A study examining the relationship between personality traits and self-regulation.

Abstract

Background Self-regulation enables people to override and alter their mainly unwanted immediate responses to achieve long-term goals and regulates behaviour in a healthy manner. Personality traits might predict both the types of self-regulation strategies that a person engages in, as well as the success of these strategies in modifying behaviour. Therefore, the present study investigates the possible associations between self-regulation strategies and the five-factor personality traits. Method The sample consisted of 52 adolescents from the Dutch-speaking population (76.9% women, mean age= 21.65). The participants completed an online questionnaire about their goals and self-regulation strategies they use to achieve these goals, their self-control and their five-factor personality traits. Results Conscientiousness was positively associated with the self-regulation strategies planning, monitoring, persistence, automation and inhibition. It was also found that there is a negative association between neuroticism and cognitive reappraisal and a positive association between extraversion and support seeking. No significant associations were found between the personality traits openness and agreeableness and the self-regulation strategies. In addition, also no significant correlations were found between situation selection or reward and the five-factor personality traits. Discussion Results indicate that conscientiousness may play a positive role in the application of several self-regulation strategies. For this reason, when trying to promote self-regulation among young adults in order to achieve goals, it is important to take into account the possible influence of personality traits on the self-regulation strategies young adults apply.