Abstract
Personality change is a growing field of interest, but relatively few studies have examined causes of change in Openness. We investigated whether it is possible to influence state Openness, and through what mechanisms this effect may occur. In two experiments (Study 1: N=144, Mage =36.4, 58% female, 88% White; Study 2: N=269, Mage =34.0, 60% female, 91% White), participants reflected on and wrote about a personal experience requested to be either: nostalgic; positive and novel (Study 1); positive or novel (Study 2); or ordinary. They rated the events for nostalgia, positivity, novelty, and sociality, and completed measures of state positive affect, self-esteem, social connectedness, meaning in life, and state Openness. Participants who recalled positive and/or novel events reported greater state Openness than those who recalled ordinary events. In Study 1, this also applied to those recalling nostalgic events. Event ratings of positivity (both studies), nostalgia and novelty (Study 2) independently predicted state Openness. State positive affect and self-esteem were independent predictors in both studies, suggesting possible indirect paths. Reflecting on nostalgic, positive, and novel experiences can increase state Openness. This finding may be useful for interventions targeting trait-level change.
Highlights
Personality change is a growing field of research (Bleidorn et al, 2019)
Pre- and post-measures of trait Openness/Intellect were highly correlated as expected, but only the post measure was related to state Openness
In Study 1, we replicated the findings of van Tilburg et al (2015) that participants who recalled nostalgic events reported greater Openness than those who recalled ordinary events, and found that the effect was on state rather than trait Openness
Summary
Personality change is a growing field of research (Bleidorn et al, 2019). personality traits have traditionally been thought of as relatively stable, it is recognized that they show patterns of development across our lives; for example, most adults increase in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion as they mature (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006). An individual's trait standing can be thought of as an average of their state expressions across time and situations (Fleeson, 2001; Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), which show as much variability within-person as between-persons (Fleeson, 2001; Heller, Komar, & Lee, 2007). A further benefit of state-level research is that states can be manipulated through experimentation, allowing proposed causal influences to be directly tested (Fleeson, 2017) This can provide insight into the potential for trait-level change, which is theorized to result from repeated changes in states (Wrzus & Roberts, 2017). We investigated whether it is possible to influence state Openness, and through what mechanisms this effect may occur
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