Tales of two self-control scales: Relations with Five-Factor and HEXACO traits Reinout E. de Vries a,⇑ , Jean-Louis van Gelder b a VU University Amsterdam, Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands b Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), The Netherlands article info Article history: Received 22 June 2012 Received in revised form 30 November 2012 Accepted 2 December 2012 Available online 23 January 2013 Keywords: Delinquency Self-control Big Five Five-Factor model HEXACO Conscientiousness Honesty–humility abstract This study compared the Five-Factor and HEXACO personality correlates of two common self-control con- structs – Tangney self-control and Grasmick self-control – and their relations with delinquency. In both a student and a community sample, conscientiousness (mainly the prudence facet) was the most consis- tent and strongest correlate of both constructs. HEXACO honesty–humility was an important correlate of Grasmick self-control but not of Tangney self-control. Additionally, honesty–humility (mainly the fair- ness facet) was the most consistent predictor of delinquency, whereas the two self-control scales differed in the extent to which they predicted delinquency across samples. Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Self-control is among the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences (Duckworth, 2011). This is not without reason; lack of self-control has been implicated in a wide variety of important life outcomes, such as poor health, teenage pregnancy, financial problems, drug abuse, and delinquency, even when controlling for intelligence and socio-economic background (Moffitt et al., 2011). In spite of widespread scholarly interest in different disciplines such as psychology, behavioral economics, and criminology, and its pervasive influence on the lives of people, there is a lack of consen- sus regarding the nature of self-control and its relations with more general dimensions of personality. According to Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), for example, people low in self-control are predis- posed to engage in irresponsible behaviors because of a (learned) preference to respond to tangible, physical, and exciting stimuli in the immediate environment, a lack of tenacity and tolerance when facing frustrations, and an indifference to the needs and suf- ferings of others. In contrast, Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone (2004) define self-control as the ‘‘ability to override or change one’s inner responses, as well as to interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies (such as impulses) and refrain from acting on them’’ (p. 274). Whereas the Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) conceptualiza- tion locates self-control in a set of different – but purportedly related – traits, Tangney et al. (2004) specifically locate it in theo- ries on self-regulation, whereby the self is able to override its im- pulses and alter its moods, emotions, and behaviors. This difference in conceptualization may be reflected in the dif- ferent traits that have been linked to self-control. Self-control has been associated with conscientiousness alone (O’Gorman and Baxter, 2002), with a combination of conscientiousness, agreeable- ness, and emotional stability (Olson, 2005; Tangney et al., 2004), with sensation-seeking (Mishra & Lalumière, 2011), and with psychopathy (Jonason & Tost, 2010). Although both sensation- seeking and psychopathy have been related to conscientiousness, sensation-seeking has also been found to be related to openness to experience and extraversion (De Vries, De Vries, & Feij, 2009), whereas psychopathy has been found to be related to (low) honesty–humility, (low) emotionality, and (low) agreeableness (De Vries, Lee, & Ashton, 2008; De Vries & Van Kampen, 2010; Lee & Ashton, 2005). Consequently, although conscientiousness appears to be a central element of self-control, all of the other main personality dimensions have – in one study or another – also been implicated as correlates of self-control. Self-control has been found to be an important and consistent predictor of delinquency (Pratt & Cullen, 2000), but there is a lack of studies comparing the effects of self-control on delinquency with the effects of traits from general models of personality. Sev- eral Five-Factor traits, i.e. (low) conscientiousness, neuroticism (low emotional stability), and (low) agreeableness have been shown to be correlates of delinquency (Caspi et al., 1994; Eysenck, 1977; Lynam, 2002; Miller & Lynam, 2001). In the HEXACO model, 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.023 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 20 5988718. E-mail address: re.de.vries@vu.nl (R.E. de Vries). Personality and Individual Differences 54 (2013) 756–760 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid