Personality psychology

Personality has long been one of the most intriguing and interesting topics in popular psychology. How to reliably measure personality and what to do with the results? Read more about what our researchers are doing in this field. 

The reasons and development of personality traits

A genetic component in the variety of personality traits. Age differences in personality traits.

Researchers: René Mõttus, Kenn Konstabel, Uku Vainik, Liisi Ausmees, Anu Realo, Jüri Allik 

A selection of publications:

• Realo, A., van der Most, P. J., Allik, J., Esko, T., Jeronimus, B. F., Kööts-Ausmees, L., Mõttus, R., Tropf, F. C., Snieder, H., Ormel, J. (2017). SNP-based heritability estimates of common and specific variance in self- and informant-reported neuroticism scales. Journal of Personality, 85(6), 906-919. 
• Mõttus, R., Realo, A., Vainik, U., Allik, J., & Esko, T. (2017). Educational attainment and personality are genetically intertwined. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1631-1639.
• Ausmees, L., Kandler, C., Realo, A., Allik, J., Borkenau, P., Hřebíčková, M., & Mõttus, R. (2021, November 8). Age differences in personality traits and social desirability: A multi-rater multi-sample study.

Assessing personality traits 

Researchers: René Mõttus, Kenn Konstabel, Uku Vainik, Anu Realo, Jüri Allik  

A selection of publications:

• Mõttus, R., Allik, J., & Realo, A. (2019). Do self-reports and informant-ratings measure the same personality constructs? European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 36, 289-295.

Connections between personality traits, life choices and coping 

Researchers: Katarina Kliit, Kätlin Anni, Kadri Arumäe, René Mõttus, Kenn Konstabel, Uku Vainik 

Behavioural genetics  

Like father, like son. Genes clearly impact our behaviour, but how do they do it? Our institute has considerable experience with various methods, from candidate genes to polygenic scores and twin studies. Now we have a clearer understanding how education and entrepreneurship, risk taking, brain and obesity emerge. As genetic analyses need large-scale data, we continue collaboration with Estonian Biobank, collecting data on genes, personality and cognitive abilities from tens of thousands of gene donors.  

Researchers: Uku Vainik, Liisi Ausmees, Iiris Tuvi, Triin Kurrikoff 

A selection of publications: 

• Vainik, U., Baker, T. E., Dadar, M., Zeighami, Y., Michaud, A., Zhang, Y., Alanis, J. C. G., Misic, B., Collins, D. L., & Dagher, A. (2018). Neurobehavioral correlates of obesity are largely heritable. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(37), 9312–9317.
• Ausmees, L., Talts, M., Allik, J., Vainik, U., Sikka, T. T., Nikopensius, T., Esko, T., & Realo, A. (2021). Taking risks to feel excitement: Detailed personality profile and genetic associations. European Journal of Personality, 08902070211019242.
• Tuvi, I., Harro, J., Kiive, E., Vaht, M., & Bachmann, T. (2020). Associations of attention distractibility with attention deficit and with variation in the KTN1 gene. Neuroscience Letters, 738, 135397.
• Kurrikoff, T., Kaarma, K., Liina-Mai Tooding, L.-M., Mariliis Vaht, M., Tulviste, T., Veidebaum, T., & Harro, J. (2018). Association of the COMT Val108/158Met genotype with professional career and education: The Val-allele is more frequent in managers and in enterprising occupations. Personality and Individual Differences, 121, 213−217.

Additional reading:

• The Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study (ECPBHS)
• https://ukuvainik.netlify.app/

See all of our employees' publications here!