Introduction

This study explores the relations between personality traits and personal

goals. The goal measure (Howell et al., 2001) is based on extensive

content sampling of thousands of students’ goals across more than a

decade of research. This Personal Goals Questionnaire incorporates the

breadth and variety of students’ explicit motives.

Previously established trait-goal relationships:

Traits relate to personal project ratings (Little, Lecci, & Watkinson, 1992):

Importance ratings positively correlate to conscientiousness,

extraversion, & agreeableness;

Visibility ratings of interpersonal projects correlate positively to

conscientiousness & extraversion;

High openness and low neuroticism correlate positively to enjoyment

ratings and negatively to stress ratings.

Importance ratings of independence goals relate to introversion and

neuroticism (Stimson et al., 2007)

Correspondence between social traits and goals relates to happiness

(McGregor, McAdams, & Little, 2006)

Predictions:

Goals to alter personal characteristics or attributes will relate to

personality traits. For example, “Be more assertive, self-confident” and

“Stop worrying so much” will be more important to the highly neurotic.

Goals arising from normative roles will relate more weakly to traits. For

example, academic and financial goals may be more socially proscribed

(Cantor, 1990).

MethodParticipants

N = 786 UCR undergraduates Mean age = 19.2 years

62% female

11% other / mixed ethnicities

44% Asian American 24% Hispanic

15% Caucasian 6% African American

Measures

Big Five Inventory (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991)

A brief measure of the five most essential personality trait domains

44 statements of “I see myself as someone who…” rated 1-5

Personal Goals Questionnaire – 65-item list of goals

Represents all of students’ commonly volunteered personal goals

Participants rate “How important is the goal…”

1 = “This is not one of my goals currently”

to 5 = “Among my most important goals currently”

Procedure

Goal importance ratings were standardized within each participant

Formed twenty parcels of two to six goals each based on semantic

similarity of goal content

Factor analyzed the twenty parcels

Based factor scores on unit weighted means of the parcels from

an oblimin-rotated solution

Correlated factor scores with the Big Five Inventory trait scales

Results & Discussion

95 participants were removed for rating more than 50% of goals as “Among my most important goals currently.” All analyses are based on the

remaining 88% of the original sample (N = 692). Neuroticism related to average goal importance ratings before standardization (r = .21, p < .0001).

A scree test identified three principal factors accounting for 33% of the variance in importance ratings. Standardization forced bipolar loadings. After

oblimin rotation, these factors were retained to represent the most essential tradeoffs students make as they priorit ize one goal domain over another

(Stauner, Stimson, & Ozer, 2009):

Spirituality vs. Finances: Indicates opposing prioritizations of moral and religious growth vs. immediate material needs and rewards.

Intimacy vs. Self-Enablement: Indicates that romantic relationship & family-building goals oppose negative affect management & self-assertion

goals. This suggests personal stability is a prerequisite for seeking emotional intimacy.

Achievement vs. Enjoyment: Represents contrasting motive dispositions toward academic or career achievement and hedonistic affiliation, and

suggests opposition between achievement and social life tasks (Cantor, 1990).

Personality correlates with goals to engage in and change trait-related social and emotional behavior

Extraversion is associated with spiritual, and especially community presence goals, while introversion is associated with an apparently

compensatory interest in being more self-confident and independent.

Neuroticism is associated with apparently compensatory goals to relax, reduce stress and worrying, and be more self-confident and independent,

while emotional stability is associated with recreational sensation-seeking (e.g., participating for fun in hobbies, sports, travel, and thrilling activities).

Openness is associated with enjoyment-seeking.

These results expand the predictive validity of the Big Five personality traits to individual differences in motivation

Suggests underlying deficits in social glibness and emotional stability as motivators of compensatory goals

Indicates a complementary relationship between openness and enjoyment-seeking, and between extraversion and community involvement-seeking.

References

Cantor, N. (1990). From thought to behavior: "Having" and “doing” in the study of

personality and cognition. American Psychologist , 45(6), 735-750.John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., & Kentle, R. L, (1991). The Big Five Inventory: Versions

4a and 54. Technical report, Institute of Personality and Social Research,

University of California, Berkeley, CA.Howell, R. T., Hershey, J. W., Markey, P. M. & Ozer, D. J. (2001). Comparing operant

and respondent measures of personal goals. Poster presented at the 109th annual

convention of the American PsychologicalAssociation, San Francisco, CA.Kaiser, R. T., & Ozer, D. J. (1997). Emotional stability and goal-related stress.

Personality and Individual Differences, 22(3), 371-379.

Little, B. R., Lecci, L., & Watkinson, B. (1992). Personality and personal projects: Linking Big Five and PAC units of analysis. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 501-525.

McGregor, I., McAdams, D. P., & Little, B. R. (2006). Personal projects, life stories,

and happiness: On being true to traits. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 551–572.

Stimson, T. S., Kaiser, K. M., Kashani, N., Moon, C. M., Pederson, M. B., Rodriguez, J.

E., Sanchez, M., & Ozer, D. J. (2007). Independence goals, college studentpersonality and recollected childhood experiences. Poster presented at the annualconvention of the American PsychologicalAssociation, Kansas City, MO.

Stauner, N., Stimson, T. S., & Ozer, D. J. (2009). The factor structure of personalgoals in an undergraduate population. Poster presented at the 10th annualconvention of the Society for Personality & Social Psychology, Tampa, FL.

Table 1. Correlations Between the Big Five and Personal Goals

Goal Factors / Parcels E A C N O

Spirituality vs. Finances .13 .12 .12 -.11 .08

Religious -.07

Moral .11 .10 -.09

Community .22 .09 .19 -.14 .11

Immediate Finances .07 .07

Intimacy vs. Self-Enablement .21 -.09 .08 -.28 .10

Romantic Relations -.07 .07

Immediate Finances .07 .07

Future Family Concerns -.08

Assert Influence -.31 .06 -.17 .19 -.13

Negative Affect Control -.14 .49 -.07

Achievement vs. Enjoyment .08 -.17

Academic .13 -.10

Future Finances .08 -.07

Peer Relations .10 -.10 .07

Enjoyment-Seeking -.20 .23

Note. Correlations of magnitude ≥ .2 are bolded.

All displayed correlations are significant, p < .1 N = 690 – 691.

Conclusions

Neuroticism motivates compensatory stress-reduction and relaxation goals

Introversion motivates compensatory interpersonal self-assertion goals

Openness motivates enjoyment-seeking goals