Predicting Personality State Variability: Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Personality Dysfunction

A person’s pattern of behaviour is highly stable on average (i.e., their personality traits), yet highly varied between situations (i.e., their personality states). Research suggests the function of personality is to maintain stable relationships with oneself and others and that variability in expression of personality is related to Personality Dysfunction. We investigated the personality traits of Conscientiousness and Neuroticism and variability in their respective personality states during daily life. We further considered the role of Personality Dysfunction in people's awareness of their personality state variability. Employing an ecological momentary assessment design, a general population sample (N = 61; 62% female) completed baseline surveys measuring trait Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Personality Dysfunction, before reporting on the state expression of these variables four times a day for 10-days. We used correlational analyses to assess the relationships between trait domains and the distributional parameters of their state expressions. We additionally explored the relationship between Personality Dysfunction and participant's awareness of their personality state variability. As anticipated, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism traits were both related to the average of their personality states. Trait Neuroticism predicted variability in respective states, however, trait Conscientiousness largely did not. People were poor predictors of their Conscientiousness state variability and adequate predictors of variability in state Neuroticism. Personality Dysfunction was only significantly related to discrepancies between people’s retrospective predictions of how much their Conscientiousness state, Organisation, varied and the observed state variability. We discuss implications of these findings for our investigation of personality trait and state relationships.