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Examining Mechanisms of Personality Maturation: The Impact of Life Satisfaction on the Development of Big Five Personality Traits

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  • Jule Specht
  • Boris Egloff
  • Stefan C. Schmukle

Abstract

Individuals are expected to mature with increasing age, but it is not yet fully understood which factors contribute to this maturation process. Using data of a representative sample of Germans (N = 14,718) who gave information about their Big Five personality traits twice over a period of 4 years, we identified satisfaction with life, which was reported yearly, as an important variable for explaining mechanisms and interindividual differences in personality maturation. Dual latent change models suggest that more satisfied (compared to less satisfied) individuals experience more positive changes in Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and that positive changes in life satisfaction are associated with positive changes in personality. Furthermore, maturation processes were examined for individuals who faced a social role transition, namely, marriage, birth of a child, or entering the job market. Again, differential effects highlight the importance of life satisfaction for personality maturation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jule Specht & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2012. "Examining Mechanisms of Personality Maturation: The Impact of Life Satisfaction on the Development of Big Five Personality Traits," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 455, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp455
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Christopher Boyce & Alex Wood & Nattavudh Powdthavee, 2013. "Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 287-305, March.
    3. Kerry Chamberlain & Sheryl Zika, 1992. "Stability and change in subjective well-being over short time periods," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 101-117, March.
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    5. Jule Specht & Boris Egloff & Stefan C. Schmukle, 2011. "Stability and Change of Personality across the Life Course: The Impact of Age and Major Life Events on Mean-Level and Rank-Order Stability of the Big Five," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 377, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. William Meredith, 1993. "Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 58(4), pages 525-543, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bartolini, Stefano & O’Connor, Kelsey J., 2022. "Effects of teaching practices on life satisfaction and test scores: evidence from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1009, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Judith Offerhaus, 2013. "The Type to Train?: Impacts of Personality Characteristics on Further Training Participation," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 531, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Kelsey J. O'Connor, 2020. "Life Satisfaction and Noncognitive Skills: Effects on the Likelihood of Unemployment," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(4), pages 568-604, November.

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    Keywords

    Personality development; Big Five personality traits; life satisfaction; personality maturation; longitudinal latent modeling;
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