本文探讨了人格特征作为学术和经济成功、健康和犯罪活动的预测因素和原因的力量。衡量型人格被解释为一种从偏好、约束和信息的经济模型中衍生出来的结构。关于人格特征和偏好的“情境特异性”的证据被审查。情境主义观点的一个极端版本声称，人们在不同的情境中不存在稳定的人格特征或偏好参数。持这种观点的人声称，人格心理学与经济学几乎没有关联。探索人格特征的生物学和进化起源。人格测量系统和心理学家使用的措施之间的关系进行了检查。个性测量的预测能力与智商和成就测试所捕获的认知测量的预测能力进行了比较。对于许多结果，性格测试和认知测试一样具有预测性，即使在控制了家庭背景和认知之后。此外，认知的标准测量在很大程度上受到人格特征和激励的影响。 Measured personality traits are positively correlated over the life cycle. However, they are not fixed and can be altered by experience and investment. Intervention studies, along with studies in biology and neuroscience, establish a causal basis for the observed effect of personality traits on economic and social outcomes. Personality traits are more malleable over the life cycle compared to cognition, which becomes highly rank stable around age 10. Interventions that change personality are promising avenues for addressing poverty and disadvantage.