Cultural Consistency in Late-Life Declines in Positive Personality Traits

Abstract Personality has elements of both stability and change across the adult lifespan. There has also been evidence for terminal decline—late-life decreases in positive psychological characteristics. However, many of these studies have examined these patterns in primarily Western populations. The current study examined the consistency of age differences in positive personality traits (i.e., character strengths) across cultures. I examined 2,895,051 participants ranging in age from 13 to 100 (Mage = 34.31; 65.3% women) from 90 different countries. I reproduced patterns of terminal decline across cultures. In addition to mean differences between cultures (e.g., focusing on the present is associated with more positive traits [Mr = .45]), cultural characteristics often moderated the effects of age on positive personality traits. For example, terminal decline was more dramatic among people from collectivistic cultures and flatter among people from individualistic cultures. Results will be discussed in the context of cultural variation developmental processes.

Download Full-text

Culturally gendered personality traits across the adult lifespan: Longitudinal findings from two cohorts of the intergenerational studies.

Psychology and Aging ◽

10.1037/pag0000383 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (8) ◽

pp. 1124-1133

Author(s):

Constance Jones ◽

Harvey Peskin ◽

Christian Wandeler ◽

David Woods

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Adult Lifespan ◽

Intergenerational Studies

Download Full-text

Transactions between life events and personality traits across the adult lifespan.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ◽

10.1037/pspp0000196 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 116 (4) ◽

pp. 612-633 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽

Maike Luhmann ◽

Joanne M. Chung ◽

Wiebke Bleidorn

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Life Events ◽

Adult Lifespan

Download Full-text

The Impact Of Psychological Characteristics On The Effectiveness Of Motivational Interviewing Based Psychological Counseling

European Scientific Journal ESJ ◽

10.19044/esj.2016.v12n15p95 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (15) ◽

pp. 95

Author(s):

Raimonda Petroliene ◽

Liuda Sinkariova ◽

Dalia Karpovaite ◽

Loreta Zajanckauskaite-Staskeviciene ◽

Jurga Misiuniene ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Cardiac Rehabilitation ◽

Motivational Interviewing ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Emotional State ◽

Cardiac Patients ◽

Psychological Characteristics ◽

Psychological Counseling ◽

Counseling Intervention ◽

Unhealthy Behavior

It is well known that in order to control the morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease patients, their lifestyle should be taken into account (American Heart Association, 2012; Klumbiene et al., 2002). Studies of various disease patients’ manners (Knight et al., 2006; Thompson et al., 2011) confirm that motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 2013) is an effective method for changing unhealthy behavior. Nevertheless, our practical experience of motivational interviewing based psychological counseling with rehabilitation hospitals’ cardiac patients’ (Sinkariova et al., 2015) revealed noteworthy observations about some participants lack of motivation to change unhealthy behavior. This observation encouraged us to start a study with the aim to find out if cardiac rehabilitation participants’ personality traits and emotional state are related to the effectiveness of motivational interviewing based psychological counseling. The study used a quasi-experiment where cardiac rehabilitation patients were assigned to control (regular rehabilitation, n=55) or experimental (rehabilitation plus motivational interviewing based psychological counseling intervention, n=64) groups. A total of 119 participants (male=83, female=36, M age=60.47, SD=8.762) attended a survey, which included NEO-FFI, HADs, and “Readiness to change questionnaire” at the beginning and end of cardiac rehabilitation. Nonparametric data analysis showed that patients’ personality traits are not related to the effectiveness of motivational interviewing based counseling, whereas depression is positively related to the effectiveness of intervention to change alcohol consumption. Conclusions/Implications: Depression as an expression of emotional state is an important feature for the effectiveness of motivational interviewing based counseling to change cardiac patients’ alcohol consumption. Further understanding of relationships between psychological characteristics and the effectiveness of intervention could help to improve cardiac diseases prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.

Download Full-text

How similar are the conceptual and empirical structures of personality traits?

European Journal of Personality ◽

10.1002/per.591 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

pp. 337-353 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Kenn Konstabel ◽

Ann Virkus

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Factor Structure ◽

Age Differences ◽

Negative Correlation ◽

Self Reports ◽

Weak Negative Correlation

The congruity of the conceptual and empirical structures of personality traits was examined by comparing the structure of trait covariation ratings to the five‐factor structure of self‐reported traits. The covariation ratings were found to be highly reliable, and no evidence of systematic sex or age differences was found. Besides a rough similarity, there were replicable differences between the conceptual and empirical structures. Most importantly, Neuroticism and Extraversion had a weak negative correlation in self‐reports, but were judged to be almost bipolar opposites in covariation ratings; impulsiveness was judged to be a negative indicator of Conscientiousness in covariation ratings, but was equally strongly related to Neuroticism component in self‐ratings. These systematic differences demonstrate that the structure of self‐rated traits is not reducible to semantic similarities of traits descriptors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Download Full-text

Psychometric Properties of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 in a Romanian Community Sample

Journal of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies ◽

10.24193/jebp.2021.1.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 3-20

Author(s):

Ticu CONSTANTIN ◽

Elena G. NICUȚĂ ◽

Diana GRĂDINARU

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Psychometric Properties ◽

Community Sample ◽

Personality Inventory ◽

Scoring Methods ◽

Good Reliability ◽

Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽

Dsm 5 ◽

The Hierarchical Structure ◽

Mean Differences

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) evaluates 25 maladaptive personality traits proposed in the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders. The questionnaire has been extensively investigated and validated in several languages. The current research sought to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument in a sample of nonclinical Romanian participants (N = 1276). Results indicated excellent internal consistency for the domain level, and very good reliability for the facet level. The assumption of unidimensionality was supported at both the domain and facet levels, apart from Risk Taking. Two domain scoring methods were also compared. One of them takes into consideration all the 25 lower order facets, whereas the other uses only 15 facets. Results show that mean differences across the two scoring methods were small, except for Disinhibition. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses revealed slightly better fit indices for the model which uses 15 facets only. Lastly, the hierarchical structure of maladaptive personality traits was explored. Results are discussed in the light of previous literature.

Download Full-text

How Reputation Systems Change the Psychological Antecedents of Fairness in Virtual Environments

Future Internet ◽

10.3390/fi12080132 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 132

Author(s):

Stefania Collodi ◽

Maria Fiorenza ◽

Andrea Guazzini ◽

Mirko Duradoni

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Sense Of Community ◽

Social Dilemma ◽

Demographic Characteristics ◽

Bargaining Game ◽

Psychological Characteristics ◽

Reputation Systems ◽

The Social

Reputational systems promote pro-social behaviors, also in virtual environments, therefore their study contributes to the knowledge of social interactions. Literature findings emphasize the power of reputation in fostering fairness in many circumstances, even when its influence is not directly oriented towards specific individuals. The present study contributes to the investigation of the psychological antecedents of fairness, introducing (or not) reputation in the social dilemma framework. Although reputational systems usually influence fairness dynamics, there are also socio-psychological characteristics that can play a role, affecting the adhesion to the norm online. To investigate their effects, we employed a virtual bargaining game that could include a reputational system depending on the experimental condition. Results show that the participant’s fairness could be significantly influenced by socio-psychological and demographic characteristics, as well as personality traits. Reputation seems to decrease fairness in those individuals who report high levels of Neuroticism and Openness. At the same time, high values of Self-Efficacy appear to be more likely associated with unfair behaviors when reputation is off the bargaining. Finally, Age and Sense of Community emerge as fairness promoters regardless of the experimental condition.

Download Full-text

Study between personality traits and character strengths in adolescents

Current Psychology ◽

10.1007/s12144-019-0146-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Denise Martins Dametto ◽

Ana Paula Porto Noronha

Keyword(s):

Personality Traits ◽

Character Strengths

Download Full-text

Character Strengths Before and After September 11

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/1467-9280.24482 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 381-384 ◽

Cited By ~ 137

Author(s):

Christopher Peterson ◽

Martin E.P. Seligman

Keyword(s):

Character Strengths ◽

September 11 ◽

Self Report ◽

Terrorist Attacks ◽

Action Classification ◽

Before And After ◽

On Line ◽

September 11 Terrorist Attacks ◽

Positive Traits

Did Americans change following the September 11 terrorist attacks? We provide a tentative answer with respect to the positive traits included in the Values in Action Classification of Strengths and measured with a self-report questionnaire available on-line and completed by 4,817 respondents. When scores for individuals completing the survey in the 2 months immediately after September 11 were compared with scores for those individuals who completed the survey before September 11, seven character strengths showed increases: gratitude, hope, kindness, leadership, love, spirituality, and teamwork. Ten months after September 11, these character strengths were still elevated, although to a somewhat lesser degree than immediately following the attacks.

Download Full-text