Why Does Frustration Predict Psychopathology? Multiple Prospective Pathways over Adolescence: A Trails Study

Adolescents’ temperamental frustration is a developmental precursor of adult neuroticism and psychopathology. Because the mechanisms that underlie the prospective association between adolescents’ high frustration and psychopathology (internalizing/externalizing) have not been studied extensively, we quantified three pathways: stress generation [mediation via selection/evocation of stressful life events (SLEs)], cross–sectional frustration–psychopathology overlap (‘carry–over’/common causes), and a direct (non–mediated) vulnerability effect of frustration, including moderation of SLE impact. Frustration and psychopathology were assessed at age 16 with the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire and the Youth Self–Report. No gender differences in frustration were observed. At age 19, psychopathology was reassessed by using the Adult Self–Report, while occurrence of endogenous (self–generated) and exogenous (not self–generated) SLEs during the interval (ages 16–19) were ascertained with the Life Stress Interview, an investigator–based contextual–stressfulness rating procedure (N = 957). Half of the prospective effect of frustration on psychopathology was explained by baseline overlap, including effects of ‘carry–over’ and common causes, about 5% reflected stress generation (a ‘vicious’ cycle with the environment adolescents navigate and shape), and 45% reflected unmediated association: a direct vulnerability effect including stress sensitivity or moderation of SLE impact. After adjustment for their overlap, frustration predicted the development of externalizing but not internalizing symptoms. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Stress-related changes in personality: A longitudinal study of perceived stress and trait pessimism

Although research has shown that certain aspects of personality can change over time, the determinants of such change remain unclear. Stress alters neural dynamics and precipitates disorders that shape personality traits involving negative affectivity. In this study, therefore, we assessed the perceived stress and pessimism levels of 332 young, middle-aged, and older adults for five weeks to examine how levels of stress and pessimism change and interrelate over time. The best fitting longitudinal model was a bivariate latent growth curve model, which indicated that stress and pessimism both changed and exhibited significant variability in change over time. Moreover, changes in stress were associated with changes in pessimism. Pessimism thus changes over time, with alterations in stress potentially structuring these changes.

Situation Characteristics Are Age Graded

The current work examines mean-level patterns of major dimensions of situation characteristics—the Situational Eight DIAMONDS—across the life span. Using population-representative data from the 2013 and 2014 American Time Use Survey (Study 1) and the 2012 German Socioeconomic Panel (Study 2), we tested hypotheses generated from research on situation cues and personality development. Results demonstrated that the DIAMONDS characteristics were age graded: Individuals tended to be in different kinds of situations as a function of their age. Furthermore, there was evidence that some patterns were country specific, whereas others replicated across the United States and Germany. Overall, these studies suggest that—much like personality traits—situation characteristics have predictable mean-level patterns over the life span.

The Role of Individual Differences and Situational Variables in the Use of Workplace Sexual Identity Management Strategies

Examination of individual difference variables have been largely ignored within research on the use of workplace sexual identity management strategies. The current study examined personality traits (extraversion, openness, and neuroticism), facets of sexual identity development (identity confusion, internalized heterosexism), and situational variables (e.g., perceptions of workplace climate and heterosexism) in explaining the use of management strategies, as well as possible interactions between individual and situational factors. Perceptions of the workplace climate toward lesbian and gay individuals significantly related to the use each of the management strategies, and Internalized Heterosexism was found to significantly predict the use of the Explicitly Out strategy. Most interactions between individual difference and situational variables were not supported, with the exception of an interaction between workplace heterosexism and internalized homophobia in explaining the use of the Explicitly Out strategy.

Causal Unity of Broader Traits is an Illusion

Mõttus alerts us to the widespread predictive heterogeneity of different indicators of the same trait. This heterogeneity violates the assumption that traits have causal unity in their developmental antecedents and effects on outcomes. I would go a step further: broader traits are useful units for description and prediction but not for explaining personality development and personality effects. In most cases, the measured trait indicators are closer to relevant causal mechanisms, and within a network perspective on personality, broader traits as entities with causal potential can be dismissed completely. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

Stability and fluctuation of personality disorder features in daily life

Very little is known about the daily stability and fluctuation of personality pathology. To address this gap in knowledge, we investigated the naturalistic manifestation of personality pathology over the course of 100 days. A group of individuals (N = 101) diagnosed with any personality disorder (PD) completed a daily diary study over 100 consecutive days (Mdn = 94 days, range = 33-101 days). Participants completed daily ratings of 30 manifestations of personality pathology. Patterns of stability and variability over the course of the study were then examined. Results indicated that individual PD manifestations and domains of PD manifestations were variable across days and differed widely in their frequency. Additionally, individual averages and level of variability in PD domains were highly stable across months, individual averages of PD domains were predicted by baseline dispositional ratings of PD traits with a high degree of specificity, and daily variability PD domains was associated with elevated levels of PD traits. This pattern of findings suggests that dynamic processes of symptom exacerbation and diminution that are stable in mean level and variability in expression over time characterizes personality pathology. Further, dispositional ratings are significant predictors of average daily expression of PD features. (PsycINFO Database Record

Velocity Explains the Links between Personality States and Affect

The present research examined whether perceived rate of progress toward a goal (velocity) mediated the relationships between personality states and affective states. Drawing from control theories of self-regulation, we hypothesized (i) that increased velocity would mediate the association between state extraversion and state positive affect, and (ii) that decreased velocity would mediate the association between state neuroticism and state negative affect. We tested these hypotheses in 2 experience sampling methodology studies that each spanned 2 weeks. Multilevel modeling analyses showed support for each of the bivariate links in our model, and multilevel path analyses supported our mediation hypotheses. We discuss implications for understanding the relations between personality states and affective states, control theories of self-regulation, and goal striving.

Processes of Personality Development in Adulthood: The TESSERA Framework

The current article presents a theoretical framework of the short- and long-term processes underlying personality development throughout adulthood. The newly developed TESSERA framework posits that long-term personality development occurs due to repeated short-term, situational processes. These short-term processes can be generalized as recursive sequence of Triggering situations, Expectancy, States/State expressions, and Reactions (TESSERA). Reflective and associative processes on TESSERA sequences can lead to personality development (i.e., continuity and lasting changes in explicit and implicit personality characteristics and behavioral patterns). We illustrate how the TESSERA framework facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of normative and differential personality development at various ages during the life span. The TESSERA framework extends previous theories by explicitly linking short- and long-term processes of personality development, by addressing different manifestations of personality, and by being applicable to different personality characteristics, for example, behavioral traits, motivational orientations, or life narratives.

Directionality of Person–Situation Transactions

To elucidate temporal sequences among and between person and situation variables, this work examines cross-measurement spillovers between situation experiences S (on the Situational Eight DIAMONDS characteristics [Duty, Intellect, Adversity, Mating, pOsitivity, Negativity, Deception, Sociality]) and personality states P (on the Big Six HEXACO dimensions [Honesty/Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience]) in experience sampling data. Multi-level modeling of lagged data at tn-1 and non-lagged data at tn grants the opportunity to examine (a) the stability (P → P, S → S), (b) cross-sectional associations (S ↔ P), and (c) cross-lagged associations among and between situation experiences and personality states (S → P, P → S). Findings indicated that there were (a) moderate stability paths, (b) small to moderate cross-sectional paths, and (c) only very small cross-lagged paths (though the different situation characteristics and personality states showed differential tendencies toward no directionality, S → P or P → S unidirectionality, or bidirectionality). Findings are discussed in light of refining studies on dynamic person–situation transactions.

Reinvigorating the Concept of a Situation in Situational Judgment Tests

What is the role of the situation in situational judgment tests (SJTs)? Lievens and Motowidlo (2016) assert that SJTs are somewhat of a misnomer because they do not actually measure how individuals would behave in a given situation per se. According to these researchers, SJTs assess general domain knowledge—whether potential employees recognize the “utility of expressing certain traits” (p. 4). As a result, SJTs map onto personality measures, which are a summary of behavior across time and situations. SJTs provide predictive validity in part because they tap into personality. However, rather than renaming SJTs, it is possible to reintroduce the concept of a situation to provide even greater predictive power. Thus, the goals of this commentary are to (a) clarify what constitutes a situation, (b) describe what SJTs might actually measure, and (c) set forth a path for a taxonomy of workplace situations.

Situation Change: Stability and Change of Situation Variables between and within Persons

When, how, and why situations flow into one another is important for understanding dynamic personality processes, but the topic of situation change has traditionally been a thorny issue in personality/social psychology. We explore conceptual and methodological issues in research on situation change: (1) What is situation change, which variables could we measure, and how can situation change be methodologically captured and analyzed (at between- and within-person levels)? (2) Which person-situation transaction mechanisms (situation management strategies) could entail stability and change of situations in daily life? (3) How do single or repeated instances of situation change impact short-, middle-, and long-term outcomes (e.g., intra- and interpersonal adjustment)? Besides laying out a research program for situation change, we present preliminary data from participants who wore mini-video cameras recording their situations so that they could be rated later in the lab. We demonstrate rater consensus on when situations change, mean-level changes of situation characteristics across situations, similarity of situation characteristics across adjacent situations, and inter-individual differences in intra-individual situation change in change networks.

Situations in 140 Characters: Assessing Real-World Situations on Twitter

Over 20 million Tweets were used to study the psychological characteristics of real-world situations over the course of two weeks. Models for automatically and accurately scoring individual Tweets on the DIAMONDS dimensions of situations were developed. Stable daily and weekly fluctuations in the situations that people experience were identified. Predicted temporal trends were found, providing validation for this new method of situation assessment. On weekdays, Duty peaks in the midmorning and declines steadily thereafter while Sociality peeks in the evening. Negativity is highest during the workweek and lowest on the weekends. pOsitivity shows the opposite pattern. Additionally, gender and locational differences in the situations shared on Twitter are explored. Females share both more emotionally charged (pOsitive and Negative) situations, while no differences were found in the amount of Duty experienced by males and females. Differences in the situations shared from Rural and Urban areas were not found. Future applications of assessing situations using social media are discussed.