Could a company train an employee to become more conscientious, even if the worker isn’t invested in improving that trait? A new study suggests yes. But improving someone’s emotional stability without that person’s commitment is not likely to happen.

But improving someone’s emotional stability without that person’s commitment is not likely to happen, says SMU psychology professor Nathan Hudson.

A growing body of studies suggests that personality traits can be changed through intervention. As a recent study by Hudson notes, personality traits are linked to a wide range of life outcomes, such as relationship quality and occupation success.

The goal of his recent research published in the Journal of Research in Personality was to test two theories; that successful personality intervention may require that participants chose which traits they change, and that they be actively invested in changing the target traits.

He found that conscientiousness — the ability to be responsible, hard-working and organized — could be improved even if participants were not motivated to change. Completing a series of tasks over a regulated period was found to change habits and therefore improve conscientiousness.

But emotional stability was a different matter: Study participants only got better at handling difficult situations if they chose to work on their emotional stability. Otherwise, tasks they were given over four weeks proved to be ineffective.

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