Longitudinal associations of cognitive ability, personality traits and school grades with antisocial behaviour

This study investigated the role of adolescents’ cognitive ability, personality traits and school success in predicting later criminal behaviour. Cognitive ability, the five–factor model personality traits and the school grades of a large sample of Estonian schoolboys ( N = 1919) were measured between 2001 and 2005. In 2009, judicial databases were searched to identify participants who had been convicted of misdemeanours or criminal offences. Consistent with previous findings, having a judicial record was associated with lower cognitive ability, grade point average, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. In multivariate path models, however, the contributions of cognitive ability and conscientiousness were accounted for by school grades and the effect of neuroticism was also accounted for by other variables, leaving grade point average and agreeableness the only independent predictors of judicial record status. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd. </jats:p

Sex differences on the progressive matrices among adolescents: Some data from Estonia

Abstract It has long been asserted that there are no sex differences on the Progressive Matrices. Contrary to this position, it has been contended b

Associations of self-esteem and temperament traits to self- and teacher-reported social status among classmates

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Comparability of Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 21 Countries

Mottus R, Allik J, Realo A, et al. Comparability of Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 21 Countries. European Journal of Personality. 2012;26(3):303-317.In cross-national studies, mean levels of self-reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self-report judgements in relation to culture-specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross-cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation-level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture-related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self-ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self-rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture-specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd