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Evidence from Psychological Studies
Abstract
As we have seen in the previous chapter, research on the propagation of social and emotional skills in education has gradually come to include theories and models from developmental and personality psychology. As evident in contributions by the OECD.
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The development and promotion of social-emotional skills in childhood and adolescence contributes to subsequent well-being and positive life outcomes. However, the assessment of these skills is associated with conceptual and methodological challenges. This review discusses how social-emotional skill measurement in youth could be improved in terms of skills’ conceptualization and classification, and in terms of assessment techniques and methodologies. The first part of the review discusses various conceptualizations of social-emotional skills, demonstrates their overlap with related constructs such as emotional intelligence and the Big Five personality dimensions, and proposes an integrative set of social-emotional skill domains that has been developed recently. Next, methodological approaches that are innovative and may improve social-emotional assessments are presented, illustrated by concrete examples. We discuss how these innovations could advance social-emotional assessments, and demonstrate links to similar issues in related fields. We conclude the review by providing several concrete assessment recommendations that follow from this discussion.
Objectives: Recent literature suggests that personality may be more amenable to change than was previously thought, and that participant selected intentional personality change may be beneficial. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a 10-week structured intentional personality change coaching programme on participant selected personality facets.
Design: Participants were assigned to the personality coaching group or a waitlist control group using a waitlist control, matched, randomised procedure (personality coaching group, N=27; waitlist control group,
N=27).
Method: A structured coaching programme, designed to identify and modify a limited number of personality facets, chosen by the client, was employed.
Results: Participation in the personality change coaching programme was associated with significant positive change in participant selected facets, with gains maintained three months later. Neither age of participant nor number of facets targeted significantly affected change outcomes.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that a structured personality change coaching programme may facilitate
beneficial personality change in motivated individuals.
Keywords: Intentional personality change coaching.
Recent findings suggest that personality is amenable to change via interventions and that such change may be beneficial. However, there is a gap in the literature concerning what aspects of their personality individuals in non-clinical populations wish to change, and if the personality of individuals who choose to change their personality differs from the normal population. Clarification of these questions may help inform the development of personality change resources and interventions. The current study explored the personality profiles (as measured by the NEO PI-R) of 54 volunteers for an intentional personality change coaching study, and describes the personality facets they chose to target for change. The results of this study indicated that participants had significantly higher openness and emotionality. Targeted personality facets primarily fell within the domains of emotionality (48.17 per cent) and conscientiousness (28.04 per cent). Anxiety (N=28), self-discipline (N=19), angry/hostility (N=17), depression (N=11) and self-consciousness (N=11) were the most commonly targeted facets. These results inform the literature regarding which individuals may be motivated to change their personalities and for what purpose. There may also be wider implications regarding how the personality of volunteers for intervention research may differ from the general population.
Three experience-sampling studies explored the distributions of Big-Five-relevant states (behavior) across 2 to 3 weeks of everyday life. Within-person variability was high, such that the typical individual regularly and routinely manifested nearly all levels of all traits in his or her everyday behavior. Second, individual differences in central tendencies of behavioral distributions were almost perfectly stable. Third, amount of behavioral variability (and skew and kurtosis) were revealed as stable individual differences. Finally, amount of within-person variability in extraversion was shown to reflect individual differences in reactivity to extraversion-relevant situational cues. Thus, decontextualized and noncontingent Big-Five content is highly useful for descriptions of individuals' density distributions as wholes. Simultaneously, contextualized and contingent personality units (e.g., conditional traits, goals) are needed for describing the considerable within-person variation.
In an increasingly fast-changing, complex and diverse world, social and emotional skills are becoming ever more important. In this paper we present an overview of literature on social and emotional skills, describing the nature and structure of these skills, their development, malleability and factors that influence them, their cross-cultural comparability and their relevance for a wide range of educational, economic and life outcomes. The paper also represents a conceptual framework for the OECD’s new Study on Social and Emotional Skills, an international survey that assesses 10- and 15-year-old students in a number of cities and countries around the world.
We focus on the underlying skills within and outside of the widely researched Big Five model that are found to be more predictive and policy relevant. We examine the relationships of these skills with a variety of indicators of individual and societal wellbeing such as education, employment and income, health, and personal well-being. The paper discusses the structure of child’s social and emotional skills and the developmental trajectories of these skills across a lifetime. It presents the evidence of malleability of these skills as well as their relevance across a wide range of cultural contexts.
Background: There is a growing literature providing evidence on the importance of non-cognitive skills for life outcomes. However, to date there is limited evidence on the gains from incorporating such measures into large-scale competence surveys.
Methods: We investigate the relationship between personality traits and eight important life outcomes: educational attainment, labour market participation, employability, wages, job satisfaction, health, trust and life satisfaction measured in the Polish follow-up study to PIAAC. The study assesses two short scales: the Big Five Inventory and Grit. First, we compare explanatory power of personality traits to that of cognitive skills measured by PIAAC. Second, an incremental validity of Grit after controlling for the Big Five dimensions is assessed.
Results: The analyses show that differences in personality traits are important in explaining differences in life outcomes. Educational attainment is more strongly related to cognitive skills, while for wages, the explanatory power of personality and cognitive skills is similar. For most of the subjective outcomes, the Big Five traits outperform cognitive skills in predictive power. Conscientiousness is positively related to most of the outcomes analysed while Neuroticism has a negative relationship. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and cognitive skills, Big Five traits add explanatory power to all models except for employability. Grit explains some additional variation in educational attainment and in a number of subjective outcomes: health, trust, job and life satisfaction, even after adjusting for the effects of cognitive skills and Big Five traits.
Conclusions: Given the potential benefits and relatively small burden on respondents in terms of required time it seems advisable to incorporate measures of personality traits into competence surveys as they contribute to explaining the variability in policy-relevant outcomes. The use of the Big Five Inventory seems preferable to Grit when a broad range of life outcomes is of interest, as the former covers multiple aspects of personality. However, using both scales offers an improvement in explanatory power.
Keywords: PIAAC, Cognitive skills, Personality, Grit, Earnings, Health, Well-being, Perseverance of effort, Consistency of interest
Objective
Personality traits influence human behaviour across a broad range of situations and are consequently relevant to many theoretical and applied disciplines. In this perspective piece, we provide an overview of the logic underpinning personality measurement and review major personality taxonomies. We provide an extensive set of recommendations for researchers and practitioners on when and how to use measures of personality traits.
Method
We overview a range of taxonomic representations of personality structure focusing particularly on hierarchical representations and five and six factor models such as the Big Five and HEXACO models. We review the various strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Results
The review outlines the major reasons for the dominance of the Big Five model, and suggests it is a good descriptive framework for studying personality in general. However we suggest that researchers and practitioners also consider alternative taxonomic personality representations such as the HEXACO. We provide a range of scenarios whereby alternative frameworks will be more appropriate than the Big Five and offer recommendations both for choosing measures in general and for implementing studies examining personality facets.
Conclusion
Whilst the Big Five represents an excellent general personality framework that is appropriate across multiple situations, researchers and practitioners should be aware of alternative measures and utilise them where appropriate.
Prior to empirical investigation of trait level measures, it had been suggested that, on balance, well-adjusted individuals tended to have a higher level of intelligence than poorly adjusted individuals. The underlying inference was that there should be positive correlations found between personality traits associated with "adjustment" and intelligence, at least at the level of general mental abilities. Over the last several decades, empirical research has suggested that, while there are sources of common variance among personality and intellectual ability measures, the relations are more scattered and provide few general findings (other than broad assessments of neuroticism and so-called engagement traits and intellectual abilities). The status of the empirical research foundation is briefly reviewed. Conceptual and methodological issues, such as non-linear relations, typical and maximal behaviors, contextualized assessment, and missing linkages are discussed in an effort to explore personality and intelligence traits in a manner that might better reveal underlying relations between these domains.
Cambios en los rasgos de la personalidad: Algunas consideraciones de la psicoterapia Proceso-Resultado Investigación para los esfuerzos de intervención en el cambio de personalidad intencional
Hay un debate reciente en el campo del desarrollo de la personalidad en cómo los rasgos de la personalidad pueden ser modificados o cambiados durante cortos períodos de tiempo. Mientras que las posiciones tradicionales destacan la estabilidad relativa de los rasgos de la personalidad en la edad adulta, investigaciones recientes investigan el cambio intencional de rasgos de personalidad, es decir, deseos e intentos de cambiar rasgos de personalidad. El objetivo principal del presente artículo es conectar las actividades recientes y los esfuerzos de intervención en la psicología de la personalidad con la investigación de procesos y resultados de la psicoterapia. Más específicamente, argumentamos que 4 factores empíricamente derivados del cambio común en la investigación de la psicoterapia podrían proporcionar algunos principios heurísticos útiles para las intervenciones de cambio de personalidad en la población normal que no sufren particularmente de trastornos de la personalidad. Discutimos las implicaciones del uso de estos principios para cambiar los rasgos de la personalidad y sugerir algunas ideas para la investigación y la práctica futuras.
Many interventions targeting cognitive skills or socioemotional skills and behaviors demonstrate initially promising but then quickly disappearing impacts. Our paper seeks to identify the key features of interventions, as well as the characteristics and environments of the children and adolescents who participate in them, that can be expected to sustain persistently beneficial program impacts. We describe three such processes: skill-building, foot-in-the-door and sustaining environments. We argue that skill-building interventions should target “trifecta” skills – ones that are malleable, fundamental, and would not have developed eventually in the absence of the intervention. Successful foot-in-the-door interventions equip a child with the right skills or capacities at the right time to avoid imminent risks (e.g., grade failure or teen drinking) or seize emerging opportunities (e.g., entry into honors classes). The sustaining environments perspective views high quality of environments subsequent to the completion of the intervention as crucial for sustaining early skill gains. These three perspectives generate both complementary and competing hypotheses regarding the nature, timing and targeting of interventions that generate enduring impacts.
This review contributes to evidence that personality traits play a key role in life outcomes and may be changed via intervention.
Three studies were conducted to develop and validate the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), a major revision of the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Study 1 specified a hierarchical model of personality structure with 15 facet traits nested within the Big Five domains, and developed a preliminary item pool to measure this structure. Study 2 used conceptual and empirical criteria to construct the BFI-2 domain and facet scales from the preliminary item pool. Study 3 used data from 2 validation samples to evaluate the BFI-2’s measurement properties and substantive relations with self-reported and peer-reported criteria. The results of these studies indicate that the BFI-2 is a reliable and valid personality measure, and an important advance over the original BFI. Specifically, the BFI-2 introduces a robust hierarchical structure, controls for individual differences in acquiescent responding, and provides greater bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power than the original BFI, while still retaining the original measure’s conceptual focus, brevity, and ease of understanding. The BFI-2 therefore offers valuable new opportunities for research examining the structure, assessment, development, and life outcomes of personality traits.
High neuroticism predicts psychopathology and physical health problems. Nongenetic factors, including major life events and experiences, explain approximately half of the variance in neuroticism. Conversely, neuroticism also predicts these life experiences. In this study, we aimed to quantify the reciprocal causation between neuroticism and life experiences and to gauge the magnitude and persistence of these associations. This longitudinal cohort study included 5 assessment waves over 16 years in a random sample of 296 Dutch participants (47% women) with a mean age of 34 years (SD = 12, range 16-63 years). Neuroticism was assessed with the Amsterdam Biographic Questionnaire. The experiences measured included positive and negative life events, long-term difficulties (LTDs), and change in life quality, all assessed by contextual rating procedures adapted from the Life Event and Difficulties Schedule. We fit structural equation models in Mplus. Results showed that neuroticism consistently predicted negative experiences, decreased life quality, and LTDs (β = 0.15 to 0.39), whereas effects on positive experiences were variable (β = 0.14). LTDs and deteriorated life quality each predicted small but persistent increases in neuroticism (β = 0.18), whereas improved life quality predicted small but persistent decreases (β = -0.13). This suggests set point change in neuroticism. Life event aggregates showed no persistent effects on the neuroticism set point. Neuroticism and life experiences showed persistent, bidirectional associations. Experience-driven changes in neuroticism lasted over a decade. Results support the corresponsive principle (reciprocal causation), suggesting a mixed model of change in neuroticism that distinguishes temporary changes in neuroticism from persistent changes in an individual's neuroticism set point. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
The longitudinal stability of personality is low in childhood but increases substantially into adulthood. Theoretical explanations for this trend differ in the emphasis placed on intrinsic maturation and socializing influences. To what extent does the increasing stability of personality result from the continuity and crystallization of genetically influenced individual differences, and to what extent does the increasing stability of life experiences explain increases in personality trait stability? Behavioral genetic studies, which decompose longitudinal stability into sources associated with genetic and environmental variation, can help to address this question. We aggregated effect sizes from 24 longitudinal behavioral genetic studies containing information on a total of 21,057 sibling pairs from 6 types that varied in terms of genetic relatedness and ranged in age from infancy to old age. A combination of linear and nonlinear meta-analytic regression models were used to evaluate age trends in levels of heritability and environmentality, stabilities of genetic and environmental effects, and the contributions of genetic and environmental effects to overall phenotypic stability. Both the genetic and environmental influences on personality increase in stability with age. The contribution of genetic effects to phenotypic stability is moderate in magnitude and relatively constant with age, in part because of small-to-moderate decreases in the heritability of personality over child development that offset increases in genetic stability. In contrast, the contribution of environmental effects to phenotypic stability increases from near zero in early childhood to moderate in adulthood. The life-span trend of increasing phenotypic stability, therefore, predominantly results from environmental mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
We studied the developmental trends of temperament and character in a longitudinal population-based sample of Finnish men and women aged 20-45 years using the Temperament and Character Inventory model of personality. Personality was assessed in 1997, 2001, and 2007 (n = 2,104, 2,095, and 2,056, respectively). Mean-level changes demonstrated qualitatively distinct developmental patterns for character (self-directedness, cooperativeness, and self-transcendence) and temperament (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence). Character developed toward greater maturity, although self-transcendence decreased with age. However, self-transcendence was the strongest predictor of overall personality change. Cohort effects indicated lower level of self-transcendence and higher level of self-directedness and cooperativeness in younger birth cohorts. Regarding temperament, novelty seeking decreased and persistence increased slightly with age. Both high novelty seeking and high persistence predicted overall personality change. These findings suggest that temperament and character traits follow different kinds of developmental trajectories.
The current study investigated the effects of social context on Big 5 trait expression, and the moderating influence of social context on gender differences in personality. A short Big 5 instrument assessed trait expression in three contexts: with parents, with friends, and with work colleagues. Findings indicated significant cross-context variation in all five traits, while also showing cross-context within-trait correlations. These cross-context correlations found that Conscientiousness was the most stable of the Big 5 traits and that Extraversion the least stable across the three contexts assessed. Gender effects were found only at the trait-in-context level, suggesting a role for social context in moderating personality gender differences.
In the 45 years since Cattell used English trait terms to begin the formulation of his “description of personality,” a number of investigators have proposed an alternative structure based on 5 orthogonal factors. The generality of this 5-factor model is here demonstrated across unusally comprehensive sets of trait terms. In the first 3 studies, 1,431 trait adjectives grouped into 75 clusters were analyzed; virtually identical structures emerged in 10 replications, each based on a different factor-analytic procedure. A 2nd study of 479 common terms grouped into 133 synonym clusters revealed the same structure in 2 samples of self-ratings and in 2 samples of peer ratings. None of the factors beyond the 5th generalized across the samples. In the 3rd study, analyses of 100 clusters derived from 339 triat terms suggest their potential utility as Big-Five markers in future studies.
Objectives:
This study examined whether perceived social support predicted adaptive personality change in older adulthood, focusing on the trait of conscientiousness. We tested this hypothesis both at the broad domain level and with respect to the specific lower order facets that comprise conscientiousness: order, self-control, industriousness, responsibility, and traditionalism.
Methods:
A sample of 143 older adults (aged 60-91) completed measures of conscientiousness and social support during 2 assessments 7 months apart.
Results:
Social support and conscientiousness were positively correlated among older adults. Moreover, older adults who perceived greater social support at baseline were more likely to gain in conscientiousness over time. The magnitude of this effect was relatively similar across the order, self-control, and industriousness facets.
Discussion:
Perceived social support provides multiple benefits later in life, and the current results add to this literature by showing that it also promotes conscientiousness. As conscientiousness is linked to a variety of positive outcomes later in life, including health, future research should examine whether conscientiousness change may be an important mechanism through which social support enhances resilience in older adulthood.
OBJECTIVE: Investigations concerning adult personality development have increasingly focused on factors that are associated with apparent personality trait changes. The current study contributes to this literature by replicating and extending previous research concerning personality trait development in young adulthood and perceptions of workplace conditions. METHOD: Analyses were based on up to 442 individuals who participated in the ongoing Family Transitions Project (e.g., Conger & Conger, 2002). The current analyses included personality trait data from 1994 and 2003, high-school grades and SES indicators from 1994, and reports about work conditions in 2001, 2003, and 2005. RESULTS: Personality attributes were prospectively associated with work conditions and income. Findings also support the corresponsive principle of personality development (e.g. Roberts, Caspi, & Moffitt, 2003): Traits that were prospectively associated with particular workplace conditions often seemed to be accentuated by those conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits are prospectively associated with perceptions of the workplace. Workplace conditions are also associated with trait development.
Discusses the debate on hierarchical approaches to understanding personality and intelligence and gives an interesting account of attempts to assess maximal personality and typical intelligence but concludes that the concepts are problematic for a variety of reasons. A more promising outcome might be achieved by blending personality and stylistic intellect. To that end, the author introduces a hierarchical model, with a new notion of personality (the
p-factor) as a parallel to the established
g-concept. He shows that the
p-factor encompasses stylistic intellect and other personality factors and may well represent Competence or Coping. Identification of 5 hierarchical levels yields several patterns of stylistic intellect, and the author emphasizes the usefulness of setting stylistic intellect within the context of personality rather than within the domain of maximal intelligence tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 2 studies, college students evidenced differing levels of the "Big-Five" traits in different roles, supporting social-contextualist assumptions regarding trait expression. Supporting organismic theories of personality, within-subject variations in the Big Five were predictable from variations in the degree of psychological authenticity felt in different roles. In addition, two concepts of self-integration or true selfhood were examined: 1 based on high consistency of trait profiles across roles (i.e., low-self-concept differentiation; E. M. Donahue, R. W. Robins, B. W. Roberts, & O. P. John, 1993) and 1 based on high mean levels of authenticity felt across roles. The 2 self-integration measures were found to be independent predictors of psychological and physical well-being indicating that both self-consistency and psychological authenticity are vital for organized functioning and health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT We report a genetic and environmental analysis of California Psychological Inventory (CPI) scale scores gathered on a sample of 45 sets of monozygotic twins reared apart (MZA) and 26 sets of dizygotic twins reared apart (DZA) Analysis of twin intraclass correlations and the results of models fit to the twin data demonstrate that the heritability of most scales and five factors of the CPI is about 50 When compared to results from studies of adult MZ and DZ twins reared together few of the scales demonstrate any common family environmental influence Placement coefficients on the Family Environment Scale (FES) can explain only a minor portion of the correlations for twins reared apart The influence of specific rearing environmental factors on adult personality was evaluated by analyzing the relationship between the FES and the CPI in this adoptee sample One FES factor (Cohesion vs Conflict) does correlate substantially with the CPI factor of Consensuality and may account for up to 24% of the variance in that factor, but the retrospectively gathered
The current research examined the longitudinal relationship between social engagement and personality traits in older adults. Specifically, the present research examined how engagement in family and community roles related to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability in a sample of 100 Illinois residents age 60-86 years assessed twice over a period of 2.5 years. Social engagement and personality traits were related in three ways. First, concurrent relationships during Wave 1 suggested that agreeable older adults are more socially engaged. Next, Wave 1 standing on both personality traits and social engagement predicted respective change over time. In addition, changes in engagement and personality traits covaried over time. The specific patterns presented in this study suggest that although some relationships were consistent with research findings in young adulthood and midlife, role investment in old age may have a distinctly different meaning than role investment earlier in the life span. These patterns suggest that personality traits can both inform our understanding of engagement during older adulthood and that personality traits may be meaningful outcomes of the aging experience in their own right. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided 4 main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60 and decreasing afterward, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences.
This longitudinal study examined the relation between continuity and change in the Big Five personality traits and life events. Approximately 2,000 German students were tracked from high school to university or to vocational training or work, with 3 assessments over 4 years. Life events were reported retrospectively at the 2nd and 3rd assessment. Latent curve analyses were used to assess change in personality traits, revealing 3 main findings. First, mean-level changes in the Big Five factors over the 4 years were in line with the maturity principle, indicating increasing psychological maturity from adolescence to young adulthood. Second, personality development was characterized by substantive individual differences relating to the life path followed; participants on a more vocationally oriented path showed higher increases in conscientiousness and lower increases in agreeableness than their peers at university. Third, initial level and change in the Big Five factors (especially Neuroticism and Extraversion) were linked to the occurrence of aggregated as well as single positive and negative life events. The analyses suggest that individual differences in personality development are associated with life transitions and individual life experiences.
Hypotheses about mean-level age differences in the Big Five personality domains, as well as 10 more specific facet traits within those domains, were tested in a very large cross-sectional sample (N = 1,267,218) of children, adolescents, and adults (ages 10-65) assessed over the World Wide Web. The results supported several conclusions. First, late childhood and adolescence were key periods. Across these years, age trends for some traits (a) were especially pronounced, (b) were in a direction different from the corresponding adult trends, or (c) first indicated the presence of gender differences. Second, there were some negative trends in psychosocial maturity from late childhood into adolescence, whereas adult trends were overwhelmingly in the direction of greater maturity and adjustment. Third, the related but distinguishable facet traits within each broad Big Five domain often showed distinct age trends, highlighting the importance of facet-level research for understanding life span age differences in personality.
High neuroticism is a personality risk factor that reflects much of the genetic vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD), and low extraversion may increase risk as well. Both have been linked to the serotonin system.
To test whether patients with MDD taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) report greater changes in neuroticism and extraversion than patients receiving inert placebo, and to examine the state effect hypothesis that self-reported personality change during SSRI treatment is merely a change of depression-related measurement bias.
A placebo-controlled trial.
Research clinics. Patients Adult patients with moderate to severe MDD randomized to receive paroxetine (n = 120), placebo (n = 60), or cognitive therapy (n = 60).
NEO Five-Factor Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression.
Patients who took paroxetine reported greater personality change than placebo patients, even after controlling for depression improvement (neuroticism, P < .001; extraversion, P = .002). The advantage of paroxetine over placebo in antidepressant efficacy was no longer significant after controlling for change in neuroticism (P = .46) or extraversion (P = .14). Patients taking paroxetine reported 6.8 times as much change on neuroticism and 3.5 times as much change on extraversion as placebo patients matched for depression improvement. Although placebo patients exhibited substantial depression improvement (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression score, -1.2 SD, P < .001), they reported little change on neuroticism (-0.18 SD, P = .08) or extraversion (0.08 SD, P = .50). Cognitive therapy produced greater personality change than placebo (P </= .01); but its advantage on neuroticism was no longer significant after controlling for depression (P = .14). Neuroticism reduction during treatment predicted lower relapse rates among paroxetine responders (P = .003) but not among cognitive therapy responders (P = .86).
Paroxetine appears to have a specific pharmacological effect on personality that is distinct from its effect on depression. If replicated, this pattern would disconfirm the state effect hypothesis and instead support the notion that SSRIs' effects on personality go beyond and perhaps contribute to their antidepressant effects.
Differences in behavior, feelings, and thoughts have consequences for important life outcomes at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. These individual differences—commonly organized into the Big Five personality traits Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness-to-Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness—develop as early as childhood. To provide a fulsome description of the Big Five personality traits in childhood, we will describe their development and review evidence for their associations with temperament. In describing the Big Five personality traits in childhood, we will distinguish them from temperament and adult personality. When distinguishing child personality from adult personality traits, we will pay special attention to the unique challenges for the measurement of child personality that may be contributing to some of the observed differences. To help organize the historically separate literatures on child temperament and personality, we will then describe the hierarchical structure of personality in childhood. Finally, information on the developmental trajectories of personality traits in childhood is reviewed. Given the relevance and importance of early personality for later life outcomes, we will conclude by presenting an innovative way of measuring childhood personality traits that may optimize the design of longitudinal studies on personality development across the life span.
As part of the resurgence of interest in personality development, we wrote several theoretical pieces outlining the Neo-Socioanalytic Model of Personality Development. In this chapter, we clarify why we developed this framework and how it differs from other personality frameworks. We also discuss how well components of the framework, such as the principles of personality development, have held up over time. We conclude with recommendations on improving the model and for future research to better test predictions from the model.
The current meta-analysis investigated the extent to which personality traits changed as a result of intervention, with the primary focus on clinical interventions. We identified 207 studies that had tracked changes in measures of personality traits during interventions, including true experiments and prepost change designs. Interventions were associated with marked changes in personality trait measures over an average time of 24 weeks (e.g., d = .37). Additional analyses showed that the increases replicated across experimental and nonexperimental designs, for nonclinical interventions, and persisted in longitudinal follow-ups of samples beyond the course of intervention. Emotional stability was the primary trait domain showing changes as a result of therapy, followed by extraversion. The type of therapy employed was not strongly associated with the amount of change in personality traits. Patients presenting with anxiety disorders changed the most, and patients being treated for substance use changed the least. The relevance of the results for theory and social policy are discussed.
A recurring issue for education policy-makers is the labour market effect of the long-term global mass
expansion of higher education, particularly on what is a “graduate job”. The traditional assumption
is that graduate jobs are virtually coterminous with professional and managerial occupations. A new
indicator of graduate jobs, termed ISCO(HE)2008, is derived using task-based data drawn from the
The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of
Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The new classification shows that several jobs in ISCO major group 3
“Technicians and Associate Professionals” are also classed as graduate jobs in many countries.
Altogether, 27.6% of jobs are classified as graduate jobs in the 15 OECD country-regions for which
we have data. Considerable variation in the proportion of graduate jobs is found across industries
and countries and in the short period from 2011 to 2013, the proportion of graduate jobs has become
more diverse across countries.
Objective:
Theory and research have emphasized the impact of life events on personality trait change. In this article, we review prospective research on personality trait change in response to nine major life events in the broader domains of love and work.
Method:
We expected to find that life events lead to personality trait change to the extent that they have a lasting influence on individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Moreover, we predicted that love-related life events such as marriage or parenthood would be more strongly related to changes in traits that emphasize affective content, whereas work-related life events would be more likely to lead to change in traits that reflect behavioral or cognitive content.
Results:
The current state of research provided some evidence that life events can lead to changes in personality traits and that different life events may be differently related to specific trait domains.
Conclusions:
A more general conclusion emerging from this review is that the evidence for the nature, shape, and timing of personality trait change in response to life events is still preliminary. We discuss the implications of the results for theory and research and provide directions for future studies on life events and personality trait change.
This article concerns how noncognitive constructs—personality and motivation—can be assessed and developed to increase students' readiness for college. We propose a general framework to account for personality and motivational differences between students. We review numerous studies showing that personality and motivational factors are related to educational outcomes, from early childhood to adulthood. We discuss various methods for assessing noncognitive factors, ranging from self-assessments to performance tests. We consider data showing that personality and motivation change over time and find that particular interventions have proven successful in changing particular personality facets, leading to increased achievement. In a final section we propose a strategy for implementing a comprehensive psychosocial skills assessment in middle and high school, which would include setting proficiency standards and providing remedial instruction.
We review research and theory on the HEXACO personality dimensions of Honesty-Humility (H), Agreeableness (A), and Emotionality (E), with particular attention to the following topics: (1) the origins of the HEXACO model in lexical studies of personality structure, and the content of the H, A, and E factors in those studies; (2) the operationalization of the H, A, and E factors in the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised; (3) the construct validity of self-reports on scales measuring the H factor; (4) the theoretical distinction between H and A; (5) similarity and assumed similarity between social partners in personality, with a focus on H and A; (6) the extent to which H (and A and E) variance is represented in instruments assessing the "Five-Factor Model" of personality; and (7) the relative validity of scales assessing the HEXACO and Five-Factor Model dimensions in predicting criteria conceptually relevant to H, A, and E.
Personality traits and cognitive performance are related, but little work has examined how these associations vary by personality facet or age. 154 adults aged 22–84 completed the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT) and the NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed negative emotional aspects of personality (neuroticism, depression) were associated with lower reasoning, and social aspects of personality (assertiveness) were associated with faster reaction time, yet lower reasoning. The association between neuroticism and performance was found primarily among younger adults. In older adulthood, better performance was associated with positive emotional aspects of personality. We discuss how personality may have different associations with performance across age and the implications for possible interventions.
An experiment was arranged whereby all three judges independently classified into the four selected columns 300 representative words, drawn from the total list according to a principle of representative distribution. The results of this study may be expressed in percentages of the total number of terms that each pair of judges assigned to identically the same columns. Taking only the instances where all three judges agree, we find 141 words or 47 per cent of the list, whereas 6.25 per cent represents the chance expectation. Examining this average agreement more closely we next determine the peculiarities of each individual judge when his placements are compared with those of the other two judges. This analysis calls attention to perhaps the principal source of unreliability, namely the tendency of each judge to have a mental set of "leniency" favoring the inclusion of marginal or doubtful terms in one column rather than another. Four outside judges selected 130 of the 300 terms as strange and unfamiliar to them. The agreement of the three editors for this group of terms averaged only 45 per cent, as against 47 per cent for the total list, and 48 per cent for the remaining 170 more familiar terms. Apparently established usage and familiarity enhances but slightly the reliability of the placement.
The person-situation debate is coming to an end because both sides of the debate have turned out to be right. With respect to momentary behaviors, the situation side is right: Traits do not predict, describe, or influence behavior very strongly; the typical individual's behavior is highly variable; and a process approach is needed to explain that variability. With respect to trends (e.g., a person's typical way of acting), however, the person side of the debate is right: Traits predict and describe behavior very well over long stretches of time, behavior is highly stable, and a trait approach is needed to explain differences between people. Thus, proponents of both sides are right and should continue to conduct fruitful research, and both viewpoints are necessary for a full understanding of personality. The next exciting steps in personality psychology will include integrating these two approaches in the same research paradigm.
British university students (N = 247) completed the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) personality inventory at the beginning of their course and took several written examinations throughout their three-year degree. Personality super-traits (especially Conscientiousness positively, and Extraversion and Neuroticism negatively) were significantly correlated with examination grades and were found to account for around 15% of the variance. Primary traits were also examined and results showed significant correlations between a small number of these traits (notably dutifulness and achievement striving positively, and anxiety and activity negatively) and academic achievement. Furthermore, selected primary personality traits (i.e. achievement striving, self-discipline, and activity) were found to explain almost 30% of the variance in academic examination performance. It is argued that personality inventory results may represent an important contribution to the prediction of academic success and failure in university (particularly in highly selective and competitive settings). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of fluid intelligence (gf) with trait Openness and Conscientiousness. A total of 2658 participants completed the NEO PI-R [Costa Jr., P. T. & MCrae, R. (1985). Revised NEO Personality Inventory and Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources] and the GMA: Abstract test of cognitive ability [Blinkhorn, S. F. (1985). Graduate and Managerial Assessment Manual and User Guide. Dorchester: Dorset Press]. Correlational analysis showed that only the Ideas and Actions sub-facets of Openness were positively correlated with gf. Order, Self-Discipline and Deliberation sub-facets of Conscientiousness were negatively correlated with gf. Regressions showed that the sub-factors of each of the traits accounted for 5% of the total variance in gf. These findings are discussed in an attempt to explain how the relationship between Openness, Conscientiousness and gf may have developed.
We investigated whether personality moderates group influence of classmates on academic achievement and whether these so-called context effects can be attributed to peer pressure. The sample consisted of 2498 students in their first year of Dutch secondary education. The data were analyzed by a two-level (students within classes) analysis, separately for boys (n=1033, in 92 classes) and girls (n=1465, in 119 classes). For both sexes, we found a context effect on Dutch language achievement but not on mathematics achievement. Emotional Stability appeared a moderator of this context effect but for girls only. The results suggest further that peer pressure is not a likely mechanism of group influence of classmates on academic achievement.
On the basis of the assumptions of the dynamic transactional paradigm, the current study investigates the effects of success and failure of social investment on personality development across young adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Adult Life Transitions (MSALT), the authors demonstrate that entering into the first long-term romantic relationship was accompanied by decreases in facets of neuroticism, thereby fully replicating findings by Neyer and Lehnart (2007) based on a German longitudinal study. In addition, remaining single over 8 years was related to decreasing self-esteem, especially for men. These results demonstrate long-term effects of investment and lack of investment in social roles and provide further evidence of the interrelatedness of social or relationship experiences and personality development.
In this research, we examined the psychometric properties of the Revised Ego Resiliency 89 Scale (ER89-R; Alessandri, Vecchio, Steca, Caprara, & Caprara, 2008), a brief self-report measure of ego resiliency. The scale has been used to assess the development of ego resiliency from late adolescence to emerging adulthood, focusing on different ways to define continuity and change. We analyzed longitudinal self-report data from 267 late adolescents (44% male) using 4 different approaches: factor analysis for testing construct continuity, correlational analysis for examining differential stability, latent growth modeling for analyzing mean level change, and the reliable change index for studying the occurrence of change at the individual level. Converging evidence points to the marked stability of ego resiliency from 16 to 20 years, both for males and females. The scale predicts externalizing and internalizing problems, both concurrently and at 2 and 4 years of distance. Findings suggest that the ER89-R scale represents a valid and reliable instrument that can be fruitfully suited for studying ego resiliency through various developmental stages.
Debate continues about whether personality, both normal and disordered, can change significantly or is mainly stable across the life span. One issue that receives little attention is the degree to which personality stability coefficients may be influenced by attenuation due to measurement error. The current meta-analysis examines the data from recent research on personality stability, reporting both uncorrected and corrected stability coefficients. Attenuation due to measurement error was found to cause a significant reduction in personality stability coefficients, raising the possibility that some studies may conflate personality change with measurement error. Overall, corrected stability coefficients suggested that the stability of personality across adulthood is high, with only modest change. By contrast, personality during childhood is significantly more changeable. Both normal personality and personality disorders were highly stable across the life span, and patients in therapy experienced no more personality change than did nonpatients. Cross-cultural comparisons suggested relatively similar levels of personality stability cross-culturally, although personality stability among people in South Pacific nations is slightly lower than among those in the United States, Canada, or European nations.
In this essay I consider the future of personality development in light of the past effects of Personality and Assessment on the field of personality in general and personality development in particular. The essay is organized around 1) the effect of Mischel's book on the foundational theories informing personality development; 2) definitions of personality traits; 3) an alternative model of personality traits, described as the sociogenomic model of personality traits, that can bridge the divide that still characterizes the field of personality development; 4) the application of the sociogenomic model of personality traits to issues of personality trait development, and 5) a "Newtonian" vision for the future of personality psychology.
In this article, we address a number of issues surrounding biological models of personality traits. Most traditional and many contemporary biological models of personality traits assume that biological systems underlying personality traits are causal and immutable. In contrast, sociogenomic biology, which we introduce to readers in this article, directly contradicts the widely held assumption that something that is biological, heritable, or temperamental, is unchangeable. We provide examples of how seemingly unchanging biological systems, such as DNA, are both dependent on environments for elicitation and can be modified by environmental changes. Finally, we synthesize sociogenomic biology with personality psychology in a model of personality traits that integrates this more modern perspective on biology, physiology, and environment that we term sociogenomic personality psychology. We end the article with a discussion of the future directions of sociogenomic personality psychology.