Longitudinal transactions between personality and occupational roles: A large and heterogeneous study of job beginners, stayers, and changers.

Abstract

Social norms are central to theoretical accounts of longitudinal person-environment transactions. On the one hand, individuals are thought to select themselves into social roles that fit their personality. On the other hand, it is assumed that individuals' personality is transformed by the socializing pressure of norm demands. These 2 transactional directions were investigated in a large and heterogeneous 5-year longitudinal subsample of job beginners (n = 640, M age = 21.24), job stayers (n = 4,137, M age = 46.63), and job changers (n = 2,854, M age = 44.68) from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Role demands were coded by both students and labor market experts. To demonstrate transactional effects, cross-lagged structural equation models were estimated. Substantial selection effects were found for both job beginners and job changers. There was also evidence for socialization effects, especially for participants who did not change jobs. Depending on the trait and the subsample that was investigated, selection effects were sometimes corresponsive with socialization effects. Personality role demands were temporally consistent across a 4-year period even when individuals changed jobs (heterotypic continuity). This is one of the first empirical demonstrations of the transactional processes that lead to the formation of social niches.

A Three–Part Framework for Self–Regulated Personality Development across Adulthood

“…being architects), whereas individuals low in openness are more likely to choose and thrive in occupations that favour routines (e.g. being government tax and excise officials; for empirical evidence, see Denissen, Ulferts, Lüdtke, Gerstorf, & Muck, under review). To the degree that these niches have stable affordances and requirements, they will stabilize the traits that led people to seek out the respective niches in the first place.…”

What Drives Adult Personality Development? A Comparison of Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence

“…Zimmermann and Neyer () found corresponsiveness for openness in individuals who stayed abroad for longer periods (but not for short‐term stays and not for the other four traits). Finally, Denissen et al (in press) found corresponsive effects between personality and vocational change mainly for openness and extraversion but not for other Big Five traits.…”

“…effects that lead people to experience these events in the first place) found that individuals who experienced specific life events had developmental trajectories that differed from those who did not experience these events (e.g. Denissen, Ulfers, Lüdtke, Muck, & Gerstorf, in press; Hutteman et al, 2014; Jackson, Thoemmes, Jonkmann, Lüdtke, & Trautwein, ; Lüdtke, Roberts, Trautwein, & Nagy, ; Reitz, Motti‐Stefanidi, & Asendorpf, ; Specht et al, ; Zimmermann & Neyer, ), supporting perspectives that emphasize the impact of life experiences as sources of individual differences in change. However, most of the revealed influences on personality development tended to be small when controlling for age (see also Allemand, Gomez, & Jackson, ; Costa, Herbst, McCrae, & Siegler, ), suggesting that changes in personality that can be traced back to experience of life events beyond general age trends are of limited impact.…”

Age Differences in the Variance of Personality Characteristics

“…Of course, the corresponsive principle does not have to apply to all personality characteristics. For example, Zimmermann and Neyer () reported it for Openness but not for other FFM domains, whereas Denissen and colleagues () provided evidence for the corresponsive principle in Openness and Extraversion. Besides not being uniformly applicable to all FFM domains, it is possible that age differences in variance are masked in broad personality domains that aggregate numerous more specific personality characteristics.…”