Secondary-school personality change intervention: teach traits, self-assess, nominate traits, and complete weekly trait-relevant challenges¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 7 claims (7 for) · 3 studies (3 review), q2–q3 · 1 of 3 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review proposes a concrete classroom recipe adapted from Hudson et al. (2019): students learn about Big Five traits, take a self-report scale with anonymised class results shared, are taught about the malleability of personality, nominate traits they wish to develop, and complete weekly "games" enacting trait-relevant behaviour. Example challenges include reading one book per month for openness and using self-regulated learning strategies for conscientiousness.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Students must choose their own traits to develop, grounding the intervention in individual preference and agency

Constraints¶

• The review suggests this fits secondary school "perhaps not elementary school given the relatively high level of self-reflection required"; the school application is speculative, extrapolated from university-sample studies

Target Learners¶

• secondary school students

Target Learning Goals¶

• self-directed development of chosen personality traits such as conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion

Claims¶

• In trait-change interventions, participants who completed more trait-relevant behavioural challenges showed greater trait change over 15 weeks [+W]
• Personality traits change across the lifespan and in response to interventions, with the greatest change in adolescence and early adulthood [+W]
• University students overwhelmingly report goals to change at least one Big Five trait, but agreeableness may be the hardest trait to shift [+W]
• Behavior activation interventions show a dose-response pattern — completing more conscientiousness challenges produced larger increases — but one behavior activation trial found no significant change [+W]
• Personality changes achieved through digital VPC interventions persist, remaining sustained or amplified at three-month and one-year follow-ups [+W]
• Digital coaching significantly increased trait conscientiousness, with effects stable one year after the intervention ended [+W]
• Digital coaching increased the organization and productiveness facets of conscientiousness but not responsibility, with no observer-reported facet changes [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Personalise learning by Big Five trait level: scaffold low-conscientiousness students and reduce failure salience for high-neuroticism students

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Hayley K. Jach, Lisa Bardach, Kou Murayama. (2023). How Personality Matters for Education Research. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09807-4