Task-contingent conscientiousness as a unit of personality at work.

The present study examined the viability of incorporating task-contingent units into the study of personality at work, using conscientiousness as an illustrative example. We used experience-sampling data from 123 managers to show that (a) momentary conscientiousness at work is contingent on the difficulty and urgency demands of the tasks people are engaged in, (b) there are significant and stable differences between people in the extent to which their conscientiousness behaviors are contingent on task demands, and (c) individual differences in task-contingent conscientiousness are related to, though distinct from, individual differences in trait conscientiousness. We also provide evidence in relation to (a) need for cognition as a possible antecedent of task-contingent conscientiousness and (b) adaptive performance on a cognitive task as a possible consequence of it. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for the cognitive nature of personality and the way in which conscientiousness is expressed at work. Practical implications in relation to the predictive function of personality and applications that focus on behavioral change are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and obesity across the adult life span.

Personality traits contribute to health outcomes, in part through their association with major controllable risk factors, such as obesity. Body weight, in turn, reflects our behaviors and lifestyle and contributes to the way we perceive ourselves and others. In this study, the authors use data from a large (N = 1,988) longitudinal study that spanned more than 50 years to examine how personality traits are associated with multiple measures of adiposity and with fluctuations in body mass index (BMI). Using 14,531 anthropometric assessments, the authors modeled the trajectory of BMI across adulthood and tested whether personality predicted its rate of change. Measured concurrently, participants higher on Neuroticism or Extraversion or lower on Conscientiousness had higher BMI; these associations replicated across body fat, waist, and hip circumference. The strongest association was found for the impulsivity facet: Participants who scored in the top 10% of impulsivity weighed, on average, 11Kg more than those in the bottom 10%. Longitudinally, high Neuroticism and low Conscientiousness, and the facets of these traits related to difficulty with impulse control, were associated with weight fluctuations, measured as the variability in weight over time. Finally, low Agreeableness and impulsivity-related traits predicted a greater increase in BMI across the adult life span. BMI was mostly unrelated to change in personality traits. Personality traits are defined by cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns that likely contribute to unhealthy weight and difficulties with weight management. Such associations may elucidate the role of personality traits in disease progression and may help to design more effective interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality development across the life span: Longitudinal analyses with a national sample from Germany.

Longitudinal data from a national sample of Germans (N = 20,434) were used to evaluate stability and change in the Big Five personality traits. Participants completed a brief measure of personality twice, 4 years apart. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to establish measurement invariance over time and across age groups. Substantive questions about differential (or rank-order) and mean-level stability and change were then evaluated. Results showed that differential stability was relatively strong among all age groups but that it increased among young adults, peaked in later life, and then declined among the oldest old. Patterns of mean-level change showed that Extraversion and Openness declined over the life span, whereas Agreeableness increased. Mean levels of Conscientiousness increased among young adults and then decreased among older adults. Trajectories for Neuroticism were relatively flat, with slight increases during middle age and a slight decline in late life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regret and quality of life across the adult life span: The influence of disengagement and available future goals.

Two studies examined the associations between life regrets and indicators of quality of life across the adult life span. Given that opportunities to undo regrets decline with age, regret intensity was expected to be inversely associated with subjective well-being and health among older adults. In addition, the research explored protective factors that have the potential to reduce older adults' regret intensity. It was suggested that being disengaged from undoing the consequences of regrets and having many future goals available may reduce older adults' intensity of regret and thereby contribute to a better quality of life. Across both studies, the findings demonstrate that older adults perceived reduced opportunities to undo the consequences of their regrets and that regret intensity predicted a reduced quality of life only among older adults. Furthermore, the findings support the adaptive value of disengagement and available future goals for managing life regrets in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling the expression of conscientiousness.

The authors tested the hypothesis that goal-focused leadership enables conscientious workers to perform effectively by helping them to accurately understand organizational goal priorities. Data collected from 162 workers in a private sector document processing organization supported the hypotheses that goal-focused leadership moderates the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance and that person–organization goal congruence mediates this moderated relationship. Specifically, conscientiousness was more strongly positively related to performance among workers who perceived that their supervisors effectively set goals and defined roles, responsibilities, and priorities than among workers who did not perceive this type of goal-focused leadership. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of normal and disordered personality across the life span.

Debate continues about whether personality, both normal and disordered, can change significantly or is mainly stable across the life span. One issue that receives little attention is the degree to which personality stability coefficients may be influenced by attenuation due to measurement error. The current meta-analysis examines the data from recent research on personality stability, reporting both uncorrected and corrected stability coefficients. Attenuation due to measurement error was found to cause a significant reduction in personality stability coefficients, raising the possibility that some studies may conflate personality change with measurement error. Overall, corrected stability coefficients suggested that the stability of personality across adulthood is high, with only modest change. By contrast, personality during childhood is significantly more changeable. Both normal personality and personality disorders were highly stable across the life span, and patients in therapy experienced no more personality change than did nonpatients. Cross-cultural comparisons suggested relatively similar levels of personality stability cross-culturally, although personality stability among people in South Pacific nations is slightly lower than among those in the United States, Canada, or European nations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the content of mental health intake assessments from a biopsychosocial perspective.

Psychotherapists' approach to intake assessment has a major impact on mental health case conceptualization and treatment. Despite the importance of this issue, very little is known about the actual intake assessment practices of therapists providing mental health care in the community. This appears to be the first study that has investigated which aspects of biological, psychological, and sociocultural functioning are documented by therapists in their client intake assessments, how thoroughly these issues are assessed, and how well the information collected is then integrated into the assessment findings and case conceptualization. The examination of 163 client files from 3 mental health clinics found that therapists were regularly collecting client information regarding a wide range of biopsychosocial issues, though not in a detailed or comprehensive manner. There was also little evidence that the information was being integrated in a manner designed to maximize treatment effectiveness. These findings have major implications for training and practice in mental health assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 95(2) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2010-04488-016). The path coefficients presented in the figures are slight overestimates. For example, in Figure 1 (p. 952), the paths from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Job Satisfaction should be .11 and .23 instead of .12 and .28, the direct effects from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Citizenship Behavior should be .10 and .16 instead of .11 and .18, and the paths from Job Satisfaction to Citizenship Behavior should be .28 (.22) instead of .34 (.26). The statistical significance of the path coefficients is correct, and so are the substantive conclusions based on the better fit of the partially mediated models relative to the fully mediated models. Also, the meta-analytic estimates presented in Table 1 (p. 949), Table 2 (p. 950), and Table 3 (p. 951) are correct.] Using meta-analytic path analysis, the authors tested several structural models linking agreeableness and conscientiousness to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results showed that the 2 personality traits had both direct effects and indirect effects—through job satisfaction—on overall OCB. Meta-analytic moderator analyses that distinguished between individual- and organization-targeted citizenship behaviors (OCB-I and OCB-O) showed that agreeableness was more closely related with OCB-I and conscientiousness with OCB-O. Finally, the path analyses predicting OCB-I and OCB-O offered further support for the general hypothesis that these 2 constructs are distinct. That is, the results of these analyses revealed that agreeableness had both direct and indirect effects on OCB-I but only indirect effects on OCB-O, and that for conscientiousness the pattern of direct and indirect effects was exactly opposite (direct and indirect effects on OCB-O but only indirect effects on OCB-I). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job characteristics, flow, and performance: The moderating role of conscientiousness.

The present article aims to show the importance of positive work-related experiences within occupational health psychology by examining the relationship between flow at work (i.e., absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation) and job performance. On the basis of the literature, it was hypothesized that (a) motivating job characteristics are positively related to flow at work and (b) conscientiousness moderates the relationship between flow and other ratings of (in-role and out-of-role) performance. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 113 employees from several occupations. Results of moderated structural equation modeling analyses generally supported the hypotheses. Motivating job characteristics were predictive of flow, and flow predicted in-role and extra-role performance, for only conscientious employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparing memory skill maintenance across the life span: Preservation in adults, increase in children.

The authors examined life-span differences in the maintenance of skilled episodic memory performance by assessing 100 individuals (10 -11, 12-13, 21-26, and 66-79 years old) 11 months after termination of an intensive multisession mnemonic training program (Y. Brehmer, S.-C. Li, V. Müller, T. von Oertzen, & U. Lindenberger, 2007). Skill maintenance was tested in 2 follow-up sessions, the first without and the second with mnemonic reinstruction. Younger and older adults' average performance levels were stable across time. In contrast, both younger and older children's memory performance improved beyond originally attained levels. Older adults' performance improved from the first to the second follow-up session, presumably profiting from instruction-induced skill reactivation. Results suggest that (a) skill maintenance is largely intact in healthy older adults, (b) older adults need environmental support to fully reactivate their former skill levels (cf. F. I. M. Craik, 1983), and (c) children adapt a skill learned 11 months ago to their increasing cognitive capabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction: Correction.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 95(3) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2010-09357-015). The volume number of the original article was incorrectly identified. It should have been identified as Vol. 94.] Reports an error in Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction by Remus Ilies, Ingrid Smithey Fulmer, Matthias Spitzmuller and Michael D. Johnson (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2009[Jul], Vol 94[4], 945-959). The path coefficients presented in the figures are slight overestimates. For example, in Figure 1 (p. 952), the paths from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Job Satisfaction should be .11 and .23 instead of .12 and .28, the direct effects from Agreeableness and Conscientiousness to Citizenship Behavior should be .10 and .16 instead of .11 and .18, and the paths from Job Satisfaction to Citizenship Behavior should be .28 (.22) instead of .34 (.26). The statistical significance of the path coefficients is correct, and so are the substantive conclusions based on the better fit of the partially mediated models relative to the fully mediated models. Also, the meta-analytic estimates presented in Table 1 (p. 949), Table 2 (p. 950), and Table 3 (p. 951) are correct. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2009-10167-018.) Using meta-analytic path analysis, the authors tested several structural models linking agreeableness and conscientiousness to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results showed that the 2 personality traits had both direct effects and indirect effects—through job satisfaction—on overall OCB. Meta-analytic moderator analyses that distinguished between individual- and organization-targeted citizenship behaviors (OCB-I and OCB-O) showed that agreeableness was more closely related with OCB-I and conscientiousness with OCB-O. Finally, the path analyses predicting OCB-I and OCB-O offered further support for the general hypothesis that these 2 constructs are distinct. That is, the results of these analyses revealed that agreeableness had both direct and indirect effects on OCB-I but only indirect effects on OCB-O, and that for conscientiousness the pattern of direct and indirect effects was exactly opposite (direct and indirect effects on OCB-O but only indirect effects on OCB-I). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not all conscientiousness scales change alike: A multimethod, multisample study of age differences in the facets of conscientiousness.

Previous research has shown that traits from the domain of conscientiousness tend to increase with age. However, previous research has not tested whether all aspects of conscientiousness change with age. The present research tests age differences in multiple facets of conscientiousness (industriousness, orderliness, impulse control, reliability, and conventionality) using multiple methods and multiple samples. In a community sample (N = 274) and a representative statewide sample (N = 613) of 18- to 94-year-olds, self-reported industriousness, impulse control, and reliability showed age differences from early adulthood to middle age, whereas orderliness did not. The transition into late adulthood was characterized by increases in impulse control, reliability, and conventionality. In contrast, age differences in observer-rated personality occurred mainly in older adulthood. Age differences held across both ethnicity and levels of socioeconomic status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: A life history theory approach.

Why do some people take risks and live for the present, whereas others avoid risks and save for the future? The evolutionary framework of life history theory predicts that preferences for risk and delay in gratification should be influenced by mortality and resource scarcity. A series of experiments examined how mortality cues influenced decisions involving risk preference (e.g., $10 for sure vs. 50% chance of $20) and temporal discounting (e.g., $5 now vs. $10 later). The effect of mortality depended critically on whether people grew up in a relatively resource-scarce or resource-plentiful environment. For individuals who grew up relatively poor, mortality cues led them to value the present and gamble for big immediate rewards. Conversely, for individuals who grew up relatively wealthy, mortality cues led them to value the future and avoid risky gambles. Overall, mortality cues appear to propel individuals toward diverging life history strategies as a function of childhood socioeconomic status, suggesting important implications for how environmental factors influence economic decisions and risky behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in the big five across the life span: Evidence from two national samples.

Cross-sectional age differences in the Big Five personality traits were investigated using 2 large datasets from Great Britain and Germany: the British Household Panel Study (BHPS; N ≥ 14,039) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSEOP; N ≥ 20,852). Participants, who ranged in age from 16 to the mid-80s, completed a 15-item version of the Big Five Inventory (e.g., John & Srivastava, 1999) in either 2005 or 2006. The observed age trends were generally consistent across both datasets. Extraversion and Openness were negatively associated with age, whereas Agreeableness was positively associated with age. Average levels of Conscientiousness were highest for participants in middle age. The only exception was Neuroticism, which was slightly negatively associated with age in the BHPS and slightly positively associated with age in the GSEOP. Neither gender nor education level were consistent moderators of age differences in the Big Five. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic investigation of conscientiousness in the prediction of job performance: Examining the intercorrelations and the incremental validity of narrow traits.

Researchers of broad and narrow traits have debated whether narrow traits are important to consider in the prediction of job performance. Because personality-performance relationship meta-analyses have focused almost exclusively on the Big Five, the predictive power of narrow traits has not been adequately examined. In this study, the authors address this question by meta-analytically examining the degree to which the narrow traits of conscientiousness predict above and beyond global conscientiousness. Results suggest that narrow traits do incrementally predict performance above and beyond global conscientiousness, yet the degree to which they contribute depends on the particular performance criterion and occupation in question. Overall, the results of this study suggest that there are benefits to considering the narrow traits of conscientiousness in the prediction of performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conscientiousness and longevity: An examination of possible mediators.

Objective: Conscientious individuals tend to experience a number of health benefits, not the least of which being greater longevity. However, it remains an open question as to why this link with longevity occurs. The current study tested two possible mediators (physical health and cognitive functioning) of the link between conscientiousness and longevity. Method: We tested these mediators using a 10-year longitudinal sample (N = 512), a subset of the long-running Health and Retirement Study of aging adults. Measures included an adjective-rating measure of conscientiousness, self-reported health conditions, and three measures of cognitive functioning (word recall, delayed recall, and vocabulary) included in the 1996 wave of the HRS study. Results: Our results found that conscientiousness significantly predicted greater longevity, even in a model including the two proposed mediator variables, gender, age, and years of education. Moreover, cognitive functioning appears to partially mediate this relationship. Conclusions: This study replicates previous research showing that conscientious individuals tend to lead longer lives, and provides further insight into why this effect occurs. In addition, it underscores the importance of measurement considerations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal findings from the normative aging study: III. Personality, individual health trajectories, and mortality.

Individual differences in physical and psychological health trajectories were examined in 1,515 Normative Aging Study men. Mean age at baseline was 47.15 yrs (range 28–80 yrs), and average follow up was 18.55 yrs (range 8–25 yrs). Both linear and nonlinear growth curves were estimated with random-effects models and then clustered to identify patterns of change. Men whose physical health trajectories were characterized by high, increasing symptoms were higher in hostility and anxiety, were overweight, and smoked. Those whose trajectories were characterized by low symptoms were emotionally stable, educated, nonsmokers, and thin. Men with high, stable psychological trajectories had high hostility; those with low, stable trajectories had high emotional stability; those with moderate anxiety levels had nonlinear trajectories with peaks in psychological symptoms at different life stages. Personality had life-long effects on health trajectories, but these effects varied across traits and health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct validity and the predictability of behavior.

Recurring assessment problems in personality research related to the cross-situational consistency and predictability of behavior are evaluated in light of modern construct-oriented measurement theory. A recent study of the domain of conscientiousness behaviors (Mischel & Peake, 1982) is used to illustrate the consequences of not applying well-established strategies for the development and validation of psychological measures. It is argued that a careful specification of the behavioral exemplars of a trait domain and their interrelations is an essential precondition for the construct validity of a measure and for evidence of behavioral consistency. A reanalysis of the observational data of Mischel and Peake revealed conceptually and empirically identifiable facets of the domain of conscientiousness and, when behaviors were properly aggregated, substantial evidence of their construct validity and cross-situational generality. This finding is contrary to interpretations of Mischel and Peake and occurred despite several definitional and measurement problems identified in their study. Conditions contributing to the prediction of behavior across situations are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional reactivity across the adult life span: The cognitive pragmatics make a difference.

Previously, we found that during films about age-typical losses, older adults experienced greater sadness than young adults, whereas their physiological responses were just as large. In the present study, our goal was to replicate this finding and extend past work by examining the role of cognitive functioning in age differences in emotional reactivity. We measured the autonomic and subjective responses of 240 adults (age range = 20 to 70) while they viewed films about age-typical losses from our previous work. Findings were fully supportive of our past work: The magnitude of subjective reactions to our films increased linearly over the adult years, whereas there were no age differences on the level of physiological reactivity. We also found that the subjective reactions of adults with high pragmatic intelligence were of moderate size independent of their own age or the age relevance of the emotion elicitor. In contrast, the subjective reactions of adults low on pragmatic intelligence were more variable. Together, this evidence suggests that research on age differences in emotional reactivity may benefit from a perspective that considers individual difference variables as well as contextual variations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)