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THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS, GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY, AND CAREER SUCCESS ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN
Author(s) -
Judge Timothy A.,
Higgins Chad A.,
Thoresen Carl J.,
Barrick Murray R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x
Subject(s) - psychology , conscientiousness , big five personality traits , neuroticism , personality , developmental psychology , set (abstract data type) , hierarchical structure of the big five , job satisfaction , social psychology , variance (accounting) , big five personality traits and culture , extraversion and introversion , computer science , programming language , accounting , business
The present study investigated the relationship of traits from the 5‐factor model of personality (often termed the “Big Five”) and general mental ability with career success. Career success was argued to be comprised of intrinsic success (job satisfaction) and extrinsic success (income and occupational status) dimensions. Data were obtained from the Intergenerational Studies, a set of 3 studies that followed participants from early childhood to retirement. The most general findings were that conscientiousness positively predicted intrinsic and extrinsic career success, neuroticism negatively predicted extrinsic success, and general mental ability positively predicted extrinsic career success. Personality was related to career success controlling for general mental ability and, though adulthood measures of the Big Five traits were more strongly related to career success than were childhood measures, both contributed unique variance in explaining career success.