Helle Pullmann

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: its dimensionality, stability and personality correlates in Estonian

Abstract The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was adapted to the Estonian language. By all relevant psychometric properties the developed Estonian version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (ERSES) was identical to the original construct measuring a persons overall evaluation of his or her worthiness as a human being. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that global self-esteem can be best represented as a single dimension. The temporal stability of the ERSES was also very similar to the original version demonstrating an exponential decay over time. Like previously reported findings, individuals with high self-esteem tended to obtain similar and individuals with low self-esteem divergent total self-esteem scores on two subsequent occasions. A joint factor analysis of the ERSES and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) scales led to a five-factor structure which replicated the normative North-American structure, self-esteem loading significantly only on the Neuroticism factor. The pattern of correlations between the ERSES and the Five-Factor model of personality dimensions was very similar to that obtained in Hong Kong and Canada [Kwan, V. S. Y, Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1038–1051] suggesting that the relationship between personality and self-esteem is universal, not depending on a particular language and/or culture. The correlations between the ERSES and two other personality measures, the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS) and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), also supported cross-cultural generalizability of the relationships between personality and self-esteem.

Personality development from 12 to 18 years of age: changes in mean levels and structure of traits

The Estonian NEO‐FFI was administered to 2650 Estonian adolescents (1420 girls and 1230 boys) aged from 12 to 18 years and attending 6th, 8th, 10th, or 12th grade at secondary schools all over Estonia. Although the mean levels of personality traits of Estonian adolescents were quite similar to the respective scores of Estonian adults, there was a developmental gap in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Three of the five personality dispositions demonstrated a modest cross‐sectional change in the mean level of the trait scores: the level of Openness increased and the levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness decreased between 12 and 18 years of age. Although the five‐factor structure of personality was already recognizable in the sample of 12‐year‐old children, it demonstrated only an approximate congruence with the adult structure, suggesting that not all children of that age have developed abilities required for observing ones own personality dispositions and for giving reliable self‐reports on the basis of these observations. The self‐reported personality trait structure matures and becomes sufficiently differentiated around age 14–15 and grows to be practically indistinguishable from adult personality by the age of 16. Personality of adolescents becomes more differentiated with age: along with the growth of mental capacities the correlations among the personality traits and intelligence become smaller. Copyright

Stability and Change in Adolescents' Personality: A Longitudinal Study

The present study examined three types of personality change and continuity (mean‐level, individual‐level, and rank‐order stability) over the 2‐year period in a nationally representative longitudinal sample of Estonian adolescents (N = 876) aged 12–18. According to the Reliable Change Index, 82.1% of adolescents maintained the same level on any given personality trait measured by the NEO Five‐Factorial Inventory (NEO‐FFI) indicating that the individual‐level continuity of adolescents did not differ compared to young adults. A reliable increase was found in Openness. Across the five dimensions, the average test–retest correlations were 0.51, 0.56 and 0.67, and the computed biennial stability values were 0.80, 0.83 and 0.89 for age groups 12 → 14, 14 → 16 and 16 → 18 years, respectively. Neither intelligence nor school performance moderated the differential continuity. Copyright

Toward More Readable Big Five Personality Inventories

The Estonian version of the International Personality Item Pool NEO (IPIP-NEO; Goldberg, 1999) was administered to 297 participants in parallel with the Estonian version of the NEO-PI-R (Kallasmaa, Allik, Realo, & McCrae, 2000). On average, the EPIP- NEO items were 3 words, 7 syllables, and 18 characters shorter than the NEO-PI-R items. By all relevant psychometrical properties the EPIP-NEO was comparable to the NEO-PI-R. The mean convergent correlation between the facet scales was .73. The scales with shorter and grammatically simpler items tended to have higher internal consistency. In an independent cross-validation sample the initial results were generally replicated. The scales also demonstrated an adequate cross-observer agreement. It is concluded that the EPIP-NEO, as a more readable personality inventory compared to the NEO-PI-R, is suitable for a wider range of samples with different levels of reading skills.

Global Self-Esteem Across the Life Span: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Between Representative and Self-Selected Internet Samples

The cross-sectional trajectory of global self-esteem across the life span was examined administering the Rosenberg and Single-Item Self-Esteem scales to Estonians (N = 29,463) who were either randomly selected from the National Census to represent the population or self-recruited through the Internet. The results (a) challenge the recent conclusion of a universal age trajectory of self-esteem, (b) demonstrate that self-recruited Internet data collection method is biased compared to random sampling, and (c) present that different self-esteem items have dissimilar trajectories. A variance component analysis confirmed that age differences in self-esteem are relatively small compared to interindividual differences and measurement error.

Personality traits of Russians from the observer's perspective

Data were collected by the members of the Russian character and personality survey from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents (N = 7065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college‐aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, which measures neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Factor analyses within samples showed that the factor structure of an international sample combining data from 50 different cultures was well replicated in all 39 Russian samples. Sex differences replicated the known pattern in all samples, demonstrating that women scored higher than men on most of the neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness facet scales. Cross‐sectional analyses demonstrated consistent age differences for four factors: Older individuals compared to younger ones were less extraverted and open but more agreeable and conscientious. The mean levels of traits were similar in all 39 samples. Although in general personality traits in Russians closely followed the universal pattern, some reliable culture‐specific effects were also found that future studies can help interpret. Copyright

Comparability of self-reported conscientiousness across 21 countries

In cross–national studies, mean levels of self–reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self–report judgements in relation to culture–specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross–cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation–level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture–related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self–ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self–rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture–specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright

Longitudinal Associations of Cognitive Ability, Personality Traits and School Grades with Antisocial Behaviour

This study investigated the role of adolescents’ cognitive ability, personality traits and school success in predicting later criminal behaviour. Cognitive ability, the five–factor model personality traits and the school grades of a large sample of Estonian schoolboys (N = 1919) were measured between 2001 and 2005. In 2009, judicial databases were searched to identify participants who had been convicted of misdemeanours or criminal offences. Consistent with previous findings, having a judicial record was associated with lower cognitive ability, grade point average, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and higher neuroticism. In multivariate path models, however, the contributions of cognitive ability and conscientiousness were accounted for by school grades and the effect of neuroticism was also accounted for by other variables, leaving grade point average and agreeableness the only independent predictors of judicial record status. Copyright

Sex differences on the progressive matrices among adolescents: some data from Estonia

Abstract It has long been asserted that there are no sex differences on the Progressive Matrices. Contrary to this position, it has been contended by Lynn (1994, 1998) that there is a small difference favoring females from the age of approximately 9–14 years, and a difference favouring males from the age of 16 onwards, reaching approximately 2.4 IQ points among adults. Data to test these two theories are reported from a standardization of the Progressive Matrices on a sample of 2689 12–18 year olds in Estonia. The results confirm the Lynn theory and show a female advantage of 3.8 IQ points among 12–15 year olds and a male advantage of 1.6 IQ points among 16–18 year olds. Boys had a significantly larger standard deviation than girls. The results provide further confirmation that in early adolescence girls outperform boys on abstract (non-verbal) reasoning ability but that in later adolescence boys outperform girls.

The growth of IQ among Estonian schoolchildren from ages 7 to 19.

The Standard Progressive Matrices test was standardized in Estonia on a representative sample of 4874 schoolchildren aged from 7 to 19 years. When the IQ of Estonian children was expressed in relation to British and Icelandic norms, both demonstrated a similar sigmoid relationship. The youngest Estonian group scored higher than the British and Icelandic norms: after first grade, the score fell below 100 and remained lower until age 12, and after that age it increased above the mean level of these two comparison countries. The difference between the junior school children and the secondary school children may be due to schooling, sampling error or different trajectories of intellectual maturation in different populations. Systematic differences in the growth pattern suggest that the development of intellectual capacities proceeds at different rates and the maturation process can take longer in some populations than in others.