Friday, November 22, 2019

How robust are personality psychology research findings?

From Robust Findings in Personality Psychology by Pigee.

Pigee lays out the likely robust findings and then asks knowledgeable people to rate whether the stated summary is true or not. Obviously not a particularly robust approach. In fact, wrong on many levels, most fundamentally that truth is not determined by voting. Pigee is not being naive, (s)he is simply trying to get a general read on the state of knowledge, no matter how crude the measure.

(S)he does provide the research sources supporting the current state of knowledge for each claim.

Below are the findings as well as the responses which so far are not much than 5-11 people. The percentage in parentheses are the percentage of respondents who endorse the accuracy of the statement.
Personality traits predict longevity at an equal level to, and above and beyond, socioeconomic status and intelligence. (94%)

Personality traits predict career success above and beyond socioeconomic status and intelligence. (82%)

Personality factors are heritable and shared environmental influences are smaller than non-shared environmental influences. (94%)

Personality traits predict school grades. (91%)

Personality factors, including attachment, predict relationship satisfaction, but personality trait similarity does not. (100%)

The infamous personality coefficient compares favorably to other effect sizes studied in many areas of Psychology and related fields. Large effects are not expected when considering multiply-determined, consequential life outcomes. (88%)

Personality shows both consistency (rank relative to others) and change (level relative to younger self) across time.
Personality continues to change across the lifespan (largest changes between ages 18 and 30, but continues later on) and the mechanisms of change include: social investment, life experiences, therapy, own volition (78%)

Personality-descriptive language, psychological tests, and pretty much every other form of describing or measuring individual differences in behavior can be organized in terms of five or six broad trait factors. (60%)

Personality research replicates more reliably than many other areas of behavioral science. (73%)

Self-reports and informant-reports of personality agree with each other, but not perfectly. And both sources provide valid information. (75%)

Behavioral “residue” of personality is everywhere. (86%)

Personality is at the core of mental health. (75%)

Personality is predictive of financial and economic outcomes, such as annual earnings, net worth and consumer spending. (71%)

Birth order is functionally unrelated to personality traits and only modestly related to cognitive ability. (100%)

Personality traits, especially conscientiousness and emotional stability, appear to protect individuals from acquiring Alzheimer’s disease. (80%)

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