Does Personality Predict Risky Behavior?

Caspi, A., Begg, D., Dickson, N., Harrington, H., Langley, J., Moffitt, T.E., and Silva, P. A. (1997). Personality differences predict health-risk behaviors in young adulthood: Evidence from a longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1052-1063.

Overview:

Trait Theories of Personality

Your personality reflects how you interact with other people and the world. We commonly refer to different aspects of a person's personality as "traits;" for example, a friend might describe you as "shy" or "outgoing," as "passive" or "aggressive."

Psychologists have developed many different ways of classifying personality traits. Although different classification systems specify different traits, they all share the concept of a trait as varying along a dimension. That is, a trait such as "shy" is not measured in an all-or-none fashion, but along a dimension, such as "shy-outgoing."

There are two important questions about personality traits that psychologists must address. One concerns how personality traits relate to behavioral observations. If a person's personality describes how the person interacts with the world, then personality traits should reflect and predict people's behavior. If a person is described as shy, then he or she should act shy in a social situation.

Another question has to do with the stability of personality traits. Do people show the same personality right from birth? Psychologists refer to how a young child responds to the world as his or her temperament. If personality is stable, then a child's temperament should be related to later measures of personality.

Caspi, Begg, Dickson, Harrington, Langley, Moffitt, and Silva were interested in both of these questions. They were interested in whether differences in temperament and personality are linked to risky behaviors, such as alcohol abuse and crime.

Article Summary

Do you drink too much? Drive too fast? Engage in unsafe sex? Have you been convicted of a violent crime? Maybe--about one-quarter of young adults have engaged in one of these types of risky behavior. People who engage in risky behavior have a negative impact on society; they affect their health and the health of those around them, draining health-care resources.

Why do some people take risks? Psychologists have begun to link risky behavior with personality traits. For example, young adults who engage in unsafe sex or drink and drive tend to score high on measures of "sensation-seeking." Drug addicts and alcoholics often have poor impulse control. Convicted criminals lack a sense of social responsibility.

Although risky behavior and personality traits have been investigated in a number of studies, few have looked at the relationship over a long period of time. Caspi, Begg, Dickson, Harrington, Langley, Moffitt, and Silva followed young people in New Zealand from ages 3 to 21 years. The goal of their study was to try to predict risky behaviors by young adults.

The participants were part of a longitudinal study of health and development. Children born in 1972-1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand have been followed throughout their childhood. Three different measures, collected at three different times, were used in this study: When the children were 3 years old, they were observed and their temperaments were classified. When the participants were 18 years old, they were administered a personality questionnaire. At 21 years of age, risky behaviors of alcohol abuse, unsafe sex, violent crime, and dangerous driving were identified.

Over three-quarters of the participants did not engage in any of the four risky behaviors, and these young adults were used as the control group. Three-quarters of the young adults who were identified as engaging in risky behaviors engaged in only one type of risky behavior. Even though different people engaged in different types of risky behaviors, however, they showed distinct personality traits. Young adults who engaged in risky behavior tended to be non-traditional, not to avoid harmful situations, be less in control and careful, less social, and more aggressive than the control group. People who engaged in multiple risky behaviors had similar personality traits but were even more aggressive than people who were identified as engaging in only one type of risky behavior.

Caspi et al. also identified temperament variations in early childhood that were related to later personality traits and risky behaviors. In particular, children who had been characterized as "undercontrolled" at 3 years of age, were more likely to engage in risky behaviors at 21 years of age. Caspi et al. described these undercontrolled children as having difficulty sitting still, impulsive, irritable, and out of control in their behavior. The description of these temperament characteristics at 3 years of age are quite similar to the personality traits identified at 18 years of age.

Caspi et al. concluded that their longitudinal design has provided rather convincing evidence that personality traits related to risky behaviors have their origins very early in life.

For Instructors

Links to the Lecture

Students tend to be complacent about psychological assessment; it is important to develop a bit of skepticism, especially regarding the construct and measurement of personality traits. Simulate the construction of a personality test following some of the suggestions in:

Benjamin, L.T. (1983). A class exercise in personality and psychological assessment. Teaching of Psychology, 10, 94-95.

This exercise can be accomplished in large classes by passing around overhead transparencies on which students write their items. The relationship between personality and risky behavior can be examined by adding additional retrospective items on various risky behaviors.

For Students

About the Authors

Avshalom Caspi, HonaLee Harrington, and Terrie E. Moffitt are from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Dot Begg, Nigel Dickson, John Langley, and Phil A. Silva are from the University of Otago, New Zealand, where the research was conducted. Check out some summaries of other studies that have been done as part of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, including a more detailed study of alcohol abuse and one on assault.

About the Journal

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology publishes excellent research in personality and social psychology. Check out the Table of Contents of recent issues.

Links to Life

It is difficult to believe that the tendency to engage in risky behavior could be laid down so early in life as Caspi et al. found. But here's an abstract of another report on the relationship between early temperament and drug abuse.

The more common measures of personality are not available on-line. But here is an alternative personality test, the Keirsey temperament scale.

Most people don't believe they engage in risky behavior. Here is a Web site that provides good information while allowing you to assess your dependence on alcohol. Here is a more general measure of health risk assessment that deals with smoking, diet, exercise, and drinking.