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Personality Correlates of Self-Esteem

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Abstract

The current study examined the relation between self-esteem and the Big Five personality dimensions. Data were collected over the Internet from a large heterogeneous sample of individuals who ranged in age from 9 to 90 years (N = 326,641). Collectively, the Big Five accounted for 34% of the variance in self-esteem. High self-esteem individuals were emotionally stable, extraverted, and conscientious and were somewhat agreeable and open to experience. Despite an extensive search for potential mediators and moderators of this general pattern, the relations between self-esteem and the Big Five largely cut across age, sex, social class, ethnicity, and nationality (United States vs non-United States). High self-esteem individuals tended to ascribe socially desirable traits to themselves, and this tendency partially mediated relations between the Big Five and self-esteem. Discussion focuses on interpreting the social desirability effects, limitations of the study, and directions for future research.

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    This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH–61829) and by a Faculty Research Grant from the University of California, Davis. We thank Michelle R. Pryor for providing the social desirability ratings used in this study.

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Richard W. Robins, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8686. E-mail: [email protected].

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