Performing Under Pressure: The Influence of Personality-Trait-Like Individual Differences

Personality is often considered as a stable construct and, therefore, is not likely to change and can have underlying influences over behavior regardless of the conditions faced. Subsequently, this advocates personality as a valuable predictor of performance in pressurized environments. The current chapter shifts away from broad measures of personality, such as the big five personality dimensions, as these may not account for the unique individual differences that may influence the behavior and experience of pressure. The emphasis for this chapter is an individualized approach that focuses on the many other individual differences situated at the trait level, a term known as personality trait-like individual differences (PTLIDs). The selected group of PTLIDs were chosen for their influence on performance under a range of pressured environments and include traits such as hardiness and trait emotional intelligence. The current chapter provides a theoretical perspective of PTLIDs to further understand individuals' behavior under pressure and to suggest pathways for future research.