Studying changes in life circumstances and personality: It's about time

Most theories of personality development posit that changes in life circumstances (e.g. due to major life events) can lead to changes in personality, but few studies have examined the exact time course of these changes. In this article, we argue that time needs to be considered explicitly in theories and empirical studies on personality development. We discuss six notions on the role of time in personality development. First, people can differ before the event. Second, change can be non-linear and discontinuous. Third, change can be reversible. Fourth, change can occur before the event. Fifth, control groups are needed to disentangle age-related and event-related changes. Sixth, we need to move beyond examining single major life events and study the effects of non-normative events, non-events, multiple events, and minor events on personality. We conclude by summarizing the methodological and theoretical implications of these notions.

What drives adult personality development? A comparison of theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence

Increasing numbers of empirical studies provide compelling evidence that personality traits change across the entire lifespan. What initiates this continuing personality development and how does this development proceed? In this paper, we compare six theoretical perspectives that offer testable predictions about why personality develops the way it does and identify limitations and potentials of these perspectives by reviewing how they hold up against the empirical evidence. While all of these perspectives have received some empirical support, there is only little direct evidence for propositions put forward by the five-factor theory of personality and the theory of genotype→environment effects. In contrast, the neo-socioanalytic theory appears to offer a comprehensive framework that fits the empirical findings and allows the integration of other, more specialized, perspectives that focus on specific aspects of personality development like the role of time, systematic differences between categories of social roles or the active partake of the person himself or herself. We draw conclusions on the likely driving factors for adult personality development and identify avenues for future research.

Personality, risky health behavior, and perceived susceptibility to health risks

We examined the relations between personality (Five-Factor Model), risky health behaviours, and perceptions of susceptibility to health risks among 683 university students. The hypothesis was that personality would affect perceptions of susceptibility to health risks in two ways: directly, irrespective of risky health behaviours, and indirectly, through the effects of personality on risky health behaviours. The students were surveyed about smoking, being drunk, drunk driving, risky sexual behaviour, and perceptions of susceptibility to related health risks. In path-analytical models we found the expected direct and indirect effects. The personality dimensions of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness had negative direct effects on perceptions of susceptibility as well as negative indirect effects through risky health behaviours. Neuroticism was the only personality dimension to show positive direct effects on perceptions of susceptibility as well as negative indirect effects.

Vocational identity trajectories: Differences in personality and development of well-being

This person-centred study investigated the longitudinal patterns of vocational identity development in relation to personality, the development of well-being, gender, nationality and the attended school track among two cohorts of Swiss adolescents in 8th or 9th grade (N = 269) and in 11th or 12th grade (N = 230). The results confirmed the existence of four identity statuses, namely, achievement, foreclosure, moratorium and diffusion. Forty-two per cent of students showed progressive patterns of identity development, while 37% remained in their identity status over time. Students with different statuses and status change patterns differed significantly in their personality traits. Higher neuroticism related to the emergence of identity exploration over time, while conscientiousness related to maintaining or achieving a sense of identity commitment in terms of achievement or foreclosure. Controlling for the effects of socio-demographics and personality traits, students who reached or maintained a state characterized by identity clarity and commitment showed a relative increase in life satisfaction, while those entering a state of identity crisis or exploration showed a decrease in life satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Engagement in adolescent career preparation: Social support, personality, and the development of choice decidedness and congruence

This longitudinal panel study investigated predictors and outcomes of active engagement in career preparation among 349 Swiss adolescents from the beginning to the end of eighth grade. Latent variable structural equation modeling was applied. The results showed that engagement in terms of self- and environmental-exploration and active career planning related positively to interindividual increases in career decidedness and choice congruence. More perceived social support, early goal decidedness, and particular personality traits predicted more engagement. Support and personality impacted outcomes only mediated through engagement. Early decidedness and congruence were significant predictors of their respective later levels. Implications for practice are presented.

Who seeks career counselling? A prospective study of personality and career variables among Swiss adolescents

This study investigated whether career adaptability, personality, attitude towards career counselling and some demographic variables predict the help seeking behaviour in career counselling among 330 Swiss adolescents in eighth grade. The results indicated that boys were less likely to seek help and that career related variables and attitude but not personality significantly predicted help-seeking. Specifically, help seeking related positively to undecidedness and positive perception of career counselling. Implications for school and career counsellors and suggestions for future research are presented.

Vocational Interests and Career Goals: Development and Relations to Personality and Middle Adolescence

Cross-sectional research implies a close relation of vocation interests, goals, and traits, yet little is known about their reciprocal development over time. This longitudinal study examined development of Things/People (T/P) and Data/Ideas (D/I) vocational interests and career goals in relation to Big Five personality traits among 292 Swiss adolescents with a cross-lagged panel design with two measurement points over 1 year from seventh to eighth grade. Interests and goals were significantly related within time and showed significant interactions across time. Traits related significantly and equally to interests and goals within time and predicted their development across time except for T/P goals. Goals and interests possessed incremental validity above traits in affecting each other. Implications include the need to account for dynamic processes in the development of goals and interests and their systematic relation to traits in theory and practice.

The role of chance events in the school-to-work transition: The influence of demographic, personality and career development variables

Chance events are considered important in career development, yet little empirical research is available on their predictors and consequences. The present study investigated socio-demographic (gender, nationality, school-type), personality (openness, locus of control) and career development variables (career decidedness, career planning) in relation to perceived chance events with a retrospective (N = 229, eleventh grade), and 1-year longitudinal prospective study (N = 245, eighth/ninth grade) among Swiss adolescents. The results showed that the majority of both groups reported a significant influence of chance events on their transition from compulsory school to vocational education or high school. Importance of chance events related to socio-demographics and personality but not career preparation. Career preparation and chance events predicted subjective career success in terms of wish correspondence and overall satisfaction with transition outcome among the younger cohort. Implications include the necessity to integrate both thorough career preparation and chance events in theory and counseling practice.

Personality complexes in adolescence: Traits, interests, work values, and self-evaluations

Following the recent trend in psychology towards a more integrative view of personality, the study attempted to establish the connections and underlying complexes of fundamental personality dispositions within two cohorts of Swiss adolescents in eighth and eleventh grade (N = 492, ages 13 to 19): Big-Five basic traits, big six vocational interests, work values, and generalized self-efficacy and externality of control beliefs. Five factors were identified which accounted for 60% of variance among the relations of the variables: (1) enterprisingconventional interests, (2) favorable personality dispositions, (3) social-artistic personality characteristics, (4) investigative-realistic interests, and (5) work value endorsement. Crosssectional findings indicate that particularly agreeableness and conscientiousness become closer related to interests and work values with increasing grade-level.

Improving the dependability of research in personality and social psychology: Recommendations for research and educational practice

In this article, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Task Force on Publication and Research Practices offers a brief statistical primer and recommendations for improving the dependability of research. Recommendations for research practice include (a) describing and addressing the choice of N (sample size) and consequent issues of statistical power, (b) reporting effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), (c) avoiding “questionable research practices” that can inflate the probability of Type I error, (d) making available research materials necessary to replicate reported results, (e) adhering to SPSP’s data sharing policy, (f) encouraging publication of high-quality replication studies, and (g) maintaining flexibility and openness to alternative standards and methods. Recommendations for educational practice include (a) encouraging a culture of “getting it right,” (b) teaching and encouraging transparency of data reporting, (c) improving methodological instruction, and (d) modeling sound science and supporting junior researchers who seek to “get it right.”

Motive-Oriented Psychotherapeutic Relationship Facing a Patient Presenting with Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A Case Study

Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTHER), a prescriptive concept based on an integrative form of case formulation, the Plan Analysis (PA) method (Caspar, in: Eells (ed.), Handbook of psychotherapy case formulations, 2007), has shown to be of particular relevance for the treatment of patients presenting with personality disorders, in particular contributing to better therapeutic outcome and to a more constructive development of the therapeutic alliance over time (Kramer et al., J Nerv Ment Dis 199:244–250, 2011). Several therapy models refer to MOTHER as intervention principle with regard to borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) (Sachse et al., Clarification-oriented psychotherapy of narcissistic personality disorder, 2011; Caspar and Berger, in: Dulz et al. (eds.), Handbuch der Borderline-Störungen, 2011). The present case study discusses the case of Mark, a 40-year-old patient presenting with NPD, along with anxious, depressive and anger problems. This patient underwent a seven-session long pre-therapy process, based on psychiatric and psychotherapeutic principles complemented with PA and MOTHER, in preparation for further treatment. MOTHER will be illustrated with patient–therapist verbatim from session 4 and the links between MOTHER and confrontation techniques will be discussed in the context of process-outcome hypotheses, in particular the effect of MOTHER on symptom reduction.

Who Earns More and Why? A Multiple Mediation Model from Personality to Salary

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate multiple indirect Big Five personality influences on professionals’ annual salary while considering relevant mediators. These are the motivational variables of occupational self-efficacy and career-advancement goals, and the work status variable of contractual work hours. The motivational and work status variables were conceptualized as serial mediators (Big Five → occupational self-efficacy/career-advancement goals → contractual work hours → annual salary). Design/Methodology/Approach We realized a 4 year longitudinal survey study with 432 participants and three points of measurement. We assessed personality prior to the mediators and the mediators prior to annual salary. Findings Results showed that except for openness the other Big Five personality traits exerted indirect influences on annual salary. Career-advancement goals mediated influences of conscientiousness (+), extraversion (+), and agreeableness (−). Occupational self-efficacy mediated influences of neuroticism (–) and conscientiousness (+). Because the influence of occupational self-efficacy on annual salary was fully mediated by contractual work hours, indirect personality influences via occupational self-efficacy always included contractual work hours in a serial mediation. Implications These findings underline the importance of distal personality traits for career success. They give further insights into direct and indirect relationships between personality, goal content, self-efficacy beliefs, and an individual’s career progress. Originality/Value Previous research predominantly investigated direct Big Five influences on salary, and it analyzed cross-sectional data. This study is one of the first to investigate multiple indirect Big Five influences on salary in a longitudinal design. The findings support process-oriented theories of personality influences on career outcomes.

Exploring occasion specificity in the assessment of DSM-5 maladaptive personality traits: A latent state-trait theory analysis.

The alternative classification system for personality disorders in DSM-5 features a hierarchical model of maladaptive personality traits. This trait model comprises five broad trait domains and 25 specific trait facets that can be reliably assessed using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Although there is a steadily growing literature on the validity of the PID-5, issues of temporal stability and situational influences on test scores are currently unexplored. We addressed these issues using a sample of 611 research participants who completed the PID-5 three times, with time intervals of two months. Latent state-trait (LST) analyses for each of the 25 PID-5 trait facets showed that, on average, 79.5% of the variance was due to stable traits (i.e., consistency), and 7.7% of the variance was due to situational factors (i.e., occasion specificity). Our findings suggest that the PID-5 trait facets predominantly capture individual differences that are stable across time.

The Structure and Correlates of Self-Reported DSM-5 Maladaptive Personality Traits: Findings From Two German-Speaking Samples

The authors investigated the structure and correlates of DSM-5 maladaptive personality traits in two samples of 577 students and 212 inpatients using the German self-report form of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5. They found that (a) the factor structure of DSM-5 trait facets is largely in line with the proposed trait domains of Negative Affectivity, Detachment, Antagonism, Disinhibition, and Psychoticism; (b) all DSM-5 trait domains except Psychoticism are highly related to the respective domains of the Five-Factor Model of personality; (c) the trait facets are positively associated with a self-report measure of general personality dysfunction; and (d) the DSM-5 trait facets show differential associations with a range of self-reported DSM-IV Axis I disorders. These findings give further support to the new DSM-5 trait model and suggest that it may generalize to other languages and cul