Nature and Emergence of Occupational Personality Profiles

Abstract

This thesis examined the nature of occupational personality profiles and experimentally tested one of the pathways that are a said to contribute to their emergence. Study 1 examined to what extent occupational profiles exist, comparing 1,270 professionals from five occupational groups regarding their facet-level trait personality, their regular job situations, and their job characteristics. Based on theoretical rationale, expert ratings, and previous research, the five groups were deemed to be most different regarding their personality profiles. Results supported several theory-driven differences between occupational groups, however, across groups, occupational profiles were more similar to one another than they were different. Further, investigating potential environmental antecedents of group differences in personality profiles, Study 1 assessed the predictive power of situational and job characteristics on individual’s trait personality. Although both situational and job characteristics may significantly predict personality, the amount of variance in personality explained by either of the characteristics is relatively modest (R2 = .075 - .199). These findings suggest significant differences in personality profiles across occupational roles, but they are smaller than some models would suggest and thus question the effects of environmental characteristics on personality. Dynamic theories of personality commonly assume that environmental characteristics elicit specific personality expressions (ASTMA, Roberts, 2006; DATA, Woods et al., 2019). Such elicitations are argued to be one mechanism through which occupation-specific personality profiles emerge (TESSERA, Wrzus & Roberts, 2017). Simulating job tasks, Study 2 was the first study to experimentally test the effects of job characteristics on personality expression (N = 381). Study 2 tested whether experiencing “task significance� influenced expressed conscientiousness and whether experiencing “decision authority� influenced expressed openness. Manipulation checks indicated large differences regarding perceived levels of task significance and decision authority between experimental conditions (dExp1 = .86; dExp2 = 1.17). Regression analyses did not support the hypothesized relations between job characteristics and personality expressions. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that, in one of the experiments, individuals of both the experimental and control conditions reported increased extraversion and agreeableness and lower neuroticism after conducting the experimental task. The findings suggest the nature of the task (i.e. creative task) may be more strongly associated with individuals’ personality than are job characteristics.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Paul Irwing (Supervisor) & David Hughes (Supervisor)