In this article, we address a number of issues surrounding biological models of personality traits. Most traditional and many contemporary biological models of personality traits assume that biological systems underlying personality traits are causal and immutable. In contrast, sociogenomic biology, which we introduce to readers in this article, directly contradicts the widely held assumption that something that is biological, heritable, or temperamental, is unchangeable. We provide examples of how seemingly unchanging biological systems, such as DNA, are both dependent on environments for elicitation and can be modified by environmental changes. Finally, we synthesize sociogenomic biology with personality psychology in a model of personality traits that integrates this more modern perspective on biology, physiology, and environment that we term sociogenomic personality psychology. We end the article with a discussion of the future directions of sociogenomic personality psychology.

Typical assessments of personality traits collapse behaviors, thoughts, and feelings into a single measure without distinguishing between these different manifestations. To address this lack of specification, the current study develops and validates a measure that assesses a number of broad behaviors associated with the personality trait of conscientiousness (the Behavioral Indicators of Conscientiousness; BIC). Findings suggest that the lower-order structure of conscientious behaviors is mostly similar to the lower-order structure in extant trait measures. Furthermore, a daily diary method was used to validate the BIC against frequency counts of conscientious behavior. Overall, the results identify specific behaviors that conscientious individuals tend to perform and highlight possible advantages of this approach over broad trait assessment.

While previous studies indicate that personality traits influence the likelihood of divorce, the processes that drive this relationship have yet to be examined. Accordingly, the current study utilized a nationally representative, longitudinal sample (N = 8,206) to test whether relationship satisfaction is a pathway by which personality traits influence relationship dissolution. Specifically, we examined 2 different pathways: the enduring dynamics and emergent distress pathways. The enduring dynamics pathway specifies that the association between personality and relationship satisfaction reflects ongoing relationship dynamics, which are presumed to be stable across a relationship. In contrast, the emergent distress pathway proposes that personality leads to worsening dynamics across the course of a relationship, which is indicated by changes in satisfaction. For each pathway, we assessed actor, partner, and combined effects for the Big Five. Results replicate previous research in that personality traits prospectively predict relationship dissolution. Both the enduring dynamics and emergent distress pathways served to explain this relationship, though the enduring dynamics model evidenced the largest effects. The emergent distress pathway was stronger for couples who experienced certain life events, suggesting that personality plays a role in adapting to changing life circumstances. Moreover, results suggest that the personality of the dyad is important in this process: Above and beyond actor effects, partner effects influenced relationship functioning (although the influence of combined effects was less clear). In sum, the current study demonstrates that personality traits shape the overall quality of one's relationship, which in turn influences the likelihood of relationship dissolution.

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The present study investigated whether an intervention aimed to increase cognitive ability in older adults also changes the personality trait of openness to experience. Older adults completed a 16-week program in inductive reasoning training supplemented by weekly crossword and Sudoku puzzles. Changes in openness to experience were modeled across four assessments over 30 weeks using latent growth curve models. Results indicate that participants in the intervention condition increased in the trait of openness compared to a waitlist control group. The study is one of the first to demonstrate that personality traits can change through non-psychopharmocological interventions.

Social investment theory (SIT) proposes that the transition to parenthood triggers positive personality trait change in early adulthood. Using data from a representative sample of first-time parents compared to nonparents, the results of rigorous tests do not support the propositions of SIT. Specifically, we found no evidence for the proposition that parents show more pronounced mean-level increases in emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness compared to nonparents. We did find that agreeableness and openness changed depending on how long someone was in the parent role. Finally, our results suggest that high extraversion and low openness in both genders and high conscientiousness in females predict the likelihood to enter into parenthood. Discussion focuses on why this transition seems to be unrelated to mean-level personality trait change and the implications of these results for SIT.

While personality traits have been linked concurrently to health status and prospectively to outcomes such as mortality, it is currently unknown whether traits predict the diagnosis of a number of specific diseases (e.g., lung disease, heart disease, and stroke) that may account for their mortality effects more generally. A sample ( N = 6,904) of participants from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study of older adults, completed personality measures and reported on current health conditions. Four years later, participants were followed up to see if they developed a new disease. Initial cross-sectional analyses replicated past findings that personality traits differ across disease groups. Longitudinal logistic regression analyses predicting new disease diagnosis suggest that traits are associated with the risk of developing disease—most notably the traits of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Findings are discussed as a means to identify pathways between personality and health.

data files, results, and code used to conduct the analyses in this manuscript as well as a number of additional analyses referenced in footnotes in the manuscript. A web application (https://emoriebeck.shinyapps.io/pairs_graphicalvar/) contains visualizations of the more than 700 networks constructed in the analyses.