Personality and intelligence: persistence, not self-directedness, cooperativeness or self-transcendence, is related to twins’ cognitive abilities

Abstract

Background. A person-centered approach focusing on the interaction of an individual’s temperament-character-life events is essential in the path of individuals’ well-being. In this context, three character traits, Self-directedness (e.g., self-acceptance, self-control, goal-directed behavior), Cooperativeness (e.g., social affiliation, social tolerance, empathy and helpfulness) and Self-transcendence (e.g., spiritual acceptance, transpersonal identification), measured using Cloninger’s model of personality are suggested to help the individual to regulate and resolve the conflicts derived from her/his temperament combinations as a reaction to life events. However, if character is related to the individual’s cognitive ability, then this association might limit any intervention that focuses on character development. We used data from the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) to investigate the relationship between personality and cognitive ability.Method. The sample consisted of 370 15-year-old twins (159 girls/211 boys), 192 of whom screen-positive with various types of mental health problems. We used the Temperament and Character Inventory to measure personality and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC-IV) to measure intelligence. The relationship was investigated using correlation analyses using random-selected twins from each dyad and separately for monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Additional analyses investigated the genetic and environmental effects on personality and cognitive ability in this specific sample.Results. There were no significant correlations between the WISC-IV indices and any of the character traits (i.e., Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence). Persistence was significantly related, if weak, to four WISC-IV indices: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and the Full WISC-IV Scale. Post-hoc cross-twin/cross-trait analyses showed that the Persistence-cognitive ability correlation might depend on common genetic effects. The WISC-IV indices showed a relatively large genetic influence, while earlier findings about the etiology of temperament and character traits using the whole CATSS sample were replicated in this sub-sample of twins.Conclusions. The results indicate that what individuals make of themselves intentionally (i.e., their character) was not associated to intelligence. Persistence, a temperament dimension that measures heritable individual differences in eagerness of effort, ambition, perfectionism, and resistance to discouragement despite frustration and fatigue, was weakly linked to intelligence. Suggesting that, at least during adolescence, interventions targeting character development are not limited by the individual’s intelligence.

Exploring personality in Australian dentistry students: Implications for coping with a challenging degree

“…The similarities may be attributed in part to the selection processes and the universal requirement of high academic standards. [28][29][30] Additionally, self-selection into dentistry may attract students with similar traits. It is more likely is that higher levels of Self-Transcendence in international students are due to cultural differences.…”

Editorial: Character, responsibility, and well-being: influences on mental health and constructive behavior patterns

“…Using the Temperament and Character Inventory (Cloninger et al, 1993 ) researchers have found that Self-directedness (i.e., agency), Cooperativeness (i.e., communion), and Self-transcendence (i.e., Spirituality) are associated to high levels of happiness, psychological well-being, and less violent behavior (Garcia et al, 2013 , 2015 ; Nima and Garcia, 2015 ; Mousavi et al, 2015 ). Moreover, low Self-directedness and Cooperativeness is recurrent among individuals with all types of mental health problems, such as, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and etcetera.…”

Agentic, communal, and spiritual traits are related to the semantic representation of written narratives of positive and negative life events

“…For example, while the character scales do not show common environmental influences in research among older adults (e.g., Gillespie et al 2003), a small common environmental influence for self-directedness and cooperativeness has been found among young adults (20-30 years of age; e.g., Ando et al 2004). In addition, recent research using one of the largest population-based-twin-studies among adolescents, found suggestive evidence of common environmental influence for all of the character scales Mousavi et al 2015). In sum, the genetic structure of character scales in the adolescent sample shows a modest but noteworthy proportion of shared environmental influence that is not present in adult samples.…”

“…What is more, there is TCI normative data in 22 countries (e.g., USA, Sweden, Japan, China, Mexico, Italy) on four continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania) showing that the factor structure is identical around the world and also data on age appropriate norms showing that the same dimensions are present across the lifespan as well (C. R. Cloninger, personal communication, June 10, 2015; see also Josefsson et al 2013). The TCI is sensitive to reading level, but for a forthcoming adolescent and adult short version, there was no need to change wording (C. R. Cloninger, personal communication, June 10, 2015; see also the non-significant association between TCI dimensions and cognitive ability among adolescent twins in Mousavi et al 2015). Hence, suggesting that the TCI can be used among adolescents to measure agentic, communal, and spiritual traits.…”