They tend to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; they display planned rather than spontaneous behavior; and they are generally dependable.
[4] Conscientiousness also appears in other models of personality, such as Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory, in which it is related to both self-directedness and persistence.
With the advent of the FFM (Five-Factor Model), behavior geneticists began systematic studies of the full range of personality traits, and it soon became clear that all five factors are substantially heritable.
[10] Deciding which measure of either type to use in research is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties and the time and space constraints of the study being undertaken.
Lexical measures use adjectives that reflect conscientiousness traits, such as "efficient" and "systematic", and are very space- and time-efficient for research purposes.
Thompson[1] revised these measures to develop the International English Mini-Markers which has superior validity and reliability in populations both within and outside North America.
Respondents are asked the extent to which they, for example, often forget to put things back in their proper place, or are careful to avoid making mistakes.
[13] For instance, statements in colloquial North American English like Often forget to put things back in their proper place or Am careful to avoid making mistakes can be hard for non-native English-speakers to understand, suggesting internationally validated measures might be more appropriate for research conducted with non-North Americans.
[14] Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies suggest that conscientiousness is relatively low among adolescents but increases between 18 and 30 years of age.
[17] Conscientiousness has a moderate to large positive correlation with performance in the workplace,[18] and in contrast, after general mental ability is taken into account, the other four Big Five personality traits do not aid in predicting career success.
Being too conscientious could lead to taking too much time in making urgent decisions and to being too attached to the rules and lacking innovation.
[26] The authors suggested this may be due to conscientious people making different attributions about why they became unemployed, or through experiencing stronger reactions following failure.
[29] According to a multi-decade study begun in 1921 by psychologist Lewis Terman on over 1,500 gifted adolescent Californians, "The strongest predictor of long life was conscientiousness.
[20] Conscientiousness is positively related to health behaviors[31] such as regular visits to a doctor, checking smoke alarms, and adherence to medication regimens.
Conscientiousness is associated with lower rates of behavior associated with at-fault divorce, such as extramarital affairs, spousal abuse, and alcohol use disorder.
More conscientious people are better at managing conflict and tend to provoke fewer disagreements, perhaps because they elicit less criticism due to their well-controlled and responsible behavior.
[32] Some previous studies in selected samples (e.g., job candidates,[33] university students) have found negative correlations between conscientiousness and intelligence.
[35] Because conscientiousness is positively related to job performance,[36] conservative service workers have been shown to earn higher ratings, evaluations, and tips than their liberal counterparts.
[39] Hence, conscientiousness is associated only with rule compliance, obedience, and integrity, not necessarily with right-wing authoritarianism, which requires reduced Big Five Agreeableness as well.
Specifically, the subfactors order, dutifulness, and deliberation negatively correlated with decision-making quality, but not[ambiguous] competence, achievement striving, and self-discipline.
People in the southwestern states of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona also have relatively high average scores on conscientiousness.
The four states with the lowest scores on conscientiousness on average were, in descending order, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, and Alaska.
[49] A large scale survey of residents of Great Britain found that average levels of all the Big Five, including conscientiousness, vary across regional districts in England, Wales, and Scotland.
High levels of conscientiousness were found throughout much of Southern England, scattered areas of the Midlands, and most of the Scottish Highlands.