Evidence of assortative mating according to personality was reported in a previous SOEP-based stu... more Evidence of assortative mating according to personality was reported in a previous SOEP-based study (Rammstedt & Schupp, 2008). Based on population representative data of almost 7000 couples, high levels of congruence between spouses were found, which increased with marriage duration. Almost 5000 of these couples were tracked over a five-year period with personality assessed at the beginning and end of this time, which allowed us to investigate the relationship between personality congruence and marriage duration longitudinally. Using this data, we investigated (a) whether personality congruence is predictive for partnership longevity and whether congruence therefore differs between subsequently stable and unstable couples, (b) if stable couples become more congruent, and (c) if separated couples become less congruent with regard to their personality over time. The results provide initial evidence of personality congruence as a predictor for partnership longevity: the more congruent...
Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explor... more Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9-16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children's perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins' similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin's similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.
There is a circadian clock ticking for plants, animals, and humans - and it ticks differently for... more There is a circadian clock ticking for plants, animals, and humans - and it ticks differently for all of us. Not only the alarm clock or the job control determines when we get up and when we are active but also our internal biological clock. Scientists call this type of individual preference chronotype and they distinguish between morning and evening types. Chronotype correlates with the two main research areas of differential psychology, personality (Big Five) and intelligence, and shows systematic relationships to academic performance, as well. A greater preference for morningness indicates positive correlations to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and academic performance, whereas a stronger orientation to eveningness is positively correlated with extraversion and cognitive abilities. This pattern demonstrates, that chronotype is a highly interesting and psychologically relevant construct for both, questions of basic research and applied research.
American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, 2003
There are several reported associations between depressive disorders, panic disorder, and obsessi... more There are several reported associations between depressive disorders, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a variety of polymorphisms in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene. Associations have also been reported between the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene and both OCD and bipolar depression. However, the role of these markers has not been explored for the personality trait of neuroticism (N), a normally distributed quantitative trait, which is highly genetically correlated with anxiety and depression and may be a vulnerability to either type of disorder. We explored the possible role of MAOA, COMT, and their interaction on N using a selected extremes design. From a sample of 2,085 individuals, each assessed for N by two independent peers rather than using self-report questionnaires, we selected 57 individuals from the top 10% of scores, and 62 individuals from the bottom 10%. Using selected extreme low subjects as the controls, rather than an unselecte...
The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school... more The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school achievement among elementary school children beyond general mental ability (g). The sample consisted of N=1678 nine-year-old UK elementary school children who took part in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Teachers provided achievement assessments according to the UK National Curriculum criteria for Mathematics, English, and
Background: We investigated the aetiology of language impairment in 579 four-year-old twins with ... more Background: We investigated the aetiology of language impairment in 579 four-year-old twins with low language performance and their co-twins, members of 160 MZ twin pairs, 131 same-sex DZ pairs and 102 opposite-sex DZ pairs. Methods: Language impairment in 4-year-olds was defined by scores below the 15th percentile on a general factor derived from an extensive language test battery. Language impairment
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - PSP, 2004
Self-reports, peer reports, intelligence tests, and ratings of personality and intelligence from ... more Self-reports, peer reports, intelligence tests, and ratings of personality and intelligence from 15 videotaped episodes were collected for 600 participants. The average cross-situational consistency of trait impressions across the 15 episodes was.43. Shared stereotypes related to gender and age were mostly accurate and contributed little to agreement among judges. Agreement was limited mainly by nonshared meaning systems and by nonoverlapping information. Personality inferences from thin slices of behavior were significantly associated with reports by knowledgeable informants. This association became stronger when more episodes were included, but gains in prediction were low beyond 6 episodes. Inferences of intelligence from thin slices of behavior strongly predicted intelligence test scores. A particularly strong single predictor was how persons read short sentences.
The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focuses on the early development of the three most commo... more The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focuses on the early development of the three most common psychological problems in childhood: communication disorders, mild mental impairment and behavior problems. The TEDS twins were assessed longitudinally at 2, 3, 4 and 7 years of age in order to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to change and continuity in language and cognitive development; it is multivariate in order to examine the origins of comorbidity; and it uses a large sample in order to study abnormal development in the context of normal development. The twins were identified from birth records of twins born in the UK in 1994-96. More than 15,000 pairs of twins have been enrolled in TEDS and the participating families are representative of the UK. The measures at 2, 3 and 4 years are administered by parents. At 7 years, children are assessed for language and cognitive development using telephone testing, parents and children are interviewed about behavior problems, and teachers also assess behavior problems as well as academic achievement. One set of findings is that the same genes largely contribute to both language and cognitive problems and the same genes affect normal and abnormal development, a result that suggests that general impairment may be a better target for genetic research than specific language impairment independent of nonverbal cognitive problems. DNA has been obtained so far for more than 4000 pairs and is being used initially in molecular genetic studies of language problems and hyperactivity.
Evidence of assortative mating according to personality was reported in a previous SOEP-based stu... more Evidence of assortative mating according to personality was reported in a previous SOEP-based study (Rammstedt & Schupp, 2008). Based on population representative data of almost 7000 couples, high levels of congruence between spouses were found, which increased with marriage duration. Almost 5000 of these couples were tracked over a five-year period with personality assessed at the beginning and end of this time, which allowed us to investigate the relationship between personality congruence and marriage duration longitudinally. Using this data, we investigated (a) whether personality congruence is predictive for partnership longevity and whether congruence therefore differs between subsequently stable and unstable couples, (b) if stable couples become more congruent, and (c) if separated couples become less congruent with regard to their personality over time. The results provide initial evidence of personality congruence as a predictor for partnership longevity: the more congruent...
Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explor... more Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9-16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children's perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins' similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin's similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.
There is a circadian clock ticking for plants, animals, and humans - and it ticks differently for... more There is a circadian clock ticking for plants, animals, and humans - and it ticks differently for all of us. Not only the alarm clock or the job control determines when we get up and when we are active but also our internal biological clock. Scientists call this type of individual preference chronotype and they distinguish between morning and evening types. Chronotype correlates with the two main research areas of differential psychology, personality (Big Five) and intelligence, and shows systematic relationships to academic performance, as well. A greater preference for morningness indicates positive correlations to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and academic performance, whereas a stronger orientation to eveningness is positively correlated with extraversion and cognitive abilities. This pattern demonstrates, that chronotype is a highly interesting and psychologically relevant construct for both, questions of basic research and applied research.
American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, 2003
There are several reported associations between depressive disorders, panic disorder, and obsessi... more There are several reported associations between depressive disorders, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a variety of polymorphisms in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene. Associations have also been reported between the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene and both OCD and bipolar depression. However, the role of these markers has not been explored for the personality trait of neuroticism (N), a normally distributed quantitative trait, which is highly genetically correlated with anxiety and depression and may be a vulnerability to either type of disorder. We explored the possible role of MAOA, COMT, and their interaction on N using a selected extremes design. From a sample of 2,085 individuals, each assessed for N by two independent peers rather than using self-report questionnaires, we selected 57 individuals from the top 10% of scores, and 62 individuals from the bottom 10%. Using selected extreme low subjects as the controls, rather than an unselecte...
The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school... more The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school achievement among elementary school children beyond general mental ability (g). The sample consisted of N=1678 nine-year-old UK elementary school children who took part in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Teachers provided achievement assessments according to the UK National Curriculum criteria for Mathematics, English, and
Background: We investigated the aetiology of language impairment in 579 four-year-old twins with ... more Background: We investigated the aetiology of language impairment in 579 four-year-old twins with low language performance and their co-twins, members of 160 MZ twin pairs, 131 same-sex DZ pairs and 102 opposite-sex DZ pairs. Methods: Language impairment in 4-year-olds was defined by scores below the 15th percentile on a general factor derived from an extensive language test battery. Language impairment
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - PSP, 2004
Self-reports, peer reports, intelligence tests, and ratings of personality and intelligence from ... more Self-reports, peer reports, intelligence tests, and ratings of personality and intelligence from 15 videotaped episodes were collected for 600 participants. The average cross-situational consistency of trait impressions across the 15 episodes was.43. Shared stereotypes related to gender and age were mostly accurate and contributed little to agreement among judges. Agreement was limited mainly by nonshared meaning systems and by nonoverlapping information. Personality inferences from thin slices of behavior were significantly associated with reports by knowledgeable informants. This association became stronger when more episodes were included, but gains in prediction were low beyond 6 episodes. Inferences of intelligence from thin slices of behavior strongly predicted intelligence test scores. A particularly strong single predictor was how persons read short sentences.
The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focuses on the early development of the three most commo... more The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) focuses on the early development of the three most common psychological problems in childhood: communication disorders, mild mental impairment and behavior problems. The TEDS twins were assessed longitudinally at 2, 3, 4 and 7 years of age in order to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to change and continuity in language and cognitive development; it is multivariate in order to examine the origins of comorbidity; and it uses a large sample in order to study abnormal development in the context of normal development. The twins were identified from birth records of twins born in the UK in 1994-96. More than 15,000 pairs of twins have been enrolled in TEDS and the participating families are representative of the UK. The measures at 2, 3 and 4 years are administered by parents. At 7 years, children are assessed for language and cognitive development using telephone testing, parents and children are interviewed about behavior problems, and teachers also assess behavior problems as well as academic achievement. One set of findings is that the same genes largely contribute to both language and cognitive problems and the same genes affect normal and abnormal development, a result that suggests that general impairment may be a better target for genetic research than specific language impairment independent of nonverbal cognitive problems. DNA has been obtained so far for more than 4000 pairs and is being used initially in molecular genetic studies of language problems and hyperactivity.
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Papers by Frank Spinath