Low Correlations between Intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits: Need to Broaden the Domain of Personality
Abstract
:1. Background
2. Low Correlation between Intelligence and Big Five Measures
3. Investment Theory and the Role of Openness to Experience
4. Recent Developments in Studies of Individual Differences
4.1. Recent Expansions of the Cognitive Domain and Potential Links to Personality
4.2. Recent Expansions of the Domain of Personality Do Not Change Its Relationship to Cognitive Abilities
4.3. No-Man’s-Land between Personality and Cognitive Abilities
4.3.1. Big Five/Six and Cognitive Ability Are Weak Predictors of Conservative Syndrome and Militant Extremist Mindset (MEM)
4.3.2. Self-Beliefs Are Better Predictors of Cognitive Performance than Big Five Measures of Personality
- Mathematics self-efficacy. Students were asked to rate their confidence in their ability to solve each of seven hypothetical mathematic problems but they were not asked to carry out the necessary calculations. An example item is: “How confident do you feel about … calculating the number of square meters of tile you need to cover a floor”.
- Mathematics self-concept. Five items taken from PISA 2003 were supplemented with three additional items. An example item is: “In my mathematics class, I understand even the most difficult work”.
- Mathematics anxiety. Five items from PISA 2003 were supplemented with 14 additional statements. All items were negatively worded. An example item: “I get very nervous doing mathematics problems”.
- Confidence. Following each mathematics item attempted in the achievement test, students were asked to rate on an 11-point scale (0% to 100%) their confidence that the answer they gave was correct.
4.3.3. Confidence: Personality Trait, Domain-Specific Metacognitive Process, or …?
4.3.4. Revisiting the Investment Theory: Crucial Role of Confidence?
4.3.5. Apart from Math Anxiety, Self-Beliefs Have Low Correlations with the Big Five
5. Need to Broaden the Personality Domain beyond the Big Five Model
6. Summary and Discussion
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | Our own findings were not included in meta-analyses of the relationship between cognitive abilities and personality. |
Big Six Personality Traits [12] | Number Series Test | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Conscientiousness | Honesty | Agreeableness | Resilience | Extraversion | Originality | ||
Nastiness | −0.18 | −0.32 | −0.21 | −0.11 | −0.24 | −0.30 | −0.17 |
Religiosity | 0.23 | 0.14 | −0.01 | −0.00 | −0.07 | −0.22 | −0.20 |
Morality | 0.27 | 0.24 | −0.10 | −0.04 | 0.15 | 0.09 | −0.01 |
Number Series | −0.02 | 0.02 | 0.04 | 0.07 | 0.07 | 0.16 |
Variable Label | 2012 | 2003 | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Mathematics self-efficacy | 0.461 | 0.458 |
2 | Mathematics self-concept | 0.264 | 0.275 |
3 | Mathematics anxiety | −0.365 | −0.378 |
Accuracy | Confidence | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Algebra | Geometry | Statistics | Number | Algebra | Geometry | Statistics | ||
Accuracy | Number | 1.00 | |||||||
Algebra | 0.60 | 1.00 | |||||||
Geometry | 0.42 | 0.44 | 1.00 | ||||||
Statistics | 0.47 | 0.50 | 0.39 | 1.00 | |||||
Confidence | Number | 0.65 | 0.55 | 0.39 | 0.43 | 1.00 | |||
Algebra | 0.60 | 0.67 | 0.44 | 0.48 | 0.83 | 1.00 | |||
Geometry | 0.38 | 0.40 | 0.40 | 0.34 | 0.67 | 0.75 | 1.00 | ||
Statistics | 0.49 | 0.48 | 0.38 | 0.50 | 0.72 | 0.77 | 0.78 | 1.00 | |
Means | 60.08 | 51.06 | 40.46 | 48.73 | 64.05 | 54.59 | 42.40 | 52.18 | |
Standard Deviations | 25.77 | 25.01 | 20.86 | 27.89 | 27.07 | 30.57 | 27.08 | 29.74 |
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Stankov, L. Low Correlations between Intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits: Need to Broaden the Domain of Personality. J. Intell. 2018, 6, 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6020026
Stankov L. Low Correlations between Intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits: Need to Broaden the Domain of Personality. Journal of Intelligence. 2018; 6(2):26. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6020026
Chicago/Turabian StyleStankov, Lazar. 2018. "Low Correlations between Intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits: Need to Broaden the Domain of Personality" Journal of Intelligence 6, no. 2: 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6020026
APA StyleStankov, L. (2018). Low Correlations between Intelligence and Big Five Personality Traits: Need to Broaden the Domain of Personality. Journal of Intelligence, 6(2), 26. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6020026