Relationships Among Cognitive Performances, Cognitive Styles And Personality Characteristics

As individual difference variables of human mind, intelligence and personality are separately investigated in traditional psychology. Recently, there are some integrating trends towards these two constructs. One typical manifestation is a resurgence of interest in the work of cognitive styles. More and more psychologists recognize that cognitive styles provide a bridge between intelligence and personality. Meanwhile, Five Factor Model (FFM) has becoming a united personality framework. Under these backgrounds, the author proposed out the research program titled as "Relationship among Cognitive Performances, Cognitive Styles and Personality Characteristics" , and attempted to investigate the relationships between personality and intelligence via cognitive styles.In this program, intelligence was conceptualized as cognitive performance; that is to say, intelligence is individual difference traits represented by cognitive performance. There are two parameters of assessing cognitive performances, one is total scores, and the other is cognitive style. Total scores were conceptualized as an absolute index of cognitive performance, whose operant definition is the sum scores between standard scores of two matched cognitive performances. Cognitive styles were conceptualized as a relative index of cognitive performance, whose operant definition is deviation between standard scores of two matched cognitive performances. Personality was conceptualized as personality traits, whose operant definition is one's test scores in each personality dimension with NEO-PI-R Chinese version.After exactly delimiting the main concepts, the author formulated the theoretical model of the relationships between personality and intelligence. According to this model, intelligence and personality are two different constructs, but they are overlapped. The overlapped parts of two constructs are cognitive styles. Cognitive styles are not only parts of intelligence, but also parts of personality.On the basis of this theoretical model, the author predicted, certain personality traits are correlated with certain cognitive styles, and not correlated with total scores. To verify the research hypothesis, personality traits and cognitive performance task types were viewed as independent variable, cognitive performance scores and cognitive style as dependent variable, 5 separate experimental cognitive tests were performed, and the results are below:Study 1 was designed to explore the relationships among cognitive performances, cognitive styles and Neuroticism. This study was a 2×2 mixed design, cognitive condition (tightened VS. relaxed) was a within-subjective factor, Neuroticismpersonality type (Highly VS. Lowly) was a between-subjective factor. All subjective completed two tasks under each condition. Results demonstrated that Neuroticism is correlated with tightened -relaxed cognitive style, and not correlated with total scores. Highly Neurotic individuals mostly tend to be relaxed cognitive style; Lowly Neurotic individuals tend to be tightened cognitive style.Study 2 was designed to explore the relationships among cognitive performances, cognitive styles and Conscientiousness. All subjective (Highly VS. Lowly Conscientious) completed three speed-type cognitive tasks. Results demonstrated that Conscientiousness is correlated with reflectivity -impulsivity cognitive style, and not correlated with total scores. Highly Conscientious individuals tend to be impulsive style; Lowly Conscientious individuals tend to be reflective style.Study 3 was designed to explore the relationships among cognitive performances, cognitive styles and Agreeableness. This study was a 2x2 mixed design, cognitive performance type(people-oriented VS. thing-oriented) was a within-subjective factor, Agreeableness personality type(Highly VS. Lowly) was a between-subjective factor. All subjective completed two tasks. Results demonstrated that Agreeableness is not correlated with people oriented -thing oriented cognitive style,and also correlated with total scor...