Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Personality and Cognitive Abilities

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 454 Accesses

Synonyms

Aptitude; Disposition; Intelligence; Temperament

Definition

Personality is a set of characteristics that lead to consistent patterns of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings; cognitive abilities refer to an individual’s general mental aptitude. This entry reviews the relationship between personality and cognitive abilities.

Introduction

Intelligence and personality are often considered to be largely separate domains, by psychologists and laypeople alike (DeYoung 2011). However, correlations between intelligence and personality have been known in the literature for at least 100 years (Webb 1915). Although these relationships have been a focus of investigation for some researchers (e.g., Ackerman and Heggestad 1997; DeYoung et al. 2014; Moutafi et al. 2004; Murray et al. 2014; Wolf and Ackerman 2005) and have served as integral parts of theories of adult intelligence (Ackerman 1996; Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham 2005), they are more commonly investigated in isolation. Both...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ackerman, P. L. (1996). A theory of adult intellectual development: Process, personality, interests, and knowledge. Intelligence, 22(2), 227–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ackerman, P. L., & Heggestad, E. D. (1997). Intelligence, personality, and interests: Evidence for overlapping traits. Psychological Bulletin, 121(2), 219–245. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9100487.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2004). Perspectives on personality (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattell, R. B. (1943). The measurement of adult intelligence. Psychological Bulletin, 40(3), 153–193. doi:10.1037/h0059973.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2005). Personality and intellectual competence. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2006). Intellectual competence and the intelligent personality: A third way in differential psychology. Review of General Psychology, 10(3), 251–267. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.10.3.251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collis, J.M., & Messick, S. (Eds). (2001). Intelligence and personality: Bridging the gap between theory and measurement. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO PI-R) and NEO five-factor inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J. (1990). Essentials of psychological testing (5th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeYoung, C. G. (2011). Intelligence and personality. In R. J. Sternberg & S. B. Kaufman (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of intelligence (pp. 711–737). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., Peterson, J. B., & Gray, J. R. (2014). Openness to experience, intellect, and cognitive ability. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96(1), 46–52. doi:10.1080/00223891.2013.806327.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J. (1967). The biological basis of personality. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J. (1994). Personality and intelligence: Psychometric and experimental approaches. In R. J. Sternberg & P. Ruzgis (Eds.), Personality and intelligence (pp. 3–31). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, D. W., & Butler, J. M. (1963). The experimental conditions for measuring individual differences. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 23, 249–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goff, M., & Ackerman, P. L. (1992). Personality-intelligence relations: Assessment of typical intellectual engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(4), 537–552. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.84.4.537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, G. (1999). Personality and skill: A cognitive-adaptive framework. In P. L. Ackerman, P. C. Kyllonen, & R. D. Roberts (Eds.), Learning and individual differences: Process, trait, and content determinants (pp. 251–273). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Moutafi, J., Furnham, A., & Paltiel, L. (2004). Why is Conscientiousness negatively correlated with intelligence? Personality and Individual Differences, 37(5), 1013–1022. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2003.11.010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, J. H. (1992). Anxiety and performance. In A. P. Smith & D. M. Jones (Eds.), Handbook of human performance (pp. 127–160). London: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, A. L., Johnson, W., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2014). How are conscientiousness and cognitive ability related to one another? A re-examination of the intelligence compensation hypothesis. Personality and Individual Differences, 70, 17–22. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poropat, A. E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 322–338. doi:10.1037/a0014996.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, M., Abraham, C., & Bond, R. (2012). Psychological correlates of university students’ academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138(2), 353–387. doi:10.1037/a0026838.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saklofske, D. H., & Zeidner, M. (2013). International handbook of personality and intelligence. New York: Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarason, I. G. (1988). Anxiety, self-preoccupation, and attention. Anxiety Research, 1, 3–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, L. R. (1988). Objective personality tests: Some clinical applications. In K. Miller (Ed.), The analysis of personality in research and assessment: In tribute to R. B. Cattell (pp. 157–183). London: Independent Research and Assessment Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, R. J., & Ruzgis, P. (1994). Personality and intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, E. (1915). Character and intelligence. British Journal of Psychology Monograph, (Suppl 3), 1–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (1950). Cognitive, conative, and non-intellective intelligence. American Psychologist, 5(3), 78–83. doi:10.1037/h0063112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M. B., & Ackerman, P. L. (2005). Extraversion and intelligence: A meta-analytic investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 531–542. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.02.020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeidner, M., & Matthews, G. (2000). Intelligence and personality. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (pp. 581–610). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Victor J. Ellingsen

Authors
  1. Victor J. Ellingsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victor J. Ellingsen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Charlie Reeve

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Ellingsen, V.J. (2016). Personality and Cognitive Abilities. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_990-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_990-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation