Testing the differentiation of personality hypothesis in a sample of managerial candidates. (1st April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schermer, Julie Aitken; Goffin, Richard D.; Biderman, Michael D.
• Is Part Of: Personality and individual differences. Volume 156(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-04-01
• Subjects: Intelligence -- Personality structure -- Differentiation; Personality -- Periodicals; Individuality -- Periodicals; Individuality -- Periodicals; Personality Development -- Periodicals; Personnalité -- Périodiques; Individualité -- Périodiques; 155.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2019.109766
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0191-8869

Abstract

Abstract: The differentiation of personality by intelligence hypothesis suggests that individuals are more variable, in terms of personality scores, when they score higher in intelligence. Conversely, those lower in intelligence are hypothesized to be more similar to each other in the structure of their personality traits. The hypothesis was tested with a large sample of managerial job candidates who completed an omnibus personality measure with 20 scales and a battery of intelligence measures (which was used to generate an intelligence factor). Following a median split along the intelligence factor, lower and higher intelligence groups were compared. The higher intelligence group was found to not be significantly more variable in terms of personality scale variances. Exploratory factor analyses suggested that a six-factor personality model was the best for each intelligence group. For the higher intelligence group, the six factors accounted for less variance and had lower absolute factor correlations. Multiple models tested the invariance of the six-factor model and suggest that there was evidence of configural and metric invariance but not scalar invariance. In general the results provide very limited support for the hypothesis.