Broad and narrow environmental and genetic sources of personality differences: An extended twin family study

Abstract

ObjectiveSeveral personality theories distinguish between rather genetically rooted, universal dispositional traits (DTs) and rather environmentally shaped, more contextualized characteristic adaptations (CAs). However, no study so far has compared different measures of theoretically postulated DTs and CAs regarding their environmental and genetic components while considering differences in measurement abstraction and reliability. This study aims to bridge this gap by testing the assumed differences in the sensitivity to environmental influences based on representative sets of DTs (Big Five and HEXACO domains and facets) and CAs (goals, interests, value priorities, religiousness, and self‐schemas).MethodUsing intra‐class correlations and running extended twin family and spouses‐of‐twins model analyses, we analyzed a large data set (N = 1967) encompassing 636 twin pairs, 787 parent‐offspring dyads, and 325 spouses/partners.ResultsFindings consistently support lower environmentality of DTs compared to CAs. On average, more than half of reliable variance in DTs was genetic, whereas the reverse was found for CAs. Larger environmental components in CAs were primarily attributable to larger individual‐specific effects (beyond error of measurement) and factors shared by spouses.ConclusionsFindings are discussed against the background of the definitional distinction between DTs and CAs and the value of extended twin family data.

Structure and Sources of Core Self-Evaluations: Construct Validation Using Multi-Rater and Genetically Informative Designs

“…Emotional stability was the only characteristic to provide specific additive genetic variance and also showed the comparably largest amount of these effects in general. These findings accord with existing theories viewing emotional stability as a broader and more basic tendency or dispositional trait and, in contrast, self-esteem or control beliefs as characteristic adaptations (McAdams & Pals, 2006; McCrae & Costa, 2008), since dispositional trait differences were frequently expected to yield comparably larger heritability estimates (Kandler et al, 2014; Kandler & Rauthmann, 2022; Kandler et al, in press). Our results on unique additive genetic variance in emotional stability correspond to these assumptions and amplify that emotional stability might be specifically distinguishable from the other three self-evaluative characteristics with respect to a broader scope.…”

“…1.The present twin data has been used in another study (Kandler et al, in press), but with regard to a very different research question not referring to the structure and sources of common variance underlying the four self-evaluative characteristics.…”

Explicating narrow and broad conceptualizations of environmental influences on personality

“…This multinational effort to understand values in the Mediterranean region (including seven countries from three continents) is an impressive illustration in furthering our understanding of the role of cultural fit for well-being in young adults. Kandler et al (2023; this issue) provided a comprehensive analysis of the genetic and environmental components of a host of psychological characteristics that are theorized to have different levels of environmental sensitivity (i.e., dispositional traits [Big Five and HEXACO traits and facets] and characteristic adaptations [goals, interests, moral concerns, values, religiosity, self-esteem, control, selfefficacy, and well-being]). Using extended twin family and spouses-of-twins models, they confirmed that the variance in dispositional traits can be attributable to genetic influences and that variance in characteristics adaptations can be attributable to environmental influences.…”

“…This special issue highlights that the call to go beyond traits is still relevant. However, we want to point to the few articles in our special issue that went beyond traits (e.g., Atherton et al, 2023; Du et al, 2023; Kandler et al, 2023; Kirchner‐Häusler et al, 2023). These included personality constructs such as values, well‐being, goals, interests, religiousness, and self‐schemas.…”

Basic or Adaptation: The Assessment and Heritability of a Brief Measure of Agency

“…However, heritability estimates include gene-environment interplay processes which could lead to high heritability estimates with many modi able environmental risk factors, or novel interventions could be designed to work in tandem with genetically in uenced characteristics (e.g., wearing eyeglasses). We favor the approach taken byKandler et al (2022) which uses behavior genetic estimates as one data point among many to guide inferences. In this context, agency appears to re ect an intermediate variable.…”