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Personality Trait Development and Social Investment in Work
Nathan W Hudson1, Brent W Roberts, Jennifer Lodi-Smith
1University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Abstract:
A longitudinal study of employed individuals was used to test the relationship between social investment at work-the act of cognitively and emotionally committing to one's job-and longitudinal and cross-sectional personality trait development. Participants provided ratings of personality traits and social investment at work at two time-points, separated by approximately three years. Data were analyzed using latent change models. Cross-sectional results showed that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were related to social investment at work. Additionally, a positive association was found between longitudinal change in social investment in work and change in personality traits-especially conscientiousness. Finally, the correlated changes in social investment and personality traits were invariant across age groups, suggesting that personality traits remain malleable across the lifespan.
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