Doctoral defence: Kätlin Anni “Intelligence, personality, and socioeconomic outcomes in Estonia”

On 17 December at 14:15 Kätlin Anni will defend her doctoral thesis “Intelligence, personality, and socioeconomic outcomes in Estonia” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Psychology).

Supervisor: 
Professor René Mõttus, University of Tartu, and University of Edinburgh

Opponent: 
Professor Markus Jokela, University of Helsinki (Finland)

Summary
Socioeconomic outcomes, such as educational attainment and occupational status, are influenced by various factors, including psychological traits like cognitive ability and personality. In this dissertation, I aimed to study these associations in Estonia, using data from the Estonian Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) adaptation project and the Estonian Biobank Personality Study.

In the first part of the dissertation, I focused on relationships between intelligence and socioeconomic outcomes. We assessed the reliability of the Estonian WAIS-III, finding that its structure is similar to the original version and other adapted versions in different countries. Additionally, structure of cognitive abilities varied across educational levels, which should be considered when interpreting intelligence test results. We examined whether an individual's cognitive ability or their parents' education is a better predictor of educational attainment and occupational status. The results indicated that both are important, but intelligence was a stronger predictor, partially mediating the effect of parental education. We also found that verbal ability had a stronger relationship with outcomes than visual-spatial ability, working memory, or processing speed.

In the second part of the dissertation, I focused on associations between personality traits and occupations. We found that occupations explain 2-7% of the variance in Big Five personality traits and even more (up to 12%) in individual questionnaire items. Moreover, the higher the average levels of performance-related personality traits (particularly extraversion and conscientiousness) within occupations, the more similar individuals in those occupations are in these traits. These findings suggest that certain personality traits might be necessary for selecting or being selected in certain occupations, or that occupations may slightly change individuals' personality traits.

We mapped personality profiles for 263 occupations, which were generally intuitive and consistent with job tasks or requirements. For example, creative professions and researchers showed higher openness, while leadership positions and pilots exhibited lower neuroticism. Comprehensive personality profiles for all occupations are publicly available at the website https://apps.psych.ut.ee/JobProfiles/.