Papers by Christian Kandler
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2016
It has been argued that facets do not represent the bottom of the personality hierarchy-even more... more It has been argued that facets do not represent the bottom of the personality hierarchy-even more specific personality characteristics, nuances, could be useful for describing and understanding individuals and their differences. Combining 2 samples of German twins, we assessed the consensual validity (correlations across different observers), rank-order stability, and heritability of nuances. Personality nuances were operationalized as the 240 items of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). Their attributes were examined by analyzing item residuals, controlling for the variance of the facet the item had been assigned to and all other facets. Most nuances demonstrated significant (p < .0002) cross-method agreement and rank-order stability. A substantial proportion of them (48% in self-reports, 20% in informant ratings, and 50% in combined ratings) demonstrated a significant (p < .0002) component of additive genetic variance, whereas evidence for environmental influences shared by twins was modest. Applying a procedure to estimate stability and heritability of true scores of item residuals yielded estimates comparable with those of higher-order personality traits, with median estimates of rank-order stability and heritability being .77 and .52, respectively. Few nuances demonstrated robust associations with age and gender, but many showed incremental, conceptually meaningful, and replicable (across methods and/or samples) predictive validity for a range of interest domains and body mass index. We argue that these narrow personality characteristics constitute a valid level of the personality hierarchy. They may be especially useful for providing a deep and contextualized description of the individual, but also for the prediction of specific outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
The American journal of clinical nutrition, Jan 13, 2016
Both genetic and environmental factors are known to affect body mass index (BMI), but detailed un... more Both genetic and environmental factors are known to affect body mass index (BMI), but detailed understanding of how their effects differ during childhood and adolescence is lacking. We analyzed the genetic and environmental contributions to BMI variation from infancy to early adulthood and the ways they differ by sex and geographic regions representing high (North America and Australia), moderate (Europe), and low levels (East Asia) of obesogenic environments. Data were available for 87,782 complete twin pairs from 0.5 to 19.5 y of age from 45 cohorts. Analyses were based on 383,092 BMI measurements. Variation in BMI was decomposed into genetic and environmental components through genetic structural equation modeling. The variance of BMI increased from 5 y of age along with increasing mean BMI. The proportion of BMI variation explained by additive genetic factors was lowest at 4 y of age in boys (a(2) = 0.42) and girls (a(2) = 0.41) and then generally increased to 0.75 in both sexes...
Scientific reports, 2016
Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a syste... more Height variation is known to be determined by both genetic and environmental factors, but a systematic description of how their influences differ by sex, age and global regions is lacking. We conducted an individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts from 20 countries, including 180,520 paired measurements at ages 1-19 years. The proportion of height variation explained by shared environmental factors was greatest in early childhood, but these effects remained present until early adulthood. Accordingly, the relative genetic contribution increased with age and was greatest in adolescence (up to 0.83 in boys and 0.76 in girls). Comparing geographic-cultural regions (Europe, North-America and Australia, and East-Asia), genetic variance was greatest in North-America and Australia and lowest in East-Asia, but the relative proportion of genetic variation was roughly similar across these regions. Our findings provide further insights into height variation during childhood and adolesc...
Journal of personality and social psychology, Jan 21, 2016
This multitrait multimethod twin study examined the structure and sources of individual differenc... more This multitrait multimethod twin study examined the structure and sources of individual differences in creativity. According to different theoretical and metrological perspectives, as well as suggestions based on previous research, we expected 2 aspects of individual differences, which can be described as perceived creativity and creative test performance. We hypothesized that perceived creativity, reflecting typical creative thinking and behavior, should be linked to specific personality traits, whereas test creativity, reflecting maximum task-related creative performance, should show specific associations with cognitive abilities. Moreover, we tested whether genetic variance in intelligence and personality traits account for the genetic component of creativity. Multiple-rater and multimethod data (self- and peer reports, observer ratings, and test scores) from 2 German twin studies-the Bielefeld Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins and the German Observational Study of Adult Twins-we...
Child development, Jan 3, 2015
Despite cross-cultural universality of core human values, individuals differ substantially in val... more Despite cross-cultural universality of core human values, individuals differ substantially in value priorities, whereas family members show similar priorities to some degree. The latter has often been attributed to intrafamilial socialization. The analysis of self-ratings on eight core values from 399 twin pairs (ages 7-11) and their biological parents (388 mothers, 249 fathers; ages 26-65) allowed the disentanglement of environmental from genetic transmission accounting for family resemblance in value orientations. Results indicated that parent-child similarity is primarily due to shared genetic makeup. The primary source of variance in value priorities represented environmental influences that are not shared by family members. These findings do not provide evidence for parental influences beyond genetic influences contributing to intrafamilial similarity in value priorities.
Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Mar 27, 2015
Politische Psychologie, 2015
Politische Psychologie, 2015
Twin research and human genetics : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, Jan 4, 2015
A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been sugges... more A trend toward greater body size in dizygotic (DZ) than in monozygotic (MZ) twins has been suggested by some but not all studies, and this difference may also vary by age. We analyzed zygosity differences in mean values and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) among male and female twins from infancy to old age. Data were derived from an international database of 54 twin cohorts participating in the COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins), and included 842,951 height and BMI measurements from twins aged 1 to 102 years. The results showed that DZ twins were consistently taller than MZ twins, with differences of up to 2.0 cm in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.9 cm in adulthood. Similarly, a greater mean BMI of up to 0.3 kg/m2 in childhood and adolescence and up to 0.2 kg/m2 in adulthood was observed in DZ twins, although the pattern was less consistent. DZ twins presented up to 1.7% greater height and 1.9% greater BMI than ...
Twin Research and Human Genetics
Background: Even though there is abundant evidence that personality development continues in adul... more Background: Even though there is abundant evidence that personality development continues in adulthood due to both genetic and environmental factors, little is known about the genetic and environmental contributions to personality change in old age. We thus investigated the genetic and environmental sources of rank-order continuity and change in several personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, perceived control, and affect intensity) and well-being. In addition, we analyzed the interrelation between change in personality traits and well-being change. Methods: We analyzed data from older adult twins, aged 64-85 at time 1 (N = 410; 91 female and 43 male MZ and 42 female and 21 male DZ twin pairs), captured at two different time points about five years apart. To estimate the genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in level and change, we ran latent change twin model analyses. These twin models allow the disentangl...
Diagnostica
Jüngste Ergebnisse konnten zeigen, dass Freizeitinteressen relativ wenig mit Berufsinteressen kon... more Jüngste Ergebnisse konnten zeigen, dass Freizeitinteressen relativ wenig mit Berufsinteressen konvergieren und dass die Ausübung von Freizeitinteressen positive Konsequenzen nach sich ziehen (z.B. steigende Lebenszufriedenheit). Leider existierte bisher kein entsprechendes Messinstrument, welches eine breite aber auch ökonomische Messung von Freizeitinteressen sowie für einen breiten Erwachsenenaltersbereich differenzierte Untersuchungen von Freizeitinteressen im deutschen Sprachraum erlaubt. Aus diesem Grund wurde das Fragebogen-Inventar für Freizeitinteressen (FIFI) für Erwachsene entwickelt. Anhand exploratorischer Faktorenanalysen ließen sich 21 primäre und fünf sekundäre Freizeitinteressendimensionen an einer Stichprobe von 836 Erwachsenen (18-94 Jahre) extrahieren. Mithilfe konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen wurden die fünf übergeordneten Dimensionen zweiter Ordnung bestätigt. Darauf aufbauend wurden 21 Primärskalen und fünf Sekundärskalen gebildet, welche befriedigende bis gu...
Personality and Individual Differences, 2015
ABSTRACT An established position, long recognized in the literature, maintains that political par... more ABSTRACT An established position, long recognized in the literature, maintains that political party identification (PID) arises mainly from familial socialization and has a major impact on political outlooks and behaviors. An alternative view, also entrenched in the literature, holds that the direction of causation may go the other way, with political orientations influencing PID insofar as individuals seek out parties that match their ideological viewpoints. Here we use univariate and multivariate twin modeling to examine the underlying etiology assumed by those two positions, and introduce a new perspective that may help researchers make sense of PID, political orientations, and the relationships between them. Our findings indicate that: (1) PID is substantially heritable; and (2) there is empirical support for a model in which genetic and environmental factors influence political orientations, which in turn affect PID.
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015
An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource, 2015
ABSTRACT Konservativ oder progressiv? Hierarchie oder Gleichheit? In unserem politischen Denken u... more ABSTRACT Konservativ oder progressiv? Hierarchie oder Gleichheit? In unserem politischen Denken und Handeln werden wir durch Medien, Bildung und vor allem durch wichtige Bezugspersonen wie Familie und Freunde beeinflusst. Doch kann es sein, dass es schon genetisch zu einem gewissen Grad angelegt ist, welche politischen Ansichten wir vertreten und für welche Partei mit welcher Ideologie und mit welchem Wahlprogramm wir uns entscheiden? LINK: http://de.in-mind.org/article/rechts-oder-links-wie-gene-unsere-politische-orientierung-beeinflussen
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Papers by Christian Kandler