Jaap J A Denissen
Biographic Data
| ID | 768490 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jaap J A Denissen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jaap J A |
| FAMILY NAME | Denissen |
| SIGNATURE | DENISSEN J J A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tilburg University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6282-4107 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 98 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 551 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 98 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Self-Esteem and Sexual Experiences
There is evidence that people with higher self-esteem tend to have more satisfying sexual relationships, but little is known about how changes in people’s self-esteem and sexual experiences are related over time. Several theories predict reciprocal effects between self-esteem and sexual experiences. The present study tested these theories using 12-wave longitudinal data from more than 11,000 participants of a representative sample in Germany. Dat…
Understanding the Dynamics of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Motives on Daily Well-Being: Insights from Experience Sampling Data
Previous studies have consistently found that hedonic and eudaimonic motives positively predict subjective well-being. In this study, we emphasized the importance of considering curvilinear effects alongside main effects and interactions to fully understand these relationships. Using polynomial regression models, we examined the relationships between hedonic motives, eudaimonic motives, and subjective well-being. To examine both trait-level and m…
Personality and individual differences in the relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic motives and well-being in daily life
To understand the role of personality in the relationship between hedonic motives (e.g., pleasure), eudaimonic motives (e.g., excellence/meaning), and subjective well-being, we sampled 218 university students who completed an online questionnaire and a week of experience sampling surveys. Besides documenting the associations between personality and both motives, we found that the impact of both motives on average subjective well-being did not dif…
Like No Other? A Family-Specific Network Approach to Parenting Adolescents
Numerous theories suggest that parents and adolescents influence each other in diverse ways; however, whether these influences differ between subgroups or are unique to each family remains uncertain. Therefore, this study explored whether data-driven subgroups of families emerged that exhibited a similar daily interplay between parenting and adolescent affective well-being. To do so, Subgrouping Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (S-GIMME)…
The Relations between Narrative Identity and Personality Pathology among Clinical Adolescents: Findings from a Multi-Ethnic Asian Sample
Adolescence is a period where personality difficulties can start emerging. At the same time, a great deal of development in narrative identity takes place. Given that identity impairments are a key feature in personality pathology, it is useful to understand how pathological traits and narrative identity features are related. The current study addressed this by linking pathological personality trait domains to narrative identity features in clini…
Do experiences during the transition to working life Matter? the role of mastery and psychological commitment in personality trait change
Differences in transition experiences might explain individual differences in personality trait change. In the present six-wave study, we investigated personality trait change during the transition to work in a sample of students who were in their last two years of their study program (N =311). We tested whether the transition (i.e., participation in an internship), psychological commitment (i.e., educational identity), and mastery of the transit…
Unraveling the Bidirectional Associations between Parental Knowledge and Children’s Externalizing Behavior
Although within- and between-family bidirectional associations between parental knowledge and children’s externalizing behavior have been theoretically proposed, studies that unravel these associations simultaneously remain scarce. This study examined these bidirectional associations within and between German families. 3611 families participated across one-year intervals between children ages 8 to 15 (50.6% boys, 34.5% fathers, 89.0% German-born,…
Who benefits from which activity? On the relations between personality traits, leisure activities, and well-being
59,108 assessments), which included measures of the Big Five personality traits, 15 different leisure activities, and affective well-being and life satisfaction. Our preregistered multilevel models revealed three sets of findings. First, we observed on average small expected between-person associations between leisure activities and well-being (e.g., higher average levels of holidays, evening socializing, talking to close others, exercise, and cu…
Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development
The last 2 decades have witnessed increased research on the role of life events in personality trait development, but few findings appear to be robust. We propose that a key to resolving this issue is incorporating individuals' subjective experiences into the study of event-related development. To test this, we developed and administered a survey about event-related personality change to a representative Dutch sample (N = 5,513, Ages 16-95) and l…
The link between personality, global, and domain-specific satisfaction across the adult lifespan
9,110; age range 16-95). Across age, emotional stability showed the strongest associations with both global and domain-specific satisfaction. After emotional stability, conscientiousness was the strongest correlate of work satisfaction (WS), and extraversion and agreeableness were the strongest correlates of social satisfaction (SS). Longitudinal changes in personality and satisfaction across the 11 years covered in this study were moderately cor…
Parents’ perceptions of secondary school students’ motivation and well‐being before and during the Covid‐19 lockdown: The moderating role of student characteristics
During the COVID‐19 lockdown of spring 2020, Dutch children were being homeschooled. We examined how parents’ (n = 470) perceptions of secondary school students’ ( M age = 14.23 years) need satisfaction, academic motivation and well‐being differed before the lockdown (assessed retrospectively) and during the lockdown. Furthermore, we examined the differential impact of the lockdown for different groups of children based on parental educational le…
Disentangling the effects of peer status and peer victimization on perceived physical health in adolescence
INTRODUCTION: Although exposure to peer victimization during adolescence has been linked to poorer (perceived) physical health, little is known about how multiple peer stressors may independently and conjointly be related with adolescent physical health outcomes. The current study investigated the unique, interactive, and cumulative effects of peer victimization and two types of peer status (i.e., peer preference and peer popularity) on adolescen…
Parent–adolescent interaction quality and adolescent affect—An experience sampling study on effect heterogeneity
Person–environment interactions might ultimately drive longer term development. This experience sampling study (Data collection: 2019/20 the Netherlands) assessed short-term linkages between parent–adolescent interaction quality and affect during 2281 interactions of 124 adolescents (Mage = 15.80, SDage = 1.69, 59% girls, 92% Dutch, Education: 25% low, 31% middle, 35% high, 9% other). Adolescents reported on parent–adolescent interaction quality …
The true role that suppressor effects play in condition-based regression analysis: None. A reply to Fiedler (2021)
Condition-based regression analysis (CRA) is a statistical method for testing self-enhancement effects. That is, CRA indicates whether, in a set of empirical data, people with higher values on the directed discrepancy self-view S minus reality criterion R (i.e., S-R) tend to have higher values on some outcome variable (e.g., happiness). In a critical comment, Fiedler (2021) claims that CRA yields inaccurate conclusions in data with a suppressor e…
Incorporating prosocial vs. antisocial trait content in Big Five measurement: Lessons from the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2)
In three studies, we tried to create a novel scale within the existing Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2) structure to measure prosocial vs. antisocial personality traits, like the Dark Triad and honesty-humility. While our new scale converged strongly with dark personality and honesty-humility scales, we failed to establish sufficient discriminant validity vis-a-vis the existing BFI-2 agreeableness domain. Instead, we found that dark traits and honest…
Investigating the within-person structure and correlates of emotional experiences in everyday life using an emotion family approach
Affective contingencies of narcissism
123). Results indicated that narcissism was linked to increased affective reactivity to power, and this pattern was present for both admiration and rivalry. Narcissism was unrelated to affective reactivity to affiliation, with an important exception: Individuals with higher levels of narcissistic rivalry exhibited decreased reactivity toward satisfactions and increased reactivity toward frustrations of affiliation. Results were more robust for se…
Unraveling the complex relationship between work transitions and self-esteem and life satisfaction
Transitions in and out of work are common experiences with major repercussions for people's lives. The complex link between work transitions and psychological adjustment is not well understood, however. In this preregistered study, we analyzed 11 waves of longitudinal data from a representative sample of 13,671 Dutch participants to examine the transactional effects between repeated work transitions (employment and unemployment) and psychological…
Individual differences in contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states
Contingencies between situational variables and psychological states have been proposed as key individual difference variables by many theoretical approaches to personality. Despite their relevance, the basic properties, nomological correlates, and factor structure of individual differences in contingencies have not been examined so far. We address these fundamental questions in five studies with overall N = 952 participants and N = 32,052 unique…
Associations between the identity domains of future plans and education, and the role of a major curricular internship on identity formation processes
INTRODUCTION: Experiences during the last years of college could stimulate identity formation processes within and across the domains of future plans and education. In the present study, the first research question addressed how identity formation dimensions for education and future plans were associated with each other during the last years in education. The second research question addressed whether identity processes (i.e., identity levels, ch…
How Does Substance Use Affect Personality Development? Disentangling Between- and Within-Person Effects
Little is known about the effects of substance use on changes in broad personality traits. This 10-year longitudinal study sought to fill this void using a large, representative sample of the Dutch population ( N = 10,872), which provided annual assessments of drug use (tobacco, alcohol, sedatives, soft drugs, ecstasy, hallucinogens, and hard drugs), Big Five personality traits, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. Using multilevel models, we exam…
Does Using Social Media Jeopardize Well-Being? The Importance of Separating Within- From Between-Person Effects
Social networking sites (SNS) are frequently criticized as a driving force behind rising depression rates. Yet empirical studies exploring the associations between SNS use and well-being have been predominantly cross-sectional, while the few existing longitudinal studies provided mixed results. We examined prospective associations between SNS use and multiple indicators of well-being in a nationally representative sample of Dutch adults ( N ∼ 10,…
Charting self‐esteem during marital dissolution
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to chart changes in self-esteem before and after marital dissolution to identify the factors that shape individuals' self-esteem during this life transition. METHOD: We analyzed 10 annual waves of self-esteem data from 291 divorcees from a nationally representative panel study of the Netherlands (N ~ 13,000). We charted the course of self-esteem before and after marital dissolution and tested a broad set o…
The first 12.5 years of parenthood: A latent trait-state occasion model of the longitudinal association between maternal distress and child internalizing and externalizing problems
Maternal anxiety and depression symptomatology are risk factors for the development of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. However, it is still unclear whether chronic and transient symptoms relate differently to child behavior. The aim of this prospective longitudinal study (N = 193) was to investigate the associations between anxiety and depression symptomatology in a community sample across the first 12.5 years of par…
Parenting adolescents in times of a pandemic: Changes in relationship quality, autonomy support, and parental control
This Dutch multi-informant study examined effects of the first COVID-19 lockdown (LD; e.g., school closure and social restrictions) on parent-adolescent relationships. Four biweekly measurements before and 4 biweekly measurements during the LD were collected among adolescents (N = 179, Mage = 14.26 years, 69% girls) and their parents (N = 144, Mage = 47.01 years, 81% female). Parents' educational level was relatively diverse: 12% low (high school…
Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: Disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism
We present a process model that distinguishes 2 dimensions of narcissism: admiration and rivalry. We propose that narcissists' overarching goal of maintaining a grandiose self is pursued by 2 separate pathways, characterized by distinct cognitive, affective-motivational, and behavioral processes. In a set of 7 studies, we validated this 2-dimensional model using the newly developed Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ). We show…
Motivational individual reaction norms underlying the Five-Factor model of personality: First steps towards a theory-based conceptual framework
Age and gender differences in self-esteem—A cross-cultural window
Research and theorizing on gender and age differences in self-esteem have played a prominent role in psychology over the past 20 years. However, virtually all empirical research has been undertaken in the United States or other Western industrialized countries, providing a narrow empirical base from which to draw conclusions and develop theory. To broaden the empirical base, the present research uses a large Internet sample (N = 985,937) to provi…
Narcissism and romantic relationships: The differential impact of narcissistic admiration and rivalry
Narcissism is known to be related to romantic success in short-term contexts (dating, early stage relationships) but also to problems in long-term committed relationships. We propose that these diverging romantic outcomes of narcissism can be explained by differential associations with agentic versus antagonistic dimensions of grandiose narcissism: Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry. Both dimensions serve the central narcissistic goal of gaining…
A theoretical framework for the associations between identity and psychopathology
Identity research largely emerged from clinical observations. Decades of empirical work advanced the field in refining existing approaches and adding new approaches. Furthermore, the existence of linkages of identity with psychopathology is now well established. Unfortunately, both the directionality of effects between identity aspects and psychopathology symptoms, and the mechanisms underlying associations are unclear. In the present paper, we p…
The quest for identity in adolescence: Heterogeneity in daily identity formation and psychosocial adjustment across 5 years
Identity formation is one of the key developmental tasks in adolescence. According to Erikson (1968) experiencing identity uncertainty is normative in adolescence. However, empirical studies investigating identity uncertainty on a daily basis are lacking. Hence, studying individual differences in daily certainty (i.e., identity commitment levels) and uncertainty (i.e., identity commitment fluctuations and identity reconsideration) in the identity…
The policy relevance of personality traits
Personality traits are powerful predictors of outcomes in the domains of education, work, relationships, health, and well-being. The recognized importance of personality traits has raised questions about their policy relevance, that is, their potential to inform policy actions designed to improve human welfare. Traditionally, the use of personality traits in applied settings has been predicated on their ability to predict valued outcomes, typical…
Inhibited and aggressive preschool children at 23 years of age: Personality and social transitions into adulthood
In a 19-year longitudinal study, the 15% most inhibited and the 15% most aggressive children at ages 4-6 years were followed up until age 23 years and were compared with controls who were below average in preschool inhibition or aggressiveness. As adults, inhibited boys and girls were judged as inhibited by their parents and showed a delay in establishing a first stable partnership and finding a first full-time job. However, only the upper 8% in …
Puffed-up but shaky selves: State self-esteem level and variability in narcissists
Different theoretical conceptualizations characterize grandiose narcissists by high, yet fragile self-esteem. Empirical evidence, however, has been inconsistent, particularly regarding the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem fragility (i.e., self-esteem variability). Here, we aim at unraveling this inconsistency by disentangling the effects of two theoretically distinct facets of narcissism (i.e., admiration and rivalry) on the two as…
In the eye of the beholder: Perceived, actual, and peer-rated similarity in personality, communication, and friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process
The authors examined associations of perceived similarity, actual similarity, and peer-rated similarity in personality with friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process in a naturalistic setting. Self- and peer-rated personality data were gathered from undergraduates (mean age = 18.9) at 5 time points during the first year of university using a round-robin design. Whereas perceived similarity and peer-rated similarity in personality w…
Parenting adolescents in times of a pandemic: Changes in relationship quality, autonomy support, and parental control
This Dutch multi-informant study examined effects of the first COVID-19 lockdown (LD; e.g., school closure and social restrictions) on parent-adolescent relationships. Four biweekly measurements before and 4 biweekly measurements during the LD were collected among adolescents (N = 179, Mage = 14.26 years, 69% girls) and their parents (N = 144, Mage = 47.01 years, 81% female). Parents' educational level was relatively diverse: 12% low (high school…
Big Five personality stability, change, and codevelopment across adolescence and early adulthood
Using data from 2 large and overlapping cohorts of Dutch adolescents, containing up to 7 waves of longitudinal data each (N = 2,230), the present study examined Big Five personality trait stability, change, and codevelopment in friendship and sibling dyads from age 12 to 22. Four findings stand out. First, the 1-year rank-order stability of personality traits was already substantial at age 12, increased strongly from early through middle adolesce…
Transactions between life events and personality traits across the adult lifespan
Life events refer to status changes in important demographic variables, such as employment or marital status. Life events offer an interesting opportunity for studying transactions between environmental changes and personality traits, which are of relevance for diverging theories about the role of environmental factors in life span personality development. Yet in spite of the potential importance of life events for personality development, nuance…
Is accurate, positive, or inflated self-perception most advantageous for psychological adjustment? A competitive test of key hypotheses
Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from 5 studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we used an information-theoretic approach combined with Response Surface Analysis to provide the first competitive test of 6 popular hypotheses: that m…
Age differences in instability, contingency, and level of self-esteem across the life span
Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations
People have a fundamental need to belong that motivates them to seek out social interactions with close others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Leary and Baumeister's (2000) sociometer theory (SMT) poses that people who succeed in satisfying this need have higher self-esteem (SE). This prediction was tested across three hierarchical levels: intraindividual, interindividual, and international. Indicators of social interaction quantity, quality, and the…
Longitudinal actor, partner, and similarity effects of personality on well-being
The current study aimed to conceptually replicate previous studies on the effects of actor personality, partner personality, and personality similarity on general and relational well-being by using response surface analyses and a longitudinal sample of 4,464 romantic couples. Similar to previous studies using difference scores and profile correlations, results from response surface analyses indicated that personality similarity explained a small …
Openness to experience and culture-openness transactions across the lifespan
We examined the life span development of openness to experience and tested whether change in this personality trait was associated with change in cultural activity, such as attending the opera or visiting museums. Data came from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Study for the Social Sciences panel, which includes 5 personality assessments across a 7-year period of a nationally representative sample of 7,353 individuals, aged 16 to 95 years. Latent …
Sex differences and lifestyle-dependent shifts in the attunement of self-esteem to self-perceived mate value: Hints to an adaptive mechanism
Correlated change of Big Five personality traits across the lifespan: A search for determinants
Individual differences in contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states
Contingencies between situational variables and psychological states have been proposed as key individual difference variables by many theoretical approaches to personality. Despite their relevance, the basic properties, nomological correlates, and factor structure of individual differences in contingencies have not been examined so far. We address these fundamental questions in five studies with overall N = 952 participants and N = 32,052 unique…
Adolescents’ Identity Formation: Linking the Narrative and the Dual-Cycle Approach
The narrative and dual-cycle approach conceptualize and operationalize adolescents' identity formation in different ways. While the narrative approach focuses on the construction of an autobiographical life story, the dual-cycle approach focuses on the formation of identity commitments. Although these approaches have different emphases, they are conceptually complementary. Yet, their empirical links and distinctions have only scarcely been invest…
The role of identity commitments in depressive symptoms and stressful life events in adolescence and young adulthood
The formation of a stable identity, consisting of a strong set of commitments, is a key developmental task in adolescence and young adulthood. Not resolving this task and lacking strong identity commitments is related to difficulties like depressive symptoms and stressful life events. However, the exact role of identity commitments in these negative experiences has remained unclear. In two longitudinal studies in the Netherlands spanning 8 and 6 …
Affective contingencies in the affiliative domain: Physiological assessment, associations with the affiliation motive, and prediction of behavior
According to classical motive disposition theory, individuals differ in their propensity to derive pleasure from affiliative experiences. This propensity is considered a core process underlying the affiliation motive and a pervasive cause of motivated behavior. In this study, we tested these assumptions. We presented participants with positive affiliative stimuli and used electromyography to record changes in facial muscular activity that are ind…
Longitudinal transactions between personality and occupational roles: A large and heterogeneous study of job beginners, stayers, and changers
Social norms are central to theoretical accounts of longitudinal person-environment transactions. On the one hand, individuals are thought to select themselves into social roles that fit their personality. On the other hand, it is assumed that individuals' personality is transformed by the socializing pressure of norm demands. These 2 transactional directions were investigated in a large and heterogeneous 5-year longitudinal subsample of job begi…
I Like to Do It, I'm Able, and I Know I Am: Longitudinal Couplings Between Domain-Specific Achievement, Self-Concept, and Interest
The longitudinal development of the intraindividual coupling between academic achievement, interest, and self-concept of ability (SCA) was analyzed in a sample of approximately 1,000 children between grades 1 and 12 (ages 6–17). Across all calculated indexes, the average level of coupling was positive. Individuals generally felt competent and interested in domains where they achieve well, and were interested in domains where they perceive their p…
The effects of weather on daily mood: A multilevel approach
The present study examines the effects of six weather parameters (temperature, wind power, sunlight, precipitation, air pressure, and photoperiod) on mood (positive affect, negative affect, and tiredness). Data were gathered from an online diary study (N = 1,233), linked to weather station data, and analyzed by means of multilevel analysis. Multivariate and univariate analyses enabled distinction between unique and shared effects. The results rev…
Motivational individual reaction norms underlying the Five-Factor model of personality: First steps towards a theory-based conceptual framework
Sex differences and lifestyle-dependent shifts in the attunement of self-esteem to self-perceived mate value: Hints to an adaptive mechanism
Inhibited and aggressive preschool children at 23 years of age: Personality and social transitions into adulthood
In a 19-year longitudinal study, the 15% most inhibited and the 15% most aggressive children at ages 4-6 years were followed up until age 23 years and were compared with controls who were below average in preschool inhibition or aggressiveness. As adults, inhibited boys and girls were judged as inhibited by their parents and showed a delay in establishing a first stable partnership and finding a first full-time job. However, only the upper 8% in …
Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations
People have a fundamental need to belong that motivates them to seek out social interactions with close others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Leary and Baumeister's (2000) sociometer theory (SMT) poses that people who succeed in satisfying this need have higher self-esteem (SE). This prediction was tested across three hierarchical levels: intraindividual, interindividual, and international. Indicators of social interaction quantity, quality, and the…
It takes two to tango: How parents’ and adolescents’ personalities link to the quality of their mutual relationship
According to J. Belsky's (1984) process model of parenting, both adolescents' and parents' personality should exert a significant impact on the quality of their mutual relationship. Using multi-informant, symmetric data on the Big Five personality traits and the relationship quality of mothers, fathers, and two adolescent children, the current study set out to test this prediction. Adolescents' agreeableness and parents' extraversion emerged as p…
In the eye of the beholder: Perceived, actual, and peer-rated similarity in personality, communication, and friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process
The authors examined associations of perceived similarity, actual similarity, and peer-rated similarity in personality with friendship intensity during the acquaintanceship process in a naturalistic setting. Self- and peer-rated personality data were gathered from undergraduates (mean age = 18.9) at 5 time points during the first year of university using a round-robin design. Whereas perceived similarity and peer-rated similarity in personality w…
Emerging Late Adolescent Friendship Networks and Big Five Personality Traits: A Social Network Approach
The current study focuses on the emergence of friendship networks among just-acquainted individuals, investigating the effects of Big Five personality traits on friendship selection processes. Sociometric nominations and self-ratings on personality traits were gathered from 205 late adolescents (mean age=19 years) at 5 time points during the first year of university. SIENA, a novel multilevel statistical procedure for social network analysis, was…
Justice Sensitivity and Forgiveness in Close Interpersonal Relationships: The Mediating Role of Mistrustful, Legitimizing, and Pro-Relationship Cognitions
Come rain or come shine: Individual differences in how weather affects mood
There is a widespread belief that weather affects mood. However, few studies have investigated this link, and even less is known about individual differences in people's responses to the weather. In the current study, we sought to identify weather reactivity types by linking self-reported daily mood across 30 days with objective weather data. We identified four distinct types among 497 adolescents and replicated these types among their mothers. T…
Perceived influence in groups over time: How associations with personality and cognitive ability can change over time
Age differences in instability, contingency, and level of self-esteem across the life span
Dynamics of identity development and separation–individuation in parent–child relationships during adolescence and emerging adulthood – A conceptual integration
Positive Intelligence Illusions: On the Relation Between Intellectual Self‐Enhancement and Psychological Adjustment
The relation between self‐enhancement and psychological adjustment has been debated for over 2 decades. This controversy is partly due to the variety of approaches implicated in the assessment of mainly self‐enhancement but also psychological adjustment. We adopted a face‐valid approach by statistically removing actual intellectual ability variance from self‐rated intellectual ability variance. Study 1 ( N = 2,048), a concurrent Internet investig…
Justice Sensitivity and Forgiveness in Close Interpersonal Relationships: The Mediating Role of Mistrustful, Legitimizing, and Pro‐Relationship Cognitions
The purpose of the present investigation was to explore and better understand the relationship between justice sensitivity from a victim's perspective ( JS ‐victim) and interpersonal forgiveness. In particular, we aimed to identify the cognitive mechanisms mediating this relationship and test the moderating influence of post‐transgression perpetrator behavior. We used data from a questionnaire study employing a Swiss community sample ( N = 450) a…
Personality Maturation Around the World: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Social-Investment Theory
During early adulthood, individuals from different cultures across the world tend to become more agreeable, more conscientious, and less neurotic. Two leading theories offer different explanations for these pervasive age trends: Five-factor theory proposes that personality maturation is largely determined by genetic factors, whereas social-investment theory proposes that personality maturation in early adulthood is largely the result of normative…
Recommendations for Increasing Replicability in Psychology
Replicability of findings is at the heart of any empirical science. The aim of this article is to move the current replicability debate in psychology towards concrete recommendations for improvement. We focus on research practices but also offer guidelines for reviewers, editors, journal management, teachers, granting institutions, and university promotion committees, highlighting some of the emerging and existing practical solutions that can fac…
Self-Regulation Underlies Temperament and Personality: An Integrative Developmental Framework
In this article, we present an integrative perspective on temperament and personality development. Personality and temperament are conceptualized as regulatory systems that start as physiological reactivity to environmental features early in life, but are increasingly supplemented by regulation efforts oriented toward reference values such as personal goals and social norms. These reference values change during development as society expects incr…
It Takes Two: A Longitudinal Dyadic Study on Predictors of Fertility Outcomes
OBJECTIVE: Although previous studies have found personality traits to be associated with reproductive behavior, it remains unclear whether there are dyadic associations between partners' personality and couples' decisional process to have children. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between partners' personality, parenthood expectations and intentions, and the couple's fertility outcomes one year later. METHOD: We us…
Correlated change of Big Five personality traits across the lifespan: A search for determinants
Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: Disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism
We present a process model that distinguishes 2 dimensions of narcissism: admiration and rivalry. We propose that narcissists' overarching goal of maintaining a grandiose self is pursued by 2 separate pathways, characterized by distinct cognitive, affective-motivational, and behavioral processes. In a set of 7 studies, we validated this 2-dimensional model using the newly developed Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ). We show…
Age and gender differences in motivational manifestations of the Big Five from age 16 to 60
The present cross-sectional study investigated age and gender differences in motivational manifestations of the Big Five in a large German-speaking Internet sample (N = 19,022). Participants ranging in age from 16 to 60 years completed the Five Individual Reaction Norms Inventory (FIRNI; Denissen & Penke, 2008a), and two traditional Big Five measures. Age differences were found suggesting that mean levels of neuroticism and extraversion are negat…
Reducing bias due to systematic attrition in longitudinal studies: The benefits of multiple imputation
Most longitudinal studies are plagued by drop-out related to variables at earlier assessments (systematic attrition). Although systematic attrition is often analysed in longitudinal studies, surprisingly few researchers attempt to reduce biases due to systematic attrition, even though this is possible and nowadays technically easy. This is particularly true for studies of stability and the long-term prediction of developmental outcomes. We provid…
What Drives Adult Personality Development? A Comparison of Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Evidence
Increasing numbers of empirical studies provide compelling evidence that personality traits change across the entire lifespan. What initiates this continuing personality development and how does this development proceed? In this paper, we compare six theoretical perspectives that offer testable predictions about why personality develops the way it does and identify limitations and potentials of these perspectives by reviewing how they hold up aga…
Psychology (97 works) · Social Psychology (90 works) · Developmental psychology (80 works) · Personality (53 works) · Big Five personality traits (37 works) · Personality Traits and Psychology (36 works) · Social Psychology (22 works) · Extraversion and introversion (20 works) · Mental Health Research Topics (19 works) · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology (17 works)