Big five personality traits and spontaneous mental contrasting among Chinese students

This study explored the relationship between the Big Five personality traits (BFPTs) and the self-regulation strategy of spontaneous mental contrasting (S.MC) among Chinese university students. Study 1 employed a cross-sectional correlational design. We hypothesized that positive relationships exist for conscientiousness, extraversion, and low neuroticism with spontaneous mental contrasting, whereas agreeableness and openness are unrelated to spontaneous mental contrasting regarding the Chinese context. The results did not support the hypotheses. However, Study 1 indicated that two sub-traits (compassion and responsibility) correlated positively with spontaneous mental contrasting. An experimental study (Study 2) was conducted to confirm these results. The results revealed that the two prosocial traits (compassion and responsibility) significantly predict spontaneous mental contrasting compared to neutral condition. These findings support the results of a prior study, which found that those who experienced more social responsibility toward others typically used spontaneous mental contrasting to achieve their social responsibility goals. These findings extended these results, as the participants in this study exhibited increased spontaneous mental contrasting with their academic goals when induced by responsibility and compassion. The results of this study imply that the prosocial traits increased the use of spontaneous mental contrasting and future interventional designs should integrate these traits.