Personality Maturation through Sense of Mastery?: Longitudinal Evidence from two Education-to-Work Transition Studies

Objective Why personality changes in young adulthood remains a critical theoretical and empirical question. We studied personality change during the education-to-work transition, including mean-level personality change and its specific timing, the degree of individual variability in change, and the link between sense of mastery and personality change. Methods We used two intensive longitudinal studies. Study 1 included 5 waves of data across 2 years during the university-to-work transition (N = 309; mean-aged 25). Study 2 included 3 waves of data across 8 months during an internship-heavy teacher education program (N = 317; mean-aged 22). We measured personality traits and work-related mastery with questionnaires and personality states and general mastery with the experience sampling method. Results First, we found no evidence for mean-level personality maturation but decreases in trait Conscientiousness. Second, young adults differed significantly in personality trait and state change. Third, young adults with higher levels of work-related sense of mastery showed more positive changes in trait Conscientiousness. Decreases in general sense of mastery predicted later decreases in state Emotional Stability and vice versa. Change in general sense of mastery correlated with personality state change. Conclusions Sense of mastery seems to be part of a dynamic short-term process underlying personality change in young adulthood

Longitudinal Actor, Partner and Similarity Effects of Personality on Well-Being

The current study aimed to conceptually replicate previous studies on the effects of actor personality, partner personality, and personality similarity on general and relational well-being by using response surface analyses and a longitudinal sample of 4,464 romantic couples. Similar to previous studies using difference scores and profile correlations, results from response surface analyses indicated that personality similarity explained a small amount of variance in well-being as compared to the amount of variance explained by linear actor and partner effects. However, response surface analyses also revealed that second-order terms (i.e., the interaction term and quadratic terms of actor and partner personality) were systematically linked to couples’ well-being for all traits except neuroticism. In particular, most response surfaces showed a complex pattern in which the effect of similarity and dissimilarity on well-being depended on the level and combination of actor and partner personality. In addition, one small but robust similarity effects was found, indicating that similarity in agreeableness was related to women’s experience of support across the eight years of the study. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for theory and research on personality similarity in romantic relationships

Personality development in the context of parenthood and romantic relationships

Het hoofddoel van dit proefschrift was het onderzoeken van persoonlijkheidsontwikkeling in de context van het ouderschap en romantische relaties. De ouder-kind relatie en romantische relatie zijn twee van de meest intieme en langdurige relaties die mensen tijdens de volwassenheid ervaren, en bieden een rijke context om persoonlijkheid te bestuderen. Dit proefschrift maakt gebruik van grote steekproeven van ouders en romantische koppels die over meerdere jaren vragenlijsten hebben ingevuld over hun relatie, welzijn, en persoonlijkheid. Hieronder zijn de drie belangrijkste bevindingen toegelicht: 1. Persoonlijkheid was een voospeller van het krijgen van een eerste kind in de daaropvolgende jaren. Kenmerken die gerelateerd zijn aan psychologische volwassenheid, zoals hoge zelfcontrole, voorspelden het ouderschap. Daarnaast waren kenmerken die niet direct verband houden met volwassenheid, zoals hoge extraversie, ook voorspellers van het krijgen van een eerste kind. 2. Het krijgen van een eerste kind leidde niet tot positieve persoonlijkheidsveranderingen bij nieuwe ouders op de lange termijn over een tijdspanne van maximaal vier jaar. Moeders vertoonden wel negatieve veranderingen op kortere termijn in hun zelfcontrole en zelfvertrouwen. Dat deze veranderingen vooral gevonden zijn bij moeders, en niet bij vaders, zou kunnen komen door de fysieke en hormonale veranderingen die moeders tijdens en na de zwangerschap ervaren, of doordat moeders meestal de primaire verzorger zijn van het kind. De uitdagingen van het ouderschap zouden daarom voor meer negatieve korte termijn veranderingen kunnen leiden bij moeders dan bij vaders. De veranderingen in zelfcontrole en zelfvertrouwen waren niet voor elke moeder hetzelfde. Nieuwe moeders die bijvoorbeeld een stijging in relatiekwaliteit met hun romantische partner ervaarden, kregen meer zelfvertrouwen, terwijl moeders die afnamen in relatiekwaliteit ook afnamen in zelfvertrouwen. 3. Persoonlijkheid was een belangrijke voorspeller van het welzijn van oudere romantische koppels. Niet alleen iemands eigen persoonlijkheid, maar ook de persoonlijkheid van zijn of haar partner leverde een bijdrage aan zijn of haar relationele en algemene welzijn. Daarnaast speelde de mate waarin de persoonlijkheden van koppels op elkaar leken een kleine rol voor hun welzijn. Deze verbanden waren grotendeels stabiel over de acht jaar van de studie. Dit proefschrift draagt bij aan ons begrip van welke ervaringen wel en niet gerelateerd zijn aan stabiliteit en verandering in de persoonlijkheidskenmerken van mensen, en welke effecten persoonlijkheidskenmerken hebben op sociale gebeurtenissen in het leven

Stability and Change in Self-Control during the Transition to Parenthood

Self-control is associated with a variety of positive life outcomes, including relationship satisfaction, health, educational achievement, and avoiding criminal behavior. A largely unanswered question concerns the extent to which self-control changes across the lifespan and in response to major life events. The present research used prospective 4-wave data from 539 Dutch individuals to examine the self-control trajectory of first-time parents (n = 246) as compared to individuals who did not have children during the research period (n = 293). New parents (especially mothers) reported higher levels of self-control before birth (i.e., during pregnancy), as compared to nonparents. New mothers showed significant nonlinear decreases in self-control, which were especially strong from pregnancy until six months after childbirth. New fathers’ self-control remained largely stable. Furthermore, pregnancy-related stress was associated with lower self-control levels during pregnancy in both first-time mothers and fathers. Higher levels of work-family conflict and family-related stress were associated with lower self-control after childbirth in new fathers, but not in new mothers. These results indicate that major life transitions may be linked to changes in adult self-control. Discussion focuses on the implications of the results for theory and research on the development of self-control in adulthood

The Association Between Attachment Style and Changes in Self-esteem and Romantic Relationship Quality during the Transition to Parenthood

This study on transition to parenthood examines how new parents’ attachment style predicts changes in self-esteem and romantic relationship quality

The Effect of Personality Interventions on Satisfaction in Ten Domains of Life: Evidence for Increases and Correlated Change with Personality Traits

The desire to change one’s personality has been shown to be associated with dissatisfaction in various domains of life. It is unclear though whether intervention-related changes in personality lead to subsequent increases in these satisfaction domains. The main objective of this study is to examine changes in ten domains of satisfaction, as well as correlated change with personality traits, in a three-month digital-coaching personality change intervention study. We focused on the three largest intervention groups of the study (N = 418), which included participants who wanted to increase their Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, or Extraversion. Bivariate latent change score models were used to examine correlated change between the targeted personality traits and satisfaction domains. We found that the satisfaction with life and oneself as a person increased in all three intervention groups. In addition, increases in specific satisfaction domains were reported for the Conscientiousness (e.g., work/school, health, friendships) and Emotional Stability (e.g., family, sexual relationships, emotions) group. These increases were stable up to the follow-up measure three months after the intervention. In contrast, the waitlist control group did not report any changes in global or domain-specific life satisfaction. Changes in the satisfaction domains were positively correlated with self-reported personality trait change to a similar degree as the cross-sectional associations, but not to observer-reported personality trait change. The personality intervention thus seemed to have a positive effect on various domains of life satisfaction, which was associated with the degree of self-reported personality trait change

Self–other agreement in personality development in romantic couples

A large body of evidence indicates that personality traits show high rank-order stability and substantial mean-level changes across the lifespan. However, the majority of longitudinal research on personality development has relied on repeated assessments of self-reports, providing a narrow empirical base from which to draw conclusions and develop theory. Here, we (1) tested whether self- and informant-reports provided by couples show similar patterns of rank-order stability and mean-level change and (2) assessed self–other agreement in personality development. We charted the Big Five personality trajectories of 255 couples (N = 510; M age = 27.01 years) who provided both self- and partner-reports at four assessments across 1.5 years. Results indicated similar rank-order stabilities in self- and partner-report data. Latent growth curve models indicated no significant differences between self- and partner-reported personality trajectories, with exceptions to extraversion and agreeableness. We further found strong cross-sectional agreement across all Big Five traits and assessment waves as well as moderate self–other agreement in personality change in emotional stability and agreeableness. These findings highlight the relevance of multi-method assessments in personality development, while providing information about personality stability and change. Discussion focuses on the theoretical implications and future directions for multi-method assessments in longitudinal personality research