The traits that lead to success in life
I found a study which correlated various personal characteristics to life success (alternately "life understanding", or "street smarts") and built a diagram where each circle size represents the importance of each characteristic, in general. Certain more specific situations will correlate more or less with various traits, the trends of which will be discussed later on. A question (Q) was also added so that you can ask yourself to find out if there is a weakness in any trait for a particular task.
For example, a person who has integrity must have well organized thoughts. They should be able to make consistent and effortless decisions for those things which are important to their value system, and quickly respond to any challenge, thus the question would be "Organizable?" A person who wants to accomplish something would not benefit from anxiety although they might feel it, so this would be an example of emotional thinking, or "Opposing me?".
What is success though - what does it mean? If we look at the word, it breaks down to suc-cess, which is a variant of sub-cede, and essentially means to "yield less", or to "surrender less". It does not mean to "never lose", or "never yield", that is just not possible if you want to remain alive. In life, you win some and you lose some, and success is simply increasing that ratio. You have to be losing before you can win, even just not playing a certain game you want to is admitting defeat in some way even if it is as simple as not having the free time, the interest, the courage, or the resources, and being limited and defeated by that. The truth however, is that those are all factors that can be improved and are a part of the expanded game. So there is no perfect solution to complete success, just improving the factors that lead to success in order to have to yield less often in life to those things that would oppose you. Even those at the pinnacle of success of their respective life journies, such as an emperor, a hero, a princess, or a spiritual guru will have challenges to deal with, even if they will be quite different than the rest of us.
While life success does not guarantee happiness, it is inevitable that to be happy, you do need to cultivate some degree of success, otherwise you would fail at happiness as well. The book talks about values, so here are some important values you can choose to cultivate for success in life.
As you progress through the diagram, bear in mind that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Although success and a relaxed temperament are highly correlated, this does not imply that every correlated element of a relaxed temperament causes success. Success itself can cause a person to have a more relaxed temperament, for example. So I am going to analyze each factor later on in terms of which way they relate.
For example, a person who has integrity must have well organized thoughts. They should be able to make consistent and effortless decisions for those things which are important to their value system, and quickly respond to any challenge, thus the question would be "Organizable?" A person who wants to accomplish something would not benefit from anxiety although they might feel it, so this would be an example of emotional thinking, or "Opposing me?".
What is success though - what does it mean? If we look at the word, it breaks down to suc-cess, which is a variant of sub-cede, and essentially means to "yield less", or to "surrender less". It does not mean to "never lose", or "never yield", that is just not possible if you want to remain alive. In life, you win some and you lose some, and success is simply increasing that ratio. You have to be losing before you can win, even just not playing a certain game you want to is admitting defeat in some way even if it is as simple as not having the free time, the interest, the courage, or the resources, and being limited and defeated by that. The truth however, is that those are all factors that can be improved and are a part of the expanded game. So there is no perfect solution to complete success, just improving the factors that lead to success in order to have to yield less often in life to those things that would oppose you. Even those at the pinnacle of success of their respective life journies, such as an emperor, a hero, a princess, or a spiritual guru will have challenges to deal with, even if they will be quite different than the rest of us.
While life success does not guarantee happiness, it is inevitable that to be happy, you do need to cultivate some degree of success, otherwise you would fail at happiness as well. The book talks about values, so here are some important values you can choose to cultivate for success in life.
As you progress through the diagram, bear in mind that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Although success and a relaxed temperament are highly correlated, this does not imply that every correlated element of a relaxed temperament causes success. Success itself can cause a person to have a more relaxed temperament, for example. So I am going to analyze each factor later on in terms of which way they relate.
Here is a bit more detail on the different factors. My long term plan is to focus in on each one individually as time permits and lay down some general principles as to how they can each be improved. For now, I have just put in general descriptions.
IQ: Is the ability to recognize similarities, differences and identities in well defined problems, where all the data is available, or to recognize that not enough data is available, and make logical conclusions based on the assumption that the data is correct. It depends upon having the correct context. Most people will agree that measuring this ability is some combination of accuracy and speed. Most IQ tests will impose a time limit, which also factors in decision making skills under pressure as to which questions are to be attempted. However, as a test puts a heavier focus on a time limit as opposed to a measured time with no absolute limit, it starts to measure integrity more through the ability to make clear decisions under pressure. The GMAT is a prime example as you must do each question in order and can not go back and change any answers later if you have time left, and thus have to make many value judgements, which makes it very suitable to assess management potential alongside IQ. IQ is interested and predicts things.
Emotional Empathy: Is the ability to perceive the various emotions and to understand how those emotions will motivate and affect the behavior of the individuals or groups affected, whether that perception is intellectual or a feeling itself. The higher this ability is, the more accurate the data that is supplied to the IQ. A person with a high emotional empathy, but a low IQ could easily resolve simple emotional issues, though for extremely complex situations, such as leadership in politics, it would require both, and a sense of group integrity as well. Different combinations of feelings will result in different motivations and outcomes. This is an assessment and judgement skill and is particularly important in leadership. Emotional empathy feels and predicts individuals.
Integrity: Is the ability to maintain one's abilities, and withstand stress... to be whole and healthy. For example, a ship loses hull integrity if it hits the dock and gets a crack, yet by adding a dock bumper, you have effectively prevented a loss of hull integrity, and increased the integrity of the ship as a whole organism. For a person, this mainly requires an honest self-assessment for potential threats (both physical and mental), available defenses, and organizing and practicing the situation to have a quick response time to make sure those defenses are available when the threat presents itself. Some abilities that fall under the unbrella of integrity are the ability to make fast decisions under pressure, or to be able to quickly and accurately remember information. Integrity is often extended to mean a person who keeps their promises, which is true, as if a person does not keep their promises, it damages their credibility or shows that they were not honestly assessing their own strengths and weaknesses, both of which are related to integrity. The main result of integrity is a reduction of various manifestations of fear, as defenses are now available, with the result of a higher likelyhood of doing what the person judges as the right thing. While discipline is focused on achieving, Integrity is focused on maintaining. Integrity responds and integrates.
Relaxed Temperament: Is the ability to perform both actions and reactions in a positive manner, in a way that does not add any stress to oneself or to others in the performance of those duties, beyond the current stressors in the situation. When a person is truly relaxed they are free of inhibition, worry, tension, anxiety and will tend to feel energetic. A good sense of humor is a skill that helps a person to become more relaxed and often to relax those around themselves as well. An excessive focus on this trait can conflict sometimes with discipline, as discipline involves undergoing some degree of stress by taking a harder short term approach for an eventual long term payoff. These two traits being the most significant factors to success, and being highly independant as opposed to highly correlated to each other, learning to find the "sweet spot" in balancing these two is one of the most important life success skills that can be developed. It is so important that I will include a separate section on it later, under the heading "keep calm and carry on". Relaxation relieves and enjoys.
Disciplined Goal Orientation: Is the ability to start and follow through on a course of action that does not lead to an immediate emotional reward, or may even make you feel bad, but to focus on the long term rewards that will become available if it is completed. It depends upon the will to follow the goals, and to disregard any consequences that are not pertinent to the attainment of the goals. In that sense, discipline requires a certain amount of anger, or willingness to stop yourself from taking the natural short term easy solution, the amount of anger depending upon how relaxed you are. If you are more relaxed, you require less anger to stay focused, so a disciplined person depends upon activities and states of mind which will relax them to maintain a healthy mental outlook, as excessive anger is damaging. This is more useful for competitive purposes than collaborative ones as the goals of others must then be respected. Certain values such as investment, frugality, and healthy eating will also fit under this category. Attention to detail and not rushing past anything of importance forms a big part of discipline as well. Commitment is also a big part of discipline and some commitments will take a significant amount of time. Here are some extremely rough (+/- 50%) estimates of how long it takes to become good at a difficult skill (such as a musical instrument) when you have no previous related experience:
* Able to produce a simple result appreciated by friends: 200 hours
* Able to produce a result appreciated by acquaintances: 600 hours
* Able to make a bit of money: 1000 hours
* Able to make a good living: 3000 hours
* A virtuoso: 10,000 hours
Before you start learning something difficult, it's suggested that you decide how good you want to become and see if you can commit to the hours wholeheartedly, which will align Integrity with your chances for success. The same approach applies to performing a task as opposed to learning a skill, it's important to commit the resources involved, including time. Discipline depends upon caring, the willingness to go through some potential trouble for something. Discipline focuses and follows through.
I made a spreadsheet for tracking progress towards any goal by time. You can find it here:
IQ: Is the ability to recognize similarities, differences and identities in well defined problems, where all the data is available, or to recognize that not enough data is available, and make logical conclusions based on the assumption that the data is correct. It depends upon having the correct context. Most people will agree that measuring this ability is some combination of accuracy and speed. Most IQ tests will impose a time limit, which also factors in decision making skills under pressure as to which questions are to be attempted. However, as a test puts a heavier focus on a time limit as opposed to a measured time with no absolute limit, it starts to measure integrity more through the ability to make clear decisions under pressure. The GMAT is a prime example as you must do each question in order and can not go back and change any answers later if you have time left, and thus have to make many value judgements, which makes it very suitable to assess management potential alongside IQ. IQ is interested and predicts things.
Emotional Empathy: Is the ability to perceive the various emotions and to understand how those emotions will motivate and affect the behavior of the individuals or groups affected, whether that perception is intellectual or a feeling itself. The higher this ability is, the more accurate the data that is supplied to the IQ. A person with a high emotional empathy, but a low IQ could easily resolve simple emotional issues, though for extremely complex situations, such as leadership in politics, it would require both, and a sense of group integrity as well. Different combinations of feelings will result in different motivations and outcomes. This is an assessment and judgement skill and is particularly important in leadership. Emotional empathy feels and predicts individuals.
Integrity: Is the ability to maintain one's abilities, and withstand stress... to be whole and healthy. For example, a ship loses hull integrity if it hits the dock and gets a crack, yet by adding a dock bumper, you have effectively prevented a loss of hull integrity, and increased the integrity of the ship as a whole organism. For a person, this mainly requires an honest self-assessment for potential threats (both physical and mental), available defenses, and organizing and practicing the situation to have a quick response time to make sure those defenses are available when the threat presents itself. Some abilities that fall under the unbrella of integrity are the ability to make fast decisions under pressure, or to be able to quickly and accurately remember information. Integrity is often extended to mean a person who keeps their promises, which is true, as if a person does not keep their promises, it damages their credibility or shows that they were not honestly assessing their own strengths and weaknesses, both of which are related to integrity. The main result of integrity is a reduction of various manifestations of fear, as defenses are now available, with the result of a higher likelyhood of doing what the person judges as the right thing. While discipline is focused on achieving, Integrity is focused on maintaining. Integrity responds and integrates.
Relaxed Temperament: Is the ability to perform both actions and reactions in a positive manner, in a way that does not add any stress to oneself or to others in the performance of those duties, beyond the current stressors in the situation. When a person is truly relaxed they are free of inhibition, worry, tension, anxiety and will tend to feel energetic. A good sense of humor is a skill that helps a person to become more relaxed and often to relax those around themselves as well. An excessive focus on this trait can conflict sometimes with discipline, as discipline involves undergoing some degree of stress by taking a harder short term approach for an eventual long term payoff. These two traits being the most significant factors to success, and being highly independant as opposed to highly correlated to each other, learning to find the "sweet spot" in balancing these two is one of the most important life success skills that can be developed. It is so important that I will include a separate section on it later, under the heading "keep calm and carry on". Relaxation relieves and enjoys.
Disciplined Goal Orientation: Is the ability to start and follow through on a course of action that does not lead to an immediate emotional reward, or may even make you feel bad, but to focus on the long term rewards that will become available if it is completed. It depends upon the will to follow the goals, and to disregard any consequences that are not pertinent to the attainment of the goals. In that sense, discipline requires a certain amount of anger, or willingness to stop yourself from taking the natural short term easy solution, the amount of anger depending upon how relaxed you are. If you are more relaxed, you require less anger to stay focused, so a disciplined person depends upon activities and states of mind which will relax them to maintain a healthy mental outlook, as excessive anger is damaging. This is more useful for competitive purposes than collaborative ones as the goals of others must then be respected. Certain values such as investment, frugality, and healthy eating will also fit under this category. Attention to detail and not rushing past anything of importance forms a big part of discipline as well. Commitment is also a big part of discipline and some commitments will take a significant amount of time. Here are some extremely rough (+/- 50%) estimates of how long it takes to become good at a difficult skill (such as a musical instrument) when you have no previous related experience:
* Able to produce a simple result appreciated by friends: 200 hours
* Able to produce a result appreciated by acquaintances: 600 hours
* Able to make a bit of money: 1000 hours
* Able to make a good living: 3000 hours
* A virtuoso: 10,000 hours
Before you start learning something difficult, it's suggested that you decide how good you want to become and see if you can commit to the hours wholeheartedly, which will align Integrity with your chances for success. The same approach applies to performing a task as opposed to learning a skill, it's important to commit the resources involved, including time. Discipline depends upon caring, the willingness to go through some potential trouble for something. Discipline focuses and follows through.
I made a spreadsheet for tracking progress towards any goal by time. You can find it here:
| commitmenttime.docx |
Physical attractiveness: Is the ability to make things physically appealing, and welcome. This does not necessarily relate to sexual appeal as a person who was overly sexually appealing may be physically repulsive in certain environments. It is also not just the inherant genetic physical attractiveness of a person, as many other factors such as grooming and mental disposition can affect perception. This is an understanding of what is found attractive for specific environments and an ability to procure the best resources for that, or do the best you can with the resources that you have. Obviously in some cases, such as for your own body, or when you must absolutely work with another person instead of having free choice, there is some portion of this that is fixed, or genetic, and some portion that is malleable, in the same manner as IQ. A person's health can significantly affect this rating, such as when a person seems to be bursting with vital energy. A useful thing about attractiveness is that a significant proportion of it is passive value, so you can set it up and forget about it, whether what you set up is something external or a mental mechanism that will attract. Attractiveness attracts and retains.
Emotional Thinking: Is the disadvantage that occurs when emotions affect the other success factors in ways that cause maladjustment, unhelpful bias and distortions of rationality. This is not saying that paying attention to and following emotions can not be extremely valuable, but this is a different category of emotions than emotional empathy, and it must be differentiated if there is a desire for this disadvantage to be reduced and possibily eliminated. An example of this would be if you stopped doing something beneficial out of anxiety, when there was no valid reason to do so... instead of persisting cautiously while managing your anxiety level and allowing the anxiety to progressively desensitize. In general, if you are making a decision based on a hindering emotion, rather than based on positively managing that emotion, you are doing this... unless it makes sense to decide that way from an emotional empathy point of view. Coming up with a negative way of managing the hindering emotion is what results in many damaging addictions, such as drug and alcohol abuse, or others that simply waste large amounts of time and provide little joy, which is also emotional thinking... the funny part is that it's an emotional thinking solution to try to manage an emotional thinking problem. Ego, or "false self" is also a good name for this disadvantage, and most enlightenment practices focus mainly on managing this via improving the other factors, thus decreasing this one by inverse correlation, or in removing it directly bit by bit as it is finite, and then learning to not recreate it. The major reason for emotional thinking is when we believe lies about ourselves as a perceived shortcut to feeling successful, or to explain our failures, as opposed to honestly working on success factors. These lies can come from within ourselves, possibly derived from genetic reactions that were well suited to survival a long time ago, but not applicable now, or from outside. Those beliefs generate emotions to distort our thinking to maintain those lies, making it difficult to spot and remove the lies unless we are willing to detect and override the emotions that are now protecting them. Emotional thinking distorts.
Others: There are undoubtedly other factors that correlate independantly to life success than the ones mentioned here, which may become significant if we get more specific about the type of task that is being considered. For example, strength would help significantly in performing manual construction jobs. However, a good deal of successfully developing strength depends upon discipline, and it will be found that most of these minor factors correlate significantly to one or more of the factors mentioned above, which were specifically picked as they showed a high level of independance from each other. I firmly believe that a construction worker capable of a great deal of discipline would be more successful in the long run than one who was undisciplined yet strong, and that sufficient strength would eventually develop.
Emotional Thinking: Is the disadvantage that occurs when emotions affect the other success factors in ways that cause maladjustment, unhelpful bias and distortions of rationality. This is not saying that paying attention to and following emotions can not be extremely valuable, but this is a different category of emotions than emotional empathy, and it must be differentiated if there is a desire for this disadvantage to be reduced and possibily eliminated. An example of this would be if you stopped doing something beneficial out of anxiety, when there was no valid reason to do so... instead of persisting cautiously while managing your anxiety level and allowing the anxiety to progressively desensitize. In general, if you are making a decision based on a hindering emotion, rather than based on positively managing that emotion, you are doing this... unless it makes sense to decide that way from an emotional empathy point of view. Coming up with a negative way of managing the hindering emotion is what results in many damaging addictions, such as drug and alcohol abuse, or others that simply waste large amounts of time and provide little joy, which is also emotional thinking... the funny part is that it's an emotional thinking solution to try to manage an emotional thinking problem. Ego, or "false self" is also a good name for this disadvantage, and most enlightenment practices focus mainly on managing this via improving the other factors, thus decreasing this one by inverse correlation, or in removing it directly bit by bit as it is finite, and then learning to not recreate it. The major reason for emotional thinking is when we believe lies about ourselves as a perceived shortcut to feeling successful, or to explain our failures, as opposed to honestly working on success factors. These lies can come from within ourselves, possibly derived from genetic reactions that were well suited to survival a long time ago, but not applicable now, or from outside. Those beliefs generate emotions to distort our thinking to maintain those lies, making it difficult to spot and remove the lies unless we are willing to detect and override the emotions that are now protecting them. Emotional thinking distorts.
Others: There are undoubtedly other factors that correlate independantly to life success than the ones mentioned here, which may become significant if we get more specific about the type of task that is being considered. For example, strength would help significantly in performing manual construction jobs. However, a good deal of successfully developing strength depends upon discipline, and it will be found that most of these minor factors correlate significantly to one or more of the factors mentioned above, which were specifically picked as they showed a high level of independance from each other. I firmly believe that a construction worker capable of a great deal of discipline would be more successful in the long run than one who was undisciplined yet strong, and that sufficient strength would eventually develop.
Keep calm and carry on - An example of the mechanics of balance.
This propaganda campaign was staged by the British monarchy to get the citizens to focus on the most important factors for productivity during war time. It contains the two most important success factors, "Relaxed temperament" and "Discipline", but also a third - easily overlooked - concept of the importance of balancing those two by using the word "and". The campaign ended up being very successful.
The monarchy was not that interested in the citizens doing too much thinking beyond their currrent purpose, IQ wise, nor in them reconsidering overall whether they were doing the best thing for themselves, Integrity wise, nor did it want to stir up any independent leadership in terms of emotional empathy. It simply wanted orders to be followed, and these two factors are the best combination that lead to a successful following mindset, or a mindset that follows through on decisions and accomplishes things through force.
The purpose of this section however, is to talk about balance. To talk about AND, instead of OR. Keeping the numbers simple, if you are 100% focused on one factor to the exclusion of the other, you may only be able get about 20% benefit from the other through correlation, while if you are 80% focused on one factor, you will still be able to get about 80% benefit from the other through intense focus on that one as well. This focus on two factors simultaneously will result in far more success overall.
Balance, interestingly enough, is a function of integrity, the third most important factor when it comes to a work related situation, with a correlation value of 0.42 to work success. If you are an unbalanced individual, you are leaving some weaknesses exposed. Furthermore, the way the concepts were presented, it encourages integrity only between the two other success factors mentioned, and not integrity in general, but the ability to maintain this "sweet spot" where these two factors give the maximum benefit. To be able to focus on two factors at the same time, you have to be mentally organized, to effortlessly continue to consider one viewpoint, then the other, and see how a change to one affects the other in terms of overall progress and success, and make sure things are combining with synergy.
So, 5 words containing the 3 most important factors all in one package, specifically drawing focus towards them, and away from concepts which might distract. Furthermore, who they should turn to for leadership in terms of thinking (IQ) and emotional drive (Emotional empathy) was clearly represented by the image of the crown. Whoever wrote this knew exactly what they were doing in terms of leadership and of success.
The monarchy was not that interested in the citizens doing too much thinking beyond their currrent purpose, IQ wise, nor in them reconsidering overall whether they were doing the best thing for themselves, Integrity wise, nor did it want to stir up any independent leadership in terms of emotional empathy. It simply wanted orders to be followed, and these two factors are the best combination that lead to a successful following mindset, or a mindset that follows through on decisions and accomplishes things through force.
The purpose of this section however, is to talk about balance. To talk about AND, instead of OR. Keeping the numbers simple, if you are 100% focused on one factor to the exclusion of the other, you may only be able get about 20% benefit from the other through correlation, while if you are 80% focused on one factor, you will still be able to get about 80% benefit from the other through intense focus on that one as well. This focus on two factors simultaneously will result in far more success overall.
Balance, interestingly enough, is a function of integrity, the third most important factor when it comes to a work related situation, with a correlation value of 0.42 to work success. If you are an unbalanced individual, you are leaving some weaknesses exposed. Furthermore, the way the concepts were presented, it encourages integrity only between the two other success factors mentioned, and not integrity in general, but the ability to maintain this "sweet spot" where these two factors give the maximum benefit. To be able to focus on two factors at the same time, you have to be mentally organized, to effortlessly continue to consider one viewpoint, then the other, and see how a change to one affects the other in terms of overall progress and success, and make sure things are combining with synergy.
So, 5 words containing the 3 most important factors all in one package, specifically drawing focus towards them, and away from concepts which might distract. Furthermore, who they should turn to for leadership in terms of thinking (IQ) and emotional drive (Emotional empathy) was clearly represented by the image of the crown. Whoever wrote this knew exactly what they were doing in terms of leadership and of success.
The Beyond IQ study
For more details, and major conclusions, here is the summary of the study: Beyond IQ summary
If you plan on doing a specialized analysis you can find the full study here: Beyond IQ statistics
When the summary mentions factors 1-4 it means:
Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament:) = Pleasure - Anxiety - Depression + Optimism + Self-Esteem
Factor 2 (Arousable Temperament) = Arousability + Emotional Thinking + Emotional Empathy + Affiliative Tendency
Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) = Delay of Gratification - Impulsivity - Procrastination + Patience
Factor 4 (Dominant Temperament) = Dominance + Social Competence + Achieving Tendency
From the study of these factors, the largest correlations were isolated as depicted above. This yielded some interesting results, one example was it showed that some Arousability led to success, for example the Arousability from Emotional Empathy, but the Arousability of Emotional Thinking led to failure, thus Emotional Empathy and Emotional Thinking were listed as major values, while Arousable Temperament was not as it is split.
From reading the details of the study, you may gain some insights as to how the various factors can affect each other, or in what situations they are the most important. For example, emotional thinking correlates at -0.42 with relaxed temperament, implying that just by relaxing you may significantly clear up your ability to think clearly, without any negative emotional bias.
Another useful insight is that Relaxed Temperament is the most effective predictor of Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, and Overall Success, whereas Disciplined Goal Orientation and Achieving Tendency is the most effective predictor of Work Success and Career and Financial Success. In a nutshell, with people, primarily relax, with tasks, primarily be disciplined and dominant. This leads to an interesting dynamic when you are trying to get something done with people, and doing both correctly results in leadership. Notice the difference between "You need to get this done." as opposed to "We need to get this done."
Though I suggest you visit the website listed above directly for the summary, here are the contents in case the link should not be available:
Overview of the 107-page Monograph entitled "Beyond IQ"
The study was designed to cast a broad net and explore relative importance to life success of a variety of individual-difference measures. Individual-differences were assessed on 32 dimensions using a sample of 302 (107 men, 195 women) participants. In addition, peer reports of participants' life success were obtained on five dimensions (Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, Work Success, Career and Financial Success). A sixth index of Overall Success was formed by summing standardized scores of the Emotional, Relationship, Physical, and Career and Financial success measures. Scales used included a general intelligence scale, measures of psychological adjustment-maladjustment (anxiety, emotional thinking, depression, optimism, self-esteem, trait pleasure, self-actualization), measures of achieving tendency and four additional scales relating to achieving tendency (delay of gratification, patience, impulsivity, procrastination), measures of prosocial orientation (affiliative tendency or sociability and emotional empathy), general measures of dominance-submissiveness (or internal-external control) and of trait arousability (i.e., emotional reactivity), and measures of integrity, adaptive coping (i.e., realistic and direct coping with problems of life), social competence, and functional flexibility (i.e., ability to adopt varying emotional and behavioral postures in social situations). Participant gender and age (ranging from 17 to 46 years) were recorded and overall participant physical attractiveness was scored independently by two observers.
Factor analyses identified four factors of which two were used in data analyses. Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) included: two Trait Pleasure-Displeasure (general indexes of psychological adjustment-maladjustment), Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, two Optimism, two Self-Esteem, Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, and Functional Flexibility scales. Negatively loading scales in Factor 1 were Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, and Functional Flexibility.
The four highest loading scales on Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) were Delay of Gratification (+), Patience (+), Impulsivity (-), and Procrastination (-). Scales of Integrity, Adaptive Coping, and Intelligence also loaded on Factor 3, but were treated individually in data analyses. Also, both scales of Achieving Tendency (a full-length scale and an abbreviated scale), although loading on Factor 4, correlated .39 with Disciplined Goal Orientation and, together with the latter factor, formed an important group of scales dealing with achievement and success.
Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) was by far the strongest and most consistent positive correlate of all six success measures (r = .57 with Overall Success). Analysis of Factor 1 in terms of the PAD Temperament Model (e.g., Mehrabian, 1996c) showed it to include pleasant, dominant, and unarousable temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, and explained the label used for this factor.
Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and the two related Achieving Tendency scales also exhibited consistent positive correlations with all six success measures (r = .34 with Overall Success for Disciplined Goal Orientation; r = .38 with Overall Success for Achieving Tendency; r = .39 with Overall Success for Abbreviated Achieving Tendency). Comparison of results for this achievement-related group of scales with those for Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) showed that Factor 1 was the most effective predictor of Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, and Overall Success, whereas Factor 3 and the two Achieving Tendency scales were most effective predictors of Work Success and Career and Financial Success.
The Emotional Thinking Scale dealt with negative influences of high emotionality on thought processes (e.g., biased, distorted, and maladaptive cognitions of people and situations). Thus, it represented a variant of maladjustment and correlated negatively and significantly with Factor 1 or Relaxed Temperament (r = -.42). Nevertheless, for the following success measures, Emotional Thinking accounted for variance beyond that accounted by Factor 1: Physical Success, Work Success, Career and Financial Success, Overall Success. Also, Emotional Thinking correlated significantly and negatively with all success measures (r = -.34 with Overall Success). In short, Emotional Thinking was an important and distinctive predictor of life success.
For Emotional Success and Work Success, Integrity was found to explain additional variance beyond variance explained by Factor 1. Excepting Physical Success, Integrity correlated positively with all remaining success measures (e.g., r = .27 with Overall Success and r = .42 with Work Success). Emotional Empathy also accounted for variance, beyond that accounted for by other scales and factors, in Relationship Success and Overall Success. Excepting Physical Success and Work Success, Emotional Empathy correlated positively and significantly with all remaining four success measures (in particular, r = .25 with Relationship Success and r = .23 with Overall Success).
Intelligence was a positive and significant correlate of all six success measures (r = .27 for Overall Success). However, when analyzed along with personality and trait scales, it failed to account for additional variance in any of the success measures; that is, when considered along with personality and temperament scales, intelligence was not a distinctive source of information about life success.
Physical attractiveness also had been hypothesized to be a positive correlate of all success measures. Overall Physical Attractiveness of participants was scored independently by two observers and the two sets of ratings intercorrelated highly (r = .84). Although it did not relate to Emotional Success, Overall Physical Attractiveness was a positive correlate of all remaining five success scales (r = .31 with Overall Success).
The Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability was a statistically computed index derived from 16 subscales in the Individual Success Potential Inventory (Mehrabian, 1999a). It exhibited moderate to high positive and significant correlations with all six criterion measures of success. Strengths of its relations with criterion measures were comparable to those of Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament). However, compared with Factor 1, the Covert Index had a stronger relation with Career and Financial Success (r = .49 vs. r = .38) (Table 10). Thus, the Covert Index appeared to be promising for general assessment of success potential and, in particular, for assessment of work and career success potential.
In sum, listed in order of importance, individual-difference correlates of life success were as follows: (a) Positive relations with success of psychological adjustment-maladjustment as assessed with the combination of traits in Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament), (b) positive relations with success of the Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, (c) positive relations with success of a group of achievement-related traits, including Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and two scales dealing specifically with Achieving Tendency, (d) negative relations with success of Emotional Thinking, (e) positive relations with success of Integrity and Emotional Empathy, (f) positive relations with success of Overall Physical Attractiveness and Intelligence. These findings provided an alternative, new perspective on conceptualization and measurement of "emotional intelligence."
The PAD temperament scales (Trait Pleasure, Trait Arousability, Trait Dominance) were used to analyze the temperament composition of all scales, factors, and success measures in the study (Table 20). Pleasant, unarousable, and dominant temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, were positive correlates of life success. These findings, in combination with available evidence on the PAD emotional impact of a large variety of stimuli, can be used to develop interventions designed to enhance life success of individuals.
If you plan on doing a specialized analysis you can find the full study here: Beyond IQ statistics
When the summary mentions factors 1-4 it means:
Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament:) = Pleasure - Anxiety - Depression + Optimism + Self-Esteem
Factor 2 (Arousable Temperament) = Arousability + Emotional Thinking + Emotional Empathy + Affiliative Tendency
Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) = Delay of Gratification - Impulsivity - Procrastination + Patience
Factor 4 (Dominant Temperament) = Dominance + Social Competence + Achieving Tendency
From the study of these factors, the largest correlations were isolated as depicted above. This yielded some interesting results, one example was it showed that some Arousability led to success, for example the Arousability from Emotional Empathy, but the Arousability of Emotional Thinking led to failure, thus Emotional Empathy and Emotional Thinking were listed as major values, while Arousable Temperament was not as it is split.
From reading the details of the study, you may gain some insights as to how the various factors can affect each other, or in what situations they are the most important. For example, emotional thinking correlates at -0.42 with relaxed temperament, implying that just by relaxing you may significantly clear up your ability to think clearly, without any negative emotional bias.
Another useful insight is that Relaxed Temperament is the most effective predictor of Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, and Overall Success, whereas Disciplined Goal Orientation and Achieving Tendency is the most effective predictor of Work Success and Career and Financial Success. In a nutshell, with people, primarily relax, with tasks, primarily be disciplined and dominant. This leads to an interesting dynamic when you are trying to get something done with people, and doing both correctly results in leadership. Notice the difference between "You need to get this done." as opposed to "We need to get this done."
Though I suggest you visit the website listed above directly for the summary, here are the contents in case the link should not be available:
Overview of the 107-page Monograph entitled "Beyond IQ"
The study was designed to cast a broad net and explore relative importance to life success of a variety of individual-difference measures. Individual-differences were assessed on 32 dimensions using a sample of 302 (107 men, 195 women) participants. In addition, peer reports of participants' life success were obtained on five dimensions (Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, Work Success, Career and Financial Success). A sixth index of Overall Success was formed by summing standardized scores of the Emotional, Relationship, Physical, and Career and Financial success measures. Scales used included a general intelligence scale, measures of psychological adjustment-maladjustment (anxiety, emotional thinking, depression, optimism, self-esteem, trait pleasure, self-actualization), measures of achieving tendency and four additional scales relating to achieving tendency (delay of gratification, patience, impulsivity, procrastination), measures of prosocial orientation (affiliative tendency or sociability and emotional empathy), general measures of dominance-submissiveness (or internal-external control) and of trait arousability (i.e., emotional reactivity), and measures of integrity, adaptive coping (i.e., realistic and direct coping with problems of life), social competence, and functional flexibility (i.e., ability to adopt varying emotional and behavioral postures in social situations). Participant gender and age (ranging from 17 to 46 years) were recorded and overall participant physical attractiveness was scored independently by two observers.
Factor analyses identified four factors of which two were used in data analyses. Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) included: two Trait Pleasure-Displeasure (general indexes of psychological adjustment-maladjustment), Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, two Optimism, two Self-Esteem, Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, and Functional Flexibility scales. Negatively loading scales in Factor 1 were Abbreviated Anxiety, Abbreviated Depression, and Functional Flexibility.
The four highest loading scales on Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) were Delay of Gratification (+), Patience (+), Impulsivity (-), and Procrastination (-). Scales of Integrity, Adaptive Coping, and Intelligence also loaded on Factor 3, but were treated individually in data analyses. Also, both scales of Achieving Tendency (a full-length scale and an abbreviated scale), although loading on Factor 4, correlated .39 with Disciplined Goal Orientation and, together with the latter factor, formed an important group of scales dealing with achievement and success.
Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) was by far the strongest and most consistent positive correlate of all six success measures (r = .57 with Overall Success). Analysis of Factor 1 in terms of the PAD Temperament Model (e.g., Mehrabian, 1996c) showed it to include pleasant, dominant, and unarousable temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, and explained the label used for this factor.
Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and the two related Achieving Tendency scales also exhibited consistent positive correlations with all six success measures (r = .34 with Overall Success for Disciplined Goal Orientation; r = .38 with Overall Success for Achieving Tendency; r = .39 with Overall Success for Abbreviated Achieving Tendency). Comparison of results for this achievement-related group of scales with those for Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) showed that Factor 1 was the most effective predictor of Emotional Success, Relationship Success, Physical Success, and Overall Success, whereas Factor 3 and the two Achieving Tendency scales were most effective predictors of Work Success and Career and Financial Success.
The Emotional Thinking Scale dealt with negative influences of high emotionality on thought processes (e.g., biased, distorted, and maladaptive cognitions of people and situations). Thus, it represented a variant of maladjustment and correlated negatively and significantly with Factor 1 or Relaxed Temperament (r = -.42). Nevertheless, for the following success measures, Emotional Thinking accounted for variance beyond that accounted by Factor 1: Physical Success, Work Success, Career and Financial Success, Overall Success. Also, Emotional Thinking correlated significantly and negatively with all success measures (r = -.34 with Overall Success). In short, Emotional Thinking was an important and distinctive predictor of life success.
For Emotional Success and Work Success, Integrity was found to explain additional variance beyond variance explained by Factor 1. Excepting Physical Success, Integrity correlated positively with all remaining success measures (e.g., r = .27 with Overall Success and r = .42 with Work Success). Emotional Empathy also accounted for variance, beyond that accounted for by other scales and factors, in Relationship Success and Overall Success. Excepting Physical Success and Work Success, Emotional Empathy correlated positively and significantly with all remaining four success measures (in particular, r = .25 with Relationship Success and r = .23 with Overall Success).
Intelligence was a positive and significant correlate of all six success measures (r = .27 for Overall Success). However, when analyzed along with personality and trait scales, it failed to account for additional variance in any of the success measures; that is, when considered along with personality and temperament scales, intelligence was not a distinctive source of information about life success.
Physical attractiveness also had been hypothesized to be a positive correlate of all success measures. Overall Physical Attractiveness of participants was scored independently by two observers and the two sets of ratings intercorrelated highly (r = .84). Although it did not relate to Emotional Success, Overall Physical Attractiveness was a positive correlate of all remaining five success scales (r = .31 with Overall Success).
The Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability was a statistically computed index derived from 16 subscales in the Individual Success Potential Inventory (Mehrabian, 1999a). It exhibited moderate to high positive and significant correlations with all six criterion measures of success. Strengths of its relations with criterion measures were comparable to those of Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament). However, compared with Factor 1, the Covert Index had a stronger relation with Career and Financial Success (r = .49 vs. r = .38) (Table 10). Thus, the Covert Index appeared to be promising for general assessment of success potential and, in particular, for assessment of work and career success potential.
In sum, listed in order of importance, individual-difference correlates of life success were as follows: (a) Positive relations with success of psychological adjustment-maladjustment as assessed with the combination of traits in Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament), (b) positive relations with success of the Covert Index of Employee Productivity and Reliability, (c) positive relations with success of a group of achievement-related traits, including Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) and two scales dealing specifically with Achieving Tendency, (d) negative relations with success of Emotional Thinking, (e) positive relations with success of Integrity and Emotional Empathy, (f) positive relations with success of Overall Physical Attractiveness and Intelligence. These findings provided an alternative, new perspective on conceptualization and measurement of "emotional intelligence."
The PAD temperament scales (Trait Pleasure, Trait Arousability, Trait Dominance) were used to analyze the temperament composition of all scales, factors, and success measures in the study (Table 20). Pleasant, unarousable, and dominant temperament characteristics, listed in order of importance, were positive correlates of life success. These findings, in combination with available evidence on the PAD emotional impact of a large variety of stimuli, can be used to develop interventions designed to enhance life success of individuals.
