Personality, Adaptability, and Performance: Performance on Well-Defined Problem Solving Tasks

Abstract

Prior research indicates that certain personality constructs influence performance on complex problem-solving tasks. In this study, we demonstrated that personality constructs can also serve to maintain performance as people move from familiar, well-defined tasks to unfamiliar, ill-defined tasks. Accordingly, 250 college students were asked to complete a set of background data items intended to measure relevant personality constructs. Performance on well-defined and ill-defined laboratory problem-solving tasks was then assessed, along with high school and college grades. In addition, measures of subjects' beliefs about and reactions to task performance were obtained. In a series of discriminant analyses, we found that a particular pattern of personality constructs contributed to the maintenance of good performance as people moved from the well-defined to the ill-defined laboratory task and from high school to college. More specifically, creative achievement, self-discipline, and a lack of defensive rigidity appeared to contribute to adaptability. The implications of these findings for understanding the kinds of people who can adapt to new task demands were discussed with special reference to skill acquisition, training, innovation, and role change.