Are some people more consistent? Examining the stability and underlying processes of personality profile consistency.
Survey
HILDA
Author(s)
Wright, Amanda
ajwright@wustl.edu
Washington University in St. Louis
0000-0001-8873-9405
Jackson, Joshua
j.jackson@wustl.edu
Washington University in St. Louis
0000-0002-9490-8890
Date Issued
2022-07-11
Pages
24
Keywords
personality development
Big Five
ipsative consistency
profile correlations
person-centered
Abstract
Personality traits are relatively consistent across time, as indicated by test–retest correlations. However, ipsative consistency approaches suggest there are individual differences in this consistency. Despite this, it is unknown whether these differences are due to person-level characteristics (i.e., some people are just more consistent) or exogenous forces (i.e., lack of consistency is due to environmental changes). Moreover, it is unclear whether the processes promoting long-term consistency are the same across people. We examine these two questions using item-level profile correlations across four to nine waves of data with four data sets (N = 21,616) with multilevel asymptotic growth models. Results indicated that there were, on average, high levels of profile consistency. However, there were notable individual differences in initial profile correlation values as well as in changes in levels of consistency across time, indicating that some people are more stably consistent than others. Moreover, the directions of people’s trajectories across increasing time intervals suggest that the mechanisms responsible for reinforcing personality consistency vary across people. These effects were typically moderated by age at 30 years old, maturity-related traits, and education level. Overall, findings indicate some people are more consistent than others, such that this stable level of (in)consistency is a dispositional factor. Additionally, individual differences in profile consistency are shaped by different levels of three processes. On average, stochastic factors are not impactful for most individuals, and transactional processes have an important role in increasing consistency for a sizable amount of people—nuances not previously revealed when focusing on rank-order stability.
URI (Link)
External resource (Link)
ISBN
ISSN: 0022-3514
Type
Journal Articles
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