Big Five traits,affect balance and health behaviors: A self-regulation resource perspective

Despite the relatively consistent finding that Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and low Neuroticism are associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviors, the reasons for these linkages are not well understood. This prospective study addressed this gap by taking a self-regulation resource perspective on why these traits relate to health-promoting behaviors by examining the role of higher positive relative to negative state affect. Students completed baseline (N = 330), and two week follow-up (N = 195) surveys. Bootstrapping analyses of the indirect effects of each of the three traits on Time 2 health behaviors were significant in the expected directions, with Kappa squares ranging from .11 to .13. In the full longitudinal analyses controlling for Time 1 health behaviors, the indirect effects of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness through affect balance on Time 2 health behaviors were positive and significant, whereas the indirect effects through Neuroticism were negative and significant after accounting for the Time 1 practice of health behaviors. These findings provide a process-oriented understanding of how Big Five traits are linked to health-promoting behaviors and extend previous research supporting a self-regulation resource perspective on personality and health behaviors.     

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.     

Taking religion to heart: the relationship between the Five Factor Model and the New Indices of Religious Orientation among religious students

The relationship between religious orientation and personality has been investigated using several different measures and diverse samples. As part of a larger study, 114 undergraduate students were given the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) to include only those participants who were considered religious. The final sample of 80 participants were given the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO). Based on the results of the bivariate correlations, higher levels of intrinsic religious orientation were associated with greater Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Multivariate analyses further revealed that Agreeableness was the most important personality variable when predicting intrinsic and quest religious orientations, with higher levels of Agreeableness predicting greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. While lower levels of Neuroticism predicted greater intrinsic orientation, higher levels of Neuroticism predicted greater quest orientations. Higher Conscientiousness predicted greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Religiousness, spiritual seeking, and personality: findings from a longitudinal study

The hypothesis that personality characteristics in adolescence can be used to predict religiousness and spiritual seeking in late adulthood was tested using a structural equation modeling framework to estimate cross-lagged and autoregressive effects in a two-wave panel design. The sample consisted of 209 men and women participants in the Berkeley Guidance and Oakland Growth studies. In late adulthood, religiousness was positively related to Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and spiritual seeking was related to Openness to Experience. Longitudinal models indicated that Conscientiousness in adolescence significantly predicted religiousness in late adulthood above and beyond adolescent religiousness. Similarly, Openness in adolescence predicted spiritual seeking in late adulthood. The converse effect, adolescent religiousness to personality in late adulthood, was not significant in either model. Among women, adolescent Agreeableness predicted late-life religiousness and adolescent religiousness predicted late-life Agreeableness; both these effects were absent among men. Adolescent personality appears to shape late-life religiousness and spiritual seeking independent of early religious socialization.     

The frontal hypothesis of cognitive aging: factor structure and age effects on four frontal tests among healthy individuals

With 101 healthy aging adult participants, the authors investigated whether executive functions are a unitary concept. The authors established the factor structure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST; E. A. Berg, 1948), the Stroop color and word test (C. J. Golden, 1978), verbal fluency using the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT; Benton, 1967), and the Digits Backwards subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; D. Wechsler, 1981). The authors also evaluated the extent to which age and other demographic variables predicted common underlying properties of these frontal tests. Results revealed an age-related decline in executive abilities differentially reflected by the selected tasks. These data suggest caution using the COWAT to evaluate executive abilities in older people. The authors interpret findings to support the unitary view of executive abilities and the executive decline proposed by the frontal hypothesis.     

Sex Differences in Relationships between Verbal Fluency and Personality

The Thurstone Verbal Fluency Test, Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test, and NEO-FFI personality test were administered to 182 university participants (126 female, 56 male). The men scored higher than the women on the spatial test, and the women scored higher than the men for the verbal fluency test, as reported by others. Women reported more extraversion and agreeableness than men. Extraversion was correlated with verbal fluency for both sexes. For the men, verbal fluency was also positively associated with agreeableness, and for the women, verbal fluency was associated with openness and conscientiousness. No relationships between personality and spatial ability were found. Thus, the relationships between cognitive variables and personality factors differed between the sexes. These findings are discussed in terms of the common frontal neural substrate of verbal fluency and these aspects of personality, as well as the inherently social nature of language as a communication tool.     

Why people harm the organization and its members: Relationships among personality,organizational commitment,and workplace deviance

Based on the five-factor model of personality traits and social exchange theory, this study examines the relationships of personality traits, organizational commitment, and two target-based factors of workplace deviance (organizational deviance and interpersonal deviance), using a sample of 113 South Korean employees. By the use of path-analysis, we first found that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability were meaningfully related to organizational commitment. In addition, both the effect of Conscientiousness on organizational deviance and the effect of Agreeableness on interpersonal deviance were partially mediated by organizational commitment. In sum, results clearly show that the personality traits of Conscientiousness (impersonal) and Agreeableness (interpersonal) function differently in predicting workplace deviance.     

Team effectiveness: beyond skills and cognitive ability.

On the basis of job analysis results, the validity of using measures of general cognitive ability, job-specific skills, and personality traits jointly at both the individual level and the group level to predict the performance of 79 four-person, human resource work teams was evaluated. Team member trait and job skill scores were aggregated with a conjunctive model of task performance. At the individual level of analysis, measures of personality (i.e., Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) predicted peer ratings of team member performance beyond measures of job-specific skills and general cognitive ability. Similarly, at the group level of analysis, both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted supervisor ratings of work team performance, objective measures of work team accuracy, and work completed. At both the individual and group levels, the trait of Agreeableness predicted Interpersonal Skills.     

The stability of adult personality varies across age: Evidence from a two-year longitudinal sample of adult New Zealanders

We model developmental patterns in the stability of Big-Six personality markers over a two-year period in a multi-cohort panel study of adult New Zealanders (n = 3910). Structural Equation Models testing patterns of linear, quadratic and cubic effects identified considerable variation in the stability of most aspects of personality across the adult age range (20–80 years). Agreeableness showed a slight linear decrease in consistency with increasing age. Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Honesty–Humility exhibited quadratic ‘inverted U’ patterns of rank-order stability. Unlike Agreeableness, the two-year consistency of these other personality dimensions increased from young adulthood towards middle age, then decreased as people progressed toward old age. Implications for personality research and emerging trends are discussed.     

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.     

Honesty–Humility and the HEXACO Structure of Religiosity and Well-Being

Past research has shown that general and intrinsic religiosity is related to higher Big Five Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and, to some extent, Extraversion. With the rise of the six-factor HEXACO (Honesty–Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness) model of personality, however, a more differentiated look at religiousness and personality is called for. It has been suggested that religiosity is more associated with Honesty–Humility than with Agreeableness. The new personality factor, Honesty–Humility has also been shown to have null or weak relations with happiness. In 5 studies involving 1375 participants from Iran, Poland, and Malaysia, the relations of Honesty–Humility and other HEXACO dimensions to religious orientation and well-being outcomes were investigated. As expected, Honesty–Humility was one of the strongest personality correlate of religiosity. Higher scores on religiousness were also associated with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and to some extent, Extraversion showing that the main personality characteristics of religiosity are consistent across religious contexts and personality models. Relations of Honesty–Humility to psychological well-being scales were consistently positive and stronger than its relations to subjective well-being measures, suggesting that Honesty–Humility may not be “bad” for pleasure attainment and pain avoidance, but it is definitely “good” for living a virtuous, fully functioning life.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

BEYOND PERSONALITY TRAITS: A STUDY OF PERSONALITY STATES AND SITUATIONAL CONTINGENCIES IN CUSTOMER SERVICE JOBS

Although the interactionist approach has been applied to understanding situational influences on the expression of personality at work, examination of within‐person variation in personality trait expression in the workplace is lacking. Using experience sampling methodology, this study examined the moment‐to‐moment influences of situational characteristics on personality states (i.e., situational contingencies) during social interactions on 56 customer service employees over 10 days at work. At the within‐individual level, state Conscientiousness was associated with the immediacy of the task, and state Extraversion and Agreeableness were associated with the friendliness of the other party in the interaction. At the between‐individual level, self‐monitoring did not moderate the associations between situational characteristics and personality states but predicted the mean level of state Conscientiousness at work over and above trait Conscientiousness. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between state Extraversion and friendliness was weaker in customized service jobs than in noncustomized ones.     

The religious person revisited: cross-cultural evidence from the HEXACO model of personality structure

The relationship of religiousness with the HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness) model of personality was studied in Iran and the United States. Correlations of personality factors and religiousness were generally similar across the two societies. In both countries, religiousness was associated with higher scores on Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. The Honesty-Humility factor was one of the strongest correlates of religiousness in both countries. These findings support Saroglou's observation that the main personality characteristics of religiousness are consistent across different religious contexts and personality measures and models.     

The Mini-IPIP6: Tiny yet highly stable markers of Big Six personality

We assessed the stability of a short-form six-factor personality measure over a one-year period in a large national probability sample (N = 4289). Personality was assessed using the Mini-IPIP6—a short-form measure assessing Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Honesty-Humility. Standardized estimates calculated using Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling (BSEM) indicated that all six personality dimensions were extremely stable. An alternative model using Maximum Likelihood estimation, in which residual item variances were associated over repeated assessments, yielded similar findings. These results highlight the stability of personality in the general population, even when assessed using short-form scales. The use of Bayesian models to examine the stability of personality and their application for study of change in specific developmental periods is discussed.     

Parent Informants for Child Personality: Agreement,Discrepancies, and Clinical Utility

A long-standing issue in child clinical research is the integration of various informants, but this topic has not been comprehensively applied to the domain of child personality. Mothers and fathers rated their children (N = 346) on personality traits and behavioral problems. Mother–father agreement was highest for Conscientiousness and lowest for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Each parent's ratings added incremental variance in predicting behavioral problems, and mother–father discrepancy predicted internalizing problems. These results suggest that both parents should be used as informants in child personality assessment and discrepancies might reflect meaningful variance with clinical utility.     

Personality-Relationship transaction in young adulthood.

Personality and social relationships were assessed twice across a 4-year period in a general population sample of 489 German young adults. Two kinds of personality-relationship transaction were observed. First, mean-level change in personality toward maturity (e.g., increase in Conscientiousness and decrease in Neuroticism) was moderated by the transition to partnership but was independent of other developmental transitions. Second, individual differences in personality traits predicted social relationships much better than vice versa. Specifically, once initial correlations were controlled for, Extraversion, Shyness, Neuroticism, self-esteem, and Agreeableness predicted change in various qualities of relationships (especially with friends and colleagues), whereas only quality of relationships with preschool children predicted later Extraversion and Neuroticism. Consequences for the transactional view of personality in young adulthood are discussed.     

Rater Personality,Rating Format,and Social Context: Implications for Performance Appraisal Ratings

This study investigates the effects of rater personality (Conscientiousness and Agreeableness), rating format (graphic rating scale vs. behavioral checklist), and the rating social context (face‐to‐face feedback vs. no face‐to‐face feedback) on rating elevation of performance ratings. As predicted, raters high on Agreeableness showed more elevated ratings than those low on Agreeableness when they expected to have the face‐to‐face feedback meeting. Furthermore, rating format moderated the relationship between Agreeableness and rating elevation, such that raters high on Agreeableness provided less elevated ratings when using the behavioral checklist than the graphic rating scale, whereas raters low on Agreeableness showed little difference in elevation across different rating formats. Results also suggest that the interactive effects of rater personality, rating format, and social context may depend on the performance level of the ratee. The implications of these findings will be discussed.