Personality Assessment Research Articles

Beyond change: Personality‐environment alignment at work

AbstractWe critically evaluate Dupré and Wille's (2024) proposal for using assessments for organizational personality development through the lens of empirical evidence on adult personality change. We present an overview of research on personality stability and malleability throughout adulthood examining rank‐order stability, mean‐level changes, and the impact of life events and interventions. Empirical evidence reveals that while personality exhibits some plasticity in young adulthood, significant changes become increasingly rare beyond age 30. For older employees, personality remains highly stable, making age an important consideration in workforce development. Life experiences and intentional interventions have been shown to prompt modest personality changes, with emotional stability being the most malleable trait. We quantify these changes, noting shifts of up to two‐thirds of a standard deviation in emotional stability through targeted interventions, with more limited effects on other Big Five traits. We also provide insights for organizational assessment practices, including the need for tailored personality (re‐)assessment intervals and age‐based norm composition for better utilization of personality information. With Cybernetic Trait Complexes Theory, we introduce a framework for aligning personality traits with situational cues in work environments. This approach emphasizes trait activation rather than personality modification, allowing organizations to harness employees' strengths by strategically designing environments that naturally encourage beneficial trait expression. This shifts the focus from personality change to strategic activation of beneficial traits through environmental design. We describe how organizations can leverage employees' existing personality trait complexes while fostering incremental behavioral adaptations, offering a pragmatic alternative to traditional employee development approaches. By aligning individuals with environments that activate their traits, organizations can enhance both personal and organizational outcomes, contributing to broader societal benefits as well.

Exploring the Link Between Roommate Compatibility and Academic Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Personality-Based Matching Systems

The collegiate experience significantly influences students’ academic, personal, and social development. Roommate relationships, a central part of shared living arrangements, are crucial for students’ psychosocial well-being and academic success. This systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of personality-based roommate matching systems in improving roommate compatibility, fostering personal development, and enhancing academic performance. A comprehensive search of the Google Scholar and Scopus databases was conducted to identify studies on automated and personality-based systems. Selected studies were screened and analyzed to assess the impact on resource allocation, student satisfaction, and housing efficiency. Personality-based systems - such as fuzzy clustering models, genetic algorithms, and rule-based algorithms - significantly outperform traditional methods in enhancing compatibility and resource allocation. Findings highlight the positive impact of roommate compatibility on students’ self-confidence, communication, and independence, with female students facing unique challenges. Positive relationships, especially among students with high extraversion and conscientiousness, correlate with improved academic outcomes, while negative interactions and depressive symptoms are linked to lower performance and well-being. Personality assessments, like the Open Four Temperaments Scales Test, show promise in reducing conflicts and increasing satisfaction. The study suggests that integrating personality profiling with technology can provide supportive living environments in higher education. However, gaps remain in understanding their impact across different institutional and cultural contexts. Further research is needed to explore the long-term efficacy of these systems. This review provides insights for institutions seeking to optimize hostel management practices and support student development.

Psychosocial Factors Influencing Voting Behavior

This study delves into the voting behaviour in the context of Indian electorate, shedding light on understanding it in the relatively new dimension, where the focus is primarily on psychological factors and social factors (demography) influencing the voting behaviour, which further sheds light on understanding the broader issues, like low voter turnout in India compared to other democracies worldwide, understanding of opinion polls and exit surveys and other evolving unethical Influences which are centred around mental process of voters cognition, which could create a new dimension of understanding the need for neuro rights of the voters, where the motive of free and fair elections can be achieved. This pioneering attempt to comprehend the psycho - social factors influencing voting behaviour in the Indian electoral system is groundbreaking as it has never been attempted before. In an election scenario, voters are exposed to a myriad of stimuli related to political candidates, parties, promises, and discussions, prompting selective exposure, perception, and integration processes to form the basis for their voting decisions. The study also draws on the voter turnout theory, highlighting the role of social reference groups and their impact on voter behaviour. Furthermore, it emphasizes the under explored domain of psychological and social factors in explaining political attitudes and voting behaviour among the mass public from relative unexplored dimensions, asserting that psychological traits directly influence the voting behaviour. With the Indian electoral system becoming increasingly dynamic due to diverse societal participation and steadily growing influential factors the need for study arises strongly, This research attempt is being carried forward by examining personality through the DISC personality assessment tool and quantifying the voting behaviour through the theory of planned behaviour questionnaire, the study seeks to discern the connections between demographic variables, personality traits and voting behaviour (intention). The components of voting behaviour were formed on the pivotals of theory of planned behaviour (TBH) such as behaviour beliefs, control beliefs and normative beliefs which more precisely create assessment area of voting behaviour intention. The study employs questionnaire with a five - point Likert scale to measure respondents' agreement with statements related to voting behaviour. The research's objectives include exploring the influence of a voter's personality and demographic variables on their voting behaviour and the influence of specific personality types on various facets of voting behaviour. The study's hypotheses posit that voting behaviour is influenced by psycho - social factors, particularly personality and demographic variables, and that different personality types may alternatively influence the voting behaviour intention. In conclusion, this study aims to elevate our comprehension of this context to a higher standard.

Nesting landscape character and personality assessment to intensify rural landscape regionality and uniqueness

Urbanization impacts and homogenization pressures are threatening rural landscapes worldwide, leading to the loss of their regionality and uniqueness. Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) measures and identifies the uniqueness and distinctiveness of landscapes, making the unique value of rural resources easier to understand, protect, and perpetuate. Originating in the UK in the 1970s, LCA has become the mainstream approach for identifying landscape characteristics and is now a tool for managing landscape changes globally. Landscape Personality Assessment (LPA) offers another perspective for effectively measuring and analyzing landscape characteristics but has not been widely applied since its proposal. To distinguish between these two perspectives on landscape uniqueness identification, this paper conducted a literature review and comparison study, summarizing and comparing the characteristics of LCA and LPA in terms of evaluation scale, dimensions, indicators, and supported types of practices, further clarifying their respective strengths and weaknesses. To complement each other's perspectives on landscape characteristic identification, a framework nesting LCA and LPA was proposed to address the issue of the loss of rural landscape regionality in territorial spatial planning. This framework aims to couple evaluations of multi-level spatial characteristics and combine the identification of multi-temporal landscape characteristics. The goal is to enrich the theoretical and methodological system of rural landscape characteristic evaluation and provide more tools for the planning and conservation of the regionality of rural landscapes globally.

Personality profiles of 263 occupations.

While personality trait assessments are widely used in candidate selection, coaching, and occupational counseling, little published research has systematically compared occupations in personality traits. Using a comprehensive personality assessment, we mapped 263 occupations in self-reported Big Five domains and various personality nuances in a sample of 68,540 individuals and cross-validated the findings in informant ratings of 19,989 individuals. Controlling for age and gender, occupations accounted for 2%-7% of Big Five variance in both self-reports and informant reports. Most occupations' average Big Five levels were intuitive, replicated across rating methods, and were consistent with those previously obtained with a brief assessment in a different sociocultural context. Often, they also tracked the Occupational Information Network database's work style ratings and clustered along the International Standard Classification of Occupation's hierarchical framework. Finally, occupations with higher average levels of the personality domains typically linked to better job performance tended to be more homogeneous in these domains, suggesting that jobs with higher performing incumbents are often more selective for personality traits. Several personality nuances had intuitive occupational differences that were larger than those of the Big Five domains (explaining up to 12% variance) and replicated well across rating methods, providing more detailed insights into how job incumbents vary in personality. We provide an interactive application for exploring the results (https://apps.psych.ut.ee/JobProfiles/) and discuss the findings' theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Meditation and interoception: a conceptual framework for the narrative and experiential self.

The concept of the self is complex and there is no consensus on what the self is. However, there are emerging patterns in the literature that point to two different selves, the narrative and experiential self. The narrative self refers to a conceptual or representational knowledge of the self that extends across time and manifests in self-reflection and personality assessments. The experiential self refers to first-person perception, moment-to-moment awareness, embodiment, and a sense of agency. These two selves are reliably linked to two distinct neural circuits, the default mode network (DMN) and the insula and salience network (SN). One of the consistent themes in the meditative and mindfulness literature is a change in the perspective of the self. In this paper, I will review how meditation alters those neural circuits providing a plausible mechanism that can explain the changes in the self. I also propose a rudimentary conceptual framework to account for some of the mixed results found throughout meditation literature.

Associations between neurolinguistic deficits and personality traits in people with epilepsy.

People with epilepsy (PWE) have been hypothesized to have higher prevalence of personality disorders and cognitive disorders. The objective of this study was to investigate the controversial notion of "epileptic personality," a series of supposedly specific personality traits of people with epilepsy (PWE). For this purpose, 29 individuals with Mesial Temporal lobe Epilepsy (MTLE) and 23 with Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) as confirmed by electroencephalography (EEG), MRI scans and clinical examination, underwent a thorough neuropsychological and personality assessment. The resulting neuropsychological profiles were statistically analyzed considering possible personality disorders, character traits, cognitive and linguistic deviations from 20 healthy controls (HC). Our findings suggest accumulative cognitive and linguistic deficits in individuals with epilepsy compared to controls. It is possible that these might be misinterpreted as personality disorders. Specifically, personality traits (p = 0.049) and verbal fluency (p = 0.013), were significantly different between PWEs and controls. Also, the type of epilepsy and lateralization seem to affect executive function (p = 0.049) and pragmatology scores (p < 0.001), exhibiting differences in subgroup analysis. Different theories are considered as plausible pathophysiological explanations for the aforementioned differences. This research might serve as a basis to further investigate the cognitive aspects of epilepsy and possible pharmacological interventions, which are currently lacking.

Exploring a Language-Based Interest Assessment: Predicting Vocational Interests on Social Media Using Natural Language Processing

For more than a century, self-report inventories have been the traditional method for assessing vocational interests. Little research has examined the use of machine learning techniques, such as natural language processing (NLP), in interest assessment. This paper explores the extent to which natural language on social media can be used to predict individuals’ self-ratings on eight basic interests representing the SETPOINT model: Agriculture, Engineering, Human Resources, Life Science, Management/Administration, Mechanics/Electronics, Media, and Social Science. Leveraging closed- (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count; LIWC) and open-vocabulary NLP approaches (Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling), we analyzed 3.2 million Facebook posts from 2,834 participants who completed a 32-item basic interest measure. We found that the convergent validities of these NLP approaches for predicting vocational interest scores (LIWC: [Formula: see text] = 0.19; LDA topic modeling: [Formula: see text] = 0.24) are comparable to prior research on language-based personality assessments. Our study also revealed largely face-valid language markers that characterize different basic interests. Implications for developing language-based interest assessments for applied settings (e.g., career guidance and employee selection) and future research directions are discussed.

Psychological Predictors of Recidivism for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators: A Systematic Scoping Review.

Theoretical accounts of recidivistic intimate partner violence (IPV) continue to differ considerably in relation to the relative weight given to psychological risk factors. A systematic overview of studies that have established psychological predictors of reoffending is currently lacking. This study aimed to identify and provide an overview of studies examining various psychological factors associated with IPV perpetration patterns. A systematic search of research conducted from 1945 to 2024 was carried out on PsycINFO, PubMed, and PILOTS. The inclusion criteria were that studies must not use self-reported reoffending data only, must use a criminal justice sample, must be longitudinal, participants must be over 17 years of age, and that studies must be published in the English language and peer reviewed. A total of 25 longitudinal studies examining individual psychological factors, proposed as potential predictors of IPV reoffending, were eligible. The identified factors were grouped into five categories: personality, anger and hostility, beliefs, attitudes and motivation, neurocognitive deficits and trauma (i.e., family of origin abuse/post-traumatic stress disorder). The current systematic scoping review found that the most-researched psychological predictor of IPV recidivism was personality. While studies vary in relation to the personality traits or disorders that contribute most to the likelihood of reoffending, in general, personality assessment appears to be a promising tool in predicting reoffending. Anger, childhood maltreatment, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), implicit attitudes, and neurocognitive deficits were also identified as predictors of IPV recidivism. Methodological issues were found to be present across studies.

Psychopathology and the Validity of Gastrointestinal Symptom Reporting as Revealed Through Cluster Analyses of MMPI-2-RF Results.

Psychological state, self-reported gut symptoms, and somatic complaints are recognized relationships that can impact health assessment and subsequent treatment. To investigate the impact of psychological state and personality on symptom self-reporting and somatization. Sixty-two (62) participants from the Hunter region of NSW (Australia) undertook a survey of health and lifestyle along with an MMPI-2-RF assessment of personality, psychopathology, and test-taking attitude. Participants also completed the Rome Criteria to assess functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). To assist the interpretation of MMPI-2-RF results, clustering was applied to identify similar responses and sub-cohort profiles of reporting. Cluster analysis revealed four sub-cohorts, stratified by psychopathology, gut-related symptoms, and the validity of self-reported somatic complaints. Sample clustering identified one sub-cohort defined by high rates of negative affectivity and suicidal ideation. Apart from these differences, clusters were uniform for age, sex, smoking, mental health diagnoses, as well as for gut-related conditions. Results provide further evidence of the interaction of the gut-brain axis and its relationship to serious mental health conditions. It also points to the need to assess the veracity of self-reported symptomatology that may be both pathognomonic for psychopathology but might also be a consequence of gut dysbiosis. Clustering assisted these investigations by defining distinct sub-cohorts based on participant MMPI-2-RF responses.

The Moderating Role of the Five-Factor Model of Personality in the Relationship between Job Demands/Resources and Work Engagement: An Online Cross-Sectional Study.

When organizations or managers utilize personality assessments for their workers, it is crucial to consider not only personality profiles but also the interaction between these profiles and the psychosocial environmental factors in the workplace. The present study aimed to examine the moderating effects of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits on the relationship between job demands/resources and work engagement (WE). A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between November and December 2022, targeting full-time workers in Japan. Data were collected from 1500 participants (757 men and 743 women). The survey included demographic variables, job demands and resources (job control, supervisor, and coworker support), WE, and the FFM. The primary statistical analysis was hierarchical regression analysis, which tested the interactions between job demands/resources and each personality trait. Four significant interactions were found: job demands and neuroticism, control and neuroticism, control and conscientiousness, and supervisor support and extraversion. High conscientiousness was associated with higher WE when job control was abundant. Moreover, low levels of both neuroticism and extraversion were linked to higher WE. The results suggest that managers can enhance WE by aligning workplace factors with employee personality traits. These insights can be applied to organizational staffing decisions.

The Effect of Personality Traits on Criminal Behaviour

The extensive investigation into criminal careers, coupled with the growing consensus around the Five-Factor Model of personality traits, has reaffirmed the significance of personality assessments as reliable indicators of criminal behaviour. Several research studies on specialised groups have determined that agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion are associated with criminal behaviour. This study examines the relationship between the probability of committing a crime and various personality qualities, including Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness, Neuroticism, and demographic variables associated with crime criminologists. The data was obtained by surveying 916 ordinary people and detainees in Vietnam. For the detainees, participants must be older than 18 years old, have been convicted of the crime of aggravated murder, and have followed at least five years of education. While ordinary people also must be older than 18 years old and do not have a history of crime records. The findings show that there is a different correlation between each personality trait and the probability of committing a crime. Besides, demographic factors also play a relatively insignificant impact in predicting criminal behaviour.

Are Personality Traits Predictors of Police Misconduct?

AbstractSeveral forms of police misconduct exist, including the inappropriate use of a weapon, sexual misconduct, and racially offensive behaviors, and deserve more attention in the literature. More recent literature suggests that there may be personality predictors of misconduct. Specifically, aggression, having unstable relationships, a lack of empathy, thrill-seeking behavior, and poor impulse control, may contribute to officer misconduct. The current study examined a group of 642 first-year police officers through a series of mostly logistic regression analyses to determine if antisocial or borderline personality traits predict inappropriate use of a weapon, sexual misconduct, and racially offensive behavior using scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition (MMPI-2; the antisocial practices and the psychopathic deviance scales) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; the borderline and antisocial scales). Most of the hypotheses were not supported by the findings. Participants who had more antisocial traits, as assessed by MMPI-2, were less likely to be accused of racially offensive behavior. Officers who had more borderline characteristics, as assessed by the MMPI-2, were less likely to be accused of engagement in any misconduct, specifically sexual misconduct. However, participants who had more borderline traits, as assessed by the PAI, were more likely to engage in sexual misconduct, but less likely to engage in any misconduct overall. Demographic covariates also were found to be related to all three forms of misconduct.

Scoring the Big Five for longitudinally assessed academic achievement predictiveness: Manifest, correlated‐factors model, and bifactor modeling across multiple contexts

AbstractBased on a large (N = 612) longitudinal sample in a teacher education program, we compared how three methods of personality scoring—manifest mean scores, correlated‐factors model scores, and bifactor model scores—predict academic achievement assessed by grade point averages. Furthermore, we compared predictiveness across honest responses, applicants' responses and responses collected under laboratory faking‐good instructions. To this end, a real‐life selection setting was part of our study (i.e., applicants to initial teacher education selected, among other things on their personality). We found the expected pattern of manifest mean scores (honest responses were the lowest, applicants' responses higher and faking‐good responses highest) and could demonstrate that applicant faking does not reduce personality assessment's predictiveness. Overall, correlated‐factors model scoring increased the predictiveness of honest and applicants' responses, and scoring via bifactor model even more so. No method of scoring could retrieve the predictiveness in the faking‐good response condition. Regarding the practical application within selection processes, bifactor model scores only slightly outperformed mean scores, and this only occurred in the case of small selection ratios. Nevertheless, we showed that there is criterion‐related and systematic variance within applicants' personality scores above and beyond their personality traits that can be extracted when modeled with bifactor models.

Latent personality profiles of analog astronauts: An unsupervised clustering method analysis

The selection of astronauts for space missions is an important process that involves the assessment of multiple factors, including personality traits. Previous studies have corroborated that these traits exert a significant influence on the performance and adaptation of the crew during the execution of space missions. In this study, International Personality Item Pool - NEO – 120 (IPIP-120) was used to assess the personality of participants in a sample of 43 analog astronauts who took part in 9 different analog missions between 2022 and 2023. The objective was to identify specific personality profiles among the analog astronauts using the unsupervised k-means clustering method. The centroids of each cluster were analyzed to describe distinctive personality profiles. The results revealed the existence of two distinct personality clusters among the analog astronauts. The first cluster showed a greater propensity toward adventure, intellect, goal striving, extroversion, and cooperation. In contrast, the second cluster exhibited lower scores on these traits. The identification of these two differentiated personality profiles reinforces the importance of personality assessment as a valuable tool in the astronaut selection process. Furthermore, the application of the k-means method demonstrates its utility as an effective technique for identifying underlying patterns in complex datasets. These findings may inform future astronaut selection strategies, contributing to the formation of more effective and cohesive teams for space missions.

Verification of five-factor models and reference scores for personality dysfunction and trait domains of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire for ICD-11 (PAQ-11), revised version.

A brief self-reported measure of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire for the 11th edition of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Disease (ICD-11) (PAQ-11) was developed to evaluate ICD-11 personality traits. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the revised PAQ-11 version (PAQ-11R) with an additional item in the Dissociality domain and thresholds for the severity of personality dysfunction and domains. Study 1 examined the construct validity of the PAQ-11R in 192 university students in Korea. Study 2 estimated tentative reference scores of personality dysfunction and domains of the PAQ-11R in 91 patients in Korea. In study 1, the PAQ-11R had a five-factor structure and the revised Dissociality scale had better convergent and discriminant validities than the previous version. In study 2, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the PAQ-11R identified a threshold score of 35. Reference scores for domains were estimated as 15 for Negative Affectivity, 10 for Detachment, 8 for Anankastia, and 5 each for Disinhibition and Dissociality. These scores contribute to severity of personality disturbance but remain qualifiers only; they are not diagnostic. The results suggest that the PAQ-11R is useful as a quick assessment tool for identifying the domains of personality dysfunction in clinical practice in harmony with the ICD-11 guidelines.

A Novel Approach to Personalized Personality Assessment with the Attachment-Caregiving Questionnaire: First Evidence in Favor of Interpretation-Oriented Inventory Designs

In clinical psychology and psychiatry, personality is usually assessed using questionnaires developed through factor analysis (FA). Essential domains are identified, which correspond to questions/items defining a (sub)scale, and each question is rigidly assigned to one scale, giving the item the same meaning regardless of how the respondent may interpret it. However, this rigidity might hinder the instrument’s assessment capability. We tested this hypothesis using the Attachment-Caregiving Questionnaire (ACQ), a clinical and personality self-report that—through extra-scale information—allows the clinician to infer the possible different meanings that the subjects attribute to the items. Considering four psychotherapy patients, we compared the scoring of their ACQs provided by expert clinicians to the detailed information gained from therapy and the patients. Our results indicated that questions could be interpreted differently—receiving the same score for different (clinically relevant) reasons—potentially impacting personality assessment and clinical decision-making. Moreover, accounting for multiple interpretations requires a specific questionnaire design. Overall, our analysis suggests that a meaning-sensitive, personalized read of a personality self-report may improve profiling and treatment, implying the necessity of more advanced pattern recognition than the one produced by FA or similarly rigid methods, which artificial intelligence may provide. More evidence is required to support these preliminary findings.

A Diffusion Model Account of Cognitive Variability in Healthy Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment

ABSTRACT Within-person variation in cognitive performance is linked to pathological aging. Cognitive fluctuations have not been analyzed using cognitive process models, such as the diffusion model, to characterize which cognitive processes contribute to variability in cognition. We collected 21 daily assessments of attention and personality in younger adults, healthy older adults, and those with mild cognitive impairment. We employed mixed-effects location scale models to analyze group differences on mean diffusion parameters and daily variability. Discussion focuses on how these methods extend our understanding of how cognitive deficits might appear in aging and disease and the moderating influence of daily personality.

Investigating the relationship between personality types and resilience in pregnant women. A cross-sectional study

BackgroundChildbirth is considered a critical experience in a woman's life when she needs mental adaptation and reorganization of relationships. Factors such as personality and self-perception can help facing and solving crises. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality types and stress resilience among pregnant women. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study on 210 multiparous and nulliparous pregnant women who were 32–37 weeks pregnant and referred to Shiraz medical hospitals for delivery selected via convenience sampling. Data collection tools were personal and midwifery information questionnaires and the Goldberg personality and visual pain assessment scale that were completed through interviews. Data analysis was performed by SPSS software using descriptive tests to describe the data and the Pearson correlation test to analyze the data. ResultsThe highest personality type was conscientiousness (48.1%) and the lowest was extraversion (2.4%). Maternal resilience had a significant positive relationship with extraversion (p=.001) and conscientiousness (p=.001). There was no significant relationship between the 2 variables of neuroticism and maternal resilience (p=.12). There was a significant positive relationship between the 2 variables of openness to experience and maternal resilience (p=.005). ConclusionWomen's healthcare providers can help to mitigate the negative effects of psychological distress, and psychologically empower this vulnerable group by considering the resilience and personality type of pregnant women during prenatal care.

Effect of training method and dairy cow personality traits on adaptation to an automated milking system

Training dairy cows on the automated milking system (AMS) can improve their performance, however, the ideal training method and how their individual personality relates to training is unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine: 1) the effect of AMS training method on adaptation of primiparous cows to an AMS, 2) whether the personality of a cow affects their adaptation to the AMS, and 3) whether certain personality types adapt better based on the type of training they receive. Forty-eight primiparous Holstein dairy cows, who had not previously been milked by an AMS, were enrolled in the study at ∼85 DIM and were assessed for personality traits using a combined arena test comprised of 3 parts: a novel arena test, a novel object test, and a novel human test. Cows were allocated into 1 of 4 AMS training treatments (n = 12): control (CON; no training), environment exposure only (ENV), environment and AMS concentrate provision (PEL), and environment and mechanics exposure (MEC). Cows in the ENV, PEL, and MEC treatments were subjected to training 4 × /d for 4 d, and then cows from all 4 treatments were milked on the AMS in the evening of the 4th training d. Milking activity and production were recorded for the first 14 d on the AMS. PEL cows had fewer visits to the AMS, fewer milkings, and fewer voluntary milkings compared with CON cows across the 14 d. Cows on all experimental treatments had more fetching events than CON cows, while MEC and ENV treatment cows had a higher milk yield compared with those on the CON treatment. Principal component analysis of the behaviors recorded during the personality assessment revealed 2 factors interpreted as personality traits, "explore-active" and "bold." Across all cows, more "explore-active" cows had greater milk yield. Only the performance of ENV cows was associated with personality; ENV cows who scored low for "explore-active" differed from CON cows, through increased visits and voluntary milkings. Overall, the results demonstrate that providing concentrate on its own during AMS training may not be motivating enough to improve adaptation and performance. However, exposing cows to the mechanics (e.g., the robotic arm and sounds of the AMS) before first milking may improve milk yield. Finally, cow personality may influence the performance of cows trained using less complicated training methods, such as only exposing them to the environment of the AMS.