Showing papers on "Personality published in 2015"

Life history theory and evolutionary psychology.

Abstract: In this chapter we present an overview of life history theory and review its main psychological applications. We first discuss basic trade-offs in life history allocations and introduce the concept of life history strategies. We then consider the evolution of life history strategies at the population level and their development at the individual level. Next, we explore the question of which physiological and psychological mechanisms mediate the development and organization of life history strategies. Finally, we review current applications of life history theory to human growth and development, individual differences in developmental trajectories, personality, and psychopathology. We conclude with a summary of the theoretical and empirical challenges facing future research in this area. Keywords: development; life history theory; personality; psychology; psychopathology

Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans

Abstract: Judging others’ personalities is an essential skill in successful social living, as personality is a key driver behind people’s interactions, behaviors, and emotions. Although accurate personality judgments stem from social-cognitive skills, developments in machine learning show that computer models can also make valid judgments. This study compares the accuracy of human and computer-based personality judgments, using a sample of 86,220 volunteers who completed a 100-item personality questionnaire. We show that (i) computer predictions based on a generic digital footprint (Facebook Likes) are more accurate (r = 0.56) than those made by the participants’ Facebook friends using a personality questionnaire (r = 0.49); (ii) computer models show higher interjudge agreement; and (iii) computer personality judgments have higher external validity when predicting life outcomes such as substance use, political attitudes, and physical health; for some outcomes, they even outperform the self-rated personality scores. Computers outpacing humans in personality judgment presents significant opportunities and challenges in the areas of psychological assessment, marketing, and privacy.

Automatic personality assessment through social media language.

Abstract: Language use is a psychologically rich, stable individual difference with well-established correlations to personality. We describe a method for assessing personality using an open-vocabulary analysis of language from social media. We compiled the written language from 66,732 Facebook users and their questionnaire-based self-reported Big Five personality traits, and then we built a predictive model of personality based on their language. We used this model to predict the 5 personality factors in a separate sample of 4,824 Facebook users, examining (a) convergence with self-reports of personality at the domain- and facet-level; (b) discriminant validity between predictions of distinct traits; (c) agreement with informant reports of personality; (d) patterns of correlations with external criteria (e.g., number of friends, political attitudes, impulsiveness); and (e) test-retest reliability over 6-month intervals. Results indicated that language-based assessments can constitute valid personality measures: they agreed with self-reports and informant reports of personality, added incremental validity over informant reports, adequately discriminated between traits, exhibited patterns of correlations with external criteria similar to those found with self-reported personality, and were stable over 6-month intervals. Analysis of predictive language can provide rich portraits of the mental life associated with traits. This approach can complement and extend traditional methods, providing researchers with an additional measure that can quickly and cheaply assess large groups of participants with minimal burden.

Heritability of personality: A meta-analysis of behavior genetic studies.

Abstract: The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematize available findings in the field of personality heritability and test for possible moderator effects of study design, type of personality model, and gender on heritability estimates. Study eligibility criteria were: personality model, behavior genetic study design, self-reported data, essential statistical indicators, and independent samples. A total of 134 primary studies with 190 potentially independent effect sizes were identified. After exclusion of studies that did not meet inclusion criteria and/or met 1 of the exclusion criteria, the final sample included 62 independent effect sizes, representing more than 100, 000 participants of both genders and all ages. Data analyses were performed using the random-effects model, software program R package metafor. The average effect size was .40, indicating that 40% of individual differences in personality were due to genetic, while 60% are due to environmental influences. After correction for possible publication bias the conclusion was unaltered. Additional analyses showed that personality model and gender were not significant moderators of personality heritability estimate, while study design was a significant moderator with twin studies showing higher estimates, .47, compared to family and adoption studies, .22. Personality model also was not a significant moderator of heritability estimates for neuroticism or extraversion, 2 personality traits contained in most personality trait theories and/or models. This study is the first to empirically test and confirm moderator effect of study design on heritability estimates in the field of personality. Limitations of the study, as well as suggestion for future studies, are discussed.

Personality Traits and Personal Values: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract: Personality traits and personal values are important psychological characteristics, serving as important predictors of many outcomes. Yet, they are frequently studied separately, leaving the field with a limited understanding of their relationships. We review existing perspectives regarding the nature of the relationships between traits and values and provide a conceptual underpinning for understanding the strength of these relationships. Using 60 studies, we present a meta-analysis of the relationships between the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality traits and the Schwartz values, and demonstrate consistent and theoretically meaningful relationships. However, these relationships were not generally large, demonstrating that traits and values are distinct constructs. We find support for our premise that more cognitively based traits are more strongly related to values and more emotionally based traits are less strongly related to values. Findings also suggest that controlling for personal scale-use tendencies in values is advisable.

The contribution of additive genetic variation to personality variation: heritability of personality

Abstract: Individual animals frequently exhibit repeatable differences from other members of their population, differences now commonly referred to as ‘animal personality’. Personality differences can arise,...

Integrating Personality and Social Networks: A Meta-Analysis of Personality, Network Position, and Work Outcomes in Organizations

Abstract: Using data from 138 independent samples, we meta-analytically examined three research questions concerning the roles of personality and network position in organizations. First, how do different personality characteristics-self-monitoring and the Big Five personality traits-relate to indegree centrality and brokerage, the two most studied structurally advantageous positions in organizational networks? Second, how do indegree centrality and brokerage compare in explaining job performance and career success? Third, how do these personality variables and network positions relate to work outcomes? Our results show that self-monitoring predicted indegree centrality across expressive and instrumental networks and brokerage in expressive networks after controlling for the Big Five traits. Self-monitoring, therefore, was especially relevant for understanding why people differ in their acquisition of advantageous positions in social networks. But the total variance explained by personality ranged between 3% and 5%. Surprisingly, we found that indegree centrality was more strongly related to job performance and career success than brokerage. We also found that personality predicted job performance and career success above and beyond network position and that network position partially mediated the effects of certain personality variables on work outcomes. This paper provides an integrated view of how an individual's personality and network position combine to influence job performance and career success.

Meta-analysis of Genome-wide Association Studies for Neuroticism, and the Polygenic Association With Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract: Importance Neuroticism is a pervasive risk factor for psychiatric conditions. It genetically overlaps with major depressive disorder (MDD) and is therefore an important phenotype for psychiatric genetics. The Genetics of Personality Consortium has created a resource for genome-wide association analyses of personality traits in more than 63 000 participants (including MDD cases). Objectives To identify genetic variants associated with neuroticism by performing a meta-analysis of genome-wide association results based on 1000 Genomes imputation; to evaluate whether common genetic variants as assessed by single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) explain variation in neuroticism by estimating SNP-based heritability; and to examine whether SNPs that predict neuroticism also predict MDD. Design, Setting, and Participants Genome-wide association meta-analysis of 30 cohorts with genome-wide genotype, personality, and MDD data from the Genetics of Personality Consortium. The study included 63 661 participants from 29 discovery cohorts and 9786 participants from a replication cohort. Participants came from Europe, the United States, or Australia. Analyses were conducted between 2012 and 2014. Main Outcomes and Measures Neuroticism scores harmonized across all 29 discovery cohorts by item response theory analysis, and clinical MDD case-control status in 2 of the cohorts. Results A genome-wide significant SNP was found on 3p14 in MAGI1 (rs35855737; P = 9.26 × 10−9 in the discovery meta-analysis). This association was not replicated (P = .32), but the SNP was still genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis of all 30 cohorts (P = 2.38 × 10−8). Common genetic variants explain 15% of the variance in neuroticism. Polygenic scores based on the meta-analysis of neuroticism in 27 cohorts significantly predicted neuroticism (1.09 × 10−12 < P < .05) and MDD (4.02 × 10−9 < P < .05) in the 2 other cohorts. Conclusions and Relevance This study identifies a novel locus for neuroticism. The variant is located in a known gene that has been associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in previous studies. In addition, the study shows that neuroticism is influenced by many genetic variants of small effect that are either common or tagged by common variants. These genetic variants also influence MDD. Future studies should confirm the role of the MAGI1 locus for neuroticism and further investigate the association of MAGI1 and the polygenic association to a range of other psychiatric disorders that are phenotypically correlated with neuroticism

Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose to change their personality traits?

Abstract: Previous research has found that most people want to change their personality traits. But can people actually change their personalities just because they want to? To answer this question, we conducted 2, 16-week intensive longitudinal randomized experiments. Across both studies, people who expressed goals to increase with respect to any Big Five personality trait at Time 1 tended to experience actual increases in their self-reports of that trait-as well as trait-relevant daily behavior-over the subsequent 16 weeks. Furthermore, we tested 2 randomized interventions designed to help participants attain desired trait changes. Although 1 of the interventions was inefficacious, a second intervention that trained participants to generate implementation intentions catalyzed their ability to attain trait changes. We also tested several theoretical processes through which volitional changes might occur. These studies suggest that people may be able to change their self-reported personality traits through volitional means, and represent a first step toward understanding the processes that enable people to do so.

Personality and depressive symptoms: individual participant meta-analysis of 10 cohort studies.

Abstract: Depression is a highly prevalent and often long-term mental disorder reducing quality of life and causing increased health care costs, loss of productive working days and disability 1. Although the aetiology of depression is multifactorial, personality is among the important characteristics that have been hypothesized to predict depression. In addition, personality dysfunction has been associated with poor outcome of depression, increased risk of suicide, and extensive use of treatment 2, 3. Different personality traits have been associated with depressive disorders, e.g., major depressive disorder (MDD), and depressive symptoms 4-6, and at least six theoretical models (i.e., common cause, spectrum, vulnerability, precursor, pathoplasty, and scar) have been proposed to explain these associations 7-11. However, it has been argued that research in this field may be biased in favour of publishing positive results 12, 13. Thus, published evidence may have overestimated the strength of the personality-depression association. In addition, only few studies have taken into account reverse causation, that is, that depressive symptoms might also predict change in personality. The largest meta-analytic review of published data to date included up to 14 563 patients and 60 576 controls and reported that individuals suffering from depressive disorders, i.e., MDD, unipolar depression, and dysthymic disorder, had higher levels of neuroticism and lower levels of both extraversion and conscientiousness when compared to healthy controls 5. A longitudinal association between high neuroticism and depressive symptoms or depression was observed in another recent meta-analysis that examined the relationship between neuroticism and depressive symptoms in prospective studies 6. However, other personality dimensions were not included in meta-analyses of prospective studies. In addition, the degree and direction of potential publication bias in the literature-based meta-analyses has not been examined 12, 14, 15. It has also been shown that depressive symptoms might predict change in personality 16. Recently, in a sample of 1739 Finnish men and women reciprocal relationship between negative emotionality, i.e., neuroticism, and depressive symptoms was found over 15 years of follow-up 17. However, it is not known whether these results can be generalized to other populations. To address these limitations, we pooled unpublished data from 10 prospective cohort studies with 117 899 participants for an individual-participants meta-analysis to investigate the possible two-way relationship between personality traits of the Five-factor model of personality with depressive symptoms. The Five-factor model of personality includes five personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience) and is currently the most widely used theory of personality 18. Based on previous findings 5,6, we hypothesized that low extraversion, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness may be associated with increased depressive symptoms. We also expected that the association between high neuroticism and depressive symptoms would be stronger than the associations between low extraversion and low conscientiousness with depressive symptoms. As age, gender, education, ethnicity, and marital status have also been linked to depressive symptoms 19, 20, we tested whether these factors might moderate the association between personality and depressive symptoms.

Cognition and personality: an analysis of an emerging field

Abstract: It is now well established that individuals can differ consistently in their average levels of behaviour across different contexts. There have recently been calls to apply the same adaptive framework to interindividual differences in cognition. These calls have culminated in the suggestion that variation in personality and cognition should correlate. We suggest that both these appealing notions are conceptually and logistically problematic. We identify the first crucial step for establishing any cognition–personality relationship. This is to determine the degree to which cognitive abilities yield consistent task performance. We then suggest how to establish whether such consistency exists. Finally, we discuss why formulating predictions about how cognition might be related to personality is much more difficult than is currently realised.

Technostress creators and job outcomes: theorising the moderating influence of personality traits

Abstract: Although prior research has examined the influence of technostress creators on job outcomes, insights into the influence of personality traits on the perceptions of technostress creators and their consequent impacts on job outcomes are rather limited. Such insights would enable a deeper understanding about the effects of individual differences on salient job-related outcomes. In this research, by leveraging the distinctions in personality traits offered by the big five personality traits in the five-factor model and grounding the research in the transactional model of stress and coping, we theorise the moderating influence of personality traits on the relationships between technostress creators and job outcomes, namely job burnout and job engagement. Specifically, the study theorises the mechanisms through which each of the specific personality traits openness-to-experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion interacts with technostress creators to differently influence job burnout and job engagement. We test the proposed model in a field study based on a survey of senior organisational managers who regularly use information and communication technologies for executing professional tasks. Although technostress creators are generally associated with negative job outcomes, our results also show that for individuals with certain personality traits, technostress creators may result in positive job outcomes. The study thus contributes to the technostress literature, specifically by incorporating the salient role of individual differences. The study also provides insights for managers who should pay special attention to allocating specific job roles to employees with particular personality traits in order to optimise job-related outcomes.

Personality traits and obesity: a systematic review.

Abstract: Based on a bio-social-ecological systems model of the development and maintenance of obesity, there has been in the last few years a growing research interest in the association of obesity and personality traits. The aim of the present review was a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the existing literature taking into account the methodological quality of studies to enhance our understanding of personality traits associated with body weight, the development of overweight and obesity as well as the effectiveness of weight loss interventions including bariatric surgery. Personality traits play an important role both as risk as well as protective factors in the development of overweight and obesity. While thus in particular 'neuroticism', 'impulsivity' and 'sensitivity to reward' appear as risk factors, 'conscientiousness' and 'self-control' have been shown to have a protective function in relation to weight gain. Conscientiousness is a measure of regulation of internal urges and self-discipline, and may thus provide a potential source of control over impulsive reward-oriented behaviour. The results of the present review suggest that, within the context of therapeutic weight reduction measures, it is meaningful to identify subgroups of patients for whom specific treatment options need to be developed, such as measures for strengthening self-control skills.

The independent effects of personality and situations on real-time expressions of behavior and emotion.

Abstract: The joint influence of persons and situations on behavior has long been posited by personality and social psychological theory (Funder, 2006; Lewin, 1951). However, a lack of tools for real-time behavioral and situation assessment has left direct investigations of this sort immobilized. This study combines recent advances in situation assessment and experience sampling methodology to examine the simultaneous effects of personality traits and situation characteristics on real-time expressions of behavior and emotion in N = 210 participants. The results support an additive model such that both personality traits and situation characteristics independently predict real-time expressions of behavior and emotion. These results have implications for several prominent theoretical perspectives in personality, including both trait and cognitive theories.

Is Happiness Good for Your Personality? Concurrent and Prospective Relations of the Big Five with Subjective Well-Being

Abstract: The present research examined longitudinal relations of the Big Five personality traits with three core aspects of subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Latent growth models and autoregressive models were used to analyze data from a large, nationally representative sample of 16,367 Australian residents. Concurrent and change correlations indicated that higher levels of subjective well-being were associated with higher levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, and with lower levels of Neuroticism. Moreover, personality traits prospectively predicted change in well-being, and well-being levels prospectively predicted personality change. Specifically, prospective trait effects indicated that individuals who were initially extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable subsequently increased in well-being. Prospective well-being effects indicated that individuals with high initial levels of well-being subsequently became more agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and introverted. These findings challenge the common assumption that associations of personality traits with subjective well-being are entirely, or almost entirely, due to trait influences on well-being. They support the alternative hypothesis that personality traits and well-being aspects reciprocally influence each other over time.

A Downside to the Entrepreneurial Personality

Abstract: The literature on entrepreneurship bears a distinctly positive cast, often with good reason. Entrepreneurs and their innovations have contributed enormously to national wealth, and so scholars have examined the personalities, capabilities, and contexts underlying these contributions. However, despite some early work, the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial personality have been largely ignored. We shall argue that given the nature of the challenges facing many entrepreneurs and the consequent demands of their jobs, certain personality traits will be quite valuable to them. These, however, tend to be Janus-faced in that positive attributes, such as energy, self-confidence, need for achievement, and independence, may sometimes devolve naturally into aggressiveness, narcissism, ruthlessness, and irresponsibility. Given the costly repercussions of the latter characteristics, we urge more study of their nature and causes among entrepreneurs.

Personality Traits in Childhood and Adolescence: Structure, Development, and Outcomes

Abstract: Like adults, children and adolescents can be described in terms of personality traits: characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We review recent research examining how youths’ specific behavioral tendencies cohere into broader traits, how these traits develop across childhood and adolescence, and how they relate to important biological, social, and health outcomes. We conclude that there are both key similarities and key differences between youth and adult personality traits, that youths’ personality traits help shape the course of their lives, and that a full understanding of youth personality traits will require additional research at the intersection of personality, developmental, and clinical psychology.

Two Traditions of Research on Gender Identity

Abstract: Gender identity reflects people’s understanding of themselves in terms of cultural definitions of female and male. In this article, we identify two traditions of research on gender identity that capture different aspects of masculine and feminine gender roles. The classic personality approach to gender identity differentiates communal from agentic traits and interests. The gender self-categorization approach comprises identification with the social category of women or men. Based on the compatibility principle, each approach should predict behaviors within the relevant content domain. Thus, personality measures likely predict communal and agentic behaviors, whereas gender self-categorization measures likely predict group-level reactions such as ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation. Researchers have the option of using one or the other conception of gender identity, depending on their particular question of interest. Relying primarily on research conducted in the U.S., we show that both traditions provide insight into the ways that gendered self concepts link the social roles of women and men with their individual cognitions, emotions, and behaviors.