How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change
Personality is important for a range of life outcomes. However, despite evidence that personality changes across time, there is a concerning tendency for researchers outside of personality psychology to treat measures of personality as if they are non-changing when establishing whether personality p...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41554/ |
| _version_ | 1848796301572964352 |
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| author | Boyce, Christopher J. Wood, Alex M. Delaney, Liam Ferguson, Eamonn |
| author_facet | Boyce, Christopher J. Wood, Alex M. Delaney, Liam Ferguson, Eamonn |
| author_sort | Boyce, Christopher J. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Personality is important for a range of life outcomes. However, despite evidence that personality changes across time, there is a concerning tendency for researchers outside of personality psychology to treat measures of personality as if they are non-changing when establishing whether personality predicts important life outcomes. This is problematic when personality changes in response to outcomes of interest and creates a methodological issue that may result in misleading conclusions. We illustrate this methodological issue and suggest using measures before the outcome takes place to mitigate concerns. We then demonstrate, using data from Germany that using post-event personality measures, as opposed to pre-outcome measures, to predict both occurrence of, and reactions to, socio-economic events results in inconsistent conclusions in the directions hypothesized and therefore increases the likelihood of Type 1 and Type 2 errors. This has implications for research investigating the importance of personality for psychological, behavioral, and socio-economic outcomes. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:45:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-41554 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:45:49Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-415542020-05-04T18:43:19Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41554/ How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change Boyce, Christopher J. Wood, Alex M. Delaney, Liam Ferguson, Eamonn Personality is important for a range of life outcomes. However, despite evidence that personality changes across time, there is a concerning tendency for researchers outside of personality psychology to treat measures of personality as if they are non-changing when establishing whether personality predicts important life outcomes. This is problematic when personality changes in response to outcomes of interest and creates a methodological issue that may result in misleading conclusions. We illustrate this methodological issue and suggest using measures before the outcome takes place to mitigate concerns. We then demonstrate, using data from Germany that using post-event personality measures, as opposed to pre-outcome measures, to predict both occurrence of, and reactions to, socio-economic events results in inconsistent conclusions in the directions hypothesized and therefore increases the likelihood of Type 1 and Type 2 errors. This has implications for research investigating the importance of personality for psychological, behavioral, and socio-economic outcomes. Wiley 2017-04-27 Article PeerReviewed Boyce, Christopher J., Wood, Alex M., Delaney, Liam and Ferguson, Eamonn (2017) How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change. European Journal of Personality, 31 (3). pp. 279-290. ISSN 1099-0984 Big Five personality; Regression methods; Socio-economic events; Development of personality http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.2099/full doi:10.1002/per.2099 doi:10.1002/per.2099 |
| spellingShingle | Big Five personality; Regression methods; Socio-economic events; Development of personality Boyce, Christopher J. Wood, Alex M. Delaney, Liam Ferguson, Eamonn How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title | How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title_full | How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title_fullStr | How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title_full_unstemmed | How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title_short | How do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| title_sort | how do personality and social structures interact with each other to predict important life outcomes?: the importance of accounting for personality change |
| topic | Big Five personality; Regression methods; Socio-economic events; Development of personality |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41554/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41554/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41554/ |