Linear and nonlinear associations between general intelligence and personality in Project TALENT.

• Autores: JasonT. Major, Wendy Johnson, Ian J. Deary
• Localización: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, ISSN 0022-3514, ISSN-e 1939-1315, Vol. 106, Nº. 4, 2014, págs. 638-654
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Research on the relations of personality traits to intelligence has primarily been concerned with linear associations. Yet, there are no a priori reasons why linear relations should be expected over nonlinear ones, which represent a much larger set of all possible associations. Using 2 techniques, quadratic and generalized additive models, we tested for linear and nonlinear associations of general intelligence (g) with 10 personality scales from Project TALENT (PT), a nationally representative sample of approximately 400,000 American high school students from 1960, divided into 4 grade samples (Flanagan et al., 1962). We departed from previous studies, including one with PT (Reeve, Meyer, & Bonaccio, 2006), by modeling latent quadratic effects directly, controlling the influence of the common factor in the personality scales, and assuming a direction of effect from g to personality. On the basis of the literature, we made 17 directional hypotheses for the linear and quadratic associations. Of these, 53% were supported in all 4 male grades and 58% in all 4 female grades. Quadratic associations explained substantive variance above and beyond linear effects (mean R² between 1.8% and 3.6%) for Sociability, Maturity, Vigor, and Leadership in males and Sociability, Maturity, and Tidiness in females; linear associations were predominant for other traits. We discuss how suited current theories of the personality�intelligence interface are to explain these associations, and how research on intellectually gifted samples may provide a unique way of understanding them. We conclude that nonlinear models can provide incremental detail regarding personality and intelligence associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)