Paul T. Costa - US grants

The basis of all studies of personality, including its origins, universality, and development, lies in the description of personality structure. The organization of traits provides a framework for systematic research on all aspects of trait psychology. Although the Five-Factor Model of personality is widely recognized as providing a necessary and reasonably sufficient classification of traits, some researchers have argued that the five factors are themselves organized by a higher, two-factor model, in which Extraversion and Openness form one factor, and Agreeableness and Conscientiousness vs. Neuroticism define the other. Such a structure is widely found in self-report studies, including our study of personality in 12- to 13-year-olds. But when a single method of measurement is used in single individuals, it is impossible to determine whether the two-factor structure represents the real covariation of traits (substance) or simply biases in measurement (artifact). In a collaborative study examining personality in twins and using both self-reports and informant ratings, we found much more consistent evidence for the artifact interpretation. It appears that the Five-Factor Model reflects the highest level of trait structure;higher levels are due to biases in measurement. Previous research in this Laboratory has examined the origins and accuracy of national character stereotypes. A recent study examined the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE)scales to further the goals of interpretation of national character sterotypes. The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Research Program is a large-scale study of organizational leadership in cultural context. Parts of the survey gathered in 62 nations were intended to characterize the culture as a whole in terms of typical practices and values. Four of the nine Societal Practices scales seem, directly or indirectly, to assess features of personality. These GLOBE scales ask for descriptions of typical personality traits that might be interpreted as judgments of national character. Ratings of national character reflect cultural identities and social dynamics, but previous research suggests that they are unrelated to the mean personality traits of the culture's members. Analyses at the culture level comparing GLOBE scales with aggregate assessed personality traits (n = 34) and with measures of perceived national character (n = 33) showed that these GLOBE scales are better construed as unfounded stereotypes than as actual depictions of the society members'personality traits. In a further study, we considered the prediction of other nations'views of Americans. Contrary to the evaluative hypothesis, which assumes that desirable traits will be attributed to Americans by friendly nations and undesirable traits by hostile nations, we found that both desirable and undesirable traits were attributed to Americans by citizens of most countries. A new multinational study includes assessments of stereotypes of age groups and genders as well as nations. Preliminary analyses suggest that (a) age is more important that gender or culture in determining perceptions of a group;(b) age stereotypes are generally accurate in the direction of age changes, but not the timing;and (c) the stereotype of the typical culture member can be approximated by summing across age- and gender-specific national stereotypes. These analyses will provide important new information on the conditions under which stereotypes are, or are not, accurate. Comparisons of personality profiles across cultures provide some of the strongest evidence of the accuracy of aggregate, or average, personality scores. But there are a number of different metrics by which profile agreement can be assessed. In a study using self-reports and observer ratings of 532 individuals, the ability of several different profile agreement statistics to distinguish matched (i.e., the self-report and observer rating concerned the same individual) from mismatched pairs of self-reports and observer ratings was assessed. Intraclass correlations proved the best, with simple Pearson correlations a close second. In comparing personality profiles across cultures, intraclass correlations appear to be the metric of choice.

Summary of Work: Personality can be defined in terms of enduring individual differences in emotional, interpersonal,experiential, and motivational styles. The five factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness provide a comprehensive taxonomy of personality traits for the description of personality in aging men and women. Collaborative studies of Candian and German samples have confirmed that the five factors are substantially heritable. The robustness of the heritability data for the factors and facets of the Five-Factor Model have encouraged investigators in LPC to attempt to define the genotypic bases of personality.Contrary to prior investigations which showed a link between the personality trait of Novelty-seeking and alleles of the D4 dopamine receptor gene (D4DR), a large-scale study completed this year found no evidence for this association. Another candidate gene relating to a different dimension of personality, Neuroticism, involves a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTT) located on chromosome 17q12(SCL6A4 localization). Over 430 BLSA subjects were genotyped for the long and short variants of the 5-HTT polymorphism. Contrary to the original observation short variants were not higher in Neuroticism.Studies of the molecular genetic bases of personality will continue.

Sex Differences in the Neural Correlates of Openness: Most previous research on the neurological basis of personality has focused on traits related to Neuroticism and Extraversion, to the neglect of the other traits within the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Equally important within the FFM, the trait Openness to Experience captures individual differences in cognitive flexibility, need for variety, and depth of emotional experience. Although open individuals score high on neuropsychological tests that assess function of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC), there is no direct evidence for the association between Openness and activity in specific brain regions. Further, the sex differences in the neural activity often observed for cognitive traits may also apply to personality traits. In this research, we investigated sex differences in the resting-state neural correlates of Openness to Experience. Using resting-state PET from 100 older individuals (>55 years of age), we identified associations between Openness and resting-state regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) that replicated across two assessments of the same sample, approximately two years apart. Higher Openness scores correlated positively with resting-state rCBF in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC), the anterior cingulate (ACC), and in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). These relations were both specific and common across the sexes: Openness correlated with regions of the brain related to working memory for women (DL-PFC), attention and reward for men (ACC), and emotional and reward processing for both sexes (OFC). It is striking that Openness correlated positively with brain regions linked to working memory and attention as these are the two executive functions crucial for the core characteristic of Openness to Experience cognitive flexibility. It is also notable that these relations were sex-specific;this divergence suggests that the two sexes rely on different neural pathways for the operations that define the trait Openness to Experience. The results challenge the implicit assumption that the same trait will rely on the same neural mechanisms across all who express it. In previous years, we noted the limitations in existing studies of personality stability and change, especially the need for longitudinal studies of ethnic minorities. We also suggested the need for future research in the community or epidemiological investigations to study the causes of the modest changes that occur in personality traits in adulthood. Our main objective was to assess the influence of job characteristics or aspects of the working environment captured by the Demand-Control Model of work stress as possible sources of non-normative personality changes in middle adulthood. Additionally we sought to examine the concurrent as well as the prospective relations in the dynamic transition between extrinsic and intrinsic career success and measures of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Reciprocal Influences of Personality and Job Characteristics Across Middle Adulthood:There is a presumed reciprocal relation between experiences at work and personality: characteristics of the working environment are thought to contribute to personality development and, likewise, personality is thought to shape the daily realities of the job. Yet, few studies have measured both personality and the working environment at two points in time to explicitly test this reciprocal relation. To that end, we examined the concurrent (N = 722) and longitudinal (N = 297) relations between personality traits and occupational experiences across a ten-year period of middle adulthood in an economically-diverse community sample, The Baltimore ECA. We used a two-wave panel design to address their reciprocal change within the framework of the Five-Factor Model of personality and the Demand-Control Model of the working environment. Measured concurrently, participants high in Neuroticism reported less decision making latitude at work, whereas participants high in Extraversion, Openness, and Conscientiousness reported more latitude. Disagreeable participants were employed in physically demanding jobs and jobs with a hazardous working environment. Finally, those low in Extraversion and Conscientiousness also reported jobs with hazardous working conditions. Longitudinally, personality at baseline had the strongest relation with changes in the Decision Latitude dimension: Participants high in Neuroticism decreased in decision making latitude, whereas extraverted, open, and conscientious participants at baseline reported more decision making latitude at the 10-year follow-up. Agreeableness was unrelated to change in this dimension. Disagreeable participants did, however, report more physical demands on the job and introverted participants reported more hazardous working conditions. In contrast, none of the job characteristics predicted change in personality over this time interval. These findings suggest that as individuals progress through their careers in mid-life, they mold their everyday experiences on the job to fit their personality. Everyday working experiences, however, largely do not shape personality or strengthen corresponding aspects of the individuals personality. Our design offered two important advancements over previous research. First, the economically-diverse, middle-aged sample allowed us to examine the interplay between personality and job characteristics in individuals with established careers employed in a broad range of occupations;previous research has relied primarily on either young adults or select groups of adults. Second, we assessed both personality and job characteristics at two time points, which allowed us to test the influence of one variable on the other, controlling for their initial levels and concurrent relations. By measuring both personality and job characteristics at each time point, we had greater control over testing the hypothesized temporal relations. Our findings highlight the importance of traits for real-world consequences, but suggest that these consequences have a much smaller effect on subsequent personality development. Personality and Career Success Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations: In this research, we addressed the dynamic transaction between extrinsic (occupational prestige, income) and intrinsic (job satisfaction) career success and the Five-Factor Model of personality. Participants (N = 731) were drawn from the Baltimore ECA study. They completed a comprehensive measure of personality and reported their job title, annual income, and job satisfaction;a subset of these participants (n = 302) provided the same information approximately 10 years later. Measured concurrently, controlling for sex, ethnicity, age, and education, participants high in Neuroticism or low in Conscientiousness reported lower annual incomes and lower job satisfaction. Our longitudinal analyses revealed that, among younger participants, earning a higher income at baseline predicted decreases in Neuroticism across the 10 years between baseline and follow-up and higher levels of Extraversion predicted increases in income over this time period. The present findings implicate one aspect of the environment in personality development: those who earn higher incomes decrease on Neuroticism. It is of note that it is not how much one enjoys his job or the everyday realities of the working environment that contributes to personality development, but rather the material rewards of the job. Both personality and career success have been hypothesized to mutually influence each other across the lifespan. The current research suggests that this dynamic transaction may be limited to income and may only occur early in the career when both personality and careers are in flux.

Last year in an effort to explore the genetic architecture of personality, we examined the heritability of NEO-PI-R domain and facet traits in a sample of 6,148 Sardinians. Across all 35 domains and facets, genetic effects explained 19% of the variance, ranging from 9.4% for the Agreeableness facet Tender-Mindedness to 32.8% for Openness to Experience. This demonstrates clearly a genetic, biological component to the FFM dimensions. [unreadable] [unreadable] The search for the molecular genetic basis of traits has evolved from candidate gene studies [unreadable] to the more promising genome wide association scans or GWA scans. Recent studies that used GWA scans have reliably identified new common variants associated with complex traits and diseases that include BMI, height, inflammatory bowel disease, and type 1 and type 2 diabetes. To identify SNPs associated with each of the five dimensions and 30 facets of personality we performed a GWA scan of 3,972 individuals from a genetically isolated population within Sardinia. We are testing for the association of 362,129 single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (Controlling for age, age-squared, gender and family structure) that passed quality control. The association analyses are performed for all factors and facets of the personality inventory, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R. Because of the alpha inflation accompanying the huge numbers of comparisons, we focus only on those results that are stronger than the background signals usually o values less than E-5 or -6. Preliminary results encourage us to examining several strong signals, some within or near genes previously implicated in brain functions or psychiatric disorders (e.g., SNAP-25, DYRK1A, CLOCK, CDH13, CDH23, BDNF, CNTNAP2, CTNNA2, IKBKAP). [unreadable] [unreadable] Among these, particularly interesting is the association of Neuroticism with the SNAP-25 gene, which plays a critical role in neurotransmitter release, axonal growth, and synaptic plasticity. Deletion of the region containing the SNAP-25 gene in the Coloboma mouse causes neurological abnormalities, including hyperactivity. Such a phenotype is consistent with a role for SNAP25 in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which has been tested in a number of studies with mostly positive results. Furthermore, abnormalities in the level of SNAP25 have been linked to other psychiatric disorders. In addition to its intrinsic interest for a personality trait, the association between SNAP-25 and Neuroticism is relevant to several psychiatric disorders for which Neuroticism is an intermediate phenotype/endophenotype.[unreadable] [unreadable] A further interesting association is found between Extraversion and SNPs lying close to the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene. In particular, Extraversion was associated with the extensively studied Val66Met variant (rs6265). BDNF supports the survival of existing neurons and the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses.

As researchers seek to understand individual differences in peoples psychological resilience to life stressors, both personality traits and spirituality/religiousness (S/R) have emerged as important predictors of sustained well-being in the face of adversity ,though it is not clear how these variables are jointly related to emotional well-being. Further, most research on the relation between personality traits and religiousness has been conducted in healthy, well-adjusted samples and little is known about their association in vulnerable populations. To address these gaps in the research record, in a recent study LPC/PSCS investigators examined the relative association of personality traits and S/R with mental health in a sample of people living with HIV. Research on the psychology of religion relies on a wide variety of measures to capture peoples experience of the sacred, yet a basic distinction can be drawn between religiousness and spirituality Religiousness captures adherence to traditional religious creeds, often centered on a specific community of faith and encompasses a set of behaviors (e.g., prayer, church attendance) associated with a specific belief system. Spirituality typically refers to subjective experiences of the transcendent which imbue everyday life with a sense of deeper and may also encompass a sense of communion with humanity and compassion for others Although spirituality and religiousness are not mutually exclusive evidence suggests that they are empirically distinct concepts This differentiation is particularly relevant when studying populations affected by HIV/AIDS who often face stigmatization by institutionalized and may be more likely to report being spiritual but not religious We focus on the Five-Factor Model of personality traits, a comprehensive and widely replicated trait taxonomy that describes personality along the following five dimensions: Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C), each of which is further specified by facets. In general, high A appears to show somewhat stronger associations to religiousness than to spirituality, high O shows the opposite pattern, high C is related to both concepts, whereas low N and high E show weaker associations to either construct Only three studies have examined facet-level associations with no facets consistently found across all three studies. The present study examined the association between personality traits and facets and S/R in a diverse sample of participants faced with the multiple challenges associated with an HIV infection. Consistent with previous research, we expected that Conscientiousness would be equally associated with both spirituality and religiousness, Agreeableness would show a relatively stronger association with religiousness than spirituality, Openness would show the opposite pattern, whereas low Neuroticism and high Extraversion would show comparatively weaker associations with S/R. We also expected that underlying personality traits would statistically account for effects of S/R on mental health but not vice versa and we expected that S/R would partially mediate some of the effects of personality on mental health. Participants (n=112) were paid volunteers drawn from a larger longitudinal sample and were recruited into the parent sample if they were HIV positive and had CD4 counts ranging from 150 to 500. Participants disease status was assessed via CD4 lymphocite count and viral load at baseline. Personality traits were assessed with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R, Costa &McCrae, 1992). Spirituality and religiousness were assessed with the short form of the Ironson-Wood Spirituality/Religiousness Index (IWSRI;Ironson et al., 2002). Mental health was captured using a test battery including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, Beck, Steer, &Brown, 1996), the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, &Mermelstein, 1983), and others. Results Our findings suggest that the general pattern of associations between personality traits and S/R holds true across diverse samples. C showed the most consistent pattern of associations to S/R with significant partial correlations to all of the IWSRI subscales, followed by A and O. For N, significant associations were limited to the Religious Behavior scale and E was the only factor that showed no associations to the IWSRI. Evidence from facet-level analyses illustrate that religiousness is associated with low scores on Impulsiveness (N) and high scores on Altruism and Compliance (A). Also, consistently across studies, aspects of spirituality were associated with high scores on Fantasy, Aesthetics, and Feelings (O). Further, high scores on Tender-Mindedness (A) and Competence (C) were associated with both spirituality and religiousness. Personality factors and IWSRI scores were significantly associated with mental health and the general pattern suggested that N was associated with lower levels of mental health (i.e., higher levels of depression, hopelessness, anxiety and stress as well as lower levels of optimism). The remaining personality factors as well as the IWSRI subscales were positively associated with mental health. Discussion Religious and spiritual individuals feel in charge of their lives and show high levels of sympathy and concern for others. In addition, primarily religious individuals are uniquely characterized by the ability to resist temptations coupled with the tendency to de-escalate social conflicts and assist others in need. Primarily spiritual individuals, in turn, show vivid imagination, appreciation for beauty, and receptiveness to their inner feelings. Our findings suggest that when the NEO-PI-R domains are considered in combination, underlying personality traits fully account for the association of S/R with mental health, consistent with the theoretical claim that religiousness and spirituality are characteristic adaptations that develop as basic personality traits are channeled by cultural and environmental influences (source). Furthermore, a set of mediation analyses provide good initial evidence that certain aspects of S/R mediate the relationship of both O and A with mental health. Our findings also have important practical implications because the mediation analyses suggest that the benefits of S/R for mental health are largely dependent on a persons underlying personality traits. This suggests that any interventions aimed at inducing a turn towards religion in order to improve mental health may be misguided. Instead, medical professionals may want to assess their clients personality profile to determine who may benefit most from access to spiritual and/or religious support and guidance.

Five-Factor Model personality profiles of drug users. Drug use is related to adverse health and social outcomes. Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of preventable disability and death in the U.S. and around the world, increasing the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory and other health problems. The use of other psychoactive substances, most of them illicit drugs, is also associated with massive social cost beyond the damage to the individual users, affecting health care, law enforcement, and legal systems. Personality traits are considered risk factors for drug use, and, in turn, the psychoactive substances impact individuals'traits. Furthermore, there is increasing interest in developing treatment approaches that match an individual's personality profile. To advance our knowledge of the role of individual differences in drug use, this study compares the personality profile of tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin users and non-users using the wide spectrum Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality in a diverse community sample. Participants (N = 1,102;mean age = 57) were part of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) program in Baltimore, MD, USA. The sample was drawn from a community with a wide range of socio-economic conditions. Personality traits were assessed with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), and psychoactive substance use was assessed with systematic interview. The results indicate that compared to never smokers, current cigarette smokers score lower on Conscientiousness and higher on Neuroticism. Similar, but more extreme, is the profile of cocaine/heroin users, which score very high on Neuroticism, especially Vulnerability, and very low on Conscientiousness, particularly Competence, Achievement-Striving, and Deliberation. By contrast, marijuana users score high on Openness to Experience, average on Neuroticism, but low on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. In conclusion, in addition to confirming high levels of negative affect and impulsive traits, this study highlights the links between drug use and low Conscientiousness. These links provide insight into the etiology of drug use and have implications for public health interventions. Indeed, although individual treatments might reduce the rate of drug abuse, public policy is an important tool for cigarette smoking and other drug abuse prevention and cessation. Because of the low conscientiousness, high impulsivity, and high emotional vulnerability of most drug users, relying on an individual's resources, without therapeutic intervention, may produce limited results. In the case of cigarette smoking, societal pressure in the form of high taxation, restriction in advertising, and interdiction of smoking in public places are cost-effective programs that are reducing the prevalence of smoking Self-Reported Extremely Adverse Life Events and Longitudinal Changes in Five-Factor Model Personality Traits in an Urban Sample There is growing evidence that long-standing environmental conditions such as relationship involvement, work experiences, or enrollment in psychotherapy may be linked to longitudinal trajectories of Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits. In contrast, research on personality changes in response to distinct life events is rare, the reported effects are only modest, and results are inconsistent across studies. The few studies that measured aspects of FFM personality traits before a traumatic event found that participants who show high baseline levels of neuroticism and possibly openness are more likely to show symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Moreover, those with higher neuroticism scores immediately after a traumatic experience are more likely to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress later on. Unfortunately, none of these studies assessed personality traits both before and after the traumatic experience occurred. Thus, it is not clear to what extent the personality correlates of posttraumatic stress reflect preexisting personality versus event-related personality changes. This research examines the influence of recent and highly stressful life events on longitudinal change in FFM personality traits over an 8-year interval in an urban community sample (N = 458). Over a quarter of participants reported an extremely adverse event within two years preceding the follow-up personality measurement. To obtain a fine-grained assessment of personality changes, we assessed traits both at the level of the five higher-order factors and at the level of individual facets. Because personality stability differs across demographic groups we controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, and education. The experience of extremely adverse events is associated with a selective pattern of changes in personality traits. Compared to the rest of the sample, participants who reported a recent and extremely adverse life event showed increases in the tendency to experience negative affect (neuroticism), especially anger and frustration (N2: angry hostility). At the same time, they became less likely to cooperate and deescalate in situations of interpersonal conflict (A4: compliance). These effects are consistent with previous research, which suggests that stressful life events can take a toll on emotional well-being and interpersonal relationships. Importantly, our findings indicate that these effects can be strong enough to shiftat least temporarily selected aspects of an individuals core personality traits. In addition, participants who had experienced extreme events decreased on O6: openness to values, indicating an increased tendency to embrace authority, dogma, and tradition. These results are consistent with terror management theory, which predicts that increased salience of ones mortality leads people to reaffirm their cultural worldviews and reject alternative opinions. Five-factor Model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations. Retirement is a major normative life transition which profoundly affects patterns of everyday activities and social network composition. Research on interindividual differences in retirement outcomes has focused on sociodemographic factors, physical health, and subjective well-being. In contrast, very few studies have examined the link between personality traits and retirement. The present study adds to the literature by examining personality as a predictor of retirement, patterns of longitudinal personality change associated with retirement, and personality correlates of retirement outcomes. We examined associations between five-factor personality traits and retirement in a diverse community sample. Longitudinal analyses (n=367) compared personality trajectories of participants who remained employed and participants who retired. Personality at baseline did not predict future retirement, but compared to participants who remained employed, retirees increased in Agreeableness and decreased in Activity, a facet of Extraversion. In cross-sectional analyses among retirees (n=144), those low in Neuroticism and high in Extraversion reported higher retirement satisfaction and those high in Extraversion reported higher post-retirement activity levels. Findings suggest that the trait perspective contributes to our understanding of the retirement process.