Neurotic folk spend more time doing chores

By Christian Jarrett If personality traits are a genuine concept and not merely an artefact of psychologists’ imagination, then how people choose to spend their time ought to correlate with their scores on personality questionnaires, notwithstanding the constraints of life that prevent us from doing what we want. In fact, there are relatively few studies that have looked at correlations between traits and everyday behaviour, and of those that have, many relied on student volunteers (see here for an overview). A study published earlier this year in Collabra helps plug this research gap – Julia Rohrer and Richard Lucas analysed the “Big Five” trait personality scores of over 1,300 German volunteers (part of a nationally representative sample), average age 51 years, who on three successive years completed detailed diaries of what they had been up to the day before. Specifically, they indicated whether they had spent any time, and if so how much, on nine key activities the previous day, including socialising, work, chores and watching TV. The findings, controlling for age and gender, will mostly make comfortable reading for personality psychologists. For instance, consistent with trait theory, high scorers on conscientiousness spent more time working and studying, whether they were full-time employed or not. Similarly, strong extraverts, the highly agreeable and open-minded were more likely to report socialising. A few other findings are more nuanced and int...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Personality Source Type: blogs