Longitudinal course and correlates of realness

Abstract

People who are real are able to express how they truly think and feel and what they truly want even when there is social pressure not to. Previous research suggests that realness is associated with better social functioning and adaptive personality traits including lower neuroticism and higher extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness. However, unlike other measures of the broader concept of authenticity, realness is not related to agreeableness. This suggests that people who are real are able to be disagreeable in circumstances in which the situation calls for it, perhaps because they are more motivated to be true to themselves than to avoid social costs. This study extended previous research in three ways: (1) replicate associations with personality traits, (2) examine whether lower stress and higher social support are related to realness, and (3) examine the longitudinal course of realness over 18 months during the critical period of young adulthood. In 412 young adults from California, we replicated associations between realness and adaptive personality traits and found that it was also associated lower stress and higher social support and was highly stable over time. These findings provide further evidence that realness corresponds closely to the core of authenticity as described in foundational theories of positive personality development among young adults.