Researchers asked these British mothers which personality traits they would most wish for their babies – extraversion came out on top

Ambitious and self-disciplined or affable and fun-loving? If you could choose the personality profile for your children, what would you prioritise? Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, put this question to 142 British mothers with a baby aged 0 to 12 months. Reporting their findings in Personality and Individual Differences, Rachel Latham and Sophie von Stumm say there was a clear preference among the mothers for most of all wanting their infants to grow up to be extraverted, especially friendly and cheerful, more so than conscientious or intelligent, even though these latter attributes are more likely to contribute to a healthy, successful life. To the researchers’ knowledge this is the first time mothers’ wishes for their children’s personalities has been studied. Latham and von Stumm told the mothers (average age 33) the six personality facets that make up each of the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience). For each trait, the mothers were asked to say which facet they would most like their child to have. See the results below, showing how often each facet was chosen as the most preferred for each trait:   From Latham and von Stumm, 2017. After this, the mothers were asked to place their chosen five facets (one from each trait) in order of most to least important for their child to have, and to also place intelligence in its appropriate place in this list. More th...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Personality Source Type: blogs