A Tale of Two Visions: Can a New View of Personality Help Integrate Psychology?

Mayer, John D.

doi:10.1037/0003-066x.60.4.294

Cited by 168 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 155 publications

(223 reference statements)

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“…Personality psychologists also study constructs such as motivation, interests, emotions, values, identities, life stories, and self-regulation (see Mayer, 2005, andWood, 2006, for reviews). Moreover, these different domains of personality are only modestly correlated (e.g., Ackerman & Heggested, 1997;Roberts & Robins, 2000).…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes

Roberts

Kuncel

Shiner

et al. 2007

Perspect Psychol Sci

1,939

1,469

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The ability of personality traits to predict important life outcomes has traditionally been questioned because of the putative small effects of personality. In this article, we compare the predictive validity of personality traits with that of socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability to test the relative contribution of personality traits to predictions of three critical outcomes: mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment. Only evidence from prospective longitudinal studies was considered. In addition, an attempt was made to limit the review to studies that controlled for important background factors. Results showed that the magnitude of the effects of personality traits on mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment was indistinguishable from the effects of SES and cognitive ability on these outcomes. These results demonstrate the influence of personality traits on important life outcomes, highlight the need to more routinely incorporate measures of personality into quality of life surveys, and encourage further research about the developmental origins of personality traits and the processes by which these traits influence diverse life outcomes.Starting in the 1980s, personality psychology began a profound renaissance and has now become an extraordinarily diverse and intellectually stimulating field (Pervin & John, 1999). However, just because a field of inquiry is vibrant does not mean it is practical or usefulone would need to show that personality traits predict important life outcomes, such as health and longevity, marital success, and educational and occupational attainment. In fact, two recent reviews have shown that different personality traits are associated with outcomes in each of these domains (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005;Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006). But simply showing that personality traits are related to health, love, and attainment is not a Address correspondence to Brent W. Roberts, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820; broberts@cyrus.psych.uiuc.edu. HHS Public Access Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript stringent test of the utility of personality traits. These associations could be the result of "third" variables, such as socioeconomic status (SES), that account for the patterns but have not been controlled for in the studies reviewed. In addition, many of the studies reviewed were cross-sectional and therefore lacked the methodological rigor to show the predictive validity of personality traits. A more stringent test of the importance of personality traits can be found in prospective longitudinal studies that show the incremental validity of personality traits over and above other factors.The analyses reported in this article test whether personality traits are important, practical predictors of significant life outcomes. We focus on three domains: longevity/mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment in work. Within each domain, we evaluate empirica...

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Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes

Roberts

Kuncel

Shiner

et al. 2007

Perspect Psychol Sci

1,939

1,469

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Individual differences, such as dispositions related to emotion, motivation, and cognition (Mayer, 2005), are often investigated as etiologic factors for psychopathology and may account for the comorbidity between disorders. Cognitive control is one such factor, which theoretical work has linked to both externalizing (Hutchison, 2010;Stacy & Wiers, 2010) and internalizing disorders (Paulus, 2007), with some implicating it in psychopathology via its role in emotion regulation (for reviews, see Cheetham et al, 2010;Li & Sinha, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Report: Cognitive Control Helps Explain Comorbidity Between Alcohol Use Disorder and Internalizing Disorders

Ellingson¹,

Richmond‐Rakerd²,

Slutske³

2015

J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs

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ABSTRACT. Objective: Alcohol use and internalizing problems frequently co-occur. Cognitive control has been implicated in their etiology, but no studies have tested whether this construct helps explain the co-occurrence of these disorders. Method: A total of 1,313 undergraduate students completed assessments of cognitive control, negative emotionality, and symptoms of alcohol use disorder (AUD), depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Structural equation models examined the extent to which overlap between AUD and internalizing problems was explained by variance specifi c to cognitive control and negative emotionality, as well as variance shared by both constructs. Results: Symptoms of AUD and internalizing disorders were modestly correlated (depression: r = .16; anxiety: r = .14). Variance specifi c to cognitive control explained a signifi cant proportion of the correlation between AUD and both depression and generalized anxiety (depression: 19%; generalized anxiety: 18%), as did variance common to cognitive control and negative emotionality (depression: 24%; generalized anxiety: 31%). Consistent with previous work, variance specifi c to negative emotionality also explained a large and statistically signifi cant proportion of the correlation between AUD and internalizing disorder symptoms. Of note, the residualized correlation for AUD symptom endorsement with both depression and generalized anxiety problems was not statistically significant after accounting for both cognitive control and negative emotionality. Conclusions: This study provides new evidence that cognitive control may help explain the overlap between AUD and internalizing disorders while further supporting the contribution of negative emotionality to this overlap. Results have implications for intervention efforts aimed at reducing comorbid alcohol use disorder and internalizing disorders, as well as general psychopathology. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 89-94, 2015)

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“…Personality psychology has made striking advances in the past two decades, demonstrating the importance of individual differences in a wide variety of life domains (McCrae, 2002) insofar as Once again, personality psychology may become ''the intellectual center of all the social sciences'' (Baumeister,1999,p.371). This is enough to believe that researches, studies, policies and practical implication in respect to mental health and health can be better organized and conceptualized within the realm of personality psychology which incorporates not only all psychology within psychology, but also includes broad biological, psychological, and social systems within humans (Mayer, 2005) Psychiatry is one of the major specialties of medicine, and is concerned with the study and treatment of mental disorders. In recent times the field is growing with the discovery of effective therapies and interventions that alleviate suffering in people with mental disorders.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality and Mental Health

Salehinezhad¹

2012

Essential Notes in Psychiatry

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A Tale of Two Visions: Can a New View of Personality Help Integrate Psychology?

Cited by 168 publications

References 155 publications

The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes

The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes

Brief Report: Cognitive Control Helps Explain Comorbidity Between Alcohol Use Disorder and Internalizing Disorders

Personality and Mental Health

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