Search

Using two independent samples, the study investigated links of within- and between-individual variability in personality states in three personality domains—Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness—with physical activity. Activity was defined as self-reported quantity of exercising or walking/cycling. More physical activity was associated with people reporting higher levels of Extraversion and Conscientiousness than they usually did, with the associations clearly replicating across samples and generalizing to all items of these domains. This pattern tended to reflect associations at the level of between-individual differences. When the three domains simultaneously predicted activity, within-individual variance in Neuroticism also emerged as a positive predictor, whereas between-individual level associations waned. The findings are consistent with within-individual differences in personality ratings reflecting meaningful, context-relevant variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the NEO Personality Inventory-3, we analyzed self/informant agreement on personality traits at three levels that were made statistically independent from each other: domains, facets, and individual items. Cross-rater correlations for the common variance in the five domains ranged from 0.36 to 0.65 ( M = 0.49), whereas estimates for the specific variance of the 30 facets ranged from 0.40 to 0.73 ( M = 0.56). Cross-rater correlations of residual variance of individual items ranged from −0.14 to 0.49 ( M = 0.15; 88% statistically significant at p < 0.002). Agreement on common variance was moderately related to item observability and evaluativeness, whereas variance played a larger role. Facets and even single items detect nuances of personality variation that may merit substantive attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: It has been reported that a Mediterranean-type diet in old age is protective against inflammation in Italians with depressive symptoms. In the present study, we explore this hypothesis in a non-Mediterranean, elderly sample, and further disentangle whether it is a Mediterranean diet per se or a healthy diet, in general, that confers this protective effect. The sample is a cohort of people born in 1936, who were assessed on diet and depressive symptoms at age 70. Inflammatory markers, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen and albumin, were collected at ages 70 and 73, while Interleukin-6 transferrin and ferritin were measured at the second time-point only. Controlling for confounding factors (e.g., CVD risk factors, medication) no interaction effect of depressive symptoms and Mediterranean diet was observed on inflammation. However, a main effect of Mediterranean diet on change in C-reactive protein was significant (β =−0.10, p =0.03), and so too was an effect of the ‘Health Aware’ diet on ferritin (β =−0.12, p =0.02). An interaction between depressive symptoms and a Health Aware diet on transferrin levels showed that there was an association between increased depressive symptoms and inflammation in those following a Health Aware diet. Our results indicate that there are advantages of a Mediterranean diet over a Health Aware diet with respect to the progression of inflammation in old age and that depressive symptoms compound inflammatory burden only for specific biomarkers and under specific dietary conditions unrelated to the Mediterranean diet. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We tested the associations between individual differences in the Big Five personality traits and their changes over the ninth decade of life and levels of and changes in cognitive functioning, physical fitness, and everyday functioning. Besides mean-level changes in personality traits, there were significant individual differences in their rates of change between ages 81 and 87. The changes in the Big Five traits were not strongly intercorrelated, suggesting little common influence on personality change. Lower IQ at age 79 predicted lower Intellect and higher Extraversion, and more decline in Conscientiousness from ages 81 to 87. Also, decreases in physical fitness were associated with declines in Conscientiousness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Two large cross-cultural databases on personality were used to study the relationship between culture-level mean scores of Conscientiousness and 18 country-level criterion variables including health indicators, religiosity, democracy, corruption, economic wealth and freedom, and the presence of a favorable business environment. Compared to previous research, more rigorous requirements for the study of the predictor–criterion relationships were formulated and followed. Mean Conscientiousness scores were significantly related to most of the criteria but, importantly, the relationships differed largely across facets of the broad Conscientiousness domain. In several facets, the patterns of relationships to the external criteria were consistent with clearly formulated multi-variate predictions but the pattern of relationships was moderated by the type of ratings (self- vs. observer-ratings). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, 3705 participants from across the Russian Federation were asked to rate their own personality traits, those of a typical Russian living in their region, and those of an ideal person, using the National Character Survey (NCS). Another large group of participants (N= 3537) was asked to identify an ethnically Russian college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rate this target using the NEO PI-R. The mean personality profiles of the typical Russian converged significantly with self-rated personality traits (r =.63, p <.01), but not with observer-ratings (r =.33, p =.08). However, the former correlation lost its significance when the mean ratings of an ideal person ratings were controlled for (r =.35, p =.06). The mean ratings of a typical Russian converged even more substantially with the personality profile of an ideal person (r =.71, p <.001). Overall, the results suggest that the portrait of a typical Russian may to some extent be based on actual personality dispositions of Russians, but it is more likely that this portrait reflects socially desirable personality traits that have been attributed to a typical Russian. The results extend previous findings by demonstrating the importance of using multiple rating conditions at the same time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Both expert and folk psychologists believe that only children are spoiled, selfish, lonely, and socially estranged. In this study, we demonstrate that the stereotypical personality profile of a typical only child differs consistently from the stereotypical profile of those who have siblings on 23 out of the 30 NEO-PI-R subscales. These differences between stereotypical personality profiles do not reflect self-descriptions because the self-rated personality profiles made by only children coincide almost perfectly with the self-rated personality profiles of those who have brothers or sisters. The multiple children stereotype reflects rather accurately both the mean normative and the socially desirable personality profile. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To test the hypothesis that personality structure differs across levels of cognitive ability, personality traits of 154 participants of various ages and educational backgrounds were rated by themselves and two well-informed judges using the Estonian Personality Item Pool NEO (EPIP-NEO; ). When participants were divided into two groups on the basis of their ability test scores, a relatively high cross-observer agreement was observed in the both ability groups. Although in the high-ability group personality traits were slightly less correlated and factor structures were somewhat more similar to the normative American self-report structure of the NEO-PI-R, there was no evidence that personality structure differs substantially across ability groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to humanity and requires immediate action. Schuldt, Konrath, and Schwarz (2011) suggested that beliefs in environmental phenomena can be influenced by the terminology used to describe it: changing question wording from global warming to climate change resulted in a 6.3 percentage point increase in belief in environmental phenomena. This association was moderated by political self-identification, with Republicans being 16.2 percentage points more likely to believe in climate change than in global warming, with Democrats showing no difference. The potential for connotative meanings to shift over time and the sociopolitical changes since the original study, potential policy and environmental campaign implications, and an expansion of these findings to other countries, motivated an attempt to replicate this important finding. This pre-registered study repeated the original procedures in the United States of America and two other countries (United Kingdom and Australia; total N = 5,717). Although question wording no longer had a significant effect on beliefs in climate change/global warming, the association of political self-identification with beliefs in environmental phenomena replicated in all three countries, with Conservatives consistently believing less in climate change/global warming than Liberals. The potential impacts of temporal and methodological differences on the discrepancies between this study's and the original's findings are discussed. • Interaction between question wording and political self-identification did not replicate. • Belief in environmental phenomena did not depend on question wording. • Political polarisation of belief is evident cross nationally. • Conservatives cross-nationally believe less in environmental issues. • Belief has increased over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Across three culturally diverse samples, lower order traits out-predicted multiple life outcomes than broad traits, such as domains. • Predictive accuracy of all levels was stronger in the English-speaking sample. • Narrow traits showed stronger predictive accuracy even when predicting outcomes from culturally different sample – suggesting a degree of universality to findings. • Individual trait associations were slightly more replicable for domains than narrower traits. Research in (mostly) Western samples has indicated that personality domains' associations with life outcomes are replicable but often driven by their facets or nuances. Using three diverse samples (English-speaking, N=1,232; Russian-Speaking, N=1,604; Mandarin-speaking, N=1,216), we compared personality trait-outcome associations at domain, facet, and nuance levels, both within and among samples. Trait-outcome associations were at least moderately consistent among samples for all trait-hierarchy levels (average intraclass correlations = 0.64 to 0.74). Nuances provided the strongest predictive accuracy, both within and among samples. Trait-outcome associations were higher among English-speakers than Mandarin and Russian-speakers. Our observations suggested moderate generalizability among diverse samples, with nuances providing unique and replicable information. This offers potential to improve understanding of trait-outcome patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We examined the effect of personality in youth on wellbeing at age 60–64years. [•] Extraversion had direct, positive effects on wellbeing. [•] Neuroticism’s effects were largely indirect, via poorer mental and physical health. [•] Personality dispositions in youth predict levels of wellbeing around 40years later. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is widely believed that, on those personality traits that are more visible to an external observer, two judges will reach a higher level of agreement than on those traits that are more difficult to judge. This view is challenged in the current paper, using a sample of 672 participants in the age range of 18–87years who described their own personality and were judged by an external observer who knew them well, using the NEO PI-3 questionnaire (). The self-observer agreement on the 30 personality subscales varied from .38 (O3: Feelings) to .57 (E5: Excitement Seeking). Approximately one-half of the variance in the agreement level was explained by the standard deviation of the sum scores of these subscales: self-observer agreement was higher in the subscales on which individual differences were larger. After correction for the range of variance, differences in self-observer agreement substantially diminished. It is proposed that judges who know each other well reach an approximately equal level of agreement on all the Big Five personality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network analysis represents a novel theoretical approach to personality. Network approaches motivate alternative ways of analyzing data, and suggest new ways of modeling and simulating personality processes. In the present paper, we provide an overview of network analysis strategies as they apply to personality data. We discuss different ways to construct networks from typical personality data, show how to compute and interpret important measures of centrality and clustering, and illustrate how one can simulate on networks to mimic personality processes. All analyses are illustrated using a data set on the commonly used HEXACO questionnaire using elementary R-code that readers may easily adapt to apply to their own data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Age differences in personality traits are smaller from informants' perspective. • Discrepancies in self- and informant-ratings are associated with social desirability. • Socially desirable responding in older age may bias age differences in self-ratings. • We recommend combining self- and informant-ratings for describing age trends. Little research has examined age differences by using more than one source of information. We compared age differences in Five-Factor Model (FFM) facets and nuances in self-reports and ratings by knowledgeable informants using samples from three countries (Estonia, Germany, and the Czech Republic; N = 5,624). We hypothesized that age differences would be larger in self- than informant-reports, because of greater social desirability in self-descriptions with advancing age. Indeed, we found that age differences were systematically smaller in informant-reports compared to self-reports; this trend was stronger for traits independently rated as socially desirable. As age differences may be best approximated by average trends of self- and informant-reports, we provide meta -analytic age trends for multi-rater composite scores of the FFM facets and nuances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Lower levels of the personality hierarchy contained substantially more age-sensitive information than higher levels. • Residualizing items for facets had little impact on how much age-sensitive information they contained. • Age-sensitive variance was captured better by items' unique variance than by their shared variance in broader traits. • Mechanisms of personality development may be highly heterogeneous. This replication and extension of Mõttus and Rozgonjuk (2019) compared the extents of age-related information captured by different levels of the personality trait hierarchy (domains, facets and nuances, indexed by individual items) in several samples (N = 51,524) of different age ranges and cultural backgrounds, and tested with different instruments. Across samples and measures, lower trait hierarchy levels (especially nuances) tended to contain substantially more age-sensitive information than higher levels; most of the unique age-sensitive information was in nuances. Besides showing the need for more nuanced personality (development) research, the findings suggest ways of testing novel hypotheses that rely on systematic between-trait variance in age differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]