Jérôme Rossier
Personality development in children: Comparing children’s self-perceptions with parents’ ratings
Authors
Jérôme Rossier (University of Lausanne)
Vincent Quartier (University of Lausanne)
Results from a study designed to investigate personality development with children aged 8 to 12 will be presented. Children’s self-perception were compared to parent’s ratings. 506 children completed a short questionnaire of 38 questions selected from the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC). Parents rated their children with the same set of items. Factor analyses for children’s and parents’ ratings allowed extracting five factors corresponding to the five broad domains of the Five-Factor Model. Results showed an age-related increase in the structural congruence of children’s ratings compared to parents’ ratings and also in the reliabilities of both parents’ ratings and children’s self assessments. The mean correlation between the children’s self-descriptions and parents’ ratings were higher for Conscientiousness and Imagination than for Extraversion, Benevolence and Emotional Stability, globally increased with the children’s age. Mean-levels decreased with age for Imagination in parents’ ratings and for Benevolence, Conscientiousness, and Imagination, in children’s self-assessment. This study showed that personality development from 8 to 12 years goes along with an increase in the agreement between the children’s self-perception and the parents’ perceptions of the children’s personality.
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Thierry Lecerf
Relationships between personality and cognitive abilities in young adults
Authors
Thierry Lecerf (University of Geneva)
Evidence for relationships between personality and intelligence is inconsistent and reflect at best modest correlations. One the basis of these observations, several explanations have been proposed. The main purpose of this study was to examine one explanation which suggests nonlinear relationships between cognitive ability and personality. In one sample (N= 413), young adults (16-35 years-old) completed four cognitive tasks (Raven, Digit symbol, spatial, Vocabulary) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire; the second sample completed the four cognitive tasks and the Temperament and Character Inventory (N= 199, 16-35 years-old). As internal consistency affect correlation, only items relevant to each EPQ-R and TCI scales were retained. Correlations were computed, which confirm that personality is poorly related with cognitive abilities. To examine nonlinear relationships between intelligence and personality, personality and cognitive scales were converted to a classification variable (high, medium, low). Although our samples were relatively small, we found some evidence for nonlinear relationships between personality and cognitive ability. For example, high- and low-ability participants differed with Psychoticism and Novelty seeking (marginally for Neuroticism). We found different patterns of correlations between personality scales at high and at low levels of ability, and fluid-crystallized intelligence correlation is slightly different at high and low levels of neuroticism.
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Myriam Dellenbach
Relationships between personality traits and ability traits in middle-aged and older adults
Authors
Myriam Dellenbach (University of Zurich)
Daniel Zimprich (University of Zurich)
Mathias Allemand (University of Zurich)
In the present study we investigated the relations between personality and ability traits. Specifically, we examined the associations between openness to experience and fluid and crystallized intelligence in middle-aged and old adults. The sample comprised 679 middle-aged (42-46 years) and 572 old (60-64 years) participants. Openness to experience was assessed using the openness subscale from the NEO-FFI and was differentiated into three item clusters (aesthetic interests, intellectual interests, and unconventionality). Fluid and crystallized intelligence were assessed using the information, picture completion, and block design subtests of the WAIS-R and the spatial-ability subtest from the intelligence battery LPS. After having established measurement invariance of personality and intelligence, a number of associations between personality and intelligence emerged in both age groups, ranging from small effects (aesthetic interests and fluid intelligence) to large effects (unconventionality and crystallized intelligence). Multivariately, the effects of aesthetic interests and unconventionality on fluid and crystallized intelligence were the same in both age groups, whereas the effect of intellectual interests on both fluid and crystallized intelligence was more pronounced in the older group. Eventually, results from a commonality analysis show that the combination of all three predictor variables only marginally improved the prediction of fluid and crystallized intelligence.
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Mathias Allemand
Personality development in old age: Change and stability over 12 years
Authors
Mathias Allemand (University of Zurich)
Daniel Zimprich (University of Zurich)
Mike Martin (University of Zurich)
Data from the Interdisciplinary Study on Adult Development (ILSE) were used to examine different aspects of personality change and stability over a 12-year time period. The longitudinal sample consisted of 300 adults initially ranging from 60 to 64 years of age. Personality was measured with the NEO-FFI Personality Inventory. Longitudinal structural stability, differential stability, change in interindividual differences, mean-level change, and correlated change of the five personality traits were examined utilizing structural equation modeling. After having established strict measurement invariance, factor covariances in openness to experience and conscientiousness are found to be not similar across testing occasions, implying variant covariation patterns over time. Stability coefficients were around .70, indicating high, but not perfect differential stability. The amount of interindividual differences increased with respect to openness to experience and conscientiousness. Both mean-level change and stability in personality were observed. Eventually, a number of medium effect-sized latent change correlations among personality traits emerged, implying that personality changes share a certain amount of commonality.
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