Integration of personality constructs: The role of traits and motivation in the willingness to exert effort in academic and social life domains

• We examine assumptions of integrative models of personality.
• Traits and motivation represent generally independent predictors of exerted effort.
• Motivation and personality traits showed substantial life domain specificity.

There has been growing interest in recent years in exploring different types of personality constructs and the nature of inter-relationships between personality variables in predicting outcomes in different life domains. The present study explores how personality traits and autonomous goal motivation predict the willingness to invest effort in academic and social life domains. Using a sample of 4133 upper secondary school students in Germany, multilevel regression analyses yielded three main results. First, both personality traits and motivation were substantially related to the willingness to exert effort. Second, the mediation effect compared to the direct effect was relatively small. Third, the pattern of predictive effects of both autonomous motivation and personality traits showed substantial domain specificity.