Personality traits and health‐risk behaviours in university students

Relations between personality and health‐risk behaviours in university undergraduates were examined using multiple measures of personality across multiple samples (N = 1151). Big Five personality variables, at both factor and facet levels, were used to predict three specific health‐risk behaviours: (a) tobacco consumption, (b) alcohol consumption and (c) speeding in an automobile. Our findings showed that low Conscientiousness and low Agreeableness were uniformly associated with this cluster of potentially health damaging behaviours. Extraversion was additionally associated with alcohol use. Interaction effects were found between Conscientiousness and Agreeableness on smoking and (for men only) on drinking. Other personality variables not centrally related to the Big Five, such as Risk‐Taking (high) and Integrity (low), were also implicated in the present health‐risk behaviours. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

Using theory to evaluate personality and job-performance relations: a socioanalytic perspective

The authors used socioanalytic theory to understand individual differences in people's performance at work. Specifically, if predictors and criteria are aligned by using theory, then the meta-analytic validity of personality measures exceeds that of atheoretical approaches. As performance assessment moved from general to specific job criteria, all Big Five personality dimensions more precisely predicted relevant criterion variables, with estimated true validities of .43 (Emotional Stability), .35 (Extraversion-Ambition), .34 (Agreeableness), .36 (Conscientiousness), and .34 (Intellect-Openness to Experience).     

Personality predicts prospective memory task performance: an adult lifespan study

Do interindividual differences in prospective memory task performance reflect individual differences in personality and lifestyle? Do the cognitive abilities known to change with age retain their power to predict episodic prospective memory task performance after controlling for personality and lifestyle variables, and do personality and lifestyle variables offer predictive power apart from that provided by cognitive ability measures? To answer these questions, we conducted a study with community‐living healthy individuals (n= 141) between 18 and 81 years of age. They completed three different episodic prospective memory tasks – two laboratory tasks and one field task – as well as various measures of personality, lifestyle, and cognitive ability. The results indicated that personality and lifestyle reliably predicted who will succeed and who will fail on all three episodic prospective memory tasks. Conscientiousness predicted performance on two of the prospective memory tasks; socially prescribed perfectionism and neuroticism each predicted performance on one of the prospective memory tasks. Cognitive ability predicted performance on one of the laboratory prospective memory tasks but not on the other two prospective memory tasks. After we controlled for individual differences in personality and lifestyle variables, cognitive ability was no longer able to predict performance on the laboratory prospective memory task. By contrast, controlling for cognitive ability had no influence on the predictive power of the personality and lifestyle variables.     

Personality predicts academic performance: Evidence from two longitudinal university samples

To what extent and which personality traits predict academic performance was investigated in two longitudinal studies of two British university samples. Academic performance was assessed throughout a three years period and via multiple criteria (e.g., exams and final-year project). In addition several indicators of academic behaviour, e.g., absenteeism, essay writing, tutors’ exam predictions, were also examined with regard to both academic performance and personality traits. In sample 1 (N=70), the Big Five personality factors (Costa & McCrae, 1992)—particularly Neuroticism and Conscientiousness—were found to predict overall final exam marks over and above several academic predictors, accounting for more than 10% of unique variance in overall exam marks. Results suggest that Neuroticism may impair academic performance, while Conscientiousness may lead to higher academic achievement. In sample 2 (N=75) the EPQ-R (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) was used as the personality measure and results showed the three superfactors were the most powerful predictor of academic performance, accounting for nearly 17% of unique variance in overall exam results. It is demonstrated that (like Neuroctisim) Psychoticism could limit academic success. The present results provide evidence supporting the inclusion of well-established personality measures in academic selection procedures, and run counter to the traditional view of ability measures as the exclusive psychometric correlate of academic performance.     

The Impact of Contextual Self‐Ratings and Observer Ratings of Personality on the Personality–Performance Relationship1

This study examined 2 possible ways of increasing the predictive validity of personality measures: using observer (i.e., supervisor and coworker) ratings and work‐specific self‐ratings of Big Five personality factors. Results indicated that among general self‐ratings of Big Five personality dimensions, Conscientiousness was the best predictor of in‐role performance, and Agreeableness and Emotional Stability were the best predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Observer ratings of personality accounted for incremental variance in job performance (in‐role performance and OCB) beyond that accounted for by general self‐ratings. However, contrary to our expectations, work‐specific (i.e., contextual) self‐ratings of personality generally did not account for incremental variance in job performance beyond that accounted for by general self‐ratings.     

Agreeableness,conscientiousness, and effortful control processes

Effortful control (EC) is believed to be a superordinate, temperament system that is associated with early-appearing individual differences in self-regulation. It has been suggested that EC indexes the common developmental process underlying Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Theory suggests this association, but little empirical evidence has linked personality to actual self-regulatory behaviors. This study examined personality and cognitive assessments associated with impairments in self-regulation. College students (N=113) gave self-reports on the five dimensions of personality. They also completed the Stroop test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST), and a verbal fluency test. Agreeableness predicted Stroop reaction times. Both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted WCST measures. Conscientiousness predicted verbal fluency for men. Results were discussed in terms of EC being a common developmental substrate of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.     

A Meta‐Analytic Multitrait Multirater Separation of Substance and Style in Social Desirability Scales

Though unlikely virtues scales have a long history in personality, clinical, and applied psychology for detecting socially desirable responding, using such social desirability (SD) scales has generally failed to improve the validity of personality measures. We examined whether this is because (a) response distortion itself has minimal impact on personality's validity, (b) SD scales are ineffective at assessing response distortion, or (c) SD scales are conflated with substantive trait variance. We compiled a meta‐analytic multitrait multimethod matrix consisting of multirater personality traits, SD scales, and performance outcomes. We examined the influence of trait factors and self‐report method factors on SD scales and performance. We found that self‐report method variance (a) was negatively related to performance, (b) would suppress personality‐performance relationships for self‐report measures, and (c) was (partially) assessed by SD scales. However, relative to the effects of self‐report method variance, SD scales are even more strongly influenced by Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Agreeableness. It is not the case that SD scales are insensitive to inflated responding but that their susceptibility to personality trait variance likely outweighs their benefits. We discuss the implications of these results for using SD scales in research and practice.     

Conscientiousness in the classroom: a process explanation

Although the research literature has established that Conscientiousness predicts task performance across a variety of achievement contexts (e.g., ; ), comparatively less is known about the processes that underlie these relations. To the latter end, the current research examines effortful strategies and achievement goals as mediating factors that might explain why people with higher levels of Conscientiousness are predicted to reach higher levels of academic performance. In a longitudinal study, 347 college students completed measures of personality and achievement goals at the beginning of the class, followed by measures of effortful strategies multiple times throughout the semester. Results support the hypothesis that effortful strategies mediate the association between Conscientiousness and academic performance. Moreover, the statistical effects of Conscientiousness were generally independent of achievement goals, but a small portion of the effect was mediated through approach, not avoidance, achievement goals. These results highlight the importance of examining mediating processes between personality and outcomes, and in the case of Conscientiousness, our results suggest that effortful strategies might serve as a useful target for performance-enhancing interventions.     

The Effect of Information Quantity on Distinctive Accuracy and Normativity of Personality Trait Judgments

Information quantity is an important moderator of personality judgment accuracy. Some evidence suggests that the amount of available information is positively related to accuracy. The current study utilized the social accuracy model to investigate the effects of differences in thin slices of information quantity on the distinctive accuracy and normativity of personality trait judgments. It was hypothesized that distinctive accuracy and normativity would increase as information quantity increased. Participants were 431 individuals who participated in an online study that varied the length of stimulus target observations (30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes), after which judges rated targets using other‐report measures of the Big Five personality traits. For all traits combined, significant levels of accuracy were found for all observation lengths, but distinctive accuracy and normativity did not increase as video length increased. Findings varied for individual traits. For distinctive accuracy, there was a linear increase with information quantity for Extraversion and a non‐linear relationship for Conscientiousness, while there was a linear decrease for Openness. For normativity, there was a linear increase with information quantity for Agreeableness and a non‐linear relationship for Conscientiousness. There are important differences in how observation length affects distinctive accuracy and normativity for different personality traits. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Maternal personality, parenting cognitions, and parenting practices

A community sample of 262 European American mothers of firstborn 20-month-olds completed a personality inventory and measures of parenting cognitions (knowledge, self-perceptions, and reports about behavior) and was observed in interaction with their children from which measures of parenting practices (language, sensitivity, affection, and play) were independently coded. Factor analyses of the personality inventory replicated extraction of the 5-factor model of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). When controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the 5 personality factors qua variables and in patterns qua clusters related differently to diverse parenting cognitions and practices, supporting the multidimensional, modular, and specific nature of parenting. Maternal personality in the normal range, a theoretically important but empirically neglected factor in everyday parenting, has meaning in studies of parenting, child development, and family process.     

Personality vulnerability to stress-related sleep disruption: Pathways to adverse mental and physical health outcomes

This study examined the associations among neuroticism (N), conscientiousness (C), and sleep quality in the context of a life transition. The interactive effects of N and C on the association between sleep quality and mental and physical well-being were also examined. Seventy-seven college freshmen (mean age = 19.5) completed personality measures at the beginning of the academic year, and measures of sleep quality, daily hassles, functional status, depression, and self-assessed health approximately 2 months later. N was negatively and C was positively related to sleep quality, and daily hassles mediated these associations. Poor sleep predicted greater depressive symptoms and poorer functional status for high-N/low-C participants, but not for other N and C profiles. Results suggest that conscientiousness moderates the extent to which high-N individuals are vulnerable to the adverse effects of poor sleep.     

Personality and job performance: test of the mediating effects of motivation among sales representatives

Research shows consistent relations between personality and job performance. In this study the authors develop and test a model of job performance that examines the mediating effects of cognitive-motivational work orientations on the relationships between personality traits and performance in a sales job (N = 164). Covariance structural analyses revealed proximal motivational variables to be influential mechanisms through which distal personality traits affect job performance. Specifically, striving for status and accomplishment mediate the effects of Extraversion and Conscientiousness on ratings of sales performance. Although Agreeableness was related to striving for communion, neither Agreeableness nor communion striving was related to success in this sales job. The importance of the proposed motivational orientations model is discussed.     

The Eysenckian personality factors and their correlations with academic performance

Background. The relationship between personality and academic performance has long been explored, and a recent meta‐analysis established that measures of the five‐factor model (FFM) dimension of Conscientiousness have similar validity to intelligence measures. Although currently dominant, the FFM is only one of the currently accepted models of personality, and has limited theoretical support. In contrast, the Eysenckian personality model was developed to assess a specific theoretical model and is still commonly used in educational settings and research. Aims. This meta‐analysis assessed the validity of the Eysenckian personality measures for predicting academic performance. Sample. Statistics were obtained for correlations with Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism (20–23 samples; N from 8,013 to 9,191), with smaller aggregates for the Lie scale (7 samples; N= 3,910). Methods. The Hunter–Schmidt random effects method was used to estimate population correlations between the Eysenckian personality measures and academic performance. Moderating effects were tested using weighted least squares regression. Results. Significant but modest validities were reported for each scale. Neuroticism and Extraversion had relationships with academic performance that were consistent with previous findings, while Psychoticism appears to be linked to academic performance because of its association with FFM Conscientiousness. Age and educational level moderated correlations with Neuroticism and Extraversion, and gender had no moderating effect. Correlations varied significantly based on the measurement instrument used. Conclusions. The Eysenckian scales do not add to the prediction of academic performance beyond that provided by FFM scales. Several measurement problems afflict the Eysenckian scales, including low to poor internal reliability and complex factor structures. In particular, the measurement and validity problems of Psychoticism mean its continued use in academic settings is unjustified.     

The Five-Factor Model, Conscientiousness, and Driving Accident Involvement

ABSTRACT Personality researchers and theorists are approaching consensus on the basic structure and constructs of personality. Despite the apparent consensus on the emergent five-factor model (Goldberg, 1992, 1993), less is known about external correlates of separate factors. This research examined the relations between Conscientiousness, one dimension of the model, and driving accident involvement. Using multiple measures in independent samples drawn from college students (N= 227) and a temporary employment agency (N= 250), the results generally demonstrate a significant inverse relation between Conscientiousness and driving accident involvement; individuals who rate themselves as more self-disciplined, responsible, reliable, and dependable are less likely to be involved in driving accidents than those who rate themselves lower on these attributes. The findings are consistent with other research demonstrating the relations among Conscientiousness and other tasks and job performance. Suggestions for future research are discussed.     

INCREASED ACCURACY FOR RANGE RESTRICTION CORRECTIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY AND GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY IN JOB AND TRAINING PERFORMANCE

A recently developed procedure produces substantial improvements in the accuracy of corrections for range restriction and reveals that predictive validities of employment selection methods are higher than previously thought. This study applied this procedure to meta‐analytic validities of 2 personality measures (Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability) and general cognitive ability measures. Results show that the increases in validity estimates are greater for cognitive ability than for personality, reducing the relative validity of personality. In addition, the incremental validity of these personality measures over that provided by cognitive ability is smaller than previously estimated. Path analyses based on the more accurate data reveal relatively smaller path coefficients from these personality traits to job and training performance. These findings have implications for theories of job performance and for the practical value in selection of personality measures relative to cognitive ability measures.     

Prospective prediction of academic performance in college using self- and informant-rated personality traits

Five-factor personality ratings were provided by undergraduate freshmen, their parents, and their college peers as predictors of cumulative GPA upon graduation. Conscientiousness ratings were significant predictors of GPA by all three raters; peer ratings of Conscientiousness were the only significant predictor of GPA when self-, parent-, and peer-ratings of Conscientiousness were examined simultaneously. College major was a moderator of this relationship, with self- and parent-ratings of Conscientiousness correlating more strongly with GPA among Social Science majors and parent-ratings of Conscientiousness correlating less strongly with GPA among Science majors. These findings replicate existing research regarding the validity of informant ratings as predictors of behavioral outcomes such as academic performance, while emphasizing the importance of including multiple informants from various life contexts.     

SELECTING INDIVIDUALS IN TEAM SETTINGS: THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL SKILLS, PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS, AND TEAMWORK KNOWLEDGE

Although work is commonly organized around teams, there is relatively little empirical research on how to select individuals in team-based settings. The goal of this investigation was to examine whether 3 of the most commonly used selection techniques for hiring into traditional settings (a structured interview, a personality test, and a situational judgment test) would be effective for hiring into team settings. In a manufacturing organization with highly interdependent teams, we examined the relationships between social skills, several personality characteristics (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability), teamwork knowledge, and contextual performance. Results indicate that each of these constructs is bivariately related to contextual performance in a team setting, with social skills, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and teamwork knowledge incrementally predicting contextual performance (with a multiple correlation of .48). Implications of these results for selection in team and traditional settings are discussed.     

THE "BIG FIVE" PERSONALITY FACTORS IN THE IPI AND MMPI: PREDICTORS OF POLICE PERFORMANCE

Rational and empirical linkages were formed between the "Big Five" personality factors and two personality inventories: the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI), which is a personality inventory designed especially for use in the selection of corrections officers, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). A criterion-related validation of the study was then conducted to assess the validity of these two measures of the Big Five in predicting various measures of police performance. Results indicated that while both inventories provided adequate measures of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, neither inventory consistently contributed incremental validity over the Civil Service exam.