Long-term stability in the Big Five personality traits in adulthood

This study investigated the stability of the Big Five personality traits in adulthood from age 33 to 42. Participants (89 men, 103 women) were drawn from the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development. The results showed that the mean‐level of Neuroticism decreased whereas the mean‐level of Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness increased from age 33 to 42. The Structural Equation Modeling analyses revealed both gender differences and similarities in the rank‐order stability of the Big Five: Neuroticism and Extraversion were more stable in men than in women, whereas Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were as stable in men as in women. Stability coefficients for the Big Five personality traits across 9 years were moderate to high, ranging from 0.73 to 0.97 in men and from 0.65 to 0.95 in women. The highest gender‐equal stability was found for Openness to Experience and the lowest for Conscientiousness.     

Five-factor personality traits and age trajectories of self-rated health: the role of question framing

We examined the influence of personality traits on mean levels and age trends in 4 single‐item measures of self‐rated health: general rating, comparison to age peers, comparison to past health, and expectations for future health. Community‐dwelling participants (N = 1,683) completed 7,474 self‐rated health assessments over a period of up to 19 years. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses, age‐associated declines differed across the 4 health items. Across age groups, high Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness, low Extraversion, and low Openness were associated with worse health ratings, with notable differences across the 4 health items. Furthermore, high Neuroticism predicted steeper declines in health ratings involving temporal comparisons. We consider theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms behind associations among personality traits and self‐rated health.     

Personality trait development from age 12 to age 18: longitudinal,cross-sectional,and cross-cultural analyses

Three studies were conducted to assess mean level changes in personality traits during adolescence. Versions of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992a) were used to assess the 5 major personality factors. A 4-year longitudinal study of intellectually gifted students (N = 230) was supplemented by cross-sectional studies of nonselected American (N = 1,959) and Flemish (N = 789) adolescents. Personality factors were reasonably invariant across ages, although rank-order stability of individual differences was low. Neuroticism appeared to increase in girls, and Openness to Experience increased in both boys and girls; mean levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were stable. Results extend knowledge of the developmental curve of personality traits backward from adulthood and help bridge the gap with child temperament studies.     

Personality and the prediction of team performance

Although much is known about personality and individuals' job performance, only a few studies have considered the effects of team‐level personality on team performance. Existing research examining the effects of personality on team performance has found that, of the Big Five factors of personality, Conscientiousness is often the most important predictor. Accordingly, we investigated the criterion validity of lower‐level Conscientiousness traits to determine whether any one trait is particularly predictive of team performance. In addition to Conscientiousness, we examined the criterion validity of the other Big Five personality factors. We found that Conscientiousness and its facets predicted team performance. Agreeableness, Extraversion and Neuroticism were not predictive of team performance, whereas Openness had a modest negative relation with team performance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Big Five Personality Traits as the Predictors of Creative Self‐Efficacy and Creative Personal Identity: Does Gender Matter?

The aim of this study was to examine the relation of the Big Five personality factors to two self‐concept variables of growing importance in creativity literature: creative self‐efficacy (CSE) and creative personal identity (CPI). The analysis, conducted on a large (N = 2674, 49.6% women) and varied‐in‐age (15–59 years old) nationwide sample of Poles, using the structural equation model, demonstrated that personality factors are responsible for 23% of CSE and 21% of CPI variances. CSE and CPI were associated with all five personality dimensions: positively with Openness to Experience, Extraversion and Conscientiousness, negatively with Neuroticism and Agreeableness. The separate analyses conducted on men and women showed the differences among the predictors of CSE and CPI. Although Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism predicted CSE among both men and women, Extraversion was positively and Agreeableness negatively related to women's CSE. Conscientiousness was positively related to CPI only among men, and Agreeableness was negatively related to it only among women. Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness predicted CPI in the same manner among men and women.     

Social curiosity and interpersonal perception: a judge x trait interaction

The present study examined the impact of social curiosity on the utilization of social information and the accuracy of personality judgments. In total, 182 individuals who never met each other before were asked to interact for 10 minutes and afterwards to evaluate the personality (Big Five) of their interaction partner. High socially curious judges were more accurate in evaluating the degree of Extraversion and Openness of their interaction partners. Interestingly, high and low curious judges differed significantly in the utilization of verbal and nonverbal cues displayed by their interaction partner. Specifically, high socially curious judges more often used valid cues for inferring Extraversion and Openness. No differences in interpersonal accuracy and cue utilization were found for Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. The results suggest that high socially curious individuals are more accurate in judging visible traits and that this higher accuracy is grounded in a more comprehensive utilization of valid cues.     

Personality traits and parenting: neuroticism,extraversion, and openness to experience as discriminative factors

This study used variable‐ and person‐oriented approaches to examine the relationship between personality traits (at age 33) and parenting (at age 36) among 94 mothers and 78 fathers. The SEM revealed that Openness to Experience (O), low Neuroticism (N), and Extraversion (E) were related to parental nurturance; low O to parental restrictiveness; and low N to parental knowledge about the child's activities. Cluster analysis based on the three parenting factors yielded six gender‐related parenting types with distinguishable personality profiles. Authoritative parents (mostly mothers) and emotionally involved parents (mostly fathers), who were high in nurturance and high to moderate in parental knowledge, were high in E and high to moderate in O. Authoritarian parents (mostly fathers) and emotionally detached parents (mostly mothers), who were low in nurturance, high to moderate in restrictiveness, and moderate to low in parental knowledge, were low in O and E. Permissive parents, who were low in restrictiveness and parental knowledge and moderate in nurturance, were high in N, E, and O. Engaged parents, who were high in nurturance, restrictiveness, and parental knowledge, were moderate in all personality traits. Agreeableness and Conscientiousness did not differ between the parenting types. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What coping tells about personality

In this study, 123 participants (non‐psychology students) who responded to an interpersonal stress situation staged in the laboratory were judged by unacquainted observers in terms of the Big Five dimensions, intelligence and social attractiveness. Coping behaviour appeared to predict personality impressions in a way that mirrors the relations between personality and coping observed in previous research: Overall, higher levels of Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C) and Openness to experience (O) (as well as intelligence and social attractiveness) were predicted by problem‐focussed behaviour and cognitive restructuring, whereas higher levels of Neuroticism (N) were predicted by withdrawal/passivity. The interpersonal impact of the particular coping reactions, as indicated by a positive personality impression, were largely inconsistent with their impact on affect following the stress induction. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Little Six Personality Dimensions From Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: Mean‐Level Age and Gender Differences in Parents' Reports

The present research pursues three major goals. First, we develop scales to measure the Little Six youth personality dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Activity. Second, we examine mean‐level age and gender differences in the Little Six from early childhood into early adulthood. Third, we examine the development of more specific nuance traits. We analyze parent reports, made using the common‐language California Child Q‐Set (CCQ), for a cross‐sectional sample of 16,000 target children ranging from 3 to 20 years old. We construct CCQ–Little Six scales that reliably measure each Little Six dimension. Using these scales, we find (a) curvilinear, U‐shaped age trends for Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness, with declines followed by subsequent inclines; (b) monotonic, negative age trends for Extraversion and Activity; (c) higher levels of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness among girls than boys, as well as higher levels of Activity among boys than girls; and (d) gender‐specific age trends for Neuroticism, with girls scoring higher than boys by mid‐adolescence. Finally, we find that several nuance traits show distinctive developmental trends that differ from their superordinate Little Six dimension. These results highlight childhood and adolescence as key periods of personality development.     

Personality at midlife: stability, intrinsic maturation, and response to life events

Although developmental theories and popular accounts suggest that midlife is a time of turmoil and change, longitudinal studies of personality traits have generally found stability of rank order and little or no change in mean levels. Using data from 2,274 men and women in their 40s retested after 6 to 9 years, the present study examined two hypotheses: (a) that retest correlations should be no higher than about .60 and (b) that there should be small decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, and small increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The study also explored the effects of recalled life events on subsequent personality scores. Results did not support the first hypothesis; uncorrected retest correlations uniformly exceeded .60. This was true for all personality traits, including facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness not previously included in longitudinal studies. The hypothesized decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness were found, but Conscientiousness showed a small decrease instead of the predicted increase. Life events in general showed very little influence on the levels of personality traits, although some effects were seen for changes in job and marital status that warrant further research.     

Happiness is a personal(ity) thing: the genetics of personality and well-being in a representative sample.

Subjective well-being is known to be related to personality traits. However, to date, nobody has examined whether personality and subjective well-being share a common genetic structure. We used a representative sample of 973 twin pairs to test the hypothesis that heritable differences in subjective well-being are entirely accounted for by the genetic architecture of the Five-Factor Model's personality domains. Results supported this model. Subjective well-being was accounted for by unique genetic influences from Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, and by a common genetic factor that influenced all five personality domains in the directions of low Neuroticism and high Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. These findings indicate that subjective well-being is linked to personality by common genes and that personality may form an "affective reserve" relevant to set-point maintenance and changes in set point over time.     

Interactive effects of traits on adjustment to a life transition

A longitudinal design was used to test theoretically derived interactive effects of traits on adjustment to relocation 1, 8, and 15 months after relocation of elderly women. Openness interacted with Neuroticism and with Extraversion in affecting changes in distress after relocation by amplifying the basic emotional tendencies of Neuroticism and Extraversion. These were delayed effects, occurring only 15 months after relocation. Openness also interacted with Neuroticism in predicting changes in psychological well-being with the effects occurring primarily early in postmove adjustment. In addition, Extraversion interacted with Conscientiousness and with Agreeableness in predicting changes in distress, such that the beneficial effects of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were evident only for individuals low on Extraversion. These effects were consistent across time, showing long-term effects. Overall, the findings demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which trait interactions predict dynamic adjustment to a life transition.     

An alternative to the search for single polymorphisms: toward molecular personality scales for the five-factor model

There is growing evidence that personality traits are affected by many genes, all of which have very small effects. As an alternative to the largely unsuccessful search for individual polymorphisms associated with personality traits, the authors identified large sets of potentially related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and summed them to form molecular personality scales (MPSs) with from 4 to 2,497 SNPs. Scales were derived from two thirds of a large (N = 3,972) sample of individuals from Sardinia who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and were assessed in a genomewide association scan. When MPSs were correlated with the phenotype in the remaining one third of the sample, very small but significant associations were found for 4 of the 5e personality factors when the longest scales were examined. These data suggest that MPSs for Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (but not Extraversion) contain genetic information that can be refined in future studies, and the procedures described here should be applicable to other quantitative traits.     

Five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership

This study linked traits from the 5-factor model of personality (the Big 5) to transformational leadership behavior. Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness were hypothesized to predict transformational leadership. Results based on 14 samples of leaders from over 200 organizations revealed that Extraversion and Agreeableness positively predicted transformational leadership; Openness to Experience was positively correlated with transformational leadership, but its effect disappeared once the influence of the other traits was controlled. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were unrelated to transformational leadership. Results further indicated that specific facets of the Big 5 traits predicted transformational leadership less well than the general constructs. Finally, transformational leadership behavior predicted a number of outcomes reflecting leader effectiveness, controlling for the effect of transactional leadership.     

Five-Factor Model Personality Traits, Spirituality/Religiousness, and Mental Health Among People Living With HIV

ABSTRACT We examined the association between five-factor personality domains and facets and spirituality/religiousness as well as their joint association with mental health in a diverse sample of people living with HIV ( n =112, age range 18–66). Spirituality/religiousness showed stronger associations with Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness than with Neuroticism and Extraversion. Both personality traits and spirituality/religiousness were significantly linked to mental health, even after controlling for individual differences in demographic measures and disease status. Personality traits explained unique variance in mental health above spirituality and religiousness. Further, aspects of spirituality and religiousness were found to mediate some of the links between personality and mental health in this patient sample. These findings suggest that underlying personality traits contribute to the beneficial effects of spirituality/religiousness among vulnerable populations.     

Sensory Processing Sensitivity and its association with personality traits and affect: A meta-analysis

In two Bayesian meta-analyses, we investigated associations between Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) and the Big Five personality traits (MA1) as well as both Positive and Negative Affect (MA2). Moderators were age and the three SPS subscales. In MA1 (8 papers, 6790 subjects), SPS in children correlated with Neuroticism (r = 0.42) but did not with Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness or Conscientiousness. In adults, SPS correlated with Openness (r = 0.14) and Neuroticism (r = 0.40) but did not with Extraversion, Agreeableness or Conscientiousness. In MA2 (19 papers, 5326 subjects), SPS in children correlated with Negative (r = 0.29) and Positive Affect (r = 0.21), but only with Negative Affect (r = 0.34) in adults. Developmental and measurement aspects are discussed.     

Assumed similarity in personality within intimate relationships

Assumed similarity is the tendency to assume that another person is similar to oneself. The present studies examined assumed similarity in intimate relationships regarding the HEXACO personality traits in Denmark (N = 93) and China (N = 236). Specifically, these studies hypothesized that people assume higher similarity with their intimate partners in Honesty‐Humility and Openness to Experience compared to the other four HEXACO traits (Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). Results from both studies indicate that assumed similarity was higher in Honesty‐Humility compared to Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. However, assumed similarity in Openness was higher compared to Emotionality and Conscientiousness only. Supplementary analyses indicate no cultural differences between Denmark and China in assumed similarity in Honesty‐Humility and Openness.     

An analysis of reinforcement sensitivity theory and the five-factor model

Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) are two prominent personality accounts that have emerged from different backgrounds. Although the two accounts are applied to similar research topics, there is limited empirical work examining the correspondence between them. The current study explored the relationship between RST-based personality traits and the FFM domains and facets in an undergraduate sample (n = 668). Regression analyses indicated that Sensitivity to Punishment (SP) was positively associated with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, and negatively associated with Extraversion, Openness, and Conscientiousness. In contrast, Sensitivity to Reward (SR) was positively associated with Extraversion and Neuroticism, and negatively associated with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Exploratory analyses at the facet level specified the relationship between SP, SR, and each domain. A factor analysis was also conducted to explore the higher-order factor structure of RST and the FFM domains. Three factors emerged, which we labelled SP, Stability-Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking. Taken together, these findings suggest that there is substantial overlap between these two accounts of personality. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Personality Bases of Ideology: A One-Year Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

The cross-lagged effects of the Big-Five personality dimensions on Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) were examined over 1 year (N = 112). Consistent with the Dual Process Cognitive-Motivational Model, SDO and RWA exhibited markedly different personality bases. Low Agreeableness and unexpectedly high Extraversion predicted change in the motivational goal for group-based dominance and superiority (SDO), whereas Openness to Experience predicted change in the motivational goal for social cohesion and collective security (RWA). Neuroticism and Conscientiousness did not predict change in SDO or RWA over time. These findings extend previous cross-sectional (correlational) research and indicate that key dimensions of personality (primarily Agreeableness and Openness to Experience) are an important temporal antecedent of the group-based motivational goals underlying individual differences in prejudice.     

Gender differences in implicit and explicit personality traits

This article investigates gender differences in implicit and explicit measures of the Big Five traits of personality. In a high-powered study (N = 14,348), we replicated previous research showing that women report higher levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. For implicit measures, gender differences were much smaller for all, and opposite in sign for Extraversion. Somewhat higher levels of implicit Neuroticism and Agreeableness were observed in women, and somewhat higher levels of implicit Extraversion and Openness were observed in men. There was no gender difference in implicit Conscientiousness. A possible explanation is that explicit self-concepts partly reflect social norms and self-expectations about gender roles, while implicit self-concepts may mostly reflect self-related experiences.