Personality Stability and Change across the Academic Semester
Creators: name: Otten, Caitlin Drummond
name: Anglin, Stephanie
name: Rubinstein, Rachel
name: Mangracina, Brandon J.
name: K. Mackenzie Shaw
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: This study aims to test competing hypotheses about student personality change across the academic semester and examine the academic, social, extracurricular, health, and affective experiences associated with changes. Previous research suggests that personality can vary substantially over short time periods (hours and days; Fleeson, 2001, 2007; Fleeson &amp; Gallagher, 2009; Guekes et al., 2017; Heller et al., 2007) in response to situational factors (Situational Perspective; Lüdke et al., 2011; Nasello et al., 2023) but shows high levels of consistency over years and decades (Five-Factor Model; Caspi &amp; Roberts, 2001; Costa &amp; McCrae, 1994; Roberts &amp; DelVecchio, 2000). Despite consistency, research also finds developmental patterns of change over time, particularly in transitional periods such as college (Lüdtke et al., 2009) as young adults adapt to social role changes requiring greater responsibility (Maturity Principle; Atherton et al., 2021; Kilmstra et al., 2018; Roberts &amp; DelVecchio, 2000; Roberts et al., 2006; Robins et al., 2001, 2005; Vaidya et al., 2002; Vollrath, 2000). In this study, we asked college students to complete measures of personality and academic, social, extracurricular, health-related, and affective experiences at the beginning of and two-thirds of the way through the Fall semester. The Situational Perspective predicts that personality will change in response to changes across the semester (e.g., in workload), with conscientiousness, extraversion, and emotional stability decreasing, whereas the Maturity Principle predicts that conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability will increase as students adapt to new roles and expectations. The Five Factor Model predicts that personality will remain unchanged. We hypothesize that any changes in personality will co-occur with changes in experiences, particularly in affect, workload, social activity, and health. Few studies have examined personality change in time periods between days and years, including the span of the college semester. Our project builds on prior longitudinal studies of college students, which have assessed short-term variability in personality over days and weeks (e.g., Fleeson, 2001, 2007; Fleeson &amp; Gallagher, 2009) and long-term personality change in the transition from high school to college (Lüdtke et al., 2009) and over four years of college (e.g., Atherton et al., 2021; Kilmstra et al., 2018; Roberts &amp; Robin, 2004; Vollrath, 2000), as well as studies that have tested for personality differences between students who participate early vs. later in the semester (Aviv et al., 2002; Ebersole et al., 2016; Witt et al., 2011). This study will clarify different patterns of short-term situational and long-term developmental patterns of change and the experiences associated with changes, and provide insight into the (in)significance of conducting studies during different times of the semester.