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. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

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How much do we think our personality changes over time? How well do our perceptions of change correspond with actual personality change? Two hundred and ninety students completed measures of the Big Five personality traits when they first entered college. Four years later, they completed the same measures and rated the degree to which they believed they had changed on each dimension. Participants tended to view themselves as having changed substantially, and perceptions of change showed some correspondence with actual personality change. Perceived and actual change showed theoretically meaningful correlations with a host of variables related to different aspects of college achievement and adjustment.

We review the history and current status of the person-situation debate. We propose that the person-situation debate (1) is over and (2) that it ended in a 'Hegelian' synthesis. Specifically, we propose the following synthesis resolution: There are multiple types of consistency; behavior is consistent for some of those types and not for others; and personality and traits exist in the forms that produce the consistent behaviors. Incorporating both personality processes and trait structures in research will move personality research forward. In this article, we summarize the advances that the two perspectives have generated by working in opposition; we explain why both sides will suffer from continuing to work independently; and we anticipate several future directions that synthesis-informed personality research can and should take. A Person-Situation Debate Synthesis

An understanding of the nature of personality depends on clear conceptions of consistency. Researchers have applied the term consistency in ambiguous and inconsistent ways over the last half century, which has led to a great deal of confusion and debate over the existence of personality. This article seeks to reframe and extend conceptions of consistency and thus proposes three important ways consistency concepts differ from each other. The first way consistency concepts differ from each other is in the competing determinant of behavior that the consistency is across: time, situation content, or behavior content. The second way consistency concepts differ from each other is in the definition of behavior enactment: single enactment, aggregate enactment, contingent enactment, or patterned enactment. When these two dimensions are crossed with a third dimension-definition of similarity (absolute, relative-position, or ipsative)-they create a supermatrix of 36 consistency concepts. Empirical support for each of these 36 consistency concepts, or its failure, has uniquely different implications for the fundamental nature of personality. This supermatrix can serve as a guide for future research aimed at discovering the nature of personality.

Four studies were conducted on young adults' goals and plans to change personality traits. In Study 1, a new trait change goal assessment tool, the BF-TGI, found Neuroticism to be the most frequently cited trait for a change goal. In Study 2, data was gathered from the UK, Iran and China. Iran showed a higher prevalence of normative change goals than the UK and China. Study 3 investigated plans to change traits. Extraversion and Conscientiousness plans were more specific than for the other traits. Study 4 investigated whether goals and plans to change predict change over 12 months, and found that goals and plans to change Conscientiousness and Neuroticism predicted change in the opposite direction to the goal. Keywords:Goals, plans, traits, culture, change, longitudinal, Big Five Goals and plans for trait change 4 Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adultsThe market for self-help books and self-improvement workshops is booming. People believe that with the right tips and enough effort, they can rid themselves of undesirable personality characteristics and increase positive ones (Chiu, Hong, & Dweck, 1997;Noftle, 2013). But does this belief reflect actuality? The self-help literature is based mostly on hope, not evidence, and empirical research looking at goal-directed attempts at personality development is currently scarce. The current study explores the extent to which goals and plans for personal change at the level of Big Five traits are present during young adulthood, what the content of these goals and plans are, and whether they predict change over a period of a year.Of all the age ranges of the lifespan, young adulthood has been found to be one of the most prolific in terms of personality trait change (Donnellan & Lucas, 2008). In a metaanalysis of mean-level Big Five longitudinal trait change across the lifespan, aggregated intra-individual change was greatest between ages 18 and 29 (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006). Furthermore, young adulthood shows lower rank-order stability for traits than adults in older age groups (Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000). Indeed, recent analysis of data from 62 nations has found that personality change in young adults in the direction of increased Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and lower Neuroticism, may be crossculturally universal (Bleidorn et al., 2013).Several theories purport to explain the change towards increased Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and lower Neuroticism, and would in turn help to explain goals to change in these directions. Socio-analytic theory advanced by Hogan and Roberts (2004) state that as they age, individuals aim for personality maturity as perceived by others, which involves being liked, admired and respected. In terms of Five Factor Model traits, they postulate that Goals and plans for trait change 5 this means becoming more agreeable, more emotionally stable and more conscientious. NeoEriksonian models of life course change, such as the model of emerging adulthood, also help to explain why this age ...

Objective One of the most noteworthy and robust findings in personality psychology is the relationship between extraversion and positive affect. Existing theories have debated the origins and nature of this relationship, offering both structural/fixed and environmental/dynamic explanations. We tested the novel and straightforward dynamic hypothesis that part of the reason trait extraversion predicts trait positive affect is through an increased propensity to enact extraverted states, which in turn leads to experiencing more positive affect states. Method We report five experience sampling studies (and a meta-analysis of primary studies) conducted in natural environments and laboratory settings in which undergraduate participants (N = 241) provided ratings of trait extraversion, trait positive affect, extraversion states, and positive affect states. Results Results of primary studies and the meta analysis showed that relationships between trait extraversion and trait positive affect were partially mediated by aggregated extraversion states and aggregated positive affect states. Conclusions The results supported our dynamic hypothesis and suggested that dynamic explanations of the relationship between trait extraversion and trait positive affect are compatible with structural explanations. An important implication of these findings is that individuals might be able to increase their happiness by self-regulating their extraverted states.