‘How would you describe Grandpa?’ Mothers’ personal intelligence predicts personality talk with their children

Abstract

Mother-child conversations reflect and support many important skills-including, perhaps, children's understanding of personality. Children acquire an understanding of people's personalities during the preschool and early elementary years. This study of 4-to 9-year-old children and their 'He was sad at recess'.'She was crying hard'.'That made me angry'. Personality talkCoded by instance, expressed in a single word or phrase. Includes references to trait-relevant behavior and overall personality characteristics.Refers to an individual's ongoing characteristics, not behavior that occurred on one occasion.'She always shares her toys'.'You are a talkative boy'.'Richard is silly'.'I love giving people stuff. I am generous'. Physical descriptivesCoded by instance, expressed in a single word or phrase. Include references to appearance or physical traits.'John is taller than Cathy'.'You have blonde hair'.'They don't have the same face'.'They both have light skin'.Note: All variables above were coded on speech that included sentences and questions.a Elaborations and evaluations were mutually exclusive.b Emotion talk, personality talk, and physical descriptives were mutually exclusive, but could be contained within propositions coded as elaborations or evaluations.

Personal Intelligence Is Evident in the Sophistication of People’s Narratives about Personality

“…More recently, Kenney et al ( 2021 ) recorded the conversations of 135 mother–child dyads, in which the mothers had been asked to discuss the personalities of friends or relatives with their children; those transcripts then were coded for such features as the mention of traits and trait-relevant behavior ( Kenney et al 2021, p. 7 ). The mothers also took a brief form of the Test of Personal Intelligence to assess their personal intelligence.…”

“…The mothers also took a brief form of the Test of Personal Intelligence to assess their personal intelligence. When asked to compare two people’s personalities, one child of a high-PI mother readily shared that their grandfather “just wants to keep everything clean”, but their grandmother was “…like, ‘Okay go ahead make the mess.’” A child of a lower-PI mother found the task more challenging, concluding about two friends that “Their hair [is what is different]…just different hair color” ( Kenney et al 2021, p. 10 ). Higher maternal personal intelligence was correlated with personality talk of both the mothers and children, even after controlling for elaborative talk and word count.…”