scholarly journals Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebke Bleidorn ◽  
Christopher J. Hopwood ◽  
Mitja D. Back ◽  
Jaap J.A. Denissen ◽  
Marie Hennecke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
European Association ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Work And Health

The importance of personality for predicting life outcomes in the domains of love, work, and health is well established, as is evidence that personality traits, while relatively stable, can change. However, little is known about the sources and processes that drive changes in personality traits and how such changes might impact important life outcomes. In this paper, we make the case that the research paradigms and methodological approaches commonly used in personality psychology need to be revised to advance our understanding of the sources and processes of personality change. We propose Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies as a framework for studying personality change that can address the limitations of current methods, and we discuss strategies for overcoming some of the challenges associated with Longitudinal Experience–Wide Association Studies. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies (LEWAS) – A Framework for Studying Personality Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebke Bleidorn ◽  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Mitja Back ◽  
Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽  
Marie Hennecke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Work And Health

The importance of personality for predicting life outcomes in the domains of love, work, and health is well established, as is evidence that personality traits, while relatively stable, can change. However, little is known about the sources and processes that drive changes in personality traits, and how such changes might impact important life outcomes. In this paper, we make the case that the research paradigms and methodological approaches commonly used in personality psychology need to be revised to advance our understanding of the sources and processes of personality change. We propose Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies (LEWAS) as a framework for studying personality change that can address the limitations of current methods, and discuss strategies for overcoming some of the challenges associated with LEWAS.

scholarly journals Changing personality traits with the help of a digital personality change intervention

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (8) ◽  
pp. e2017548118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Stieger ◽  
Christoph Flückiger ◽  
Dominik Rüegger ◽  
Tobias Kowatsch ◽  
Brent W. Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Normal Personality ◽  
Waitlist Control Group

Personality traits predict important life outcomes, such as success in love and work life, well-being, health, and longevity. Given these positive relations to important outcomes, economists, policy makers, and scientists have proposed intervening to change personality traits to promote positive life outcomes. However, nonclinical interventions to change personality traits are lacking so far in large-scale naturalistic populations. This study (n = 1,523) examined the effects of a 3-mo digital personality change intervention using a randomized controlled trial and the smartphone application PEACH (PErsonality coACH). Participants who received the intervention showed greater self-reported changes compared to participants in the waitlist control group who had to wait 1 mo before receiving the intervention. Self-reported changes aligned with intended goals for change and were significant for those desiring to increase on a trait (d = 0.52) and for those desiring to decrease on a trait (d = −0.58). Observers such as friends, family members, or intimate partners also detected significant personality changes in the desired direction for those desiring to increase on a trait (d = 0.35). Observer-reported changes for those desiring to decrease on a trait were not significant (d = −0.22). Moreover, self- and observer-reported changes persisted until 3 mo after the end of the intervention. This work provides the strongest evidence to date that normal personality traits can be changed through intervention in nonclinical samples.

A Three–Part Framework for Self–Regulated Personality Development across Adulthood

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Hennecke ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn ◽  
Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽  
Dustin Wood
Keyword(s):  
European Association ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Behavioural Changes ◽  
Personality Changes ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
View Change ◽  
Over Time

Recently, researchers interested in personality development have begun to acknowledge the roles of motivation and self–regulation for why traits change across adulthood. We propose three preconditions under which individuals may change their own levels of a personality trait through self–directed efforts. Firstly, individuals need to desire changing their trait–related behaviours either as an end in itself or in order to achieve other goals. Secondly, they need to consider behavioural changes feasible and be able to implement the desired changes. Thirdly, behavioural changes need to become habitual in order to constitute a stable trait. After elaborating on these three conditions, we review evidence attesting to the importance of motivation and self–regulation for trait development. We conclude with a discussion of the mutual interdependence of traits and goals, as well as the limits of self–regulated personality change. From our framework, we derive why personality changes across adulthood tend to be small to medium only, namely because they may require that all three preconditions for self–regulated personality change are fulfilled. We provide reasons for why people might not view change as desirable, feasible or fail to maintain it over time. Finally, we propose ideas for potential study designs to research self–regulated personality change. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology

Different Games for Different Motives: Comment on Haesevoets, Folmer, and Van Hiel (2015)

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 506-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Thielmann ◽  
Robert Böhm ◽  
Benjamin E. Hilbig
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
European Association ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Game Theoretic

Recently, Haesevoets, Folmer, and Van Hiel (2015) strongly questioned the comparability and equivalence of different mixed–motive situations as modelled in economic games. Particularly, the authors found that different game correlated only weakly on average and loaded on two separate factors. In turn, personality traits failed to consistently account for behavioural tendencies across games. Contrary to the conclusions of Haesevoets et al., these findings are actually perfectly in line with the game–theoretic understanding of the different economic games. If one considers the variety of specific motives underlying decisions in different games, Haesevoets et al.'s findings actually support the validity of different games rather than questioning it. This, in turn, emphasizes the necessity for the plethora of different games that have been developed over decades in economics and psychology. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Trait Perspective

Psychology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Brent Donnellan ◽  
Christopher Hopwood
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
History Of ◽  
Controversial Topic

Personality traits, or relatively enduring and global patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, are thought to be a foundational element of personality by many researchers. Gordon Allport is widely recognized as the founder of academic personality psychology, and his perspectives on the trait concept continue to be influential today. Following Allport, many contemporary trait psychologists theorize that traits are rooted in biological processes but shaped by life experiences. Moreover, contemporary trait psychologists believe personality traits have causal implications, meaning that they affect how individuals interpret and respond to the challenges of life as well as the responses that individuals evoke from others. To be sure, personality traits work together and in concert with situational factors to generate behavior, which is an idea with a long history in psychology. Despite the popularity of trait concepts in lay theories of human behavior, the existence and importance of personality traits has been a controversial topic in academic psychology. The goal of this bibliography is to introduce readers to the trait concept and to the debates surrounding personality traits by providing references to both classic and contemporary readings. The first sections (see General Overviews) provide references that give an overview of personality traits, cover issues in the concept of Defining Traits, and discuss the role of personality traits in the broader field of personality psychology. These introductory sections are followed by an overview of The Person-Situation Debate, a critical conflict in the history of trait psychology. We refer to classic readings in this debate and cover Responses to the Person-Situation Debate. These reactions to the person-situation debate have come to define, in part, how modern trait psychologists view their field. Trait psychology is often strongly identified with personality assessment; thus the next section in this bibliography covers issues in Assessing Personality Traits including measurement validity, reliability, and the utility of various measurement methods. Improvements in assessment have led to one of the major accomplishments in trait psychology: the delineation of a common structure for higher order personality traits in the form of the “Big Five” domains (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability or neuroticism, and openness). The next section includes readings on Evaluating the Structure of Personality Traits and includes papers from both proponents and critics of the Big Five/five-factor models. A major accomplishment following the person-situation debate was a more precise articulation of the developmental course, biological correlates, and impacts of traits for understanding adaptation across the lifespan. Thus, the final three sections include readings about Personality Trait Development Across the Lifespan, Biological Perspectives on Traits, and Personality Traits and Life Outcomes.

scholarly journals Towards More Rigorous Personality Trait–Outcome Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 292-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Mõttus
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Outcome Research ◽  
European Association ◽  
Causal Inferences ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Factor Loadings ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Trait Level

Much of personality research attempts to identify causal links between personality traits and various types of outcomes. I argue that causal interpretations require traits to be seen as existentially and holistically real and the associations to be independent of specific ways of operationalizing the traits. Among other things, this means that, to the extents that causality is to be ascribed to such holistic traits, items and facets of those traits should be similarly associated with specific outcomes, except for variability in the degrees to which they reflect the traits (i.e. factor loadings). I argue that, before drawing causal inferences about personality trait–outcome associations, the presence of this condition should be routinely tested by, for example, systematically comparing the outcome associations of individual items or facets, or sampling different indicators for measuring the same purported traits. Existing evidence suggests that observed associations between personality traits and outcomes at least sometimes depend on which particular items or facets have been included in trait operationalizations, calling trait–level causal interpretations into question. However, this has rarely been considered in the literature. I argue that when outcome associations are specific to facets, they should not be generalized to traits. Furthermore, when the associations are specific to particular items, they should not even be generalized to facets. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals How do Personality and Social Structures Interact with Each other to Predict Important Life Outcomes? The Importance of Accounting for Personality Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Boyce ◽  
Alex M. Wood ◽  
Liam Delaney ◽  
Eammon Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Issue ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Personality Changes ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Type 2 Errors

Personality is important for a range of life outcomes. However, despite evidence that personality changes across time, there is a concerning tendency for researchers outside of personality psychology to treat measures of personality as if they are non–changing when establishing whether personality predicts important life outcomes. This is problematic when personality changes in response to outcomes of interest and creates a methodological issue that may result in misleading conclusions. We illustrate this methodological issue and suggest using measures before the outcome takes place to mitigate concerns. We then demonstrate, using data from Germany, that using post–event personality measures, as opposed to pre–outcome measures, to predict both occurrence of, and reactions to, socio–economic events results in inconsistent conclusions in the directions hypothesized and therefore increases the likelihood of Type 1 and Type 2 errors. This has implications for research investigating the importance of personality for psychological, behavioural, and socio–economic outcomes. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Personality Traits Predict Smartphone Usage

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 701-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Stachl ◽  
Sven Hilbert ◽  
Jiew–Quay Au ◽  
Daniel Buschek ◽  
Alexander De Luca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
European Association ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Data Logging ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Actual Behaviour

The present study investigates to what degree individual differences can predict frequency and duration of actual behaviour, manifested in mobile application (app) usage on smartphones. In particular, this work focuses on the identification of stable associations between personality on the factor and facet level, fluid intelligence, demography and app usage in 16 distinct categories. A total of 137 subjects (87 women and 50 men), with an average age of 24 ( SD = 4.72), participated in a 90–min psychometric lab session as well as in a subsequent 60–day data logging study in the field. Our data suggest that personality traits predict mobile application usage in several specific categories such as communication, photography, gaming, transportation and entertainment. Extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness are better predictors of mobile application usage than basic demographic variables in several distinct categories. Furthermore, predictive performance is slightly higher for single factor—in comparison with facet–level personality scores. Fluid intelligence and demographics additionally show stable associations with categorical app usage. In sum, this study demonstrates how individual differences can be effectively related to actual behaviour and how this can assist in understanding the behavioural underpinnings of personality. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Affect, Behaviour, Cognition and Desire in the Big Five: An Analysis of Item Content and Structure

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Wilt ◽  
William Revelle
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
European Association ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Big Five Traits ◽  
Conceptual Definition ◽  
Item Content ◽  
Definition Of

Personality psychology is concerned with affect (A), behaviour (B), cognition (C) and desire (D), and personality traits have been defined conceptually as abstractions used to either explain or summarise coherent ABC (and sometimes D) patterns over time and space. However, this conceptual definition of traits has not been reflected in their operationalisation, possibly resulting in theoretical and practical limitations to current trait inventories. Thus, the goal of this project was to determine the affective, behavioural, cognitive and desire (ABCD) components of Big–Five personality traits. The first study assessed the ABCD content of items measuring Big–Five traits in order to determine the ABCD composition of traits and identify items measuring relatively high amounts of only one ABCD content. The second study examined the correlational structure of scales constructed from items assessing ABCD content via a large, web–based study. An assessment of Big–Five traits that delineates ABCD components of each trait is presented, and the discussion focuses on how this assessment builds upon current approaches of assessing personality. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

Relationships between Dimensions of Impulsivity and Prospective Memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Cuttler ◽  
Debra O'Connell ◽  
David K. Marcus
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
European Association ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Challenging Tasks ◽  
Memory Questionnaire ◽  
Prospective Memory Performance

Prospective memory refers to the ability to plan and execute future intentions. A burgeoning body of research indicates that a significant proportion of the variability in prospective memory performance can be accounted for by personality traits, with two recent studies revealing that the various dimensions of impulsivity measured by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale–11 (BIS–11) are related to prospective memory failures. The present study was conducted to examine which dimensions of impulsivity indexed by the BIS–11 and UPPS–P relate to prospective memory failures and which dimensions of impulsivity contribute unique variance in the prediction of prospective memory failures. A large sample ( N = 662) of students completed the BIS–11, UPPS–P, Prospective Memory Questionnaire and a habitual prospective memory test. Consistent correlations between six of the seven measures of impulsivity and prospective memory failures were found. Regression analyses further revealed that lack of perseverance, emotional urgency and attentional impulsivity were reliable and unique predictors of prospective memory failures. Thus, difficulty remaining focused on tasks (especially long, boring or difficult tasks); lack of forethought, planning and distaste for challenging tasks; and tendencies to behave impulsively under conditions of strong affect relate most strongly to prospective memory failures. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

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