Psychometric tests like Color Code, Myers-Briggs, and DiSC have become a goofy part of corporate life. But what happens when we take them seriously?
Emma Goldberg, New York Times, Sept. 18, 2019
Bad Science, putting people in boxes, discrimination
Personality isn’t everything, and companies who rely on it to predict performance can run into trouble.
FastCompany.
Research suggests that personality may not be as fixed as you think.
Romeo Vitelli. Psychology Today
The Forer effect (also called personal validation fallacy or the Barnum effect after P. T. Barnum) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. The Forer effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of pseudoscience. Understanding the Forer Effect illuminates why so many people become true believers in their personality assessments. The Predictive Index even builds the Forer Effect into its assessment results to improve customer acceptance by saying that all statements of personality must be stated in positive terms.
Psychology Wiki
Can you trust in horoscopes or even personality tests?
Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Psychology Today
Personality changes at least as much as economic factors and relates much more strongly to changes in life satisfaction. Personality can change and that such change is important and meaningful.
Boyce, C., Wood, A., & Powdthavee, N. (2013). Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction. Social Indicators Research , 111 (1), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0006-z
The 50-year study concludes that while personality has a stable component it is malleable, especially as people mature.
Damian, R. I., Spengler, M., Sutu, A., & Roberts, B. W. (2019). Sixteen going on sixty-six: A longitudinal study of personality stability and change across 50 years. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117 (3), 674–695. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000210
Genetic and environmental factors influence the development and manifestation of personality. Environmental influences can influence which personality elements activate. Personality changes over the lifespan as people mature.
Hopwood, C. J., Donnellan, M. B., Blonigen, D. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Iacono, W. G., & Burt, S. A. (2011). Genetic and environmental influences on personality trait stability and growth during the transition to adulthood: a three-wave longitudinal study. Journal of personality and social psychology , 100 (3), 545–556. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022409
Personality is more malleable than once believed. Personality naturally changes with age. Also, while it requires effort, people can consciously control and change their personalities. This article explains the flexibility of personality and how to change your personality.
Psychology Today.
Research that shows individuals can change their personality, with effort. Making behavior changes that align behaviors with desired traits can result in changing personality. Desiring change alone is not sufficient, change requires persistent effort.
Psychology Today
Personality change is not connected to a belief that personality can change. Personality change happens naturally whether we believe it or not.
Hudson, N.W., Fraley, R. C, Briley, D. A., & Chopic, W. J. (2020). Your Personality Does Not Care Whether You Believe It Can Change: Beliefs About Whether Personality Can Change Do Not Predict Trait Change Among Emerging Adults. European Journal of Personality , Eur. J. Pers. Extracted from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/per.2289
Psyblog guide to changing personality, including The most popular personality changes; Change personality facets first; How to make specific plans; How to become more extroverted; How to be less neurotic; How to improve multiple personality traits at once; How time changes your personality; How to overcome personality disorders.
Psyblog.
Personality is more malleable than once believed. But can we change our personality, or does it just change naturally over time? Research shows that it's both. This is good news, especially for people who would like to be less neurotic. This article summarizes 20 practices for actively changing behavior and personality.
Inc.
Prior research has found that people’s desires to change their personality traits predict corresponding subsequent trait growth over time. However, few studies have examined the processes through which people can volitionally change their personality traits. Thus, it remains unclear whether merely desiring change predicts trait growth or whether actively pursuing change is necessary. The present study was a 15-week intensive longitudinal design that tested whether engaging in trait-typical behaviors predicted trait change. Participants provided self-report ratings of their personality traits and were able to freely accept and complete weekly “challenges”—prewritten behavioral goals that would pull their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in line with their desired traits. Results indicated that merely accepting behavioral challenges did not predict trait changes. Rather, only actually completing challenges (i.e., performing trait-typical behaviors) predicted trait change over time. Thus, merely wanting to change does not appear to be sufficient to evoke trait growth; successfully changing one’s personality traits may require actively and successfully implementing behaviors to change oneself.
Hudson, N. W., Briley, D. A., Chopik, W. J., & Derringer, J. (2019). You have to follow through: Attaining behavioral change goals predicts volitional personality change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117 (4), 839–857. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000221
Personality quizzes are fun, but they have serious problems. We can manage aspects of our personality that limited us, leading to changes in our personality. Personality can be situational and malleable.
Inc.
Assumptions that personality is fixed and determines job success are proving to be myths. Research supports assumptions that personality can be connected to job success but also shows that we can manage and change our personality.
Inc.
Research shows that individuals who desire to change their personality traits can, in fact, do so.
Jarret, C. (2015). You can change your personality at will. Research Digest. The British Psychological Society. Extracted from https://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/04/27/you-can-change-your-personality-at-will/
Previous research has found that most people want to change their personality traits. But can people actually change their personalities just because they want to? This research concludes that people may be able to change their self-reported personality traits through volitional means and represent a first step toward understanding the processes that enable people to do so.
Hudson, N. W., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose to change their personality traits? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109 (3), 490–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000021
A critical look at Myer's Briggs Type Indicator examines our attempt to grasp, categorize, and quantify our personalities.
