Development of the Hogan Personality Content Single-Items Inventory

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) and Hogan Developmental Survey (HDS) are among the most widely used and extensively well-validated personality inventories for organizational applications; however, they are rarely used in basic research. We describe the Hogan Personality Content Single-Items (HPCS) inventory, an inventory designed to measure the 74 content subscales of the HPI and HDS via a single-item each. We provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the HPCS, including item-level retest reliability estimates, both self-other agreement and other-other (or observer) agreement, convergent correlations with the corresponding scales from the full HPI/HDS instruments, and analyze how similarly the HPCS and full HPI/HDS instruments relate to other variables. We discuss situations where administering the HPCS may have certain advantages and disadvantages relative to the full HPI and HDS. We also discuss how the current findings contribute to an emerging picture of best practices for the development and use of inventories consisting of single-item scales.

Self- and informant-reported personality traits and vaccination against COVID-19

As COVID-19 vaccines' accessibility has grown, so has the role of personal choice in vaccination, and not everybody is willing to vaccinate. Exploring personality traits' associations with vaccination could highlight some person-level drivers of, and barriers to, vaccination. We used self- and informant-ratings of the Five-Factor Model domains and their subtraits (a) measured approximately at the time of vaccination with the 100 Nuances of Personality (100NP) item pool (N = 56,575) and (b) measured on average ten years before the pandemic with the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO-PI-3; N = 3,168). We tested individual domains' and either items' (in the 100NP sample) or facets' (in the NEO-PI-3 sample) associations with vaccination, as well as their collective ability to predict vaccination using elastic net models trained and tested in independent sample partitions. Although the NEO-PI-3 domains and facets did not predict vaccination ten years later, the domains correlated with vaccination in the 100NP sample, with vaccinated people scoring slightly higher on neuroticism and agreeableness and lower on openness, controlling for age, sex, and education. Collectively, the five domains predicted vaccination with an accuracy of r = .08. Associations were stronger at the item level. Vaccinated people were, on average, more science-minded, politically liberal, respectful of rules and authority, and anxious but less spiritual, religious, and self-assured. The 100NP items collectively predicted vaccination with r = .31 accuracy. We conclude that unvaccinated people may be a psychologically heterogeneous group and highlight some potential areas for action in vaccination campaigns.

Studying Socioeconomic Status: Conceptual Problems and an Alternative Path Forward

Socioeconomic status (SES; or social class) is considered an important determinant of psychological and life outcomes. Despite this importance, how to appropriately conceive of and measure it remains unsettled. In this article, I argue that SES is, under conventional conceptions of the construct, an unmeasurable construct and present an alternative strategy for studying socioeconomic conditions. I make this argument using several lines of analysis. First, a literature review of 20 years of psychological research on SES reveals that psychologists rarely define SES theoretically (79.6% of articles did not) but call a great number of operationalizations measures of SES (147 in total). Second, current recommendations for studying SES permit contradictory predictions, rendering the recommendations unsatisfactory. Third, the appropriate measurement model for SES inhibits accumulation of results across studies, which makes studying the construct practically impossible. To rectify these issues, I reconceptualize SES as a set of socioeconomic conditions and develop a measurement strategy for studying these conditions. I conclude by considering implications for ongoing research on socioeconomic conditions and for interpreting past research on SES.

Linking the Momentary Processing of Injustice to Intraindividual Change in Dispositional Victim Sensitivity

We investigated how the dispositional sensitivity to becoming the victim of injustice (victim sensitivity) is linked to the momentary processing of injustice and how such processes predict dispositional change. In two samples ( N = 149, N = 513), we combined four dispositional assessments across students’ first year at university, with intensive assessments given on a weekly (Study 1) or daily (Study 2) basis at the beginning of the first semester. We assessed how frequently injustice from a victim perspective was perceived and ruminated about (Studies 1 and 2), and how intensely anger was experienced in reaction (Study 2). These indicators of momentary processes were tested as correlates of baseline victim sensitivity and as predictors of dispositional change. The intensity of anger reactions predicted dispositional change in victim sensitivity after 4 months, but not earlier or later, and did not generalize to predict change in neuroticism. These findings are in line with recent theorizing about personality development, emphasizing the relevance of patterns of momentary processes for understanding dispositional change.

Negative internal working models as mechanisms that link mothers' and fathers' personality with their parenting: A short-term longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE

Research on associations between parents' personality and parenting has a long history, but mechanisms that explain them remain unsettled. We examined parents' explicit and implicit negative internal working models (IWMs) of the child, assessed at toddler age, as linking parental personality and parenting.

METHOD

Mothers and fathers from 200 community families provided personality self-reports (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Empathy, and Anger/Hostility) when their children were infants. When children were toddlers, the explicit negative IWMs included self-reported low-mentalizing reflective functioning and resentment regarding the child. The implicit negative IWMs were coded as negative relational schemas from parental interviews. Parental positive affect, responsiveness, and power-assertive control were observed in lengthy interactions. Measures were parallel for mother- and father-child dyads.

RESULTS

Mothers' implicit IWMs linked the association between low Empathy and more power-assertive control. Fathers' explicit IWMs linked the associations between high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness and lower responsiveness. Additionally, fathers' Agreeableness and Empathy directly predicted their parenting. Two paths (Agreeableness → implicit IWMs, and explicit IWMs → responsiveness) significantly differed between mothers and fathers.

CONCLUSIONS

IWMs may link parental personality with parenting. The findings integrate and inform several bodies of literature in personality, social cognition, and developmental psychology.

Age of Acquisition of Personality Terms: Implications for Personality Theory

Analysis of the age of acquisition (AoA) of personality terms represents a genetic method for the study of the individual personality lexicon and offers a potential alternative to correlational analysis for identifying the fundamental personality descriptors among the thousands of terms that appear in language. In the present study, the relationship between AoA, word frequency, word desirability, and factor loading in the Big Five and Hexaco models of 274 and 408 personality adjectives was analyzed. It was found that young children (2nd graders or younger) acquire personality terms that represent traits at the core of the broad personality factors in the Big Five and Hexaco models slightly earlier than words that represent more peripheral traits. In older children beyond second grade, the correlation between factor loading and AoA is weak. Words that describe the broad openness and stability/emotionality aspects of personality are learned later than words for the other broad factors. Word frequency (in book texts) and desirability have a weak negative correlation with AoA. It is hypothesized that the AoA of a personality term reflects the importance of the corresponding trait for children and may be used as one criterion for ranking facet level traits independent of the broad factors.

Personality Change Through Arts Education: A Review and Call for Further Research

Education involving active engagement in the arts, herein called arts education, is often believed to foster the development of desirable personality traits and skills in children and adolescents. Yet the impact of arts education on personality development has rarely been systematically investigated. In the current article, we reviewed the literature on personality change through arts education. We identified 36 suitable experimental and quasi-experimental studies. Evidence from these studies tentatively suggests that arts-education programs can foster personality traits such as extraversion and conscientiousness but not self-esteem. In addition, the effects of arts education appeared to be stronger in early and middle childhood than in preadolescence and early adolescence. However, the evidence for the effectiveness of arts education was very limited among the few included true experiments. Furthermore, the reviewed studies were heterogenous and subject to content-related, methodological, and statistical limitations. Thus, the current evidence base is inconclusive as to the effects of arts education on personality development. By identifying potential effects of arts education and limitations of past research, our review serves as a call for more research and guidepost for future studies on arts education and personality change.

The finer details? The predictability of life outcomes from Big Five domains, facets, and nuances

Associations between personality traits and life outcomes are usually studied using the Big Five domains and, occasionally, their facets. But recent research suggests these associations may be driven by the items (reflecting personality nuances) chosen to measure these traits. Using a large dataset (N = 6126), we examined associations with 53 self-reported outcomes using domains, facets and items (markers for nuances), training and validating models in different sample partitions. Facets better predicted outcomes than domains (on average, 18.0% versus 16.6% of variance explained), but items provided the most accurate predictions (on average 20.9%). Removing domain and facet variance from items had no effect on their predictive validity, suggesting that outcome-related information was often in items' unique variances (i.e., nuance-specific). Item-based prediction also showed the highest discriminant validity. These observations, replicating previous findings, suggest that personality traits' valid associations with outcomes are often driven by narrow personality nuances.

The Taboo Against Explicit Causal Inference in Nonexperimental Psychology

Causal inference is a central goal of research. However, most psychologists refrain from explicitly addressing causal research questions and avoid drawing causal inference on the basis of nonexperimental evidence. We argue that this taboo against causal inference in nonexperimental psychology impairs study design and data analysis, holds back cumulative research, leads to a disconnect between original findings and how they are interpreted in subsequent work, and limits the relevance of nonexperimental psychology for policymaking. At the same time, the taboo does not prevent researchers from interpreting findings as causal effects—the inference is simply made implicitly, and assumptions remain unarticulated. Thus, we recommend that nonexperimental psychologists begin to talk openly about causal assumptions and causal effects. Only then can researchers take advantage of recent methodological advances in causal reasoning and analysis and develop a solid understanding of the underlying causal mechanisms that can inform future research, theory, and policymakers.

Assessing the Structure of the Five Factor Model of Personality (IPIP-NEO-120) in the Public Domain

Assessment of individual differences in personality traits is arguably one of the hallmarks of psychological research. Testing the structural validity of trait measurements is paramount in this endeavor. In the current study, we investigated 30 facet traits in one of the accessible and comprehensive public-domain Five Factor Model (FFM) personality inventories, IPIP-NEO-120 (Johnson, 2014), using one of the largest US samples to date (N = 320,128). We present structural loadings for all trait facets organized into respective FFM-trait domain (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). Both hierarchical second-order and bi-factor models showed tolerable model fit indices, using confirmatory factor analysis in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Some facet traits were substantially more representative than others for their respective trait domain, which facilitate further discussions on FFM-construct content. We conclude that IPIP-NEO is sufficiently structurally robust for future use, for the benefit of research and practice in personality assessment.

Integrating Personality Structure, Personality Process, and Personality Development

In this target article, we argue that personality processes, personality structure, and personality development have to be understood and investigated in integrated ways in order to provide comprehensive responses to the key questions of personality psychology. The psychological processes and mechanisms that explain concrete behaviour in concrete situations should provide explanation for patterns of variation across situations and individuals, for development over time as well as for structures observed in intra–individual and inter–individual differences. Personality structures, defined as patterns of covariation in behaviour, including thoughts and feelings, are results of those processes in transaction with situational affordances and regularities. It cannot be presupposed that processes are organized in ways that directly correspond to the observed structure. Rather, it is an empirical question whether shared sets of processes are uniquely involved in shaping correlated behaviours, but not uncorrelated behaviours (what we term ‘correspondence’ throughout this paper), or whether more complex interactions of processes give rise to population–level patterns of covariation (termed ‘emergence’). The paper is organized in three parts, with part I providing the main arguments, part II reviewing some of the past approaches at (partial) integration, and part III outlining conclusions of how future personality psychology should progress towards complete integration. Working definitions for the central terms are provided in the appendix. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Understanding personality development

While personality is relatively stable over time, it is also subject to change across the entire lifespan. On a macro-analytical level, empirical research has identified patterns of normative and differential development that are affected by biological and environmental factors, specific life events, and social role investments. On a micro-analytical level, however, little is known about the underlying processes driving personality development. We provide an integrative state process model of personality development that incorporates and builds on previous process approaches to personality. It integrates this micro-analytical state perspective into the well-established macro-analytical understanding of personality trait development. Specifically, we distinguish three domains of individual differences in (the level of and contingencies between) state processes: (1) Goals and Strategies, (2) Actions and Experiences, and (3) Evaluations and Reflections. These process domains build a continuous sequence, with each domain guiding state processes in the next. Each process domain itself and their dependencies within the succession may be subject to change, thereby reflecting normative (in the case of shared development in state processes) and/or differential trait development (in the case of unique development in state processes). Well-established effects of environmental and biological structures, social roles, age, and life events on personality trait development can be explained by systematic links of these macro-level determinants to the outlined micro-level state processes. This integrative, process-based approach is thought to provide a conceptual basis for empirical research aiming at a comprehensive and fine-grained process understanding of personality development across the lifespan.