The mindful personality: Associations between dispositional mindfulness and the Five Factor Model of personality

Abstract

While curiosity about the correlates of mindfulness continues to grow, how mindfulness is related to personality factors remains unclear. Indeed, the relationships between dispositional mindfulness (DM) and one of the most common conceptualizations of personality, the Five Factor Model (FFM) have yielded mixed results. It may be that these mixed findings have resulted from a lack of analytic specificity. This study explored the relationship between DM and the FFM of personality, paying particular attention to the analysis of the mindfulness facets with respect to the FFM using canonical correlation analysis. The total DM score was found to be significantly correlated with each personality factor, with the strongest relationships observed between DM and neuroticism (negatively associated) as well as DM and conscientiousness (positively associated). The canonical correlation analysis provided further evidence of the relationship between DM and the FFM at a finer level of specificity. Three clusters of association emerged between the DM facets and the personality factors: 1) a self-regulation cluster, negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with conscientiousness, 2) a self-awareness cluster positively associated with openness, and 3) the conscientious confusion cluster, demonstrated a mixed relationship between conscientiousness and the mindful self-regulation cluster.