Understanding COVID-19-Related Behaviors, Worries, and Attitudes among Chinese: Roles of Personality and Severity

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people exhibited various forms of adjustments. This study examines how situational factors (i.e., the severity of COVID-19) and individual differences (i.e., the HEXACO traits) affect one's COVID-19-related responses regarding behaviors (i.e., mask-wearing and hoarding), worries (i.e., worrying about infecting and spreading COVID-19), and attitudes (i.e., discrimination and empathy toward people infecting COVID-19) in China. With a sample of 927 participants, our results show that the severity of COVID-19 was predictive of all the responses, and its predictive value was more pronounced relative to personality traits. Concerning the association between personality traits and responses, Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness were predictive of one's behaviors, Emotionality was predictive of one's worries, and almost all the HEXACO traits were associated with one's attitudes toward people infected with COVID-19. This study sheds some light on understanding how situations and individual differences shape one's responses in a time of emergency.

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.

Social Loneliness in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Predictive Factors and Associated Clinical Characteristics

BACKGROUND

Loneliness and social isolation are considered public health problems among older individuals. In addition, both increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia. The Social Loneliness construct has been proposed to refer to these harmful social interaction-related factors.

OBJECTIVE

To define the risk factors of Social Loneliness in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to analyze cognitive, emotional, and functional differences according to the participant's degree of Social Loneliness.

METHODS

Through convenience sampling, 105 participants over 60 diagnosed with MCI were selected. The evaluation consisted of anamnesis and a comprehensive neuropsychological examination. The ESTE-II questionnaire was used to assess Social Loneliness and its three factors: perceived social support, social participation, and use of communication technologies. Personality was measured with the NEO-FFI questionnaire.

RESULTS

The predictors of the Social Loneliness factors were as follows; 1) perceived social support (R2 = 0.33): Neuroticism (β= 0.353), depression (β= 0.205), and perceived health (β= 0.133); 2) social participation (R2 = 0.24): Conscientiousness (β= -0.344) and Extraversion (β= -0.263); 3) use of communication technologies (R2 = 0.44): age (β= 0.409), type of cohabitation (β= 0.331), cognitive reserve (β= -0.303), and Conscientiousness (β= -0.247); all p < 0.05. The participants with a higher degree of Social Loneliness showed more depressive symptoms (R2 = 0.133), more memory complaints (R2 = 0.086), worse perceived health (R2 = 0.147), lower attentional performance/processing speed (R2 = 0.094), and more naming difficulties (R2 = 0.132); all p < 0.05.

CONCLUSIONS

This research represents an advance in detecting individuals with MCI and an increased risk of developing Social Loneliness, which influences the configuration of the clinical profile of MCI.

Toward an Index of Adaptive Personality Regulation

The idea that matching personality expression with situational demands is adaptive is implicit in many accounts of personality. Numerous constructs and measures have been posited to address this or similar phenomena. Few have proven adequate. In response, we proposed and tested a novel measurement approach (the APR index) assessing real-time behavior to rate participants' success in matching personality expression with situational demands, which we denote adaptive personality regulation. An experimental study (N = 88) and an observational study of comedians (N = 203) provided tests of whether the APR index constituted a useful metric of adaptive personality regulation. In both studies, the APR index showed robust psychometric properties; was statistically unique from mean-level personality, self-monitoring, and the general factor of personality expression; and provided incremental concurrent prediction of task/job performance. The results suggest that the APR index provides a useful metric for studying the phenomenon of successfully matching personality expression to situational demands.

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.

Discovering trends of social interaction behavior over time: An introduction to relational event modeling : Trends of social interaction

Real-life social interactions occur in continuous time and are driven by complex mechanisms. Each interaction is not only affected by the characteristics of individuals or the environmental context but also by the history of interactions. The relational event framework provides a flexible approach to studying the mechanisms that drive how a sequence of social interactions evolves over time. This paper presents an introduction of this new statistical framework and two of its extensions for psychological researchers. The relational event framework is illustrated with an exemplary study on social interactions between freshmen students at the start of their new studies. We show how the framework can be used to study: (a) which predictors are important drivers of social interactions between freshmen students who start interacting at zero acquaintance; (b) how the effects of predictors change over time as acquaintance increases; and (c) the dynamics between the different settings in which students interact. Findings show that patterns of interaction developed early in the freshmen student network and remained relatively stable over time. Furthermore, clusters of interacting students formed quickly, and predominantly within a specific setting for interaction. Extraversion predicted rates of social interaction, and this effect was particularly pronounced on the weekends. These results illustrate how the relational event framework and its extensions can lead to new insights on social interactions and how they are affected both by the interacting individuals and the dynamic social environment.

Toward a dynamic approach of person perception at zero acquaintance: Applying recurrence quantification analysis to thin slices

Thin-slice methodology has provided us with abundant behavioral streams that self-reported measures would fail to capture, but traditional analytical paradigms in social and personality psychology cannot fully capture the temporal trajectories of person perception at zero acquaintance. At the same time, empirical investigations into how persons and situations jointly predict behavior enacted in situ are scarce, despite the importance of examining real-world behavior to understand any phenomenon of interest. To complement existing theoretical models and analyses, we propose the dynamic latent state-trait model blending dynamical systems theory and person perception. We present a data-driven case study using thin-slice methodology to demonstrate the model. This study provides direct empirical support for the proposed theoretical model on person perception at zero acquaintance highlighting the target, the perceiver, the situation, and time. The results of the study demonstrate that dynamical systems theory approaches can be leveraged to provide information about person perception at zero acquaintance above and beyond that of more traditional approaches. CLASSIFICATION CODE: 3040 (Social Perception & Cognition).

Interdependencies Between Family and Friends in Daily Life: Personality Differences and Associations with Affective Well-Being Across the Lifespan

Family and friends are central to human life and well-being. Yet, interdependencies between family and friends have scarcely been examined. How is the relative frequency of daily contact with family and friends (i.e., the friends/family-ratio) related to personality and to well-being? In an experience sampling study with 396 participants (M age= 40 years, range 14-88 years, 52% females), we studied how the friends/family-ratio in contact differed along Big Five personality trait scores and was connected to affective well-being across six daily measurements on nine days (average of 55 assessments). Most participants reported more daily contact with family than friends (i.e. they held a family orientation), but individual differences were substantial. More agreeable individuals reported a greater family orientation. More extraverted individuals reported more positive affect in the company of friends than with family. Age moderated the effect of the friends/family-ratio on positive affect. Younger adults reported less positive affect in the company of family, yet older adults reported more positive affect in the company of family, the more they were friendship oriented. We discuss how examining the friends/family-ratio extends previous knowledge on personality differences in social relationships, and how the friends/family-ratio yields promising, yet challenging, future directions in personality-relationship associations.

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.

How Effective Altruism Can Help Psychologists Maximize Their Impact

Although many psychologists are interested in making the world a better place through their work, they are often unable to have the impact that they would like. Here, we suggest that both individuals and psychology as a field can better improve human welfare by incorporating ideas from effective altruism, a growing movement whose members aim to do the most good by using science and reason to inform their efforts. In this article, we first briefly introduce effective altruism and review important principles that can be applied to how psychologists approach their work, such as the importance, tractability, and neglectedness framework. We then review how effective altruism can inform individual psychologists' choices. Finally, we close with a discussion of ideas for how psychology, as a field, can increase its positive impact. By applying insights from effective altruism to psychological science, we aim to integrate a new theoretical framework into psychological science, stimulate new areas of research, start a discussion on how psychology can maximize its impact, and inspire the psychology community to do the most good.

Decoding the Regulator: Accuracy and Bias in Emotion Regulation Judgments

Accurately judging emotion regulation (ER) may help facilitate and maintain social relationships. We investigated the accuracy and bias of ER judgments and their social correlates in a two-part study with 136 married couples (ages 23-85 years). Couples completed trait measures of their own and their partner's suppression, reappraisal, and situation selection. On a separate day, they discussed a conflict, then rated their own and their partner's suppression during the discussion. Couples accurately judged their partner's trait level use of all ER strategies, but they were most accurate for suppression. In contrast, they did not accurately judge state suppression; they showed a similarity bias, such that their own use of state suppression predicted judgments of their partner's suppression. Greater relationship satisfaction predicted positive biases at the trait level (e.g., overestimating reappraisal, underestimating suppression), but not the state level. Relationship length did not predict ER accuracy or bias. Findings suggest ER is more detectable at the trait level than state level and for strategies with more behavioral cues. Greater relationship satisfaction may signal positive perceptions of partners' ER patterns.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00144-3.

Personalized Prediction of Behaviors and Experiences: An Idiographic Person-Situation Test

A longstanding goal of psychology is to predict the things that people do and feel, but tools to accurately predict future behaviors and experiences remain elusive. In the present study, we used intensive longitudinal data (N = 104 college-age adults at a midwestern university; total assessments = 5,971) and three machine-learning approaches to investigate the degree to which three future behaviors and experiences-loneliness, procrastination, and studying-could be predicted from past psychological (i.e., personality and affective states), situational (i.e., objective situations and psychological situation cues), and time (i.e., trends, diurnal cycles, time of day, and day of the week) phenomena from an idiographic, person-specific perspective. Rather than pitting persons against situations, such an approach allows psychological phenomena, situations, and time to jointly predict future behaviors and experiences. We found (a) a striking degree of prediction accuracy across participants, (b) that a majority of participants' future behaviors are predicted by both person and situation features, and (c) that the most important features vary greatly across people.

Psychometric Evaluation of a Big Five Personality State Scale for Intensive Longitudinal Studies

Despite enthusiasm for using intensive longitudinal designs to measure day-to-day manifestations of personality underlying differences between people, the validity of personality state scales has yet to be established. In this study, we evaluated the psychometrics of 20-item and 10-item daily, Big Five personality state scales in three independent samples (N = 1,041). We used multilevel models to separately examine the validity of the scales for assessing personality variation at the between- and within-person levels. Results showed that a five-factor structure at both levels fits the data well, the scales had good convergent and discriminative associations with external variables, and personality states captured similar nomological nets as established global, self-report personality inventories. Limitations of the scales were identified (e.g., low reliability, low correlations with external criterion) that point to a need for more, systematic psychometric work. Our findings provide initial support for the use of personality state scales in intensive longitudinal designs to study between-person traits, within-person processes, and their interrelationship.

Modeling Dynamic Personality Theories in a Continuous-time Framework:An Illustration

Personality psychology has traditionally focused on stable between-person differences. Yet, recent theoretical developments and empirical insights have led to a new conceptualization of personality as a dynamic system (e.g., Cybernetic Big Five Theory). Such dynamic systems comprise several components that need to be conceptually distinguished and mapped to a statistical model for estimation. In the current work, we illustrate how common components from these new dynamic personality theories may be implemented in a continuous-time modeling framework. As an empirical example, we reanalyze experience sampling data from Sherman et al. (2015) with N = 180 persons (with on average T = 40 [SD = 8] measurement occasions) to investigate four different effects between momentary happiness, momentary extraverted behavior, and the perception of a situation as social: (1) between-person effects, (2) contemporaneous effects, (3) autoregressive effects, and (4) cross-lagged effects. We highlight that these four effects must not necessarily point in the same direction, which is in line with assumptions from dynamic personality theories.

Personality research in the 21st century: new developments and directions for the field

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to systematically examine and classify the multitude of personality traits that have emerged in the literature beyond the Big Five (Five Factor Model) since the turn of the 21st century. The authors argue that this represents a new phase of personality research that is characterized both by construct proliferation and a movement away from the Big Five and demonstrates how personality as a construct has substantially evolved in the 21st century.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a comprehensive, systematic review of personality research from 2000 to 2020 across 17 management and psychology journals. This search yielded 1,901 articles, of which 440 were relevant and subsequently coded for this review.

Findings

The review presented in this study uncovers 155 traits, beyond the Big Five, that have been explored, which the authors organize and analyze into 10 distinct categories. Each category comprises a definition, lists the included traits and highlights an exemplar construct. The authors also specify the significant research outcomes associated with each trait category.

Originality/value

This review categorizes the 155 personality traits that have emerged in the management and psychology literature that describe personality beyond the Big Five. Based on these findings, this study proposes new avenues for future research and offers insights into the future of the field as the concept of personality has shifted in the 21st century.

Predicting Actual Social Skill Expression from Personality and Skill Self-Concepts

Social skills are of key importance in everyday and work life. However, the way in which they are typically assessed via self-report questionnaires has one potential downside; self-reports assess individuals' global self-concepts, which do not necessarily reflect individuals' actual social behaviors. In this research, we aimed to investigate how self-concepts assessed via questionnaires relate to skill expression assessed via behavioral observations after short interpersonal simulations. For this, we used an alternative behavior-based skill assessment approach designed to capture expressions of predefined social skills. Self- and observer ratings were collected to assess three different social skills: agency (i.e., getting ahead in social situations), communion (i.e., getting along in social situations), and interpersonal resilience (i.e., staying calm in social situations). We explored how these skills were related to self-concepts by differentiating between a classic personality measure (i.e., Big Five Inventory 2; BFI-2) and a novel skill questionnaire (i.e., Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory; BESSI). The results (N = 137) showed that both personality and skill self-concepts predicted self-rated skill expression, with the BESSI showing incremental validity. For both personality and skills self-concepts, the relationships with observer-rated skill expression were significant for agency but not for communion or interpersonal resilience. We discuss these results and highlight the theoretical and practical importance of differentiating between skill self-concepts and actual skill expression.

Patterned person-situation fit in daily life: Examining magnitudes, stabilities, and correlates of trait-situation and state-situation fit

Person-situation fit can be operationalized as within-person associations between profiles of personality traits and situation characteristics ( trait-situation fit) as well as personality states and situation characteristics ( state-situation fit). We provide an initial examination of basic properties (magnitudes, individual differences, reliabilities, intercorrelations), short-term stability (across weeks), and nomological correlates of overall and distinctive profile-level person-situation fits. In a real-life, multi-method multi-occasion design ( N = 204–209), we obtained data on participants’ traits (self- and informant-reported) as well as, at four time-points from their everyday lives, on situation characteristics (self- and coder-reported) and states (self-reported). Profile scores ( q-correlations) were computed across 35 cognate items between the CAQ (traits), RSQ (situations), and RBQ (states). Our descriptive and exploratory findings indicated that trait-situation and state-situation fits were sizable (overall more so than distinctive forms), and that there were substantial individual differences, which were only modestly stable during a short period and had some plausible nomological correlates (i.e., lower depression and neuroticism, but higher psychological well-being and happiness) that were driven mainly by normativity. Most findings replicated across measurement sources (self- vs. other-reports). Person-situation fit concepts, once further corroborated, could further personality-psychological research.

Daily dynamics of grandiose narcissism: distribution, stability, and trait relations of admiration and rivalry states and state contingencies

On the basis of the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept and recent theories on narcissistic pursuit of status, we provide a differentiated analysis of individual differences in the within-person dynamics of grandiose narcissism. In two daily diary studies (Sample 1: 56 days; Sample 2: 82 days; total participants: N = 198; total observations: N = 12,404), we investigated the degree, stability, and trait correlates of individual differences in average narcissism-relevant states (perceived status success, perceived admiration and rejection, positive and negative affect, and assertive and hostile behavior) as well as individual differences in within-person contingencies between these states. The results indicated substantial and stable between-person differences in averaged states that were related to their corresponding narcissism trait self-reports. State contingencies showed substantial strength, significant interindividual differences, and stability across the 56 and 82 days, respectively. We only found weak support for associations between state contingencies and trait narcissism self-reports. These findings support a differentiated approach to the conceptualization and assessment of grandiose state narcissism and call for even more comprehensive and fine-grained investigations.

The role of interpersonal perceptions of social inclusion and personality in momentary self-esteem and self-esteem reactivity

Empirical research has demonstrated that self-esteem is significantly shaped by social interactions and perceptions of social inclusion; however, less is known about individual differences in the reactivity of momentary self-esteem to social inclusion. Zooming into social interactions, we used data from two adolescent samples (overall N > 200) in two different social settings (i.e., a standardized laboratory interaction vs. real-life interactions) to examine the associations between different interpersonal perceptions (i.e., self-, other-, and metaperceptions) of social inclusion and momentary self-esteem. Further, we investigated how these associations are shaped by an individual’s personality (i.e., neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness). Multilevel modeling revealed differential associations between interpersonal perceptions and momentary self-esteem, with perceptions formed by the individual (i.e., self- and metaperceptions) more consistently related to momentary self-esteem than perceptions of others. Personality did not emerge as a consistent moderator of these associations but displayed differential effects: Neuroticism dampened self-esteem reactivity in group interactions with unfamiliar interaction partners, but not in dyadic interactions with familiar others. In light of these findings, we discuss the role of the social context and the interaction partner for the dynamic interplay of interpersonal perceptions and the functionality of personality traits.

Does extraversion increase following a three-hour flirt training? Exploring two training routes

Flirting situations are opportunities to behave in extraverted ways. However, it is not clear whether engaging in flirting behavior predicts extraversion. The current study explored whether extraversion increases following a 3-h flirt training and compared two training routes to flirting. A two-arm randomized pre-post design with two active conditions were used. Ninety-six adults between 18 and 49 years (67.7% women) were randomized to either: (1) a problem-oriented training strategy that aims to compensate for problems and deficits related to flirting; or (2) a strengths-oriented training strategy that capitalizes on individuals' strengths and resources. The outcome variables were assessed before and 30 days after the training. Participants in both conditions reported higher scores in flirting behavior as well as in extraversion following the trainings. The results suggest that flirt trainings are potentially interesting indirect intervention approaches to increase the expression of extraversion.

What Does Your Voice Reveal About You?

Abstract. The first goal of the present study was to explore how 21 voice measures related to self-reported personality and communication styles. The second goal was to test the assertion of Trait Activation Theory (TAT) that traits are activated in relevant situations and that verbal behavior is the result of an interplay between individual differences and situations. The voice of 138 participants was measured in the lab via steady voice and continuous speech tasks, whereas personality and communication styles were self-reported using the HEXACO and Communication Styles Inventory. To test TAT, four scenarios were developed to activate the communication styles of Informality and Expressiveness. It was hypothesized that the activated communication styles will interact with relevant situations and will be expressed through changes in voice (i.e., pitch variation). Regarding the first goal, an explorative approach revealed that voice characteristics are informative mainly for the personality traits of Openness to Experience, Emotionality, and Conscientiousness and the communication styles of Emotionality and Questioningness. Regarding the second goal, the interactions between situations and communication styles provided mixed support for TAT. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

The subcomponents of affect scale (SAS): validating a widely used affect scale

OBJECTIVE

There is a need for a brief affect scale that also encompasses different components of affect relevant for researchers interested in physiological and health outcomes. The Subcomponents of Affect Scale (SAS) meets this need. This 18-item scale has nine positive and nine negative affect items encompassing six subscales (calm, well-being, vigour, depression, anxiety, anger). Previous research using the SAS has demonstrated its predictive validity, but no work has tested its subscale structure or longitudinal validity.

DESIGN

Data from the Common Cold Project in which individuals (N = 610) completed the SAS over the course of seven days were used.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the reliability of the subscale structure of the SAS across seven days (positive affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.98; negative affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.94 with day 6 CFI = 0.91) and tests of factorial invariance showed the scale is valid to use over time.

CONCLUSIONS

These results confirm the psychometric validity of the subscale structure of the SAS and imply that the subscales can be used longitudinally, allowing for its use in health research as well as non-health research that can benefit from its subscale structure and longitudinal capabilities.

Pathological personality, situations, and their joint influences on daily emotional symptoms

OBJECTIVE

The present research aims to advance current understanding on how individuals with pathological personality traits construe their day-to-day situational experiences.

METHOD

College students (N = 231) completed a measure of personality pathology, followed by six assessments of everyday situations and anxiety/depression symptoms over two weeks.

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses indicated that personality pathology was meaningfully associated with situational experiences. Major findings suggested that situations that entailed aggravations and interpersonal confrontations were associated with negative affectivity, antagonism, and psychoticism. Detached individuals were less likely to experience pleasant and social situations. Exploratory analyses suggested an amplification effect where individuals high on personality pathology were more anxious or depressed when they perceived certain situational features, compared to their low trait counterparts. However, such cross-level interactions constituted a small minority; most personality traits and situations exerted additive effects on symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Situational experiences appear to be driven in part by personality pathology. The exacerbation of daily negative symptoms can be attributed to the joint (largely additive) influence of the trigger situations and pathological personality traits.

The relational regulation of within-person variation in personality expression

There is renewed interest in how people express different levels of personality across situations or times (within-person variation). However, within-person studies typically do not focus on the specific relationship partners that are linked to the expression of personality. To remedy this, we applied relational regulation theory (RRT) to the study of within-person variation. RRT states that specific relationship partners are important social contexts for understanding within-person variation and describes how people regulate their affect, action and thought through interacting with or thinking about specific partners. In three studies of students (Ns = 136, 349, 110), participants rated their levels of six- or five-factor personality dimensions when with or thinking about different relationship partners. Personality expression was strongly consistent across partners. Yet, in each study, there were also strong effects whereby more extraversion, agreeableness and openness were expressed when with some partners but not others. In each study, when a recipient saw a relationship as supportive, the recipient expressed more extraversion, agreeableness, and openness. Effects for emotionality and conscientiousness were less consistent. Theoretical implications for RRT and within-person variation in personality were discussed.

Idiographic personality coherence: A quasi experimental longitudinal ESM study

Personality is a study of persons. However, persons exist within contexts, and personality coherence emerges from persons in contexts. But persons and environments bidirectionally influence each other, with persons selecting into and modifying their contexts, which also have lasting influences on personality. Thus, environmental change should produce changes in personality. Alternatively, environmental changes may produce few changes. This paradoxical viewpoint is based on the idea that novel environments have no predefined appropriate way to behave, which allows preexisting personality systems to stay coherent. We test these two perspectives by examining longitudinal consistency idiographic personality coherence using a quasi-experimental design (N = 50; total assessments = 5093). Personality coherence was assessed up to one year before the COVID-19 pandemic and again during lockdown. We also test antecedents and consequences of consistency, examining both what prospectively predicts consistency and what consistency prospectively predicts. Overall, consistency was modest but there were strong individual differences, indicating some people were quite consistent despite environmental upheaval. Moreover, there were relatively few antecedents and consequences of consistency, with the exception of some goals and domains of satisfaction predicting consistency, leaving open the question of why changes in coherence occur.

Personality dynamics at work: The effects of form, time, and context of variability

The study aimed to investigate the status of within-person state variability in neuroticism and conscientiousness as individual differences constructs by exploring their (a) temporal stability, (b) cross-context consistency, (c) empirical links to selected antecedents, and (d) empirical links to longer term trait variability. Employing a sample of professionals ( N = 346) from Australian organisations, personality state data together with situation appraisals were collected using experience sampling methodology in field and repeatedly in lab-like settings. Data on personality traits, cognitive ability, and motivational mindsets were collected at baseline and after two years. Contingent (situation contingencies) and non-contingent (relative SD) state variability indices were relatively stable over time and across contexts. Only a small number of predictive effects of state variability were observed, and these differed across contexts. Cognitive ability appeared to be associated with state variability under lab-like conditions. There was limited evidence of links between short-term state and long-term trait variability, except for a small effect for neuroticism. Some evidence of positive manifold was found for non-contingent variability. Systematic efforts are required to further elucidate the complex pattern of results regarding the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of individual differences in state variability.

Personality-informed intervention design: Examining how trait regulation can inform efforts to change behavior

Research that helps people change their behavior has the potential to improve the quality of lives, but it is too often approached in a way that divorces behavior from the people who need to enact it. In this paper, we propose a personality-informed approach to classifying behavior-change problems and designing interventions to address them. In particular, we argue that interventions will be most effective when they target the appropriate psychological process given the disposition of the participant and the desired duration of change. Considering these dimensions can help to reveal the differences among common types of behavior-change problems, and it can guide decisions about what kinds of intervention solutions will most effectively solve them. We review key concepts and findings from the personality literature that can help us understand the dynamic nature of dispositions and to identify the psychological processes that best explain both short-term variance in behavior and long-term development of personality. Drawing on this literature, we argue that different types of behavior-change problems require different forms of “trait regulation,” and we offer a series of propositions to be evaluated as potential guides for the design of intervention strategies to address them.

Distinguishing simple and residual consistencies in functionally equivalent and non-equivalent situations: Evidence from experimental and observational longitudinal data

The current work examines consistencies of personality state scores across functionally equivalent and non-equivalent situations. We argue that simple consistency, defined as the correlation between state scores without taking people’s straits into account, needs to be distinguished from residual consistency that does account for traits. The existence of residual consistency reflects systematic interindividual differences in how people respond to situations, above and beyond what is expected from their traits. We examine the level and individual differences in all of these forms of consistency. In four micro-longitudinal studies (total N = 671), participants first provided trait self-ratings and then state ratings, either in response to two situation vignettes presented at separate testing occasions (Studies 1 and 2) or during experience sampling in daily life (Studies 3 and 4). In all studies, simple consistency was substantial, and the level of residual consistency varied with the level of functional equivalence of the situations. Further, individual differences in both simple and residual consistencies were only weakly correlated, suggesting no underlying general factor but only trait-specific consistencies. We conclude that there are consistent individual differences in how people respond to equivalent situations, even when their personality trait scores have been taken into account.

Person-situation dynamics in educational contexts: A self- and other-rated experience sampling study of teachers’ states, traits, and situations

The situations people find themselves in and how they experience them is fundamental to a host of life and work outcomes. However, most research has so far only relied on self-reports and is thus not able to disentangle different situation components. The present study therefore examined the dynamics between self- and other-rated situation characteristics, personality traits, and personality states in an educational setting. One hundred and seventy-three student teachers ( n = 2244–2261 observations) and 94 supervisors ( n = 1110–1122 observations) participated in a 13- or 14-day experience sampling study during student teachers’ internships and rated situations and teachers’ personality states twice daily. Answering three research questions yielded that (1) self-rated traits were mostly not associated with self- or supervisor-rated situation characteristics; (2) self- and supervisor-rated situation characteristics predicted self- and supervisor-rated personality state expressions (although effects were largest for same-rater associations); and (3) there were no interaction effects of traits and situation characteristics on personality state expressions. These results have important theoretical and applied implications as they advance our understanding of person-situation dynamics in an applied setting and suggest that associations between situations and personality states are not solely attributable to common rater effects.

Predictors of oral health promotion behaviors among elementary school children: Examination of an extended social cognitive theory

BACKGROUND

Brushing teeth with fluoride-containing toothpaste and flossing are considered as effective solutions for preventing dental caries and periodontal diseases.

AIM

The aim of this study was to use the promoted social cognitive theory (SCT) to investigate factors influencing adherence to oral hygiene behaviors by elementary school children.

DESIGN

In this cross-sectional study, 988 elementary school children were chosen using the multistage cluster sampling method. Data were collected using the SCT scale, and its validity and reliability were confirmed. Theoretical models were examined using the structural equation modeling.

RESULTS

The SCT explained 50% of the variance in brushing with fluoridated toothpaste and 55.6% of the variance in flossing behaviors. The total effect of family environment (β = .60, P < .05), self-efficacy in overcoming impediments (β = .50, P < .05), and emotional coping (β = .40, P < .05) variables in the conceptual model had significantly influenced tooth brushing behavior. The total effect of self-efficacy (β = .79, P < .05), family environment (β = .41, P < .05), and situational perception (β = .35, P < .05) variables of the conceptual model significantly influenced the flossing behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The SCT, self-efficacy, and family environment were strongly associated with brushing and flossing behaviors. Therefore, supportive family environments should be considered as one of the top contributors to successful oral health promotion.

Selection effects on dishonest behavior

In many situations people behave ethically, while elsewhere dishonesty reigns. Studies of the determinants of unethical behavior often use random assignment of participants in various conditions to identify contextual or psychological factors influencing dishonesty. However, in many real-world contexts, people deliberately choose or avoid specific environments. In three experiments (total N = 2,124) enabling self-selection of participants in two similar tasks, one of which allowed for cheating, we found that participants who chose the task where they could lie for financial gain reported a higher number of correct predictions than those who were assigned it at random. Introduction of financial costs for entering the cheating-allowing task led to a decrease in interest in the task; however, it also led to more intense cheating. An intervention aimed to discourage participants from choosing the cheating-enabling environment based on social norm information did not have the expected effect; on the contrary, it backfired. In summary, the results suggest that people low in moral character are likely to eventually dominate cheating-enabling environments, where they then cheat extensively. Interventions trying to limit the preference of this environment may not have the expected effect as they could lead to the selection of the worst fraudsters.

The dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of personality: An overview of the field

Personality psychology has long focused on structural trait models, but it can also offer a rich understanding of the dynamics, processes, mechanisms, and functioning of individual differences or entire persons. The field of personality dynamics, which works towards such an understanding, has experienced a renaissance in the last two decades. This review article seeks to act as a primer of that field. It covers its historical roots, summarizes current research strands - along with their theoretical backbones and methodologies - in an accessible way, and sketches some considerations for the future. In doing so, we introduce relevant concepts, give an overview of different topics and phenomena subsumed under the broad umbrella term 'dynamics', and highlight the interdisciplinarity as well as applied relevance of the field. We hope this article can serve as a useful overview for scholars within and outside of personality psychology who are interested in the dynamic nature of human behaviour and experience.

How do personality traits manifest in daily life of older adults?

The present study examined how personality traits manifest in daily life of older adults and distinguished between the manifestations of experiences and behaviors. We used data from an ambulatory assessment study over 10 days with assessments of trait-related experiences and behaviors obtained from 136 older adults aged between 60 and 91 years (41.2% male; M = 70.45 years). Multilevel models revealed that on average, 61.2% of variance in trait-related experiences and 39.6% of variance in behaviors were due to consistent differences between persons. Older adults were rather variable and diverse in their trait manifestations, while they also showed relative stability in trait manifestations. Across older age, some age effects for trait manifestations were found. Moreover, within-person variation of experiences and behaviors showed, with one exception, joint fluctuations in daily life. The findings portray a nuanced picture of trait manifestations in older adulthood. The findings complement the literature on within-person variability in older adulthood and might encourage further studies from a within-person perspective to better understand how older adults navigate through daily life.

The situation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A snapshot in Germany

During government-implemented restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, people's everyday lives changed profoundly. However, there is to date little research chronicling how people perceived their changed everyday lives and which consequences this had. In a two-wave study, we examined the psychological characteristics of people's situations and their correlates during shutdown in a large German sample (NT1 = 1,353; NT2 = 446). First, we compared characteristics during government-issued restrictions with retrospective accounts from before and with a follow-up assessment 6 to 7 months later when many restrictions had been lifted. We found that mean levels were lower and variances were higher for most characteristics during the shutdown. Second, the experience of certain situation characteristics was associated in meaningful and theoretically expected ways with people's traits, appraisals of the COVID-19 crisis, and subjective well-being. Lastly, situation characteristics often substantially explained the associations of traits with appraisals and well-being. Our findings highlight the importance of considering perceived situations as these contribute to people's functioning during crises.

Hidden framings and hidden asymmetries in the measurement of personality--A combined lens-model and frame-of-reference perspective

OBJECTIVE

The symmetry principle and the frame-of-reference perspective have each made contributions to improving the measurement of personality. Although each perspective is valuable in its own right, we argue that even greater improvement can be achieved through the combination of both. Therefore, the goal of the current article was to show the value of a combined lens-model and frame-of-reference perspective.

METHOD

We conducted a literature review to summarize relevant research findings that shed light on the interplay of both perspectives and developed an integrative model.

RESULTS

Based on the literature review and on theoretical grounds, we argue that a basic premise of the frame-of-reference literature--that personality items are open to interpretation and allow individuals to impose their own contextual framings--should be considered from a symmetry perspective. Unintended context-specificity in items may "spread" to personality facets and domains, and thus, impact the symmetry of personality measures with other criteria. As the individuals´ frames-of-reference and (a)symmetric relationships are not always apparent, we term them as "hidden."

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed combination of lens-model and frame-of-reference perspectives provides further insights into current issues in personality research and uncovers important avenues for future research.

Other-Contingent Extraversion and Satisfaction

Abstract. We conceptualize other-contingent extraversion as an individual difference in the tendency to elevate one’s state extraversion when interacting with friendly others. Using experience sampling data from 75 college students, we assessed other-contingent extraversion to predict subjective well-being, and further examined whether implicit theory of personality would moderate such a prediction. Results indicate that, despite a general positive association between others’ friendliness and one’s state extraversion, individuals differed in the degree to which they manifested state extraversion in response to others’ friendliness, allowing us to model this individual difference as other-contingent extraversion. Other-contingent extraversion interacted with implicit theory to predict college satisfaction but not life satisfaction. Specifically, other-contingent extraversion had a more positive association with college satisfaction for respondents with a stronger incremental perspective (malleable view) of personality. Our study contributes to personality research by introducing other-contingent extraversion as a unit of personality.

Sometimes hot, sometimes not: the relations between selected situational vocational interests and situation perception

Vocational interests are traditionally conceived as stable preferences for different activities. However, recent theorizing suggests their intraindividual variability. This preregistered experience sampling study examined intraindividual variation in selected vocational interests states and related situation and person factors ( N = 237). Results indicate that the three interest dimensions Investigative, Artistic, and Social interests did vary intraindividually but less so than other phenomena’s dimensions (e.g., personality and happiness). At the within-person level, the focused interest states were related to specific situation characteristics, also after controlling for related personality dimensions and happiness. These relations were either specified a priori, based on the concept of congruence or person-environment fit, and tested in a strictly confirmatory manner, or identified using a more exploratory approach. Furthermore, aggregated states of the three selected interest dimensions mainly varied below their corresponding trait levels. This suggests that interest trait levels could represent an upper limit for aggregated interest states that could be due to method-related or construct-related reasons. The results demonstrate the situational character of interests and provide novel approaches for studying vocational interest in daily life.

Testing the social investment principle around childbirth: little evidence for personality maturation before and after becoming a parent

In line with the social investment principle, becoming a parent should lead to more mature behaviour and an increase in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability. However, previous research provided mixed results that do not support this idea. Here, we used data from a nationally representative household panel study from Germany ( N = 19875) to examine whether becoming a parent relates to personality maturation. Whether a child was born was assessed yearly, and the Big Five personality traits were measured in four waves from 2005 to 2017. We used multilevel analyses to investigate whether personality differs between individuals who will or will not become parents, whether personality differs before and after becoming a parent, and whether these effects vary by gender, age, and living status. In sum, our findings revealed that less open and more extraverted individuals were more likely to start a family, and openness and extraversion both decreased after the transition to parenthood. Some other effects varied by gender, age, and living status. Taken together, our findings suggest that the Big Five personality traits differ before and across the transition to parenthood and that these differences especially apply to openness and extraversion.

Personality Assessment Through the Situational and Behavioral Features of Instagram Photos

Abstract. This study explores whether photos posted on online social networks can be used to assess personality. We have demonstrated that personality is connected to human- and machine-detected situational cues, characteristics, classes, behavior, and affect displayed in Instagram photos. Observations of individual relationships between normal or dark side personality characteristics and situational features of photos give insight into the various aspects of online portrayal of oneself and the personality behind the photos.

Using the situational characteristics of the DIAMONDS taxonomy to distinguish sports to more precisely investigate their relation with psychologically relevant variables

The continuous development and evolvement of sports provide a challenge for researchers who study psychological correlates and consequences of sports, as no single study can include all sports and results cannot easily be generalized across different sports. In this preregistered study, we present a new way of distinguishing sports based on the eight DIAMONDS situational characteristics: Duty, Intellect, Adversity, Mating, pOsitivity, Negativity, Deception, and Sociality. In a cross-sectional online survey, athletes were asked to judge the sport they perform on the eight DIAMONDS dimensions. 138 sports were rated by N = 7,835 athletes using the 24-item version of the S8*questionnaire measuring the DIAMONDS. Descriptive and cluster analyses were performed, and situational characteristics profiles were computed. The sport-specific profiles and identified clusters resemble existing sport categorizations but add relevant information based on the situational characteristics of sports, especially regarding their relation with psychologically relevant variables.

‘Personality in its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled, Multi–sample Examination of the Relationships between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real–world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample ( N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re–examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

Understanding Personality through Patterns of Daily Socializing: Applying Recurrence Quantification Analysis to Naturalistically Observed Intensive Longitudinal Social Interaction Data

Ambulatory assessment methods provide a rich approach for studying daily behaviour. Too often, however, these data are analysed in terms of averages, neglecting patterning of this behaviour over time. This paper describes recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a non–linear time series technique for analysing dynamic systems, as a method for analysing patterns of categorical, intensive longitudinal ambulatory assessment data. We apply RQA to objectively assessed social behaviour (e.g. talking to another person) coded from the Electronically Activated Recorder. Conceptual interpretations of RQA parameters, and an analysis of Electronically Activated Recorder data in adults going through a marital separation, are provided. Using machine learning techniques to avoid model overfitting, we find that adding RQA parameters to models that include just average amount of time spent talking (a static measure) improves prediction of four Big Five personality traits: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness. Our strongest results suggest that a combination of average amount of time spent talking and four RQA parameters yield an R2 = .09 for neuroticism. Neuroticism is shown to be associated with shorter periods of extended conversation (periods of at least 12 minutes), demonstrating the utility of RQA to identify new relationships between personality and patterns of daily behaviour. Materials: https://osf.io/5nkr9/ . © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology