Whole Trait Theory

Developmental authenticity - underlying dynamics of inner work processes

An emerging body of research attends to grasp the concept of authenticity. Nonetheless, a view on the developmental part with its underlying facets of Inner Work processes, is rare. In this paper, we aim to take a deeper look into the dynamics of inner work processes, that define certain authenticity developmental stages. Building upon our recently proposed "4C-view" of authenticity, we approach this developmental perspective from two different angles: from a process characteristic angle and a developmental level angle. Using vignettes of authentic client personality coaching processes, we propose that the interwoven dynamic between those two aspects yields several combinations of maturity levels within the individual. Continuity as an overarching concept thus contains various developmental authenticity stages that could be identified through different markers and vary in particular contexts.

Human brain state dynamics reflect individual neuro-phenotypes

Neural activity and behavior vary within an individual (states) and between individuals (traits). However, the mapping of state-trait neural variation to behavior is not well understood. To address this gap, we quantify moment-to-moment changes in brain-wide co-activation patterns derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. In healthy young adults, we identify reproducible spatio-temporal features of co-activation patterns at the single subject level. We demonstrate that a joint analysis of state-trait neural variations and feature reduction reveal general motifs of individual differences, encompassing state-specific and general neural features that exhibit day-to-day variability. The principal neural variations co-vary with the principal variations of behavioral phenotypes, highlighting cognitive function, emotion regulation, alcohol and substance use. Person-specific probability of occupying a particular co-activation pattern is reproducible and associated with neural and behavioral features. This combined analysis of state-trait variations holds promise for developing reproducible neuroimaging markers of individual life functional outcome.

"I'm so dumb and worthless right now": factors associated with heightened momentary self-criticism in daily life

Self-criticism is a trait associated with increased psychopathology, but self-criticism is also a personality state reflecting an action that people do in moments of time. In the current study, we explored factors associated with heightened self-criticism in daily life. Participants (N = 197) received five random prompts per day for one week on their mobile phones, where they reported their current affect (negative and positive affect), willpower self-efficacy, distress intolerance, degree of support and criticism from others, current context (location, activity, hunger, tiredness) and momentary self-criticism. We first demonstrated that self-criticism varies over time and across contexts, and is associated with heightened trait self-criticism. Then, using multilevel modelling, we explored the contextual factors associated with greater self-criticism. We found that self-criticism was higher when people were at home, and more tired. We also found higher self-criticism to be associated with greater negative and lower positive affect, greater distress intolerance, lower willpower and greater perceived criticism from others. In addition, self-criticism predicted subsequent distress intolerance, willpower and positive affect in lagged analyses. This study provides evidence that both environmental and psychological factors are associated with the dynamics of self-critical thoughts.

Self-other agreement and criterion-related validity of moral pride and hubris

OBJECTIVES

This research investigates the moral implications of trait-level moral pride and hubris, addressing prior limitations by gathering data from multiple sources. We raise two interrelated questions: (1) Do well-acquainted peers agree with their friends on judgments of trait-level moral pride and hubris? (2) Are moral pride and hubris related to divergent (im)moral outcomes, regardless of measurement sources?

METHOD

We collected data from a sample of university students and their friends (N = 173 dyads) in Hong Kong to examine self-other agreement and criterion-related validity of trait-level moral pride and hubris.

RESULTS

Our findings reveal a medium-to-large level of self-other agreement for, as well as a moral divergence of, trait-level moral pride and hubris. Notably, self-reports of moral pride predict prosocial behavior, whereas self-reports of moral hubris predict virtue-signaling behavior, regardless of whether the outcomes are self- or other-reported. Moreover, self-reports trump other-reports in predicting some outcomes, but the reverse is true for other outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that individuals' proneness to experience morally specific pride and hubris constitutes "real" traits, evoking divergent (im)moral outcomes. Furthermore, self- and other-reports each contain some unique trait-relevant information, with their relative predictive power depending on the specific predictor and outcome.

The Effects of Questionnaire Length on the Relative Impact of Response Styles in Ambulatory Assessment

Ambulatory assessment (AA) is becoming an increasingly popular research method in the fields of psychology and life science. Nevertheless, knowledge about the effects that design choices, such as questionnaire length (i.e., number of items per questionnaire), have on AA data quality is still surprisingly restricted. Additionally, response styles (RS), which threaten data quality, have hardly been analyzed in the context of AA. The aim of the current research was to experimentally manipulate questionnaire length and investigate the association between questionnaire length and RS in an AA study. We expected that the group with the longer (82-item) questionnaire would show greater reliance on RS relative to the substantive traits than the group with the shorter (33-item) questionnaire. Students (n = 284) received questionnaires three times a day for 14 days. We used a multigroup two-dimensional item response tree model in a multilevel structural equation modeling framework to estimate midpoint and extreme RS in our AA study. We found that the long questionnaire group showed a greater reliance on RS relative to trait-based processes than the short questionnaire group. Although further validation of our findings is necessary, we hope that researchers consider our findings when planning an AA study in the future.

Character strength traits, states, and emotional well-being: A daily diary study

OBJECTIVE

Does whole trait theory work for character strengths? This study examines the daily within- and between-person variability of the manifestations of positively valued lower-order personality characteristics, namely character strengths, their convergence with trait character strengths, and their relationships to daily measures of affect.

BACKGROUND

Manifestations of personality traits vary both between- and within people. So far, research has focused on between-person differences in character strengths, while within-person differences have been neglected.

METHODS

German-speaking participants (N = 199, 84.3% women; mean age = 26.0 years) participated in a two-week daily diary study. They completed a baseline measure of character strength traits and daily measures of character strength states and positive and negative affect.

RESULTS

Results suggested that character strength traits converged well with aggregated states. Further, we observed high within-person variability in most character strengths. The trait-state convergence and the amount of within-person variability were predicted by whether the character strengths were rather phasic (i.e., more dependent on situational characteristics) or rather tonic (i.e., less dependent on situational characteristics). Higher within-person variability in character strengths was related to trait levels of perspective, honesty, social intelligence, and fairness. Regarding relationships between character strengths and affect, within-person associations were widely parallel to previously reported between-person associations and largely independent of trait levels of character strengths.

CONCLUSION

These findings inform research on whole trait theory and character-strengths-based interventions.

Measuring the variability of personality traits with interval responses: Psychometric properties of the dual-range slider response format : Measuring variability with interval responses

Measuring the variability in persons' behaviors and experiences using ecological momentary assessment is time-consuming and costly. We investigate whether interval responses provided through a dual-range slider (DRS) response format can be used as a simple and efficient alternative: Respondents indicate variability in their behavior in a retrospective rating by choosing a lower and an upper bound on a continuous, bounded scale. We investigate the psychometric properties of this response format as a prerequisite for further validation. First, we assess the test-retest reliability of factor-score estimates for the width of DRS intervals. Second, we test whether factor-score estimates of the visual analog scale (VAS) and the location of DRS intervals show convergent validity. Third, we investigate whether factor-score estimates for the DRS are uncorrelated between different personality scales. We present a longitudinal multitrait-multimethod study using two personality scales (Extraversion, Conscientiousness) and two response formats (VAS, DRS) at two measurement occasions (6-8 weeks apart) for which we estimate factor-score correlations in a joint item response theory model. The test-retest reliability of the width of DRS intervals was high (ρ ^ ≥ . 73 ). Also, convergent validity between location scores of VAS and DRS was high (ρ ^ ≥ . 88 ). Conversely, discriminant validity of the width of DRS intervals between Extraversion and Conscientiousness was poor (ρ ^ ≥ . 94 ). In conclusion, the DRS seems to be a reliable response format that could be used to measure the central tendency of a trait equivalently to the VAS. However, it might not be well suited for measuring intra-individual variability in personality traits.

Main Biological Models of Resilience

Objective

Resilience is a complex process of adaptation to new conditions that would permit a positive outcome after adversities, traumas or other sources of stress. However, despite the growing interest in this topic, there is no universally accepted definition and no comprehensive bio-behavioural model. This systematic review aims to provide an overview of the main biological models that have been theorized to date, with a focus on new alternative theories to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development and strengthening of resilience, with potential implications for the prevention of some psychopathological disorders.

Method

This review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines and includes 185 studies published in English in PubMed and Embase up to December 2023.

Results

Most studies use the stress-related model, which conceptualizes resilience as the absence of symptoms after the stressful event and mainly deal with the differences between stress-prone and resilient phenotypes in animals exposed to stress. However, the results of this search seem to suggest that resilience might be an independent construct with biological bases rooted in the stress system and the social brain, and widely sculptured by individual and environmental factors, especially early life events and affiliation.

Conclusions

This work contributes to ongoing efforts to understand the intricate mechanisms of resilience, while highlighting the potential of improving social relationships since our birth to promote coping strategies towards stress and traumas, and even a peaceful world.

Schoolwork effort and emotions predict self-control in a weekly diary study

OBJECTIVE

Self-control supports many positive life outcomes. However, the processes underlying the development of self-control are not well understood. Drawing on the TESSERA model of personality development, we examined whether weekly schoolwork effort predicts self-control (in the subsequent week). We also examined the role of schoolwork emotions and whether these emotions moderated the impact of schoolwork effort on self-control based on predictions from the TESSERA model.

METHODS

Data are from a weekly diary study (N = 98) that measured children's schoolwork effort, schoolwork emotions, and self-control during five consecutive weeks. Data were analyzed at the between- and within-person levels using multilevel models.

RESULTS

Between-person results show that schoolwork effort is related to variations in children's self-control. Furthermore, some emotions moderated the influence of schoolwork effort on self-control at the between- and within-person levels.

CONCLUSION

In line with the TESSERA model of personality development, positive state expressions of effort during schoolwork (e.g., putting in effort) predicted higher self-control in the subsequent week. However, this finding was dependent on the reactions and reinforcement children felt about their effort (e.g., emotional responses to their remote schoolwork). The discussion examines how these findings extend to previous literature.

Development and Validation of the Trait Sexual Motivation Scale (TSMS)

Sexual motivation, the interest in sexual activity, affects people's thinking, feeling, and behavior. Common scales used to assess sexual motivation suffer from drawbacks that limit their validity and applicability. We therefore developed and validated the Trait Sexual Motivation Scale (TSMS), a brief, theory-driven self-report scale, over the course of four preregistered studies (Ntotal = 2,083). Results indicated good model fit, high internal consistency and stability of the second-order (i.e., trait sexual motivation) and first-order (i.e., cognition, affect, behavior) factor scores, and scalar measurement invariance for gender and relationship status. The TSMS correlated as expected with sexual and non-sexual constructs and predicted sexual outcomes cross-sectionally and prospectively in everyday life. Overall, the TSMS emerged as an economical, reliable, and valid measure of sexual motivation.

Opinion: Which animals have personality?

Human personality generally refers to coherent individuating patterns in affect, behavior, and cognition. We can only observe and measure behavior, from which we then infer personality and other psychological processes (affect, cognition, etc.). We emphasize that the study of personality always explains or summarizes patterns not only in behavior but also in these other psychological processes inferred from behavior. We thus argue that personality should be attributed only to nonhuman animals with behaviors from which we can infer a sufficiently rich set of psychological processes. The mere inference of a biological trait that explains behavioral variability, on our view, is not sufficient to count as a personality construct and should be given a different term. Methodologically, inferring personality in nonhuman animals entails challenges in characterizing ecologically valid behaviors, doing so across rich and varied environments, and collecting enough data. We suggest that studies should gradually accumulate such corpora of data on a species through well-curated shared databases. A mixture of approaches should include both top-down fit with extant human personality theories (such as the Big Five) as well as bottom-up discovery of species-specific personality dimensions. Adopting the above framework will help us to build a comparative psychology and will provide the most informative models also for understanding human personality, its evolution, and its disorders.

Examining the impact of major life events on the frequency and experience of daily social events

OBJECTIVE

Life events can impact people's dispositional functioning by changing their state-level patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. One pathway through which this change may be facilitated is changes in the experience of daily social events.

METHOD

We examined the dynamic relationship between major life events and the subsequent experience of positive and negative daily social events in a year-long longitudinal study (initial N = 1247).

RESULTS

Experiencing positive and negative major life events moderated the effects of positive and negative social events on event-contingent state well-being and ill-being in ways that were mostly (but not always) consistent with both endowment and contrast effects on judgments of well-being. Furthermore, negative life events predicted an increase in the subsequent trajectory of negative social events, while the experience of daily ill-being predicted the subsequent experience of negative social events.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the possible impact of major life events by explaining how they shape the subsequent experience of daily social events.

Emotions under control? Better cognitive control is associated with reduced negative emotionality but increased negative emotional reactivity within individuals

Associations between impaired cognitive control and maladaptive emotion regulation have been extensively studied between individuals. However, it remains unclear if this relationship holds within individuals. In this study, we tested the assumption that momentary within-person fluctuation in cognitive control (working memory updating and response inhibition) is associated with emotional reactivity in everyday life. We conducted an experience sampling study (eight two-hourly prompts daily) where participants repeatedly performed short 2-back and Go/no-go tasks in daily life. We assessed negative and positive affective states, and unpleasantness of a recent event to capture emotional reactivity. We analyzed two overlapping samples: a Go/no-go and a 2-back dataset (N = 161/158). Our results showed that better momentary working memory updating was associated with decreased negative affect if the recent event was on average unpleasant for the given individual. However, better-than-average working memory updating in interaction with higher event-unpleasantness predicted higher negative affect levels (i.e., higher negative emotional reactivity). These findings may challenge the account of better cognitive control being universally related to adaptive emotion regulation. Although it is unlikely that emotional reactivity boosts working memory, future studies should establish the direction of causality.

Interest and Perseverance Are Not Enough to Be Physically Active: The Importance of Self-Efficacy toward Healthy Eating and Healthy Weight to Move More in Adolescents

(1) Background: Insufficient physical activity in adolescents remains an important issue for health promotion. Given the current relevance of understanding the adoption and maintenance of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the aim of this study was to analyze, in a sample of adolescents, the role of grit personality as an antecedent of healthy eating and healthy weight (HEW) self-efficacy and its implications for the practice of MVPA. (2) Methods: Participants were 987 adolescents (597 girls, 390 boys) aged between 15 and 19 years from Mexico and Spain. The Spanish versions of the grit personality scale, the healthy eating and weight self-efficacy scale and the global physical activity questionnaire were used to measure the variables of interest. (3) Results: Mediated regression analysis showed that grit personality was not directly related to MVPA practice. However, the results indicate the significant relationship between grit personality and HEW self-efficacy, as well as the positive and significant relationship of this self-efficacy on MVPA practice. HEW self-efficacy totally mediated the relationship between grit personality and MVPA in both boys and girls. (4) Conclusions: These results suggest that having a grit personality (i.e., having interest and perseverance) is not enough for adolescents to be physically active, but that perceiving oneself as effective in having a healthy diet and healthy weight may be the key for adolescents to move more. At the intervention level, we suggest targeting an enhancement of young people's competence to eat healthily and regulate their weight as a strategy to enhance the performance of more MVPA, with a possible transfer between healthy behaviors (spill over).

Self as both target and judge: Who has an easier time knowing their own personality?

OBJECTIVE

The past two decades have established that people generally have insight into their personalities, but less is known about how and why self-knowledge might vary between individuals. Using the Realistic Accuracy Model as a framework, we investigate whether some people make better "targets" of self-perception by behaving more consistently in everyday life, and whether these differences have benefits for psychological adjustment.

METHOD

Using data from the Electronically Activated Recorder (n = 286), we indexed self-knowledge as the link between self-reports of personality and actual daily behavior measured over 1 week. We then tested if consistency in daily behavior as well as psychological adjustment predicted stronger self-knowledge.

RESULTS

We found that behaving more consistently in everyday life was associated with more accurate self-reports, but that psychological adjustment was not.

CONCLUSIONS

Analogous to interpersonal perception, self-knowledge of personality might be affected by "target-side" factors, like the quality of information provided through one's behavior. However, unlike being a good target of interpersonal perception, self-knowledge does not seem to be related to psychological adjustment.

Primary affective systems and personality: Disentangling the within-person reciprocal relationships

Personality traits and affective functioning have been closely linked. Empirical evidence suggests that the Five-Factor Model traits have been linked with Panskepp's six primary affective systems, as measured by the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales: SEEKING, PLAY, CARE (positive emotions) and FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER (negative emotions).

OBJECTIVE

The present work investigated the dynamic relations between primary affective systems and FFM personality.

METHOD

Drawing from a sample of 220 participants completing surveys on four consecutive days, we used the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to investigate the associations between primary affective systems and personality traits.

RESULTS

The following associations were identified: bidirectional associations between negative emotions and neuroticism, unidirectional associations from SEEKING to openness and from agreeableness to three primary affective systems. No significant associations were observed between extraversion and primary affective systems.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight the importance of disentangling the within-person effects when examining the relationship between primary affective systems and personality.

Does narcissus prefer to be alone? Narcissistic personality features and the preference for solitude

OBJECTIVE

To examine the associations that narcissistic personality traits had with the preference for solitude.

BACKGROUND

Preference for solitude may be impacted by various characteristics. Narcissism may be one such characteristic given its association with specific motivations for engagement with other individuals (e.g., status attainment).

METHOD

We examined whether the associations that narcissism had with the preference for solitude were moderated by perceived attainment of status or instability of status.

RESULTS

Across three studies (N = 627/479/675), extraverted narcissism had the expected aversion to solitude. Antagonistic narcissism and neurotic narcissism did not have consistent associations with the preference for solitude across these studies, nor did the perceived attainment of status consistently moderate the links between narcissistic personality features and the preference for solitude. However, perceived instability of status moderated the associations that extraverted narcissism and antagonistic narcissism had with the preference for solitude. More specifically, the more stable status was perceived to be, the greater the aversion to solitude for those high in extraverted narcissism and the greater the preference for solitude for those high in antagonistic narcissism.

CONCLUSIONS

This pattern of results suggests that the motivations underlying preferences for solitude differ depending on particular narcissistic traits that predict whether one is more concerned with maintaining, gaining, or losing status. These results build upon what is known about the connections that narcissism has with the preference for solitude.

Extraverts Reap Greater Social Rewards From Passion Because They Express Passion More Frequently and More Diversely

Passion is stereotypically expressed through animated facial expressions, energetic body movements, varied tone, and pitch-and met with interpersonal benefits. However, these capture only a subset of passion expressions that are more common for extraverts. Indeed, in an initial dyadic study of supervisors and their subordinates (N = 330), extraverts expressed their passion more strongly through these stereotypical expressions of passion, and observers perceived extraverts as more passionate than introverts. Across three studies (Ntotal = 1,373), we subsequently developed a more comprehensive passion expressions and behaviors scale (PEBS). Using this measure in a daily diary study (N = 206, k = 1,862), we found that extraverts not only expressed their passion in more stereotypical ways, but through a broader variety of expressions in general. Extraverts are perceived as more passionate because they have a broader behavioral repertoire, express their passion more frequently and diversely, and thereby attain greater interpersonal rewards.

Spillover and crossover from work overload to spouse-rated work-to-family conflict: The moderating role of cross-role trait consistency

While most previous research in social psychology shows benefits of individuals' consistency in personality across different social roles, the current study brings the concept of cross-role trait consistency to the context of management and examines its dark side. Data from 197 couples showed that an employee's work overload was positively associated with his/her spouse's perception of how much the employee's work interfered with family life. This relationship was mediated by the employee's job burnout. More importantly, this mediating relationship was moderated by the employee's cross-role trait consistency. These findings indicate that work overload may affect spouses' perception of employees' work-to-family conflict through job burnout, with the transmission of burnout on work-to-family conflict stronger among employees high in cross-role trait consistency. Thus, cross-role trait consistency appears to strengthen negative spillover and crossover from work to family. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of strain on boundary management: findings from a daily diary study and an experimental vignette study

Introduction

Transformations in the work-nonwork interface highlight the importance of effectively managing the boundaries between life domains. However, do the ways individuals manage the boundaries between work and nonwork life change from one day to the next? If so, which antecedents may explain these intra-individual fluctuations in boundary management? Drawing on boundary management, spillover, and resource theories, we investigate daily changes in segmentation preferences and integration enactments as a function of experiencing strain in work and nonwork life. Assuming that changes in segmentation preferences reflect an individual's strategy to regulate negative cross-role spillover, we suppose that strain increases individuals' segmentation preferences; at the same time, however, it could force individuals to enact more integration.

Methods

We test our assumptions with data from two studies with different methodological approaches. The first study uses a daily diary research design (Study 1, 425 participants with 3,238 daily observations) in which full-time professionals rated strain in work and nonwork life, segmentation preferences, and integration enactments every evening for 10 workdays. The second study uses an experimental vignette research design (Study 2, 181 participants), where we experimentally manipulated strain in work and nonwork life and investigated causal effects on participants' hypothetical segmentation preferences.

Results

The results of multilevel modeling analyses in Study 1 show that segmentation preferences and integration enactments fluctuate from day to day as a function of strain. More specifically, strain is related to preferring more segmentation but enacting more integration. Study 2 replicates the results of Study 1, showing that strain causally affects segmentation preferences.

Discussion

This two-study paper is one of the first to address daily fluctuations in segmentation preferences and integration enactments, extending our knowledge of temporal dynamics in boundary management. Furthermore, it demonstrates that strain is an antecedent of these daily fluctuations, offering starting points for practical interventions.

State Emotional Clarity Is an Indicator of Fluid Emotional Intelligence Ability

Emotional clarity is one facet of emotional intelligence that refers to one's meta-understanding of and ability to identify and describe feelings. The existing research has largely focused on trait emotional clarity and its benefits for greater psychological well-being, more successful emotion regulation/coping, and diminished psychopathology. Researchers have begun to examine state or momentary emotional clarity in daily life. In this paper, we situate emotional clarity within the larger literature on emotional intelligence abilities. Then, we argue that state clarity relies on the ability to incorporate information from the dynamic contexts that emotions unfold in and should more closely reflect one's emotional intelligence ability relative to traditional trait measures. In addition, we review and make recommendations for measuring state emotional clarity in daily life and propose future research directions, focusing on how state emotional clarity could inform the study of emotion regulation, decision making, and goal pursuit in daily life.

Daily agreeableness and acculturation processes in ethnic/racial minority freshmen: The role of inter-ethnic contact and perceived discrimination

OBJECTIVES

Having higher levels of mainstream cultural orientation (MCO), an important component of acculturation attitudes and behaviors, is beneficial for ethnic/racial minority students during the transitions into university. Scant research has investigated MCO at a micro daily timescale. This study examined how personality (agreeableness) functions in conjunction with interpersonal processes (inter-ethnic contact and perceived discrimination) to influence MCO as daily within-person processes.

METHODS

Multi-level structural equation modeling were used to analyze month-long daily diary data from 209 ethnic/racial minority freshmen (69% female).

RESULTS

There was a positive indirect association between agreeableness and MCO through inter-ethnic contact at both within- and between-person levels. At the within-person level, on days with lower (vs. higher) levels of ethnic/racial discrimination, higher levels of agreeableness were associated with higher levels of MCO.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the contributions of intensive longitudinal data in elucidating ethnic/racial minority students' personality and acculturation processes in daily life involving protective and risk factors on micro timescales.

Development of a measure of aggressive behavior expectancies in adults: The Aggression Expectancy Questionnaire

According to sociocognitive theories, aggression is learned and elicited through a series of cognitive processes, such as expectancies, or the various consequences that an individual considers more or less likely following aggressive behavior. The current manuscript describes a measurement development project that ultimately yielded a 16-item measure of positive and negative aggression expectancies suitable for use in adult populations. Across two content generation surveys, two preliminary item refinement studies, and three full studies, we took an iterative approach and administered large item pools to several samples and refined item content through a combination of empirical (i.e., factor loadings, model fit) and conceptual (i.e., content breadth, non-redundancy) considerations. The Aggression Expectancy Questionnaire displays a four-factor structure, as well as evidence of convergent and divergent validity with self-reported aggression and relevant basic (e.g., antagonism, anger) and complex (e.g., psychopathy) personality variables. It is posited that this type of cognitive mechanism may serve as an intermediary link between distal characterological predictors of aggression and its proximal manifestation, which is in line with several prominent theories of personality and may ultimately hold clinical utility by providing a framework for aggression interventions.

The Dirichlet Dual Response Model: An Item Response Model for Continuous Bounded Interval Responses

Standard response formats such as rating or visual analogue scales require respondents to condense distributions of latent states or behaviors into a single value. Whereas this is suitable to measure central tendency, it neglects the variance of distributions. As a remedy, variability may be measured using interval-response formats, more specifically the dual-range slider (RS2). Given the lack of an appropriate item response model for the RS2, we develop the Dirichlet dual response model (DDRM), an extension of the beta response model (BRM; Noel & Dauvier in Appl Psychol Meas, 31:47-73, 2007). We evaluate the DDRM's performance by assessing parameter recovery in a simulation study. Results indicate overall good parameter recovery, although parameters concerning interval width (which reflect variability in behavior or states) perform worse than parameters concerning central tendency. We also test the model empirically by jointly fitting the BRM and the DDRM to single-range slider (RS1) and RS2 responses for two Extraversion scales. While the DDRM has an acceptable fit, it shows some misfit regarding the RS2 interval widths. Nonetheless, the model indicates substantial differences between respondents concerning variability in behavior. High correlations between person parameters of the BRM and DDRM suggest convergent validity between the RS1 and the RS2 interval location. Both the simulation and the empirical study demonstrate that the latent parameter space of the DDRM addresses an important issue of the RS2 response format, namely, the scale-inherent interdependence of interval location and interval width (i.e., intervals at the boundaries are necessarily smaller).

Personality Science in the Digital Age: The Promises and Challenges of Psychological Targeting for Personalized Behavior-Change Interventions at Scale

With the rapidly growing availability of scalable psychological assessments, personality science holds great promise for the scientific study and applied use of customized behavior-change interventions. To facilitate this development, we propose a classification system that divides psychological targeting into two approaches that differ in the process by which interventions are designed: audience-to-content matching or content-to-audience matching. This system is both integrative and generative: It allows us to (a) integrate existing research on personalized interventions from different psychological subdisciplines (e.g., political, educational, organizational, consumer, and clinical and health psychology) and to (b) articulate open questions that generate promising new avenues for future research. Our objective is to infuse personality science into intervention research and encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations within and outside of psychology. To ensure the development of personality-customized interventions aligns with the broader interests of individuals (and society at large), we also address important ethical considerations for the use of psychological targeting (e.g., privacy, self-determination, and equity) and offer concrete guidelines for researchers and practitioners.

Is the concept of personality capacious enough to incorporate virtues?

We will consider four answers to the question about whether the concept of personality is capacious enough to incorporate virtues. The simplest is that the concept of personality encompasses all individual variations in persons. It follows from this answer that virtues would, as individual differences, be incorporated into personality. Unfortunately, definitions of personality do not always invoke such capaciousness, and, in practice, most scholars limit their work to the Big Five or HEXACO models, which do not incorporate virtues. The second answer is that the concept of personality incorporates all trait or dimension level variations across persons, with some exceptions, such as intelligence, attachment style, and psychopathy. Following this definition, virtues, as traits, would be incorporated into such a broad definition of personality. Unfortunately, the boundaries for inclusion and exclusion into personality are fuzzy in this case, and there is no extant definition of personality that solves this problem. The third answer is that personality traits and virtue traits are similar, but distinct concepts. This article presents conceptual and empirical arguments for this similarity in seeing traits as a higher order concept that includes the species of personality and the species of virtue. The fourth answer is that personality and virtue are unrelated. This answer is dismissed because there are many studies that indicate that they are correlated, and few advocate such a clear differentiation. The conclusion is that, pending conceptual and empirical results indicating otherwise, the genus-species relationship seems most fitting where traits are a genus, and personality and virtue are each a species within that genus.

Sexual Pleasure Matters - and How to Define and Assess It Too. A Conceptual Framework of Sexual Pleasure and the Sexual Response

Objective

Sexual pleasure is central to current understandings of sexual function, health, and wellbeing. In this article, we suggest that we lack a sufficiently specific, yet encompassing, definition of sexual pleasure and that we therefore lack comprehensive assessments of sexual pleasure. We introduce a definition of sexual pleasure and position it centrally in an adapted framework of the sexual response. In the framework, we include a taxonomy of rewards which can be retrieved from sex and thereby aim to capture the multifaceted nature of sexual pleasure.

Methods/Results

Through narrative review, we arrive at the definition, framework, and taxonomy by integrating theories of sexual motivation and response with the literature on sexual pleasure and basic rewards. We position this literature within theories of affect and personality which allows us to differentiate between the experience of and the tendency to experience sexual pleasure (i.e., state versus trait sexual pleasure). We discuss how this conceptualization of sexual pleasure could be reflected in self-report assessments to quantitatively assess sexual pleasure.

Conclusions

The framework may aid to understand the role of the diverse facets of sexual pleasure in sexual function, health, and wellbeing and contribute to giving sexual pleasure the center position it deserves in sex research and therapy.

The influence of personality on psychological safety, the presence of stress and chosen professional roles in the healthcare environment

Healthcare teams are expected to deliver high quality and safe clinical care, a goal facilitated by an environment of psychological safety. We hypothesised that an individual's personality would influence psychological safety, perceived stressors in the clinical environment and confer a suitability for different professional roles. Staff members were recruited from the Emergency or Critical Care Departments of one National Health Service Trust. Qualitative interviews explored participants' experiences of personality, incorporating quantitative surveys to evaluate psychological safety and perceived stressors. The 16 Primary Factor Assessment provided a quantitative measure of personality. Participants demonstrated midrange scores for most personality traits, highlighting an ability to adapt to changing environments and requirements. There was a signal that different personality traits predominated between the two professional groups, and that certain traits were significantly associated with higher psychological safety and certain perceived stressors. Personality was described as having a strong influence on teamwork, the working environment and leadership ability. Our analysis highlights that personality can influence team dynamics and the suitability of individuals for certain clinical roles. Understanding the heterogeneity of personalities of team members and their likely responses to challenge may help leaders to support staff in times of challenge and improve team cohesiveness.

Within-Individual Variation in Cognitive Performance Is Not Noise: Why and How Cognitive Assessments Should Examine Within-Person Performance

Despite evidence that it exists, short-term within-individual variability in cognitive performance has largely been ignored as a meaningful component of human cognitive ability. In this article, we build a case for why this within-individual variability should not be viewed as mere measurement error and why it should be construed as a meaningful component of an individual's cognitive abilities. We argue that in a demanding and rapidly changing modern world, between-individual analysis of single-occasion cognitive test scores does not account for the full range of within-individual cognitive performance variation that is implicated in successful typical cognitive performance. We propose that short-term repeated-measures paradigms (e.g., the experience sampling method (ESM)) be used to develop a process account of why individuals with similar cognitive ability scores differ in their actual performance in typical environments. Finally, we outline considerations for researchers when adapting this paradigm for cognitive assessment and present some initial findings from two studies in our lab that piloted the use of ESM to assess within-individual cognitive performance variation.

Events-Affect-Personality: A Daily Diary Investigation of the Mediating Effects of Affect on the Events-Personality Relationship

Our 10-day diary investigation anchored in dynamic personality theories, such as Whole Trait Theory examined (a) whether within-person variability in two broad personality traits Extraversion and Neuroticism is consistently predicted by daily events, (b) whether positive and negative affect, respectively partly mediate this relationship and (c) the lagged relationships between events, and next day variations in affect and personality. Results revealed that personality exhibited significant within-person variability, that positive and negative affect partly mediate the relationship between events and personality, affect accounting for up to 60% of the effects of events on personality. Additionally, we identified that event-affect congruency was accountable for larger effects compared to event-affect non-congruency.

A closer look at the domain-specific associations of openness with language achievement: Evidence on the role of intrinsic value from two large-scale longitudinal studies

BACKGROUND

Many empirical investigations focus on how personality traits and academic motivation are related to academic achievement. Regarding the personality traits described in the five-factor model, prior research has shown associations between openness to experience and language achievement in particular. Following the principle of trait activation, associations with intrinsic value can explain these domain-specific relationships of openness with achievement.

AIMS

This study investigated whether intrinsic value mediates the associations of openness to experience with language achievement to understand these associations more closely. Based on the principle of trait activation, we combined openness to experience with intrinsic value as a motivational construct more proximal to behaviour.

SAMPLES

We capitalized on two large-scale longitudinal data sets (N = 1994; M = 16.8 years; 51% female; and N = 2722; M = 17.34 years; 58% female) of German-speaking students in upper secondary education with two points of measurement, respectively.

METHODS

We assessed achievement using report card grades and standardized test scores, capturing three language subskills: reading and listening, measured by standardized tests, and writing competencies, measured by essay assignments. We conducted mediation analysis using bootstrapped confidence intervals and robust standard errors to account for dependencies in the data due to students clustered within classrooms.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Overall, our results show that intrinsic value mediated the relationship between openness and achievement in English as a foreign language. The results remained stable when controlling for prior achievement, predicting achievement gains. Our investigation provides empirical insights into the manifestations of personality in academic contexts. We discuss the limitations of our approach, with a focus on the use of a mediation analysis in this research design.

The day-of-week (DOW) effect on liberalism-conservatism: Evidence from a large-scale online survey in China

Introduction

Past research has shown that psychological states tend to fluctuate across the days of a week, which is referred to as the day-of-week (DOW) effect. This study investigated the DOW effect on liberalism-conservatism among Chinese people by testing two competing hypotheses. According to the cognitive states hypothesis, it was predicted that liberalism would be high on Mondays but gradually decrease to Fridays due to the depletion of cognitive resources over the weekdays. In contrast, the affective states hypothesis predicted the opposite, considering the more positive affect brought by the approaching weekends. Both hypotheses predicted the level of liberalism would peak at weekends.

Methods

Data (n = 171,830) were collected via an online questionnaire, the Chinese Political Compass (CPC) survey, which includes 50 items to measure people' liberalism-conservatism in three domains (i.e., political, economic, and social).

Results

The results showed the level of liberalism decreased gradually from Mondays until Wednesdays, rebounded from Wednesdays to Fridays, and peaked at weekends.

Discussion

The V-shaped pattern suggested that the DOW fluctuation in liberalism-conservatism could derive from the synergy of both cognitive and affective processes, instead of either one alone. The findings have important implications for practice and policy-making, including the recent pilot scheme of 4-day workweek.

How Is Variety in Daily Life Related to the Expression of Personality States? An Ambulatory Assessment Study

People differ in the way they live their daily lives. For some people, daily life is characterized by multiple and diverse experiences, while others have more stability and routine in their lives. However, little is known about how variety in daily life relates to the expression of personality states. The present study examined within-person associations between variety in social partners, places, and activities with state expression. Data came from an ambulatory assessment study ( N = 962, Mage = 25.49) with four assessments per day over a period of six consecutive days. The results of the multilevel modeling analyses suggest that variety in daily life is associated with some, but not all, state expressions. For instance, on days when participants experienced a greater variety in activities, they reported being less neurotic and conscientious, but also more agreeable. In addition, the links between all social partners, places, and activities with the expression of the state were examined simultaneously to obtain more detailed information on the multifaceted nature of situation-state expression links. We conclude that variety in daily life has both theoretical and empirical relevance for the expression of personality states.

Do people agree on how they and others are acting? Examining the degree of target-observer and observer-observer agreement about current behavior as it changes across situations

The purpose of the present research was to test the level of agreement between targets and observers both at any given moment and as the targets' current behavior (assessed as personality states) change across moments. Ninety-seven target participants participated in 22 different activities across 20 1-hour long sessions in a laboratory setting while reporting their current behavior, and their behavior was evaluated by 183 observers (total of 3,493 target self-reports, 2,973 of which had a corresponding observer report from at least one observer). Target-observer and observer-observer agreement was significant for all personality states (and was substantial for extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience), and was observed in different situations, across all situations, and after accounting for normative agreement. The findings from this study-the first to examine within-person agreement on in-person behavioral states-provide evidence that people can accurately report their current behavior, that people agree on changes in behaviors across situations, and by extension that intensive assessment methodologies (such as experience-sampling methodology) have validity as assessments of momentary behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamics of personality: The Zurich model of motivation revived, extended, and applied to personality

Personality researchers are increasingly interested in the dynamics of personality, that is, the proximal causal mechanisms underlying personality and behavior. Here, we review the Zurich Model of Social Motivation concerning its potential to explain central aspects of personality. It is a cybernetic model that provides a nomothetic structure of the causal relationships among needs for security, arousal, and power, and uses them to explain an individual's approach-avoidance or "proximity-distance" behavior. We review core features of the model and extend them by adding features based on recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. We close by discussing the model considering contemporary issues in personality science such as the dynamics of personality, five-factor personality traits and states, and personality growth.

Individual differences in relational body image: Within-person variability predicts maladaptive trait body image

Findings have been mixed as to whether individual differences in within-person variability in body image predict maladaptive body image and eating behaviors. The current study aimed to resolve this ambiguity by addressing limitations of past research. First, we measured within-person variability in body image across the context-sensitive domain of relationships. Second, we incorporated the latest statistical methods to increase the robustness of the results. Online, 189 female-identified undergraduates completed seven baseline measures of trait body image. At least three days later, in-lab, participants were guided to generate a list of the most important people in their lives (i.e., friends, family members, close others) using egocentric network methods. Participants then completed a set of three relationship-specific measures in which they reported on their typical body image with 10 people from their list, one by one. Multiverse analysis tested the hypothesis that, across combinations of measures, within-person variability in relational body image would positively predict indicators of maladaptive body image. In 84 regression analyses, permutation testing supported our overall hypothesis (p = .006); however, results varied across different model specifications. Results provide further evidence for the predictive power of within-person variability in body image and yield valuable methodological and statistical recommendations.

Interplay between personality traits and learning strategies: the missing link

Students with varying personality traits are likely to employ diverse learning and study strategies. However, this relationship has never been explored in the medical education context. This study's aim was to explore the relationship between learning strategies and personality traits among medical students. This study was a cross-sectional study, and a quantitative approach was employed using two self-administered questionnaires: one to assess the personality traits from the Five-Factor Model (Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness), and the other to assess 10 learning strategies (Anxiety, Attitude, Concentration, Information Processing, Motivation, Selecting Main Ideas, Self-Testing, Test Strategies, Time Management, and Using Academic Resources). A stratified random sampling technique was used to recruit medical students at Alfaisal University in the preclinical and clinical years (N = 309). Pearson correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationship between variables, and linear regression was used to evaluate how personality traits predicted learning strategy selection. Personality traits predicted the selection of learning strategies, especially Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Conscientiousness showed a positive correlation with seven learning strategies and was the most important predictor of learning strategies students employ. Neuroticism correlations and predictions were negative. The other three traits showed weaker correlations. These correlations were between Extraversion and Using Academic Resources (r = 0.27), Information Processing (r = 0.23), and Attitude (r = 0.19); Openness and Information Processing (r = 0.29); and Agreeableness and Attitude (r = 0.29). All personality domains influence at least one learning strategy, especially Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. This study helps build a foundation for individualized coaching and mentorship in medical education.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study aspires to build a foundation for individualized coaching and mentorship in medical education through utilizing personality traits to empower academic success. We demonstrate that all personality domains influence students' selection of at least one learning strategy, especially Conscientiousness and Neuroticism.

Using passive sensor data to probe associations of social structure with changes in personality: A synthesis of network analysis and machine learning

Social network analysis (SNA) is an increasingly popular and effective tool for modeling psychological phenomena. Through application to the personality literature, social networks, in conjunction with passive, non-invasive sensing technologies, have begun to offer powerful insight into personality state variability. Resultant constructions of social networks can be utilized alongside machine learning-based frameworks to uniquely model personality states. Accordingly, this work leverages data from a previously published study to combine passively collected wearable sensor information on face-to-face, workplace social interactions with ecological momentary assessments of personality state. Data from 54 individuals across six weeks was used to explore the relative importance of 26 unique structural and nodal social network features in predicting individual changes in each of the Big Five (5F) personality states. Changes in personality state were operationalized by calculating the weekly root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) in 5F state scores measured daily via self-report. Using only SNA-derived features from wearable sensor data, boosted tree-based machine learning models explained, on average, approximately 28-30% of the variance in individual personality state change. Model introspection implicated egocentric features as the most influential predictors across 5F-specific models, with network efficiency, constraint, and effective size measures among the most important. Feature importance profiles for each 5F model partially echoed previous empirical findings. Results support future efforts focusing on egocentric components of SNA and suggest particular investment in exploring efficiency measures to model personality fluctuations within the workplace setting.

The Relationship Between Negative Affect, State Mindfulness, and the Role of Personality

Objectives

Are affective states influencing state mindfulness and can this explain the link between personality and mindfulness? Mindfulness is commonly thought to decrease negative affect, but a number of studies have reported reductions in mindfulness in negative affect situations. This highlights a potential mechanism explaining previously observed negative relationships between individual differences such as Neuroticism and mindfulness, via their shared relationship with negative affect.

Methods

In an experiment, 331 participants were exposed to a negative affect stimulus to investigate whether previously established relationships between Neuroticism, Behavioral Inhibition, and Mindfulness are due to differences in negative affect reactivity. It was expected that participants high on Neuroticism and Behavioral Inhibition to show greater negative affect reactivity which in turn would reduce their state Non-Judgmental Acceptance and Acting with Awareness.

Results

While change in negative affect was related to lower Non-Judgmental Acceptance and Acting with Awareness, negative affect reactivity did not mediate the relationship between Neuroticism/BIS and these state mindfulness facets. Importantly, only Non-Judgmental Acceptance and Acting with Awareness facets of mindfulness were affected by negative affect change, but not Attention. This indicates that greater negative affect might require allocation of cognitive resources to stress-related processes such as threat monitoring, reducing mindful emotion processing but not attention.

Conclusions

The current study found that situational mindfulness might be influenced by state affect highlighting the need to more strongly consider the environmental factors which can shape affect in mindfulness interventions.

Trial Registration

Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/kmyh2).

Stability and change in dispositional envy: Longitudinal evidence on envy as a stable trait

Dispositional envy has been conceptualized as an emotional trait that varies across comparison domains (e.g., attraction, competence, wealth). Despite its prevalence and potentially detrimental effects, little is known about stability and change in dispositional envy across time due to a lack of longitudinal data. The goal of the present research was to close this gap by investigating stability and developmental change in dispositional envy over time. In a preregistered longitudinal study across 6 years, we analyzed data from N = 1229 German participants ( n = 510–634 per wave) with a mean age of 47.0 years at intake ( SD = 12.4, range 18–88). Results from latent factor models revealed that both global and domain-specific dispositional envy were stable across 6 years in terms of their rank order and mean levels, with stability coefficients similar to those of other trait measures reported in literature. Moreover, a substantial amount of variance in global and domain-specific dispositional envy was accounted for by a stable trait factor. Results thus provide evidence for a stable disposition toward the experience of envy both at the global level and within specific envy domains. The present findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the stability and development of dispositional envy in adulthood and advance the understanding of emotional traits in general.

The nonlinear association between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: An individual data meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

Narcissism can manifest in grandiose and vulnerable patterns of experience and behavior. While largely unrelated in the general population, individuals with clinically relevant narcissism are thought to display both. Our previous studies showed that trait measures of grandiosity and vulnerability were unrelated at low-to-moderate levels of grandiose narcissism, but related at high levels.

METHOD

We replicate and extend these findings in a preregistered individual data meta-analysis ("mega-analysis") using data from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)/Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (HSNS; N = 10,519, k = 28) and the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory (FFNI; N = 7,738, k = 17).

RESULTS

There was strong evidence for the hypothesis in the FFNI (β_{Grandiose < 1 SD}  = .08, β_{Grandiose > 1 SD}  = .36, β_{Grandiose > 2 SD}  = .53), and weaker evidence in the NPI/HSNS (β_{Grandiose < 1 SD}  = .00, β_{Grandiose > 1 SD}  = .12, β_{Grandiose > 2 SD}  = .32). Nonlinearity increased with age but was invariant across other moderators. Higher vulnerability was predicted by elevated antagonistic and low agentic narcissism at subfactor level.

CONCLUSION

Narcissistic vulnerability increases at high levels of grandiosity. Interpreted along Whole Trait Theory, the effects are thought to reflect state changes echoing in trait measures and can help to link personality and clinical models.

Emotional Intelligence as a Personality State

Abstract. Contemporary research has begun to explore the notion that emotional intelligence (EI) has an important state component in addition to the trait component, as represented in the whole trait theory. This implies that state EI (or enacted EI) has similar cognitive, affective, and motivational contents as its corresponding trait. The question, however, of whether a trait EI construct means the same across the individual (trait) and state levels of analysis has not been empirically investigated. To address this gap, the present study examines the assessment of enacted EI, using the full version of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) on both between-person and within-person levels of analysis. Participants were 493 Greek employees who completed the WLEIS for 5 consecutive workdays. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that the original four-factor multilevel model appeared to best fit the data. Multilevel measurement invariance analysis supported the equivalence of the measure across different levels of analysis. In conclusion, the WLEIS is a configural cluster construct, believed to be a valuable and reliable tool for assessing enacted EI within the workplace. Implications for future research on enacted EI are discussed.