Abstract
The correlations between the measures of cognitive abilities and personality traits are known to be low. Our data based on the popular Big Five model of intelligence show that the highest correlations (up to r = 0.30) tend to occur with the Openness to Experience. Some recent developments in the studies of intelligence (e.g., emotional intelligence, complex problem solving and economic games) indicate that this link may become stronger in future. Furthermore, our studies of the processes in the “no-man’s-land” between intelligence and personality suggest that the non-cognitive constructs are correlated with both. These include the measures of social conservatism and self-beliefs. Importantly, the Big Five measures do not tap into either the dark traits associated with social conservatism or self-beliefs that are known to be good predictors of academic achievement. This paper argues that the personality domain should be broadened to include new constructs that have not been captured by the lexical approach employed in the development of the Big Five model. Furthermore, since the measures of confidence have the highest correlation with cognitive performance, we suggest that the trait of confidence may be a driver that leads to the separation of fluid and crystallized intelligence during development.
Highlights
The studies of personality and intelligence have a long history in psychology
This paper argues that the personality domain should be broadened to include new constructs that have not been captured by the lexical approach employed in the development of the Big Five model
The correlations between personality captured by the Big Five/Six model and cognitive abilities tend to be low
Summary
The studies of personality and intelligence have a long history in psychology. the issues frequently raised in contemporary discussions about alternative ways of measuring individual differences and the need to strive for personality/intelligence integration can be traced back to the developments that took place midway through the 20th century. The lexical approach advocated by Cattell was similar in spirit to the work on intelligence as the idea was to use the lexicon to arrive at an exhaustive list of all personality-related terms. This led to the development of his 16PF questionnaire, which defined five higher-order factors [7]. The lexical approach was employed as a map by Costa and McCrae [8] in the development of their version of the popular Big Five model of personality they did not use adjectives in the main body of their research. Studies of the disintegration factor included measures of both lexically derived and “rational” personality traits, which would be closer in spirit to what has evolved in the abilities domain
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