Personality states

Simon Columbus; Cecilie Fenja Strandsbjerg

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099

Personality states

Simon Columbus^*, Cecilie Fenja Strandsbjerg

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Psychology and Neuroscience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Personality states refer to an individuals’ feelings, thoughts, behaviours, and goals at a particular time. We review recent research with a focus on broad factor models of personality (Big Five, HEXACO), identifying several themes. First, studies show both convergence and significant differences between average states and traits and provide initial evidence that state fluctuations play a role in long-term trait change. Second, recent studies have identified theoretically plausible contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states as well as sizeable individual differences in these contingencies. Third, in applied contexts, personality states are associated with variables such as job performance, sleep quality, and stress. Finally, we highlight recent advances in the measurement of personality states.

Original language	English
Article number	102099
Journal	Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume	65
Early online date	22 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 22 Jul 2025

Keywords

Personality states
Whole Trait Theory
CAPS model
Personality processes

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10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099Licence: CC BY-NC

Columbus_2025_COP_Personality-states_CCBYNC
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Final published version, 2.12 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "Personality states",

abstract = "Personality states refer to an individuals{\textquoteright} feelings, thoughts, behaviours, and goals at a particular time. We review recent research with a focus on broad factor models of personality (Big Five, HEXACO), identifying several themes. First, studies show both convergence and significant differences between average states and traits and provide initial evidence that state fluctuations play a role in long-term trait change. Second, recent studies have identified theoretically plausible contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states as well as sizeable individual differences in these contingencies. Third, in applied contexts, personality states are associated with variables such as job performance, sleep quality, and stress. Finally, we highlight recent advances in the measurement of personality states.",

keywords = "Personality states, Whole Trait Theory, CAPS model, Personality processes",

author = "Simon Columbus and Strandsbjerg, {Cecilie Fenja}",

note = "Funding: C.F.S. was supported by grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark [1127-00366B] and the Tryg Foundation [162160] (PI Ingo Zettler).",

year = "2025",

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doi = "10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099",

language = "English",

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journal = "Current Opinion in Psychology",

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T1 - Personality states

AU - Columbus, Simon

AU - Strandsbjerg, Cecilie Fenja

N1 - Funding: C.F.S. was supported by grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark [1127-00366B] and the Tryg Foundation [162160] (PI Ingo Zettler).

PY - 2025/7/22

Y1 - 2025/7/22

N2 - Personality states refer to an individuals’ feelings, thoughts, behaviours, and goals at a particular time. We review recent research with a focus on broad factor models of personality (Big Five, HEXACO), identifying several themes. First, studies show both convergence and significant differences between average states and traits and provide initial evidence that state fluctuations play a role in long-term trait change. Second, recent studies have identified theoretically plausible contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states as well as sizeable individual differences in these contingencies. Third, in applied contexts, personality states are associated with variables such as job performance, sleep quality, and stress. Finally, we highlight recent advances in the measurement of personality states.

AB - Personality states refer to an individuals’ feelings, thoughts, behaviours, and goals at a particular time. We review recent research with a focus on broad factor models of personality (Big Five, HEXACO), identifying several themes. First, studies show both convergence and significant differences between average states and traits and provide initial evidence that state fluctuations play a role in long-term trait change. Second, recent studies have identified theoretically plausible contingencies between situation characteristics and personality states as well as sizeable individual differences in these contingencies. Third, in applied contexts, personality states are associated with variables such as job performance, sleep quality, and stress. Finally, we highlight recent advances in the measurement of personality states.

KW - Personality states

KW - Whole Trait Theory

KW - CAPS model

KW - Personality processes

U2 - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099

DO - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102099

M3 - Article

SN - 2352-250X

VL - 65

JO - Current Opinion in Psychology

JF - Current Opinion in Psychology

M1 - 102099

ER -

Personality states

Abstract

Keywords

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