Personality traits change after an opportunity to mate.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Monestier C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7282925 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Personality traits predict important life outcomes, such as success in love and work life, well-being, health, and longevity. Given these positive relations to important outcomes, economists, policy makers, and scientists have proposed intervening to change personality traits to promote positive life outcomes. However, nonclinical interventions to change personality traits are lacking so far in large-scale naturalistic populations. This study (n = 1,523) examined the effects of a 3-mo digital personality change intervention using a randomized controlled trial and the smartphone application PEACH (PErsonality coACH). Participants who received the intervention showed greater self-reported changes compared to participants in the waitlist control group who had to wait 1 mo before receiving the intervention. Self-reported changes aligned with intended goals for change and were significant for those desiring to increase on a trait (d = 0.52) and for those desiring to decrease on a trait (d = -0.58). Observers such as friends, family members, or intimate partners also detected significant personality changes in the desired direction for those desiring to increase on a trait (d = 0.35). Observer-reported changes for those desiring to decrease on a trait were not significant (d = -0.22). Moreover, self- and observer-reported changes persisted until 3 mo after the end of the intervention. This work provides the strongest evidence to date that normal personality traits can be changed through intervention in nonclinical samples.
| S-EPMC7923371 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDespite its important implications in behavioural and evolutionary ecology, male mate choice has been poorly studied, and the relative contribution of personality and morphological traits remains largely unknown. We used standard two-choice mating trials to explore whether two personality traits (i.e., shyness and activity) and/or body size of both sexes affect mate choice in male mosquitofish Gambusia affinis. In the first set of trials involving 40 males, we tested whether males would prefer larger females and whether the preference would be affected by males' body length and personality traits, and females' activity level. In the second set of trials (using another 40 males), we tested whether males would prefer more active females and whether the preference would be affected by males' body length and personality traits.ResultsBoth shyness and activity in males were significantly repeatable and constituted a behavioural syndrome. No overall directional preference for large (or small) females with the same activity levels was detected because larger males preferred larger females and smaller males chose smaller females. Males' strength of preference for larger females was also positively correlated with the activity level of larger females but negatively with the activity level of smaller females. Males spent more time associating with active females regardless of their body lengths, indicating males' selection was more influenced by female activity level than body size. Males' preference for inactive females was enhanced when females became active. There was no convincing evidence for the effect of males' personality traits or body length on their preferences for females' activity level.ConclusionsOur study supports the importance of body size in male mate choice but highlights that personality traits may outweigh body size preferences when males choose mating partners.
| S-EPMC8780319 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveWe integrate the study of post-traumatic growth with personality science by examining the reciprocal effects of adversity and core personality traits. We implemented conceptual (i.e., incorporating personality traits into the study of adversity-related growth, examining trait-specific and configural personality change, and adopting a cumulative approach to adversity) and methodological (i.e., three-wave prospective design, assessing many life events, sampling from populations likely to experience adversity) innovations to advance the study of personality development and of the generality of adversity-related growth.MethodA diverse sample (41% nonwhite, 48% low-income, 68% female, Mage = 44, 30% diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder) participated in a three-wave prospective longitudinal study (N = 258-128 across waves). Participants completed a personality inventory and a battery of life-event surveys (including 105 events) at each wave.ResultsPersonality was generally stable from trait-specific and configural perspectives, and all traits were correlated with adversity. All traits, particularly Extraversion and Conscientiousness, predicted adversity. Adversity predicted increases in Emotionality and decreases in Agreeableness.ConclusionsAlthough personality growth is not the typical response to adversity within a 3-year period, findings underscore the real-world impact of personality, and they provide some support for developmental theories emphasizing the effects of life events.
| S-EPMC7415531 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The rapid spread of the coronavirus and the strategies to slow it have disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. Such disruption may be reflected in changes in psychological function. The present study used a pre-posttest design to test whether Five Factor Model personality traits changed with the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Participants (N = 2,137) were tested in early February 2020 and again during the President's 15 Days to Slow the Spread guidelines. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, Neuroticism decreased across these six weeks, particularly the facets of Anxiety and Depression, and Conscientiousness did not change. Interestingly, there was some evidence that the rapid changes in the social context had changed the meaning of an item. Specifically, an item about going to work despite being sick was a good indicator of conscientiousness before COVID-19, but the interpretation of it changed with the pandemic. In sum, the unexpected small decline in Neuroticism suggests that, during the acute phase of the coronavirus outbreak, feelings of anxiety and distress may be attributed more to the pandemic than to one's personality.
| S-EPMC7410194 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Sexual cues, including extended phenotypes, are expected to be reliable indicators of male genetic quality and/or provide information on parental quality. However, the reliability of these cues may be dependent on stability of the environment, with heterogeneity affecting how selection acts on such traits. Here, we test how environmental change mediates mate choice for multiple sexual traits, including an extended phenotype--the structure of male-built nests - in stickleback fish. First, we manipulated the dissolved oxygen (DO) content of water to create high or low DO environments in which male fish built nests. Then we recorded the mate choice of females encountering these males (and their nests), under either the same or reversed DO conditions. Males in high DO environments built more compact nests than those in low DO conditions and males adjusted their nest structure in response to changing conditions. Female mate choice for extended phenotype (male nests) was environmentally dependent (females chose more compact nests in high DO conditions), while female choice for male phenotype was not (females chose large, vigorous males regardless of DO level). Examining mate choice in this dynamic context suggests that females evaluate the reliability of multiple sexual cues, taking into account environmental heterogeneity.
| S-EPMC5298037 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In order to adjust personality measurements to children's developmental level, we constructed the Pictorial Personality Traits Questionnaire for Children (PPTQ-C). To validate the measure, we conducted a study with a total group of 1028 children aged between 7 and 13 years old. Structural validity was established through Exploratory Structural Equation Model (ESEM). Criterion validity was confirmed with a multitrait-multimethod analysis for which we introduced the children's self-assessment scores from the Big Five Questionnaire for Children. Despite some problems with reliability, one can conclude that the PPTQ-C can be a valid instrument for measuring personality traits, particularly in a group of young children (aged ~7-10 years).
| S-EPMC4879772 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The notion of lifelong learning is gaining importance, not only in the labor market but also in other areas of modern societies. Previous research finds variation in occupation-related training participation by worker and workplace characteristics, gender, and education. However, evidence on the individual's socio-emotional skills creating favorable conditions for overall further training is scarce. To close this research gap, we analyze the role of personality for further training participation. First, we compare how the Big Five Personality Dimensions relate to different training types by differentiating between non-formal and informal training measures. Second, we investigate how personality traits affect further training chosen for occupational and private reasons separately. Drawing on a sample of 10,559 individuals from the Adult Stage of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we find that throughout our estimations, openness to experience positively relates to further training participation and is the most important determinant among the Big Five Personality Dimensions. However, the relationship between personality traits and training participation varies according to the training type and the reason for participating in further training. Moreover, we find gender-specific differences in the association between personality traits and lifelong learning. We conclude that personality is an important predictor of lifelong learning decisions.
| S-EPMC7701053 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A large body of research has documented how personality develops across adulthood, yet very little longitudinal work has examined whether these findings generalize beyond predominantly middle-class, highly educated White American or Western European individuals. This preregistered study uses longitudinal data from 1,110 Mexican-origin adults who completed a well-validated personality measure, the Big Five Inventory, up to six times across 12 years. Individuals generally maintained their rank ordering on the Big Five over time (rs = .66-.80), and the relative ordering of the Big Five within persons was also highly stable (rs = .58-.66). All of the Big Five traits showed small, linear mean-level decreases across adulthood. These trajectories showed few associations with sociodemographic factors (sex, education level, and IQ) and cultural factors (generational status, age at immigration, Spanish/English language preference, Mexican cultural values, American cultural values, and ethnic discrimination). The statistically significant findings we did observe mostly concerned associations between cultural values and Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Openness. Acquiescence bias was also positively associated with Big Five personality trait scores at every wave. There was no evidence of mean-level change in the Big Five when including time-varying acquiescence scores as covariates in the models. Divergences between the present findings and previous research highlight the need to study personality development with diverse aging samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC8821110 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Strong and supportive social relationships are fundamental to our well-being. However, there are costs to their maintenance, resulting in a trade-off between quality and quantity, a typical strategy being to put a lot of effort on a few high-intensity relationships while maintaining larger numbers of less close relationships. It has also been shown that there are persistent individual differences in this pattern; some individuals allocate their efforts more uniformly across their networks, while others strongly focus on their closest relationships. Furthermore, some individuals maintain more stable networks than others. Here, we focus on how personality traits of individuals affect this picture, using mobile phone calls records and survey data from the Mobile Territorial Lab (MTL) study. In particular, we look at the relationship between personality traits and the (i) persistence of social signatures, namely the similarity of the social signature shape of an individual measured in different time intervals; (ii) the turnover in egocentric networks, that is, differences in the set of alters present at two consecutive temporal intervals; and (iii) the rank dynamics defined as the variation of alter rankings in egocentric networks in consecutive intervals. We observe that some traits have effects on the stability of the social signatures as well as network turnover and rank dynamics. As an example, individuals who score highly in the Openness to Experience trait tend to have higher levels of network turnover and larger alter rank variations. On broader terms, our study shows that personality traits clearly affect the ways in which individuals maintain their personal networks.
| S-EPMC5333865 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aromatase, an enzyme that converts androgens to estrogens, has been reported to be involved in several brain functions, including synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis, neuroprotection, and regulation of sexual and emotional behaviours in rodents, pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease and autism spectrum disorders in humans. Aromatase has been reported to be involved in aggressive behaviours in genetically modified mice and in personality traits by genotyping studies on humans. However, no study has investigated the relationship between aromatase in living brains and personality traits including aggression. We performed a positron emission tomography (PET) study in 21 healthy subjects using 11C-cetrozole, which has high selectivity and affinity for aromatase. Before performing PET scans, subjects answered the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and Temperament and Character Inventory to measure their aggression and personality traits, respectively. A strong accumulation of 11C-cetrozole was detected in the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and medulla. Females showed associations between aromatase levels in subcortical regions, such as the amygdala and supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus, and personality traits such as aggression, novelty seeking, and self-transcendence. In contrast, males exhibited associations between aromatase levels in the cortices and harm avoidance, persistence, and self-transcendence. The association of aromatase levels in the thalamus with cooperativeness was common to both sexes. The present study suggests that there might exist associations between aromatase in the brain and personality traits. Some of these associations may differ between sexes, while others are likely common to both.
| S-EPMC6237866 | biostudies-other