Lecture 4 Flashcards
Profs nephew anecdote
Profs nephew is old and got married last year
He wants to predict their marriage
Both him and wife are religious and high N
Many shared activities
Personality and Compatibility Study - History
Kelly & Conley, 1987
Conley in the 1930s recruited 3000 engaged couples
Systematically assessed personality - got 5 of their friends who they said knew them well to rate them
Used a battery of measures as this was pre big-5
Included personality, attitudes, values, religious beliefs, and many questions about sex (unusual for 1938)
Followed them up for 5 years but then WW2 so stopped
20 years later, Kelly followed them up, still big 5.
50 years after was contacted by the younger Conley
Asked if they could redo it as big 5 and follow them up
of 300, 20 did not get married
20% got divorces (was an older time)
Key outcomes
1 - divorce
2 - happy and satisfied or not
Because so few got divorced, they created a measure the marriage misery index which rated how happy they were from divorces, through stayed together but hated each other to stayed together and were happy
Personality and Compatibility Study - Results
2 of the big 5 were significantly related to marital outcomes
N was the biggest. Applied to both husband and wife.
Was the biggest predictor (more than religion and life events)
Correlation of .2 which is pretty large for social science
C but only for the man was also implicated
Specifically low C
May be explained by only men working then
Who stayed together when miserable and why?
Low E cos they’re submissive
Low A because when high A people are supportive they feel positive affect but then low A people argue they feel it
Personality and Compatibility Study: What predicted divorce
Personality:
High N
Low C (man only)
Non-personality factors
SES - huge in low SES Americans its 50% divorce, for educated high SES its 20%
Religious beliefs and values
Life events
Personality Trait Similarity Between Spouses in 4 Cultures study: Set up
Costa and McCrea - biggest names in big 5 today
Interested in how people pair off. Do we choose people that are similar to us in personality? Assortative Mating: choose ones like us which means our kids are likely to be
Done in the US Holland, Czech and Russia
Big sample size across many variables
Results across cultures are similar
Split age - why? To see if living with someone for decades moves you closer together in terms of your personality
Personality Trait Similarity Between Spouses in 4 Cultures study: Results
People do match (weak correlation) on all traits
Openness is stronger
Also related strongly to political beliefs which might influence partner selection
Strongly related to education and IQ
Common to pick partners with similar political opinions
Big 5 and job performance study: Set up
between 1950 and 1990 many studies were done matching personality to job performance
in 1991 Barrick & Mount two occupational psychologists organised these into big 5 one by one
Very clear results
Because there was a suspicion that different personalities would suit different jobs, occupations were divided up into 5 categories
Professionals (docs, lawyers, teachers)
Managers
Sales
Police
Skilled/Semi-skilled (clerical, assemblers, operators)
The measured outcome criteria were
Training proficiency
Job proficiency
Objective outcomes
Big 5 and job performance study: Results
In all job typed C is correlated at about .2 with success
Some nuances
In sales and management, high E was correlated with success
Openness was correlated ONLY FOR THE TRAINING PERIOD - which is a period of acculturation where you learn what the company is about. It does not carry forward
More recent findings suggest that high A and low N are associated with performance IN GROUPS
Marguerite Rigogliso
Likes diversity
Work team personality composition: Study & Results
1999
80% men, maybe an auto shop
Mostly sales
had the company reorganize everyone into 80 4 ppl team
All workers completed personality assessments and these were then averaged. They called this elevation
Also calculated the variation of each trait within a group and called this the diversity
RESULTS
For C, A and O, the more the groups had, the better
For E and N the more variation they had, the better
Good to have some introverts mixed in and high N people are going to be more prevention orientated before there is a problem.
Grit (alleged definition and correlation)
Ducksworth
working strenuously toward challenges though failure etc
is living life like a marathon, not a sprint
When using multiple regression analyses to control for SATs gritty people do better at uni
They last longer at west point
They succeed in spelling bees
What is “grit” really
It is C.
Their first study found a .78 correlation between C and grit. There will always be measurement errors so the highest correlation really will be .8.
beware new personality scales with the same name
Be suspicious
McAdams on C
200 studies that show C predicts performance of goal directed things
Finds C to be the best predictor of school outcomes after IQ and aptitude
