Papers by Amanda J . Wright
Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual di... more Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual differences or are rather two sides of the same coin. To the extent that there are differences, it could indicate important developmental insights concerning the mechanisms responsible for linking traits with outcomes. One way to test this is to examine the joint and incremental predictive validity of temperament and personality in the same individuals across time. Using a longitudinal sample spanning three decades starting infancy and followed up to 37 years old (N = 7,081), we ran a series of Bayesian generalized linear models with measures of childhood temperament and adult-based personality to predict outcomes in several life domains. Results indicated that while each set of individual differences were often related to the same outcomes, there were instances in which temperament provided incremental validity above adult personality, ranging from 2%-10% additional variance explained. Temperament explained the most variance for outcomes such as cognitive ability and educational attainment whereas personality performed best for outcomes such as health status, substance use, and most internalizing outcomes. These findings indicate temperament and personality assessments are not redundant and that a lifespan approach is needed to understand fully understand life outcomes.
Health Psychology, Feb 1, 2022
Objective: Personality influences many aspects of the health process. It is unclear to what exten... more Objective: Personality influences many aspects of the health process. It is unclear to what extent self-and informant-reports of the Big Five offer incremental validity for the prediction of inflammatory biomarkers and whether inflammation provides a unique pathway between personality and indicators of physical health, independent of health behaviors. Methods: Using data from older adults (N = 1,630) enrolled in the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network study, we tested whether self-and informant-reported Big Five traits show unique associations with inflammation (IL-6, CRP, TNF-a). Further, we tested whether inflammation and health behaviors indirectly link personality to health-related quality of life, body mass index, and chronic disease burden using longitudinal mediation in a structural equation modeling framework. Results: Self-reports, informant-reports, and general trait factors of personality predicted future inflammatory biomarker levels (unstandardized regression coefficients ranged -0.08 to 0.07 for self, -0.13 to -0.10 for informants, and -0.16 to -0.11 for general). Additionally, all assessment methods of personality were associated with the indicators of physical health through biomarker and health behavior pathways. Effects were primarily found for conscientiousness and neuroticism; IL-6 and CRP were the biomarkers with the most indirect effects; and indirect paths overall emerged more frequently through health behaviors, but this varied by outcome. Self-and informant-reports provided unique predictive validity of inflammatory biomarkers. Findings highlight the benefits of using of multiple assessments of personality and the importance of examining multiple, distinct pathways by which personality might influence health to understand the mechanisms underlying this relationship more fully.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Jun 1, 2023
Personality traits are relatively consistent across time, as indicated by test-retest correlation... more 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 datasets (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 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.
Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, Sep 15, 2022
Background: Despite a growing literature detailing early childhood risk factors for borderline pe... more Background: Despite a growing literature detailing early childhood risk factors for borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have examined moderating factors that might mitigate or exacerbate the effects of those risk factors. The current study examined whether three preschool-age characteristics-impulsivity, emotional lability, and initiative-taking-moderated the relationship between known preschool-age risk factors and adolescent BPD symptoms. We performed multilevel modeling analyses in a sample (n = 151) from the Preschool Depression Study, a prospective longitudinal study with assessments from preschool through adolescence. Preschool risk factors included adverse childhood experiences, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms measured with parent clinical interviews. Preschool moderating factors were assessed via parent report and observational coding of temperament and behavior. The Borderline Personality Features Scale for Children measured BPD symptoms in adolescence. We found that observed initiative-taking moderated the relationship between preschool internalizing symptoms and adolescent BPD symptoms (b = 0.57, p = .011) and moderated the relationship between preschool externalizing symptoms and adolescent BPD symptoms (b = 1.42, p = .013). Greater initiative-taking was associated with lower BPD risk for children with high internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Conversely, for children with low internalizing or externalizing symptoms, greater initiative-taking was associated with increased BPD risk. Conclusions: We identify a potential moderating factor in BPD development, offer novel targets for screening and intervention, and provide a framework for using early childhood observational assessments in BPD research. Our findings suggest the need for future research on early moderating factors in BPD development, which could inform early childhood interventions targeting those factors to mitigate the effects of potentially less malleable risk factors.
Decades of research has identified average patterns of normative personality development across t... more Decades of research has identified average patterns of normative personality development across the lifespan. However, it is unclear how well these correspond to trajectories of individual development. Past work beyond general personality development might suggest these average patterns are oversimplifications, necessitating novel examinations of how personality develops and consideration of new individual difference metrics. This study uses five longitudinal datasets from Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States (N = 128,345; Mage = 45.42; 53% female) to examine personality development using Mixed-Effects Location Scale Models. These models quantify individual differences in within-person residual variability, or sigma, around trajectories-thereby testing if models that assume sigma is homogeneous, unsystematic noise are appropriate. We investigate if there are individual differences in longitudinal withinperson variability for Big Five trajectories; if there are variables associated with this heterogeneity; and if person-level sigma values can uniquely predict an outcome. Results indicated that, across all models, there was meaningful heterogeneity in sigma-the magnitude of which was comparable to and often even greater than that of intercepts and slopes. Individual differences in sigma were further associated with covariates central to personality development and had robust predictive utility for health status, an outcome with long-established personality associations. Collectively, these findings underscore the presence, degree, validity, and potential utility of heterogeneity in longitudinal within-person variability and indicate the typical linear model does not adequately depict individual development. We suggest it should become the default to consider this individual difference metric in personality development research.
All data used in this study are freely available via application and/or data use agreements at th... more All data used in this study are freely available via application and/or data use agreements at the links specified in each dataset's "Participants" subsection in the methods. Neither author has any conflicting interests to report. This study's design and analyses were pre-registered ().
Scientific Reports, Jun 18, 2022
www.nature.com/scientificreports/ p < 0.001), a smaller proportion of Hispanic participants (χ 2 ... more www.nature.com/scientificreports/ p < 0.001), a smaller proportion of Hispanic participants (χ 2 (1) = 26.88, p < 0.001), and had lower education levels (t(581.16) = 5.64, p < 0.001, d = -0.97).
Life goals guide one’s behavior and can impact their life outcomes, but may conflict with their p... more Life goals guide one’s behavior and can impact their life outcomes, but may conflict with their partner’s goals. Using a longitudinal dataset, we examined whether one’s life goals prospectively predict health and career outcomes for themselves and their spouse (Ndyads = 6,198). Overall, there were more actor than partner effects, but partner effects were especially numerous for health outcomes. Generally, husbands and wives had a similar distribution of effects and actor and partner effects were in the same direction, but this was not always the case. Few actor-partner interactions emerged and partner similarity rarely moderated effects. These findings indicate a partner’s life goals meaningfully and independently impact one’s health and career outcomes, with associations emerging for both husbands and wives.
Objective: Few environments reliably influence mean-level and rank-order changes in personality –... more Objective: Few environments reliably influence mean-level and rank-order changes in personality – perhaps because personality development needs to be examined through an individualized, person-centered lens. Methods: The current study used Bayesian multilevel linear models to examine the association between 16 life events and changes in person-centered, Big Five personality consistency across four to 10 waves of data using four datasets (N = 24,491). Results: Selection effects were found for events such as marriage, (un)employment, retirement, and volunteering whereas between-person effects for slopes were found for events such as beginning formal education, employment, and retirement. Within-person changes were often small and emerged inconsistently across datasets but, when present, were brief and negative in direction, suggesting life events can serve as a short-term disruption to the personality system. However, there were many individual differences around event-related traject...
A parent has immense control over the experiences of their offspring. Given that personality is a... more A parent has immense control over the experiences of their offspring. Given that personality is associated with important life outcomes – mediated through decision-making processes – it is likely that parental personality impacts their child’s life outcomes. While “compensatory” influences from another person have been identified in romantic partners, the impact of parent’s personality on their child’s outcomes has not been thoroughly examined. Using a response surface analysis approach, we will look at the associations of adolescent personality with the personality of their parents for the prediction of adolescent outcomes (Ndyads = 9,395). Parent personality predicted outcomes for their child, above and beyond their child’s traits. There were few instances of child-parent personality interactions, suggesting the mechanisms linking child and parent traits to child outcomes are largely independent. Findings suggest parents’ personalities offer a unique influence on the outcomes for ...
Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual di... more Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual differences or are rather two sides of the same coin. To the extent that there are differences, it could indicate important developmental insights concerning the mechanisms responsible for linking traits with outcomes. One way to test this is to examine the joint and incremental predictive validity of temperament and personality in the same individuals across time. Using a longitudinal sample spanning three decades starting infancy and followed up to 37 years old (N = 7,081), we ran a series of Bayesian generalized linear models with measures of childhood temperament and adult-based personality to predict outcomes in several life domains. Results indicated that while each set of individual differences were often related to the same outcomes, there were instances in which temperament provided incremental validity above adult personality, ranging from 2%-10% additional variance explained. Te...
Personality traits are relatively consistent across time, as indicated by test-retest correlation... more 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 datasets (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...
The Big Five personality traits predict many important life outcomes. These traits, although rela... more The Big Five personality traits predict many important life outcomes. These traits, although relatively stable, are also open to change across time. However, whether these changes likewise predict a wide range of life outcomes has yet to be rigorously tested. This has implications for the types of processes linking trait levels and changes with future outcomes: distal, cumulative processes versus more immediate, proximal processes, respectively. The current study used seven longitudinal datasets (N = 81,980) to comprehensively examine the unique relationship that changes in the Big Five traits have with static levels of and changes in numerous outcomes in the domains of health, education, career, finance, relationships, and civic engagement. Meta-analytic estimates were calculated and study-level variables were examined as potential moderators of these pooled effects. Results indicated that changes in personality traits are sometimes prospectively related to static outcomes – such a...
Personality traits predict both the initiation and continued usage of alcohol and drugs. Less est... more Personality traits predict both the initiation and continued usage of alcohol and drugs. Less established is if substance use is associated with subsequent changes in personality, especially during the sensitive period of adolescence. We used three approaches to disentangle selection and socialization effects to address whether substance use is associated with personality development (impulsivity, sensation-seeking, depression, self-esteem). First, we used a multi-wave longitudinal sample of adolescents (N = 8,303) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - Child and Young Adult dataset to study the first use of several substances. Second, we used propensity score weighting to equate users and abstainers on a range of background variables. Third, we investigated changes before, during, and after initiation of substances. Overall, there was unique variability and effects in personality across time for average levels, trajectories, and magnitudes of change both between users and...
A parent has immense control over the experiences of their offspring. Given that personality is a... more A parent has immense control over the experiences of their offspring. Given that personality is associated with important life outcomes-mediated through decision-making processes-it is likely that parental personality impacts their child's life outcomes. While "compensatory" influences from another person have been identified in romantic partners, the impact of parent's personality on their child's outcomes has not been thoroughly examined. Using a response surface analysis approach, we will look at the associations of adolescent personality with the personality of their parents for the prediction of adolescent outcomes (N dyads = 9395). Parent personality predicted outcomes for their child above and beyond their child's traits. There were few instances of child-parent personality interactions, suggesting the mechanisms linking child and parent traits to child outcomes are largely independent. Findings suggest parents' personalities offer a unique influence on the outcomes for children while they develop and navigate through adolescence. Highlights • This paper investigated if parental Big Five personality traits predicted outcomes for their child in adolescence, above and beyond the child's own traits. This study is exempt from IRB approval at the authors' institution because it does not meet requirements for human subjects research.
Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Figure 1: An illustrative overview of our experimental design, where we used cognitive load theor... more Figure 1: An illustrative overview of our experimental design, where we used cognitive load theories to study the impact of presentation format on Bayesian reasoning. 1) Users were shown a Bayesian problem via: text-only (text), visualization-only (vis), or combined text and visualization (vistext) 2) We experimentally manipulated cognitive resources using a dual-task framework, asking participants to keep a 4-dot pattern in memory while completing the Bayesian task 3) We measured working memory capacity with an operation span (ospan) task designed by [18], testing the ability to remember sequences of four, five, and six images while completing interspersed math problems.
Objective: Personality influences many aspects of the health process. It is unclear to what exten... more Objective: Personality influences many aspects of the health process. It is unclear to what extent self- and informant-reports of the Big Five offer incremental validity for the prediction of inflammatory biomarkers and whether inflammation provides a unique pathway between personality and indicators of physical health, independent of health behaviors. Methods: Using data from older adults (N = 1,630) enrolled in the St. Louis Personality and Aging Network study, we tested whether self- and informant-reported Big Five traits show unique associations with inflammation (IL-6, CRP, TNF-α). Further, we tested whether inflammation and health behaviors indirectly link personality to health-related quality of life, body mass index, and chronic disease burden using longitudinal mediation in a structural equation modeling framework.Results: Self-reports, informant-reports, and general trait factors of personality predicted future inflammatory biomarker levels (unstandardized regression coeff...
Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual di... more Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual differences or are rather two sides of the same coin. To the extent that there are differences, it could indicate important developmental insights concerning the mechanisms responsible for linking traits with outcomes. One way to test this is to examine the joint and incremental predictive validity of temperament and personality in the same individuals across time. Using a longitudinal sample spanning three decades starting at infancy and followed up to 37 years old (N = 7,081), we ran a series of Bayesian generalized linear models with measures of childhood temperament and adult-based personality to predict outcomes in several life domains. Results indicated that while each set of individual differences were often related to the same outcomes, there were instances in which temperament provided incremental validity above adult personality, ranging from 2%-10% additional variance explained....
Uploads
Papers by Amanda J . Wright