Who is impacted? Personality predicts individual differences in psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in people’s private and public lives that are unprecedented in modern history. However, little is known about the differential psychological consequences of restrictions that have been imposed to fight the pandemic. In a large and diverse German sample (N = 1,320), we examined how individual differences in psychological consequences of the pandemic (perceived restrictiveness of government-supported measures; global pandemic-related appraisals; subjective well-being) were associated with a broad set of faceted personality traits (Big Five, Honesty-Humility, Dark Triad). Facets of Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness were among the strongest and most important predictors of psychological outcomes, even after controlling for basic socio-demographic variables (gender, age). These findings suggest that psychological consequences of the pandemic depend on personality and thus add to the growing literature on the importance of considering individual differences in crisis situations.

Loneliness and Well-Being During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Associations with Personality and Emotion Regulation

“…Emotionally unstable individuals also have more dysfunctional interpersonal relationships and are less satisfied with their relationships (Vater and Schröder-Abé 2015). Among the five factors of personality, neuroticism has been demonstrated to be the strongest correlate for reduced well-being and enhanced loneliness (Albuquerque et al 2012;Buecker et al 2020), which has also been confirmed in recent Covid-19-related studies (Aschwanden et al 2020;Modersitzki et al 2020).…”

“…Differences in long-term levels of loneliness and well-being are strongly associated with and predicted by stable personality traits (Buecker et al 2020;Modersitzki et al 2020;Ozer and Benet-Martinez 2006). From the perspective of the five-factor model of personality (FFM; Costa and McCrae 1980), the most consistent relationships with loneliness and well-being were found for neuroticism and extraversion (Buecker et al 2020;DeNeve and Cooper 1998;Diener et al 2003;Modersitzki et al 2020;Steel et al 2008). Neuroticism is characterized by a vulnerability to negative feelings and greater distress in changing life situations (Buecker et al 2020;Kroencke et al 2020;Liu et al 2021;Suls and Martin 2005).…”

The Situation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Snapshot in Germany

“…For personality traits, we focused on individual differences in the Big Five traits, each consisting of three facets [32]: Extraversion (sociability, assertiveness, energy level), Agreeableness (compassion, respectfulness, trust), Conscientiousness (organization, productivity, responsibility), Neuroticism (anxiety, depression, emotional volatility), and Openness (intellectual curiosity, aesthetic sensitivity, creative imagination). Moreover, we included Honesty-Humility (sincerity, fairness, greed-avoidance, modesty [33]) and the Dark Triad traits Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy [34] given their potential relevance for different outcomes during the COVID-19 crisis [7][8][9]. Previous research has shown that personality traits are associated in meaningful ways with situation experiences [16-18, 25, 30, 35].…”

“…This question concerns the nexus between traits, situation experiences, and important psychological outcomes (appraisals, well-being). From previous research, we know that personality traits are related to appraisals and well-being in general (e.g., [40][41]) and during the COVID-19 pandemic [5,[7][8]. However, it is an open question to what extent experienced situation characteristics explain those associations and which situation perception dimensions are particularly important.…”

“…For instance, research has indicated that personality traits are associated with well-being during and appraisals of the COVID-19 crisis (e.g. [5][6][7][8]).…”