Title: Does successfully changing personality traits via intervention require that participants be autonomously motivated to change?
Abstract: A growing body of research suggests that personality traits can be changed through intervention. Theorists have speculated that successful interventions may require (1) that participants autonomously choose which traits they change and (2) that they be deeply invested in the change process. The present studies tested these propositions by examining whether interventions to change conscientiousness and emotional stability can be successful when (1) participants are randomly assigned traits to change or (2) they are naïve with respect to the intervention's target trait. Results indicated that participants could be randomly assigned to change conscientiousness—even if they were unaware that the intervention was targeting conscientiousness. In contrast, interventions targeting emotional stability were effective only if participants both (1) autonomously chose to work on emotional stability and (2) received an effective intervention. These findings have practical implications for designing interventions—and they suggest that different traits may develop via different processes.
Publication Year: 2021
Publication Date: 2021-11-09
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 10
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