Beyond the factor indeterminacy problem using genome-wide association data.

Latent factors, such as general intelligence, depression and risk tolerance, are invoked in nearly all social science research where a construct is measured via aggregation of symptoms, question responses or other measurements. Because latent factors cannot be directly observed, they are inferred by fitting a specific model to empirical patterns of correlations among measured variables. A long-standing critique of latent factor theories is that the correlations used to infer latent factors can be produced by alternative data-generating mechanisms that do not include latent factors. This is referred to as the factor indeterminacy problem. Researchers have recently begun to overcome this problem by using information on the associations between individual genetic variants and measured variables. We review historical work on the factor indeterminacy problem and describe recent efforts in genomics to rigorously test the validity of latent factors, advancing the understanding of behavioural science constructs.

Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.

The last 2 decades have witnessed increased research on the role of life events in personality trait development, but few findings appear to be robust. We propose that a key to resolving this issue is incorporating individuals' subjective experiences into the study of event-related development. To test this, we developed and administered a survey about event-related personality change to a representative Dutch sample (N = 5,513, Ages 16-95) and linked their responses to 12-year trajectories of measured Big Five development. Most participants (63%) believed that a life event impacted their personality in the past 10 years, on average 5 years presurvey. These participants, even those who experienced the same event, had markedly heterogenous perceptions of how their traits changed and why each event affected their personality. In preregistered analyses, we examined participants' individual personality trajectories before and after the event that they identified as most impactful. Across events, retrospective perceptions of event-related personality change were significantly correlated with short-term and long-term postevent personality trajectories across Big Five traits (mean rs = .22, .28) and preevent trajectories in all traits except agreeableness (mean r = .16). We also found correspondence between perceived and measured development in analyses of the two most commonly reported personality-changing events: health problems and death of a loved one/family member. Finally, we explored associations between personality development and perceived change-inducing event characteristics. Using these findings, we argue that future research into event-related personality development should de-emphasize mean-level change to focus on individuals' varied experiences of whether, when, how, and why life events have affected their personality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychological change before and after religious conversion and deconversion.

OBJECTIVE: Theory and anecdotal evidence suggest that people undergo psychological changes before and after religious conversion and deconversion. Yet, existing research provided inconclusive evidence. Here, we examined psychological change before, during, and after institutional conversion and deconversion in a large-scale longitudinal study. METHOD: We used 11-wave longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of Dutch adults (N ~ 20,000) to assess changes in religious beliefs and practices, personality traits, and well-being before, during, and after conversion to and deconversion from Christianity. RESULTS: Converts (N = 181) increased in service attendance and prayer, but not in their belief in God, as they approached conversion. Deconverts (N = 450) declined in religious beliefs and practices before, during, and after deconversion. In terms of personality, converts displayed small, unexpected declines in emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness at time of conversion. Deconverts declined in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness at time of deconversion. Neither group showed changes in their well-being. CONCLUSION: The present findings suggest that psychological changes during religious conversion and deconversion are generally small and mostly manifest as changes in people's religious beliefs and practices. Findings are discussed in the context of person-religion fit, meaning-making, and sociocultural motive perspectives on religious change.

Transactional effects between personality and religiosity.

Do changes in religiosity beget changes in personality, or do changes in personality precede changes in religiosity? Existing evidence supports longitudinal associations between personality and religiosity at the between-person level, such that individual differences in personality predict subsequent individual differences in change in religiosity. However, no research to date has examined whether within-person changes in personality lead to subsequent changes in religiosity. Using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM), we investigated between- and within-person associations between the Big Five personality traits and three aspects of religiosity-belief in God, service attendance, and prayer-in a sample of over 12,000 Dutch individuals across 11 annual assessments. We found between-person associations between all Big Five traits and religiosity, yet within-person associations only between agreeableness as well as extraversion and belief in God. Specifically, individuals who increased in agreeableness or extraversion reported subsequent increases in their belief in God and, in addition, individuals who increased in their belief in God showed subsequent increases in agreeableness. We further identified significant moderating effects of gender, religious upbringing, and religious affiliation. Overall, the present findings suggest that the associations between personality traits and religiosity primarily occur at the between-person level. However, the evidence for intraindividual associations between agreeableness, extraversion, and religious belief highlights the importance of distinguishing between-person from within-person effects to broaden the understanding of the temporal dynamics between variables. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality stability and change: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

Past research syntheses provided evidence that personality traits are both stable and changeable throughout the life span. However, early meta-analytic estimates were constrained by a relatively small universe of longitudinal studies, many of which tracked personality traits in small samples over moderate time periods using measures that were only loosely related to contemporary trait models such as the Big Five. Since then, hundreds of new studies have emerged allowing for more precise estimates of personality trait stability and change across the life span. Here, we updated and extended previous research syntheses on personality trait development by synthesizing novel longitudinal data on rank-order stability (total k = 189, total N = 178,503) and mean-level change (total k = 276, N = 242,542) from studies published after January 1, 2005. Consistent with earlier meta-analytic findings, the rank-order stability of personality traits increased significantly throughout early life before reaching a plateau in young adulthood. These increases in stability coincide with mean-level changes in the direction of greater maturity. In contrast to previous findings, we found little evidence for increasing rank-order stabilities after Age 25. Moreover, cumulative mean-level trait changes across the life span were slightly smaller than previously estimated. Emotional stability, however, increased consistently and more substantially across the life span than previously found. Moderator analyses indicated that narrow facet-level and maladaptive trait measures were less stable than broader domain and adaptive trait measures. Overall, the present findings draw a more precise picture of the life span development of personality traits and highlight important gaps in the personality development literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Refining the maturity principle of personality development by examining facets, close others, and comaturation.

Across adulthood, people tend to experience psychologically adaptive personality trait change, a robust finding known as the maturity principle of personality development. We identify three open areas of inquiry regarding personality maturation and address them in a preregistered study, using a sample of U.S. adults ages 30-70 who completed a battery of personality questionnaires and were rated by two close others twice over an 11- to 16-year period (Nwave1 = 1,785, Nwave2 = 401). First, it is unclear whether the maturity principle applies to narrower facet-level traits, as there has been little research into facet development across adulthood. We examined 47 facet scales and found that most developed adaptively across ages 30-70, but some did not mature, and three healthy facets (activity, openness to feelings, and social potency) declined significantly across adulthood, counter to the maturity principle. Second, no longitudinal research has tested whether personality maturation is perceived similarly by close others. We compared self- and other-rated development and found that close others perceived greater maturation than the self in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and five facets. Finally, few studies have examined whether traits comature in adulthood. We found that correlated change between healthy facets was small in magnitude. Additionally, we found tighter comaturation in other-reported development than self-reported development. We use these results and past research to expand and refine our understanding of personality maturation across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of childhood lead exposure on adult personality: Evidence from the United States, Europe, and a large-scale natural experiment.

Childhood lead exposure has devastating lifelong consequences, as even low-level exposure stunts intelligence and leads to delinquent behavior. However, these consequences may be more extensive than previously thought because childhood lead exposure may adversely affect normal-range personality traits. Personality influences nearly every aspect of human functioning, from well-being to career earnings to longevity, so effects of lead exposure on personality would have far-reaching societal consequences. In a preregistered investigation, we tested this hypothesis by linking historic atmospheric lead data from 269 US counties and 37 European nations to personality questionnaire data from over 1.5 million people who grew up in these areas. Adjusting for age and socioeconomic status, US adults who grew up in counties with higher atmospheric lead levels had less adaptive personality profiles: they were less agreeable and conscientious and, among younger participants, more neurotic. Next, we utilized a natural experiment, the removal of leaded gasoline because of the 1970 Clean Air Act, to test whether lead exposure caused these personality differences. Participants born after atmospheric lead levels began to decline in their county had more mature, psychologically healthy adult personalities (higher agreeableness and conscientiousness and lower neuroticism), but these findings were not discriminable from pure cohort effects. Finally, we replicated associations in Europeans. European participants who spent their childhood in areas with more atmospheric lead were less agreeable and more neurotic in adulthood. Our findings suggest that further reduction of lead exposure is a critical public health issue.

Log on and Prosper? Little Evidence for Codevelopment Between Psychological Adjustment and Technology Use in Older Adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: Researchers have hypothesized that using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), such as e-mail and social media, may buffer older adults from normative age-graded declines in psychological adjustment. However, past intervention research has been unable to conclusively evaluate this proposition, and no studies to date have examined this topic using naturalistic large-scale longitudinal methods. METHOD: In this preregistered study, we examined the codevelopment between three aspects of psychological adjustment (loneliness, satisfaction with life [SWL], and depressiveness) and three factor-analytically derived clusters of ICT use (instrumental, social, and media) using a longitudinal representative sample of 2,922 Dutch adults aged 65 and older that contributed data annually from 2012 to 2017. RESULTS: Latent growth curve analyses indicated that ICT use was largely unrelated to psychological adjustment, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Of 36 associations tested, three were significant, and only one remained significant after including health and demographic covariates. Specifically, higher levels of media ICT use at baseline predicted steeper declines in SWL across the study period. Furthermore, results of random-intercept cross-lagged analyses indicated that change in ICT use did not predict future change in psychological adjustment, and vice versa. DISCUSSION: Results of this study help clarify the mixed results of past intervention research, indicating that effects of ICT use on psychological adjustment tend to be either null or much smaller than can be detected using typical intervention sample sizes. Overall, these results suggest that the association between technology use and psychological adjustment is negligible in older adults.

Charting self-esteem during marital dissolution.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to chart changes in self-esteem before and after marital dissolution to identify the factors that shape individuals' self-esteem during this life transition. METHOD: We analyzed 10 annual waves of self-esteem data from 291 divorcees from a nationally representative panel study of the Netherlands (N ~ 13,000). We charted the course of self-esteem before and after marital dissolution and tested a broad set of moderator variables that may shape individuals' self-esteem trajectories. RESULTS: The average divorcee experienced significant decrease in self-esteem preceding marital dissolution and remained stable afterward. There were substantial individual differences in self-esteem trajectories, both before and after marital separation. Divorcees who experienced financial hardship, were affiliated with a church or religion, or scored low in Conscientiousness showed the most pronounced decrease in self-esteem during the years approaching marital dissolution. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of assessing people multiple times before and after marital dissolution to dissect how people approach and respond to this life event. Results are consistent with perspectives that view divorce as an opportunity to abate the strains of an unhappy marriage.

The Relationship Between Career Success and Sense of Purpose: Examining Linkages and Changes.

OBJECTIVES: Although researchers have linked sense of purpose to working status, there are few studies examining how specific characteristics of work may correlate with sense of purpose. The aim of the current study is to extend prior research by assessing the degree to which objective and subjective forms of career success-occupational prestige and work satisfaction-are associated with levels of and changes in sense of purpose. METHODS: Participants were part of the Rochester Adult Longitudinal Study (N = 307), which contains multiple cohorts of participants each assessed at multiple waves (full age range: 42-71). We used cross-lagged modeling to test the relationships in our model. RESULTS: Occupational prestige was not associated with sense of purpose levels and change. However, work satisfaction was positively associated with higher levels of sense of purpose initially, and there was evidence that changes in the 2 constructs were positively correlated. DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that subjective career success may be more important for sense of purpose than more objective indicators. Findings are discussed with respect to study limitations and guidance for future researchers using secondary data.

Personality Predictors of Emergency Department Post-Discharge Outcomes.

Personality traits are important predictors of health behaviors, healthcare utilization, and health outcomes. However, we know little about the role of personality traits for emergency department outcomes. The present study used data from 200 patients (effective Ns range from 84 to 191), who were being discharged from the emergency department at an urban hospital, to investigate whether the Big Five personality traits were associated with post-discharge outcomes (i.e., filling prescriptions, following up with primary care physician, making an unscheduled return to the emergency department). Using logistic regression, we found few associations among the broad Big Five domains and post-discharge outcomes. However, results showed statistically significant associations between specific Big Five items (e.g., "responsible") and the three post-discharge outcomes. This study demonstrates the feasibility of assessing personality traits in an emergency medicine setting and highlights the utility of having information about patients' personality tendencies for predicting post-discharge compliance.

Changes in optimism and pessimism in response to life events: Evidence from three large panel studies.

Although individuals vary in how optimistic they are about the future, one assumption that researchers make is that optimism is sensitive to changes in life events and circumstances. We examined how optimism and pessimism changed across the lifespan and in response to life events in three large panel studies (combined N = 74,886). In the American and Dutch samples, we found that optimism increased across younger adulthood, plateaued in midlife, and then decreased in older adulthood. In the German sample, there were inconsistent results with respect to age differences and mean level changes in optimism. Associations between life events and changes in optimism/pessimism were inconsistent across samples. We discuss our results in the context of life events and lifespan development.

A facet atlas: Visualizing networks that describe the blends, cores, and peripheries of personality structure.

We created a facet atlas that maps the interrelations between facet scales from 13 hierarchical personality inventories to provide a practically useful, transtheoretical description of lower-level personality traits. We generated this atlas by estimating a series of network models that visualize the correlations among 268 facet scales administered to the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (Ns = 571-948). As expected, most facets contained a blend of content from multiple Big Five domains and were part of multiple Big Five networks. We identified core and peripheral facets for each Big Five domain. Results from this study resolve some inconsistencies in facet placement across instruments and highlight the complexity of personality structure relative to the constraints of traditional hierarchical models that impose simple structure. This facet atlas (also available as an online point-and-click app at tedschwaba.shinyapps.io/appdata/) provides a guide for researchers who wish to measure a domain with a limited set of facets as well as information about the core and periphery of each personality domain. To illustrate the value of a facet atlas in applied and theoretical settings, we examined the network structure of scales measuring impulsivity and tested structural hypotheses from the Big Five Aspect Scales inventory.

Health, environmental, and animal rights motives for vegetarian eating.

Health, the environment, and animal rights represent the three main reasons people cite for vegetarian diet in Western societies. However, it has not been shown that these motives can be distinguished empirically, and little is known about what kind of people are likely to be compelled by these different motives. This study had three goals. First, we aimed to use construct validation to test whether develop health, environmental, and animal rights motives for a vegetarian diet could be distinguished. Second, we evaluated whether these motivations were associated with different demographic, behavioral, and personality profiles in three diverse samples. Third, we examined whether peoples' motivations were related to responses to vegetarian advocacy materials. We created the Vegetarian Eating Motives Inventory, a 15-item measure whose structure was invariant across three samples (N = 1006, 1004, 5478) and two languages (English and Dutch). Using this measure, we found that health was the most common motive for non-vegetarians to consider vegetarian diets and it had the broadest array of correlates, which primarily involved communal and agentic values. Correlates of environmental and animal rights motives were limited, but these motives were strong and specific predictors of advocacy materials in a fourth sample (N = 739). These results provide researchers with a useful tool for identifying vegetarian motives among both vegetarian and non-vegetarian respondents, offer useful insights into the nomological net of vegetarian motivations, and provide advocates with guidance about how to best target campaigns promoting a vegetarian diet.

Does Openness to Experience matter in love and work? Domain, facet, and developmental evidence from a 24-year longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: Although numerous studies have demonstrated that personality traits predict important love and work outcomes, there is mixed evidence for the relevance of Openness to Experience to love and work. We sought to better understand the long-term consequences of Openness in these two domains. METHOD: We examined the associations between Openness and 51 love and work outcomes using data from a 24-year longitudinal study of UC Berkeley students (N = 497) followed from the beginning of college into midlife. Using latent growth curve modeling, we examined whether Openness levels and change in Openness from college to midlife were associated with downstream love and work outcomes. Additionally, we tested whether three facets of Openness (intellectual interests, aesthetic interests, and unconventionality) had differential associations with outcomes. RESULTS: Although stable levels of Openness predicted few work or love outcomes, individual differences in Openness change were associated with delayed romantic commitment and some career outcomes. In addition, there were significant differences among facets of Openness: intellectual interests were highly associated with educational outcomes, whereas aesthetic interests and unconventionality predicted nontraditional career motivations. CONCLUSIONS: We situate these results in past research on real-world consequences of personality traits and discuss implications for theory and future research.

Personality trait development across the transition to retirement.

In this study, we examined trajectories of Big Five personality development in the 5 years before and after retirement. Our sample was composed of 690 retirees (ages 51-81) and a propensity-score matched comparison group of 532 nonretirees drawn from a nationally representative longitudinal study of the Netherlands. Participants contributed data across a maximum of 6 measurement waves over a period of 7 years. In the month after retirement, participants experienced sudden increases in openness and agreeableness followed by gradual declines in these traits over the next 5 years. Emotional stability increased before and after retirement. The transition to retirement was not associated with changes in conscientiousness or extraversion. Further, we found significant individual differences in development across the transition to retirement for each personality trait but could not identify any moderators that accounted for these individual differences. These results contribute to our understanding of personality development in older adulthood as well as the temporal dynamics of personality change in response to major life events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Retirement is associated with change in self-esteem.

We examined the course of self-esteem during the transition to retirement in a sample of 690 retirees (ages 51-81) and a propensity-score matched-comparison group of 515 nonretirees drawn from a nationally representative longitudinal study in the Netherlands. The average retiree decreased in self-esteem in the 5 years before retirement and remained stable in self-esteem in the 5 years following retirement. We also found significant individual differences in retirees' self-esteem trajectories but failed to identify moderators that may account for these individual differences. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and future research on life span self-esteem development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Openness to experience and culture-openness transactions across the lifespan.

We examined the life span development of openness to experience and tested whether change in this personality trait was associated with change in cultural activity, such as attending the opera or visiting museums. Data came from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Study for the Social Sciences panel, which includes 5 personality assessments across a 7-year period of a nationally representative sample of 7,353 individuals, aged 16 to 95 years. Latent growth curve analyses indicated that on average, openness remained relatively stable in emerging adulthood before declining in midlife and old age. At each stage of life, there were significant individual differences in openness development, and changes in openness were correlated with changes in cultural activity. Autoregressive cross-lagged analyses indicated that increases in cultural activity precipitated increases in openness, and vice versa. These culture-openness transactions held across different age and education groups and when controlling for household income. We found less consistent codevelopmental associations between cultural activity and the other Big Five traits. We discuss the implications of these results for personality development theory and the role of cultural investment in personality trait change. (PsycINFO Database Record

Individual differences in personality change across the adult life span.

OBJECTIVE: A precise and comprehensive description of personality continuity and change across the life span is the bedrock upon which theories of personality development are built. Little research has quantified the degree to which individuals deviate from mean-level developmental trends. In this study, we addressed this gap by examining individual differences in personality trait change across the life span. METHOD: Data came from a nationally representative sample of 9,636 Dutch participants who provided Big Five self-reports at five assessment waves across 7 years. We divided our sample into 14 age groups (ages 16-84 at initial measurement) and estimated latent growth curve models to describe individual differences in personality change across the study period for each trait and age group. RESULTS: Across the adult life span, individual differences in personality change were small but significant until old age. For Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness, individual differences in change were most pronounced in emerging adulthood and decreased throughout midlife and old age. For Emotional Stability, individual differences in change were relatively consistent across the life span. CONCLUSIONS: These results inform theories of life span development and provide future directions for research on the causes and conditions of personality change.