Good question. I assume you ask because conscientiousness is highly correlated with a number of positive life outcomes?
Conscientiousness is temporally stable, that is, in the average individual, it does not much change over time.
Conscientiousness is linked to a number of other personality traits—e.g. self-regulation, perseverance, etc.… These traits can be trained; and according to a quick skim of the study below, training those traits in turn effects conscientiousness, at least in children.
In adults, the trait is more temporally stable (sorry, no citation off hand), but there are hacks—e.g. self-control strategies like mental contrasting, implementation intentions, learned industriousness, etc… can partially achieve the same effect as having more conscientiousness.
This is a good question though… I will investigate some more.
Good question. I assume you ask because conscientiousness is highly correlated with a number of positive life outcomes?
Conscientiousness is temporally stable, that is, in the average individual, it does not much change over time.
Conscientiousness is linked to a number of other personality traits—e.g. self-regulation, perseverance, etc.… These traits can be trained; and according to a quick skim of the study below, training those traits in turn effects conscientiousness, at least in children.
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/publications/EisenbergDuckworth_ConscientiousnessOriginsinChildhood_2012.pdf
In adults, the trait is more temporally stable (sorry, no citation off hand), but there are hacks—e.g. self-control strategies like mental contrasting, implementation intentions, learned industriousness, etc… can partially achieve the same effect as having more conscientiousness.
This is a good question though… I will investigate some more.