Personality coherence: moderating self--other profile agreement and profile consensus.

Traditional research on moderator variables in personality has focused on measures of relative consistency. In contrast, using Goldberg's (1992) adjectives representing the Big Five personality traits, the authors examined the applicability of moderator variables to measures of personality coherence. The authors considered 3 traditional moderator variables (interitem variability, construct similarity, and scalability) and one new moderator variable: the temporal stability of response patterns. Across 2 studies, individuals with temporally stable response patterns had higher levels of personality coherence, as measured by self-other profile agreement and informant profile consensus, than did individuals with less temporally stable patterns. By comparison, the normatively based moderator variables did not moderate self-other profile agreement and informant profile consensus. The implications for personality structure and coherence are discussed.