Even when they help others, people do so for their own advantage.
SYSTEM FOR HOMEOSTATIC COORDINATION OF REGULATION SYSTEMS (δ) -DELTA is conceptualized as a system of higher order which coordinates the functions of the other cognitive and conative subsystems that differ, functionally of hierarchically, including the cognitive processors functions.This system is functionally superior to the organic functions regulators such as α and ζ.It's basic function is the homeostatic regulation of all the behavior patterns, as well as synchronizing uncoordinated behavior.Dysregulation of this system indicated by higer scores on this dimension could cause disorganization and dissociation of both cognitive and conative functions, as well as disorders of motoric functions.The system is operationalized with items like I absolutely cannot do anything right or Someone is trying to influence my thoughts.
SYSTEM FOR INTEGRATION OF REGULATION SYSTEMS (η) -ETA is conceptualized as the highest in hierarchy of conative regulatory functions, potentially located in the frontal cortex.It's basic function is to integrate conative processes into a coherent psychological field, as conceptualized in gestalt psychology.It is mainly determined by socialization and other social factors such asconditioning, reinforcement, internalization within the educational process.Dysregulation of this system indicated by higher scores on this dimension could cause various forms of social incompatibility.The system is operationalized with items like I have entered the wrong public transport vehicle much more than once or I find it difficult to formulate what i want even in casual conversations.
The presence of somatic complaints was assessed by an open ended question regarding the presence of an acute somatic complaints or chronic illness.The total of 118 participants (23%) reported the presence of somatic.The results were summed into a binary variable indicating the presence of somatic complaints.

Statistical analysis
In statistical analysis Descriptive data analysis included calculating the mean value (M) and standard deviation (SD).
Spearman's correlation was used to assess the relationship between positivity and personality traits.The Levene's test of variance equality demonstrated the inequality only for χ personality trait, but not affecting the mean difference.
In order to test whether the presence of somatic complaints moderates the relation between conative personality dimensions and positivity, a hierarchical linear regression analysis 25 was performed.Significant interaction effects were presented on two separate graphs.In order to reduce the possibility of data multicollinearity, the moderation analysis was performed on mean centered data. 26tatistical analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software version 20.0. 1, positivity is significantly associated in an adequate manner with all of the personality traits, except for ζ.

As we can see from Table
The mean differences in positivity and personality traits between participants with somatic complaints (N=118) and without them (N=394) are presented in Table 2.The Levene's test of variance equality demonstrated the inequality only for χ personality trait, but not affecting the mean difference.As we can see, the subsample suffering from somatic complaints demonstrates significantly higher scores in α and η traits, suggesting higher levels of anxiety and social reality impairment for this subsample.
The analyses tested tree subsequent hierarchical models presented in the Table1.The purpose of the first and also the lowest model is to the effects of gender and age to subsequent relations.The second model was built up to the first and aimed to evaluating the main effects of conative personality dimensions and presence of somatic complaints.The third model was built by adding the interactions between personality predictors and the presence of somatic complaints to the second model.The ANOVA suggested the significance of only two subsequent models (Table 3).
As we can see on Table 4, the personality dimension and somatic complaints explain 26% of positivity variance.By adding the interactions between the predictors, the total of the variance explained rises for 3% of additionally explained criterion variance.By reaching the statistical significance, this change in explained variance suggested the possible moderation role of somatic complaints.
In more details, the models are presented in the table 5.The second model suggests the higher levels of ε will predict the higher level of positivity, while the levels of α and δ predict positivity in the reverse manner.The activity of other systems as well as the presence of somatic complaints does not reach the statistical significance of prediction.On the other hand, there are some interesting points.First of all, the standardized regression coefficients of εand α remain relatively unchanged, determining that their main effects on positivity are direct and not by any mean moderated by somatic complaints.Secondly, there was absence of main effects of other systems.This also includes δ, whose main effect is overtaken by the interaction with somatic complaints.Finally, there were two mild but significant interaction effects of χ and δ systems with the presence of somatic complaints.These moderation effects are illustrated in Graph 1 and Graph 2.
As presented in the Graph 1, the higher activity of the organic function regulation system (χ) predicts lower positivity, but only in the case of presence of somatic complaints, while in the case of low somatic complaints, the relation between this system and positivity cannot be detected.
On the other hand, the higher activity of the homeostatic coordination of regulation systems (δ) predicts lower positivity, but only in the case of absence of somatic complaints, while in the case of high somatic complaints, the relation between this system and positivity cannot be detected.

Discussion
In this research was investigated the correlation between personality traits and positive orientation in a sample of Serbian students and explored moderating effects of somatic complaints in the relation between personality traits and positivity.
Here is also worth to note that excellent psychometric properties and structural validity of the positivity scale were confirmed across various cultural contexts including Brazil, China, Columbia, Germany, Izrael, Italia, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Pakistan, Spain, Turkey, the Nederlands, UK and the USA.In most of these contexts, the scale demonstrated an unidimensional structure as well as excellent psychometric properties. 27,28,29,30,31s it could be seen in the results, Epsilon, which is conceptualized as the basic regulatory system who regulates the activating role of the reticular formation, has a direct relation to positivity, as the higher level of epsilon predicts the higher level of positivity.
Behaviorally, the Epsilon system is manifested throughout the extraversionintroversion dimension.Having in mind that the activity of Epsilon is defined in the model of personality dimensions that was used in this research, like the one that directly determines the activation levels of the other remaining subsystems, including the cognitive and motor processors, the role of the positivity in relation to personality traits could be understood better like the one of the self-regulative system.Some kind of indirect support could be the findings obtained in a recent study that used a so called Big Five model 32 .In this research, a latent variable representing the positivity construct fully mediated the relation of extraversion with happiness.Anyway, positivity and extraversion are directly related.
Alpha, defined like the regulative system of defense reactions is directly related with Positivity, but in different direction.It is expected results, as Alpha is defined also as responsible for all of behavioral patterns caused or followed by anxiety.As Caprara and colleagues cite 18 , positive orientation represents a basic attitude that is present and is important in facing major challenges of human life like illness, aging and death.Positive attitudes and reactions in facing challenges are not related to fear and anxiety although they could represent defense reactions, but, of the opposite directions.And, according to authors of the Cybernetic battery of conative tests, most of the neurotic disorders could be associated to dysregulation of Alpha.It seems that non neurotic or emotionally stabile individuals are related to higher scores on Positivity.
Both findings, Epsilon and Alpha and its relation to Positivity are fully supporting the results obtained in previous research that explore relation between personality traits and Positivity 15,17 .
Delta, in the model of the personality used in the research is conceptualized as a system of higher order which coordinates the functions of the other cognitive and conative subsystems.Dysregulation of this system indicated by higher scores on this dimension could cause disorganization and dissociation of both cognitive and conative functions, as well as disorders of motoric functions.Results obtained in the research show that Delta predicts Positivity in the opposite manner.Following this finding positivity could be understood as a good organizational and regulational concept which regulates cognitive, conative and motoric function.
The results reveal that activity of other systems present in the model of personality used in this research, as well as the presence of somatic complaints does not reach the statistical significance of prediction for Positivity.This means that Hi, Sigma and Eta did not predict the Positivity.Hi mainly regulates organ functions and could lead to increase of ideas of hypochondria and subsequent hypochondriac behaviour.Sigma is mainly regulating attack reactions and is manifested in various forms of aggressive reactions and poor control of impulses.Eta, or system for integration of regulation systems, is mainly determined by process of socialization.Dysregulation of Eta manifests itself in various forms of social incompatibility.To some extent these results were expected, for it seems that Positivity was not in a direct relation with ideas of hypochondria, aggressive reactions and social incompatibility.On the other hand, it could be seen that the presence of somatic complaints does not relate directly to positivity in any manner.
But, the picture is changed in the light of the results of standardized regression coefficients.Then it became obvious that only Epsilon and Alpha are directly related to Positivity and not moderated by somatic complaints.
Commenting the relation of Delta with Positivity, it could be seen that its main effect is overtaken by the interaction with somatic complaints.What is the meaning of this finding?
One hypothesis is that somatic complaints represent some kind of or are attempt to balance the disorganization and dissociation of both cognitive and conative functions, as well as disorders of motoric functions.In this case, where there is a presence of some somatic complaints, there is no relation between the Positivity and Delta.Somatic complaints are supporting Delta, or are a support for disorganization and dissociation in personality.It could be one more reason to conclude that Positivity represents a good organizational and regulation concept which regulates cognitive, conative and motoric function.Also, further hypothesis is that somatic complaints are a sign that there are some reasons to believe that there is no good organization in personality functions or there is some dissociation.
Further, commenting the relation of Hi with Positivity, it is clear that the higher activity of the organic function regulation system (χ) predicts lower positivity, but only in the case of presence of somatic complaints, while in the case of low somatic complaints, the relation between this system and positivity cannot be detected.Again, one could hypothesized that Positivity is protecting health, as there is no relation between Hi and Positivity when there is a low level of somatic complaints.And, vice versa, when there is a higher Hi, and higher somatic complaints, there is lower level of Positivity.
A crucial point of the discussion can be a hypothetical status of positive orientation and its relation to health.As Caprara argued, positive orientation fulfills important biological functions, for example it underlies an individual's need to grow, to flourish, to successfully cope with life in spite of occurring adversities, failures, and losses, as well as to keep on caring about living in the face of aging and closeness of death 10,15 .Authors of previous research already cite that Positive orientation is not a trait but it probably represents the same level of personalitybasic dispositions or processes. 33,34,35,36Results in this research give the base for the hypothesis that Positive orientation represents a good organizational and regulation dispositions or a process which regulate cognitive, conative and motoric function.Also, somatic complaints could be a sign that there are no good regulations of personality functions.

Limitations of the study
All of the presented findings should be viewed with having in mind a few shortcomings of this research.First of all, this study is performed predominantly on general population of students, with only 23% of them suffering from some kind of somatic complaints.Although they do not differ significantly from the rest of the sample in personality scores or positivity, we must have in mind that to some extent different results could be gained if this subsample would be equally represented in the total sample.Secondly, the student population is generally healthy, so the somatic complaints within our sample are to great extent represented with minor health problems.This shortcoming should direct some future research to include more complex samples representing general population, especially elderly people, as we have in mind that the increase of somatic complaints both in frequency and in intensity as people get older.Thirdly, we are aware that these findings should be retested on various clinical samples suffering from some kind of acute or chronic somatic complaint, in order to investigate is there any specific connection between personality and positivity under these specific circumstances.The last but not the least, we find that the transversal research design is the biggest shortcoming of our research.As all of the variables were assessed at the same point in time, we could not make any conclusion of potential causality or time sequence of their relation.For instance, it would be interesting to see does the appearance of somatic complaints alter positivity itself, as well as it's relations to personality, so the biggest suggestion for future research is to investigate these relations by using a longitudinal research design.

Conclusion
A better understanding of the relationship between positive orientation and the personality traits requires further explorations.The data about this relationship might help us to better understand even the Positivity itself.Also, further exploration of the function and a place of Positive orientation for human's health are precious.This kind of research could strongly benefit psychological practices and psychotherapy aiming at inspiring people to be healthy, self-regulated, living good and full lives.

Table 4 The parameters of models predicting positivity
Model 2: age, gender, personality dimensions, presence somatic complaints; Model 3: age, gender, personality dimensions, presence somatic complaints, interaction of personality dimensions and presence of somatic complaints