Recruitment efforts to reduce adverse impact: Targeted recruiting for personality, cognitive ability, and diversity.

Noting the presumed tradeoff between diversity and performance goals in contemporary selection practice, the authors elaborate on recruiting-based methods for avoiding adverse impact while maintaining aggregate individual productivity. To extend earlier work on the primacy of applicant pool characteristics for resolving adverse impact, they illustrate the advantages of simultaneous cognitive ability– and personality-based recruiting. Results of an algebraic recruiting model support general recruiting for cognitive ability, combined with recruiting for conscientiousness within the underrepresented group. For realistic recruiting effect sizes, this type of recruiting strategy greatly increases average performance of hires and percentage of hires from the underrepresented group. Further results from a policy-capturing study provide initial guidance on how features of organizational image can attract applicants with particular job-related personalities and abilities, in addition to attracting applicants on the basis of demographic background. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and mortality risk across the life span: The importance of conscientiousness as a biopsychosocial attribute.

Objective: This study addressed whether personality in childhood and personality in adulthood are independent predictors of mortality risk and the extent to which behavioral and other psychosocial factors can explain observed relationships between personality and mortality risk. Design: This was a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 1,253 male and female Californians over 7 decades (1930-2000). Proportional hazards regressions were the principal analyses. Main Outcome Measures: Mortality risk (in the form of relative hazards) was the primary outcome. Additional tests of mediators and moderators ascertained whether associations between personality and mortality risk remained significant when psychosocial and behavioral variables were statistically controlled. Results: The findings, including a new 14-year additional follow-up in old age, revealed that conscientiousness, measured independently in childhood and adulthood, predicted mortality risk across the full life span. The link from childhood remained robust when adult conscientiousness and certain behavioral variables were controlled. Psychosocial and behavioral variables partly explained the adult conscientiousness-longevity association. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the utility and complexity of modern personality concepts in understanding health and point to conscientiousness as a key underexplored area for future biopsychosocial studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to correction to Ilies et al. (2009).

Reports an error in "'Personality and citizenship behavior: The mediating role of job satisfaction': Correction" by Remus Ilies, Ingrid Smithey Fulmer, Matthias Spitzmuller and Michael D. Johnson (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2010[Mar], Vol 95[2], 404). The volume number of the original article was incorrectly identified. It should have been identified as Vol. 94. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-04488-016.) 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)     

When openness to experience and conscientiousness are related to creative behavior: An interactional approach.

This study adopted an interactional approach to understanding how 2 of the Five-Factor traits, openness to experience and conscientiousness, are related to creative behavior in the workplace. Openness to experience is theorized to result in high levels of creative behavior and conscientiousness is theorized to result in low levels of creative behavior when the situation allows for the manifestation of the trait influences. More specifically, the authors hypothesized that openness to experience would result in high levels of creative behavior if feedback valence were positive and job holders were presented with a heuristic task that allowed them to be creative. The authors also hypothesized that conscientiousness would result in low levels of creative behavior if supervisors engaged in close monitoring and coworkers were unsupportive. The authors tested their hypotheses in a sample of office workers, and 5 out of the 6 hypotheses were supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality predictors of academic outcomes: Big five correlates of GPA and SAT scores.

The authors examined relations between the Big Five personality traits and academic outcomes, specifically SAT scores and grade-point average (GPA). Openness was the strongest predictor of SAT verbal scores, and Conscientiousness was the strongest predictor of both high school and college GPA. These relations replicated across 4 independent samples and across 4 different personality inventories. Further analyses showed that Conscientiousness predicted college GPA, even after controlling for high school GPA and SAT scores, and that the relation between Conscientiousness and college GPA was mediated, both concurrently and longitudinally, by increased academic effort and higher levels of perceived academic ability. The relation between Openness and SAT verbal scores was independent of academic achievement and was mediated, both concurrently and longitudinally, by perceived verbal intelligence. Together, these findings show that personality traits have independent and incremental effects on academic outcomes, even after controlling for traditional predictors of those outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conscientiousness predicts disease progression (CD4 number and viral load) in people living with HIV.

Objective: Psychosocial factors (e.g., depression, avoidant coping, life stress) have been related to disease progression in HIV. This study examined the relationship between the Big Five Conscientiousness factor and HIV disease progression (CD4 cell and viral load) over 1 year in 119 seropositive participants. The study also examined whether Conscientiousness effects were mediated by adherence, perceived stress, depression, or coping measures. Design: In a 1-year longitudinal design, participants completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory Conscientiousness scale (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992). Participants also completed psychosocial assessments and underwent blood draws at initial assessments and 1-year follow-up. Main Outcome Measures: Multiple hierarchical regression models were used to predict change in CD4 cell numbers and viral load log 10, controlling for demographic variables, initial disease status, and antiretroviral medications. Results: Conscientiousness predicted significant increases in CD4 number and significant decreases in viral load at 1 year. Conscientiousness was related positively to medication adherence and active coping and negatively to depression and perceived stress. Only perceived stress emerged as a possible mediator. Conclusion: The significant relationship between Conscientiousness and medication adherence, distress, and coping suggests that an assessment of Conscientiousness in patients with HIV may help specify or target behavioral interventions to promote optimal disease management. (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)     

A periodic table of personality elements? The "Big Five" and trait "psychology" in critical perspective.

Within contemporary personality psychology there is widespread consensus that, at long last, the basic elements of "the" human personality have been empirically discovered, and that the systematic search for the underlying causes and consequences of personality differences can be pursued on this basis. The putatively basic trait dimensions are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, and are referred to collectively as "the Big Five." In the present article, this perspective on the psychology of personality is examined critically and found wanting. It is argued that neither the "Big Five" framework in particular nor trait "psychology" more generally is adequate as the basis for a scientific psychology of the human person. (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)