Testing the three hypotheses about the relationships between ability and personality: 25 years later

Abstract

Utilizing responses given by 6256 applicants to teacher training studies at several Austrian colleges and universities, this study attempts to replicate the three tests by Austin et al. (1997) examining the possible relationships between intelligence and personality. The results did not support the Differentiation of Personality by Intelligence Hypothesis as individuals who scored higher in intelligence were not consistently more variable in their personality responses. The results did provide support for the Differentiation of Intelligence by Neuroticism Hypothesis as individuals who scored higher in neuroticism had higher inter-scale correlations for the intelligence measure. In addition, the results also demonstrated that inter-scale correlations for personality scales were higher for those who scored lower in intelligence, suggesting that intelligence can impact the structure of multiscale personality measures. The limitations and future directions are discussed.