Does where I live affect who I am?

Question 1

Rationale for why where you live might affect personality

Answer 1

-people behave differently and value different things in different neighborhood

Question 2

Does moving influence personality? (Oishi)

Answer 2

-people who move more are more likely to say that traits (rather than groups) are more representative of them as a person

Question 3

How does moving affect life outcomes (Oishi)

Answer 3

• longitudinal study
• more someone moves, the less satisfied they are in adulthood
• childhood moves associated with decreased well-being and increased mortality for introverts (no effect on extroverts)

Question 4

Does where you move matter?Does moving affect life outcomes? (Chetty, Hendren, & Katz, 2015)

Answer 4

• Moving Opportunity Project (opportunity to move from high poverty housing to low poverty neighborhood or section 8 housing)
• moving increased earnings if they moved to low poverty
• moving to section 8 housing also helped but not as much as low poverty housing

Question 5

Does my neighborhood affect my personality? (Hart, Atkins, & Matsuba Association of Neighborhood poverty with personality change in childhood, 2008)

Answer 5

-had mothers and observers measure children age 3-4, retested 2 years later
-if in disadvantaged neighborhood, more likely to be less overcontrolled, and see more change in personality
(might be adaptive to adjust in low poverty environment), more likely to have behavioral problems
-no effect on resilience

Question 6

Interaction between impulsivity and neighborhood context on offending

Answer 6

• 12-13 yr old boys scored on impulsivity, delinquency, measured SES, neighborhood context
• no difference in neighborhood offending for high, low, mid poverty
• in very high poverty + PH, high impulsivity committed more offenses, but low impulsivity show no difference

Question 7

Does my region of country affect my personality? (Rentfrow, Gosling & Potter, 2008 Statewide Differences in Personality)

Answer 7

• Pacific: high in oppenness, low in extroversion
• Middle atlantic: high in neuroticism
• New England: high openness, low agreeableness

Question 8

How do statewide differences in personality affect statewide outcomes?

Answer 8

• more neurotic states: less jogging

- More open: more robbery, murder, patent production, more in favor of marijuana, abortion, same sex marriages

Question 9

Boston vs San Francisco Study (Hazel Markus)

Answer 9

• coded cultural artifacts (newsapers, hospital websites, venture capital websites)
• Boston: old and established
• San Francisco: new and free
• these values affect life-outcomes and life satisfaction
• Boston: more old and established correlated to increased feeling good about self, and measures of success (educational attainment, finances, family support)
• SF: feeling good about yourself more based on work