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Knowing oneself and long-term goal pursuit: Relations among self-concept

clarity, conscientiousness, and grit

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DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.12.008

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 Personality and Individual Differences 108 (2017) 191–194

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Short Communication

Knowing oneself and long-term goal pursuit: Relations among

self-concept clarity, conscientiousness, and grit☆
Robert E. Fite ⁎, Meghan I.H. Lindeman ⁎, Arielle P. Rogers, Elora Voyles, Amanda M. Durik
Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, Psychology-Computer Science Building, Rm. 400, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Research has been dedicated to exploring the personality variables that facilitate goal pursuit. Conscientiousness
Received 5 August 2016 and grit are closely related individual difference variables that have been postulated to influence goal pursuit.
Received in revised form 30 November 2016 Conscientiousness refers to self-regulation in the pursuit of tasks or goals. Grit refers to the enduring effort
Accepted 6 December 2016
that is applied to long term goals, and can be subdivided into two sub-components: perseverance of effort and
Available online 21 December 2016
consistency of interest. Unlike perseverance of effort which is robustly correlated with conscientiousness, consis-
Keywords:
tency of interest is less strongly related to conscientiousness. The present study examines how a third variable,
Self-concept clarity self-concept clarity, may interact with conscientiousness to differentially predict sub-components of grit. Results
Conscientiousness indicated that conscientiousness interacts with self-concept clarity to predict the consistency of interest compo-
Grit nent of grit; however, no interactive effect was found when predicting the perseverance of effort component of
grit. The implications of these findings, as well as possible avenues for future research are discussed.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
People apply self-regulation towards educational, career, and per-
sonal goals, but the degree to which people continue to work towards
those goals over the long-term may be supported by the specificity
and consistency with which they hold views of themselves. Much re-
search has investigated what determines who keeps working towards
their long-term goals and who gives up (Eskreis-Winkler, Shulman,
Beal, & Duckworth, 2014; Ivcevic & Brackett, 2014; Poropat, 2009).
One personality trait that has reliably been associated with goal striving
and achievement is the super-trait of conscientiousness (Ivcevic &
Brackett, 2014; Komarraju, Karau, & Schmeck, 2009; Poropat, 2009),
which can be defined as the self-regulation of impulses in order to
plan and pursue goals or tasks (John, Naumann & Soto, 2008). For
instance, research has shown that conscientiousness predicts school
performance, awards, and academic recognition in high school, all of
which require persistence and goal-striving (Ivcevic & Brackett, 2014;
Poropat, 2009).
A related individual difference variable, grit, has also been posited as
an even better predictor of persistence in long-term goals (Duckworth,
☆ Funding: The authors declare that they have no financial support to disclose. Conflict
of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethical approval: All
procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of Northern Illinois University's
Institutional Review Board.
⁎ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: robert.e.fite@gmail.com (R.E. Fite), meg.huntoon@gmail.com
(M.I.H. Lindeman), rogers.arielle@gmail.com (A.P. Rogers), eloracv@gmail.com
(E. Voyles), adurik@niu.edu (A.M. Durik).
Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007). Grit refers to the long-term pursuit
of higher-order goals in the face of obstacles or setbacks and is divided
into two sub-components: consistency of interest and perseverance of
effort (Duckworth et al., 2007). Grit predicts retention of novice
teachers in low-income districts (Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth,
2014), the retention of U.S. Military Academy Cadets during their initial
summer of training (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), and high school grad-
uation from inner city schools (Eskreis-Winkler, Shulman, Beal, &
Duckworth, 2014). Additionally, past research has shown positive cor-
relations between grit and educational attainment (Duckworth et al.,
2007; Duckworth & Quinn, 2009; Strayhorn, 2014).
Although there exists research demonstrating the incremental valid-
ity of grit beyond predictors such as conscientiousness and IQ
(e.g., Duckworth et al., 2007), the usefulness of grit, as a whole, and its
components have been called into question (Credé, Tynan, & Harms,
2016). Some researchers suggest that grit and conscientiousness over-
lap so much that grit adds little value to the literature (Credé et al.,
2016). Moreover, both conscientiousness and grit involve an individ-
ual's tendency to persist in goal-related endeavors (MacCann,
Duckworth & Roberts, 2009) and, tend to be highly correlated with
each other (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009). Additionally, meta-analytic ev-
idence has demonstrated that both sub-components of grit are strongly
associated with conscientiousness (Credé et al., 2016).
The relationship between conscientiousness and the perseverance of
effort component of grit is, however, considerably stronger than the re-
lationship between conscientiousness and the consistency of interest
component of grit (Credé et al., 2016; for an exception see Meriac,
Slifka, & LaBat, 2015). Perhaps one reason for the increased association

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.12.008
0191-8869/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
192 R.E. Fite et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 108 (2017) 191–194
between conscientiousness and perseverance of effort is that both in-
volve striving towards goals that have already been identified. In con-
trast, the consistency of interest component of grit depends on the
extent to which the personal goals are clear and well defined.
Individuals who have well-defined interests are likely to have a clear
vision of who they are and what they want, which may depend on self-
concept clarity (SCC). It is possible that conscientiousness does not pre-
dict consistency of interest as strongly as it predicts perseverance of ef-
fort because conscientiousness does not capture features of goal
content. The extent to which conscientiousness predicts consistency of
interest may depend on an individuals' level of self-knowledge. Along
these lines, it is possible that conscientiousness in conjunction with
SCC better predicts the consistency of interest component of grit than
conscientiousness alone. In other words, conscientiousness may inter-
act with SCC to predict consistency of interest. That is—high conscien-
tiousness combined with an ability to unambiguously and consistently
define beliefs about the self (i.e., SCC), may predict the interest compo-
nent of grit (Campbell, 1990; Campbell et al., 1996). People who have
high SCC have a clear vision of who they are, and that vision remains sta-
ble over time (Campbell, 1990). It is probable that people who have a
clear and consistent definition of their self-concept set goals that are
consistent with their interests. Because these goals are more consistent
with their self-concept, those goals will continue to be of interest to
them in the long-term.
To understand if these possible relationships between conscien-
tiousness, SCC, and the components of grit exist, it would be useful to
know if the relationship between conscientiousness and the compo-
nents of grit become stronger at different levels of SCC. We tested this
idea in the current study.
1.1. Present study
In a cross-sectional study, we conducted exploratory data analyses
to investigate the relationships between conscientiousness, SCC, and
grit. Based on how we thought these constructs might be related, we
tested for an interaction between SCC and conscientiousness in
predicting each component of grit.
2. Method
2.1. Participants and procedure
The sample included 142 participants (62% women) recruited via
Amazon's Mechanical Turk, an online workforce where workers can
complete tasks (e.g., research studies) for financial compensation. Par-
ticipants completed an online informed consent form and were mone-
tarily compensated for their participation. The ages of participants
ranged from 18 to 73 (M = 35.98; SD = 11.85). Eighty-one percent of
participants reported their ethnicity as White, 7% Hispanic, 4.9%
African-American, 4.2% Asian, and 2.8% other. All participants complet-
ed the measures described below, which were embedded within a larg-
er battery of items.
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. 12 – grit (Duckworth et al., 2007)
The 12-item Grit Scale assessed participants' level of grit. This mea-
sure includes two factors: Perseverance of Effort and Consistency of In-
terest. In past validation work by Duckworth et al. (2007), confirmatory
factor analysis of the grit scale evidenced a two-factor solution with ac-
ceptable model fit (CFI = 0.83, RMSEA = 0.11). This study also found
acceptable internal consistency for the overall scale (α = 0.85), as
well as for the Consistency of Interest (α = 0.84) and Perseverance of
Effort (α = 0.78) subscales. Additionally, each factor was found to be
equally predictive of relevant outcomes. The Perseverance of Effort fac-
tor measures an individual's fortitude in the pursuit of higher-order
goals (e.g., “I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important chal-
lenge.”). The Consistency of Interest factor measures the extent to
which goals and pursuits are sustained over time (e.g., “I often set a
goal but later choose to pursue a different one”, reverse coded). Partici-
pants responded to each item on a 5-point scale from “Very much like
me” to “Not like me at all”. For analyses, all items were coded such that
higher numbers equaled higher levels of grit.
2.2.2. Conscientiousness (IPIP-NEO-Domain; Goldberg, 1999; Goldberg
et al., 2006)
Conscientiousness was measured using the 10-item International
Personality Item Pool (IPIP) subscale based on the NEO-PI-R. This con-
sists of items assessing the tendency to self-regulate in the pursuit of
goals or responsibilities. Participants responded to items on a 5-point
scale ranging from Very Inaccurate to Very Accurate. Examples of items
are “I see myself as someone who gets chores done right away.” and “I
see myself as someone who carries out my plans.”.
2.2.3. Self-concept clarity (SCC) scale (Campbell et al., 1996)
The SCC Scale consists of 12 items that measure the extent to which
individuals have formed stable beliefs about the self. The SCC Scale is a
single factor measure, and responses were based on a 5-point scale
ranging from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree”. Examples of items
include “On one day I might have one opinion of myself and on another
day I might have a different opinion” , (reverse coded), and “In general, I
have a clear sense of who I am and what I am.”.
2.3. Analysis strategy
To explore the data, we conducted two separate multiple regression
analyses, one having the perseverance of effort component of grit as the
dependent variable and the other having the consistency of interest
component of grit as the dependent variable. In both analyses, conscien-
tiousness, SCC, and their interaction term served as predictor variables.
Both predictors were centered prior to calculating the interaction term.
Conscientiousness, SCC, and the interaction term were entered into the
regression equation simultaneously. For significant interactions that
emerged, follow-up simple slopes analyses were conducted at one stan-
dard deviation above and below the mean of SCC.
3. Results
Bivariate correlations and reliability estimates can be found in
Table 1.
3.1. Perseverance of effort
Analyses revealed a significant average effect of conscientiousness
on the perseverance of effort component of grit, indicating that higher
levels of conscientiousness were associated with higher levels of perse-
verance of effort, β = 0.45, t(137) = 8.30, p b 0.001. No significant av-
erage effect of SCC on perseverance of effort emerged, β = 0.04,
t(137) = 0.72, p = 0.47. Further, no significant interaction emerged be-
tween conscientiousness and SCC on perseverance of effort, β = 0.09,
t(137) = 1.64, p = 0.10 (Table 2).
Table 1
Bivariate correlations between all variables.
M SD 1. 2. 3. 4.
1. Conscientiousness 3.75 0.72 0.87 0.5⁎⁎⁎ 0.49⁎⁎⁎ 0.66⁎⁎⁎
2. Self-concept clarity 3.43 0.95 0.92 0.43⁎⁎⁎ 0.35⁎⁎⁎
3. Grit: consistency of interest 2.99 0.78 0.84 0.28⁎⁎⁎
4. Grit: perseverance of effort 3.74 0.74 0.81
Note. Reliabilities are presented in bold on the diagonal. Significance is indicated as
follows:
⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.001.
 R.E. Fite et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 108 (2017) 191–194 193

Table 2 help to explain what makes up the consistency of interest component

Regression analyses. of grit. It seems that the consistency of interest component of grit is pre-
Consistency of interest Perseverance of effort dicted by SCC and conscientiousness together. It is possible that individ-
R2 = 0.30⁎⁎⁎ R2 = 0.45⁎⁎⁎
uals who have a clear vision of who they are set goals that better align
with their self-concept and, therefore, are in a better position to direct
Predictor B SE β t-Statistic B SE β t-Statistic
their motivation towards meaningful ends. Specifically, having high
SCC 0.16 0.07 0.21 2.49⁎⁎ 0.04 0.06 0.05 0.73 levels of conscientiousness might allow an individual to consistently
Conscientiousness 0.28 0.06 0.36 4.39⁎⁎⁎ 0.45 0.05 0.61 8.3⁎⁎⁎
take steps towards achieving their goals, but even more so if the goals
SCC X 0.14 0.07 0.15 2.04⁎ 0.09 0.06 0.11 1.64
Conscientiousness
are clear and well-defined within the self-concept. This idea is consis-
tent with research that suggests that SCC is positively related to goal
Note. SSC = Self-concept clarity. Significance is indicated as follows:
⁎ p b 0.05.
striving (Shin, 2007), and conscientiousness is positively related to
⁎⁎ p b 0.01. goal achievement (Ivcevic & Brackett, 2014; Poropat, 2009). Future re-
⁎⁎⁎ p b 0.001. search should investigate whether this interaction predicts goal related
outcomes better than either SCC or conscientiousness alone. Additional-
ly, future research should further investigate the interaction between
3.2. Consistency of interest SCC and conscientiousness in predicting this component of grit.
Second, our results may have implications for how individuals de-
Regression analyses revealed significant positive average effects of velop grit. Duckworth and her team have long said that grit could be
conscientiousness, β = 0.28, t(137) = 4.38, p b 0.001, and SCC, β = learned and developed over time (Duckworth et al., 2007). However,
0.16, t(137) = 2.49, p = 0.01, on consistency of interest (Table 2). A sta- to date little research has gleaned insight as to how grit could be fos-
tistically significant interaction also emerged, β = 0.136, t(137) = 2.04, tered. By further understanding what variables predict the consistency
p = 0.04. The direction of the interaction showed that the positive rela- of interest component of grit, future research might be able to better un-
tionship between conscientiousness and the consistency of interest derstand how to promote self-clarity. It may be that SCC plays an inter-
component of grit increased as SCC increased (see Fig. 1). To further un- mediate role in the development of grit, such that individuals who are
derstand the nature of this significant interaction, the simple slopes for highly self-regulated and later develop a keen sense of who they are be-
the association between conscientiousness and the interest component come grittier. That said, longitudinal research is needed to understand
of grit were tested for low (1 SD below the mean) and high (1 SD above the role these constructs play in the development of grit.
the mean) levels of SCC. For those with low levels of SCC, conscientious- Finally, it should be noted that there are limitations in this study.
ness was not significantly related to the interest component of grit (β = Perhaps most notably, our investigation was exploratory, and therefore
0.15, t = 1.55, p = 0.12). However, for those with high levels of SCC, replication is necessary to build further evidence for our findings. Also,
conscientiousness was positively related to the interest component of our study explored correlations among variables that were measured
grit (β = 0.42, t = 4.68, p b 0.001; See Fig. 1). With increasing levels at a single time-point, a design which constrains the inferences that
of SCC, the positive relationship between conscientiousness and the in- can be drawn. Additionally, our modest sample size and study design
terest component of grit becomes stronger. limits the generalizability and practical impact of our results. Future re-
search should employ experimental and longitudinal designs to better
understand the direction of the relationships that we explored in the
4. Discussion present study.

We found that the positive relationship between conscientiousness

and consistency of interest becomes stronger as SCC increases. This pat-
tern suggests that consistency of interest may capture a component of
self-knowledge, in addition to conscientiousness. No such interaction
emerged for the perseverance of effort component of grit. Instead, con-
scientiousness alone predicted the perseverance of effort component of
grit. This study has implications for researchers interested in studying
grit and its sub-components. First, our results suggest that SCC might
5. Conclusion
Our results suggest that conscientiousness and SCC together might
cultivate the consistency of interest component of grit. To our knowl-
edge, our study is the first to explore the relationship between an indi-
vidual's SCC and grit. Our results suggest that further exploring these
relationships might be a fruitful path for future research.

4
Grit: Consistency of Interest

Low Self Concept

3
Clarity

High Self
Concept Clarity
2

1
Low Conscientiousness High Conscientiousness

Fig. 1. The relationships between conscientiousness and consistency of interest at low and high levels of self-concept clarity.
194 R.E. Fite et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 108 (2017) 191–194
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