Multilevel Examination of Adults Personalitiy

Diehl, Manfred

Abstract

This proposal is submitted in response to RFA PA-99-049 NIA: Pilot Research Grant Program, research objective 22. Personality and Experimental Social Psychology: Personality trait-structure- process interactions. The proposed study incorporates social- cognitive theory and multilevel assessment into research on adults' personality and extends existing research in several ways by: (1) using an adult life span sample; (2) linking adults' traits and dispositions with their personal goals, goal parameters, and goal orientations; (3) using a multidimensional measure of psychological well-being (PWB); and (4) applying path analysis to examine the direct and indirect effects of traits and goals on different dimensions of PWB. Using a sample of 240 adults (80 young, middle-aged, and older adults), the specific aims of this study are: (1) To examine age differences in Level I and Level II personality variables across the adult life span.
The first aim i s descriptive in nature and focuses on age differences in Level I (i.e., traits and dispositions) and Level II (i.e., personal goals, goal parameters, goal orientations) variables. Because most research on personal goals has been conducted with college students, findings from this study will provide a baseline for future work on the role of personal goals in adult personality. (2) To examine age differences in goal commitment and goal attainability across the adult life span. To our knowledge, no data exist on whether and how adults of different ages differ with regard to specific goal parameters, such as commitment or attainability. Several theories, however, suggest that the pattern of age differences for goal commitment and attainability may be positive. This study will examine this hypothesis explicitly. (3) To examine the associations between Level I and Level II personality variables. Little information exists about the associations between goal-related variables and enduring personality characteristics, such as traits. This study will examine the bivariate associations between the Big Five traits, general self-efficacy, optimism, and affect and goal-related variables. This study also examines whether the bivariate associations differ significantly by age. (4) To test a model examining the direct and indirect effect of Level I and Level II variables on adults' PWB. Past studies have examined the associations between traits or goals and PWB simply in terms of bivariate correlations. This study will use path analysis to examine to what extent the effects of negative affectivity, positive affectivity, and efficacy orientation on different dimensions of PWB are mediated by adults' goal commitment and goal attainability.