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Publications and CV

Dr. Christopher Soto’s complete CV is available here (last updated June, 2026).

Publications

Soto, C. J., Hudson, N. W., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2026). Practice makes perfect: A behavioral challenge intervention to develop social, emotional, and behavioral skills. European Journal of Personality, 40(3), 599-613. PDF

Choi, J., Kim, N., Zhang, B., Park, S. W., Cho, S., Sohn, Y. W., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2026). The Big Five Inventory-2 in Korea: Validation and cross-cultural comparisons with the U.S. and Chinese versions. Assessment,33(5), 866-889. PDF

Fernandes, M. Zanon, C., Sá, L. G. C., Fabretti, R. R., Cruz, A. C. A., Silva, T. B., Sewell, M. N., Napolitano, C. M., Soto, C. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2026). Am I more skilled than I think? Investigating the agreement between self- and informant-reports of social, emotional, and behavioral skills in Brazil. Personality Science, 7, 1-35. PDF

Huang, M., Zhang, X., Soto, C. J., & Evans, J. (2026). Designing AI-agents with personalities: A psychometric approach. Personality Science, 7, 1-26. PDF

Ringwald, W. R., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Soto, C. J., Yoon, H. J., & Wright, A. G. C. (2026). More skill than trait, or more trait than skill? Relations of (mis)matches between personality traits and social, emotional, and behavioral skills with adolescent outcomes. European Journal of Personality, 40(2), 160-177. PDF

Sewell, M. N., Napolitano, C. M., Yoon, H. J., Soto, C. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2026). Experiental features of volunteering predict changes in college students’ social, emotional, and behavioral skills. Journal of Research in Personality, 121, 104705. PDF

Feraco, T., Hudson, N. W., & Soto, C. J. (2025). Differences in change goals between personality traits and social, emotional, and behavioral skills. Personality and Individual Differences, 241, 113200. PDF

Hofmann, R., Rozgonjuk, D., Soto, C. J., Ostendorf, F., & Mõttus, R. (2025). There are a million ways to be a woman and a million ways to be a man: Gender differences across personality nuances and nations. Journal of Research in Personality, 115, 104582. PDF

Lignier, B., Petot, J.-M., De Oliveira, P., Nicolas, M., Canada, B., Courtois, R., John, O. P., Plaisant, O., & Soto, C. J. (2025). Factor structure and psychometric properties of the French versions of the Big Five Inventory-2 Short (BFI-2-S) and Extra-Short (BFI-2-XS) Forms. L’Encéphale, 51, 601-608. PDF

Napolitano, C. M., Soto, C. J., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2025). Changes in social, emotional, and behavioral skills are associated with changes in secondary school students’ important outcomes. European Journal of Personality, 39, 897-910. PDF

Rammstedt, B., Roemer, L., Behr, D., Bluemke, M., Lechner, C., Dept, S., Wäyrynen, L., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2025). Going Global: 39 Language Versions of the BFI-2-XS. Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences, 7, e14067. PDF

Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., Lechner, C. M., Napolitano, C. M., Rammstedt, B., Roberts, B. W., & Soto, C. J. (2025). Assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills in just a few minutes: 96-, 45-, and 20-item short forms of the BESSI. Assessment, 32, 501-520. PDF

Siraji, M. A., Karim, F., Soto, C. J., & Haque, S. (2025). The Bangla Big Five Inventory-2: A comprehensive psychometric validation. Scientific Reports, 15, 11008. PDF

Zakrisson, I., Soto, C. J., Löfstrand, P., & John, O. P. (2025). Extending the applicability of the BFI-2 personality inventory: Predictive validity of the Swedish version. Psychological Test Adaptation and Development, 6, 199-215. PDF

Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2024). Going beyond traits: Social, emotional, and behavioral skills matter for adolescents’ success. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 15, 33-45. PDF

Feraco, T., Casali, N., Pellegrino, G., Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Carretti, B., & Meneghetti, C. (2024). The Italian Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI-I). Journal of Personality Assessment, 106, 750-764. PDF

Lignier, B., Petot, J.-M., Canada, B., De Oliveira, P., Nicolas, M., Courtois, R., John, O. P., Plaisant, O., & Soto, C. J. (2024). A reliable instrument for making use of an overly neglected source of information on personality: The French adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) informant-report form. L’Encéphale, 50, 391-399. PDF

Postigo, A., González-Nuevo, C., García-Fernández, J., García-Cueto, E., Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Roberts, B. W., & Cuesta, M. (2024). The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI): A Spanish adaptation and further validation in adult population. Assessment, 31, 1525-1547. PDF

Smederevac, S., Mitrović, D., Sadiković, S., Dinić, B. M., John, O. P., & Soto, C. J. (2024). The Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Psychometric properties and validation in Serbian language. Journal of Research in Personality, 110, 104492. PDF

Yoon, H. J., Roberts, B. W., Soto, C. J., Sewell, M. N., Napolitano, C. M., Casillas, A., & Murano, D. (2024). Examining SEB skills’ incremental validity over personality traits in predicting academic achievement. PLoS ONE, 19, e0296484. PDF

Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., Murano, D., Casillas, A., & Roberts, B. W. (2023). What I do and what I can do: Testing the convergence and incremental validity of social, emotional, and behavioral skills vs. traits for predicting academic success. Journal of Research in Personality, 104, 104382. PDF

Hang, Y., Soto, C. J., Lee, B., Speyer, L. G., Murray, A. L., & Mottus, R. (2023). Social expectations and abilities to meet them as possible mechanisms of youth personality development. Journal of Personality, 91, 601-612. PDF

Lignier, B., Petot, J.-M., Canada, B., De Oliveira, P., Nicolas, M., Canada, B., Courtois, R., John, O. P., Plaisant, O., & Soto, C. J. (2023). Factor structure, psychometric properties, and validity of the Big Five Inventory-2 facets: Evidence from the French adaptation (BFI-2-Fr). Current Psychology, 42, 26099-26114. PDF

Sewell, M. N., Napolitano, C. M., Roberts, B. W., Soto, C. J., & Yoon, H. J. (2023). The social, emotional, and behavioral skill antecedents to college students’ volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 33, 618-631. PDF

Vize, C. E., Sharpe, B. M., Miller, J. D., Lynam, D. R., & Soto, C. J. (2023). Do the Big Five personality traits interact to predict life outcomes? Systematically testing the prevalence, nature, and effect size of trait by trait moderation. European Journal of Personality, 37, 605-625. PDF

Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2022). An integrative framework for conceptualizing and assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills: The BESSI. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123, 192-222. PDF

Denissen, J. J. A., Soto, C. J., Geenen, R., John, O. P., & van Aken, M. A. G. (2022). Incorporating prosocial vs. antisocial trait content in Big Five measurement: Lessons from the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2). Journal of Research in Personality, 96, 104147. PDF

Føllesdal, H., & Soto, C. J. (2022). The Norwegian adaptation of the Big Five Inventory–2. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 858920. PDF

Lechner, C. M., Knopf, T., Napolitano, C. M., Rammstedt, B., Roberts, B. W., Soto, C. J., & Spengler, M. (2022). The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI): Psychometric properties of a German-language adaptation, temporal stabilities of the skills, and associations with personality and intelligence. Journal of Intelligence, 10, 63. PDF

Mishkevich, A. M., Shchebetenko, S. A., Kalugin, A. Y., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2022). The short and extra-short forms of the Russian version of the Big Five Inventory-2: BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS. Psikhologicheskii Zhurnal, 43, 95-108. PDF

Sewell, M. N., Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., Yoon, H. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2022). Survey data of social, emotional, and behavioral skills among seven independent samples. Data in Brief, 40, 107792. PDF

Stewart, R. D., Mõttus, R., Seeboth, A., Soto, C. J., & Johnson, W. (2022). The finer details? The predictability of life outcomes from Big Five domains, facets, and nuances. Journal of Personality, 90, 167-182. PDF

Yoshino, S., Shimotsukasa, T., Oshio, A., Hashimoto, Y., Ueno, Y., Mieda, T., Migiwa, I., Sato, T., Kawamoto, S., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2022). A validation of the Japanese adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2-J). Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 924351. PDF

Zhang, B., Li, Y. M., Li, J., Luo, J., Ye, Y., Yin, L., Chen, Z., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2022). The Big Five Inventory-2 in China: A comprehensive psychometric evaluation in four diverse samples. Assessment, 29, 1262-1284. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2021). Do links between personality and life outcomes generalize? Testing the robustness of trait-outcome associations across gender, age, ethnicity, and analytic approaches. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 118-130. PDF

Soto, C. J., Napolitano, C. M., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Taking skills seriously: Toward an integrative model and agenda for social, emotional, and behavioral skills. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30, 26-33. PDF

Atherton, O. E., Chung, J. M., Harris, K., Rohrer, J. M., Condon, D. M., Cheung, F., Vazire, S., Lucas, R. E., Donnellan, M. B., Mroczek, D. K., Soto, C. J., Antonoplis, S., Damian, R. I., Funder, D. C., Srivastava, S., Fraley, R. C., Jach, H., Roberts, B. W., Smillie, L. D., Sun, J., Tackett, J. L., Weston, S. J., Harden, K. P., & Corker, K. S. (2021). Why has personality psychology played an outsized role in the credibility revolution? Personality Science, 2, 1-21. PDF

Cemalcilar, Z., Baruh, L., Kezer, M., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2021). Testing the BFI-2 in a non-WEIRD community sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 182, 111087. PDF

Danner, D., Lechner, C. M., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2021). Modeling the incremental value of personality facets: the domains-incremental facets-acquiescence bifactor model (DIFAB). European Journal of Personality, 35, 67-84. PDF

Hang, Y., Soto, C. J., Speyer, L. G., Haring, L., Lee, B., Ostendorf, F., & Mottus, R. (2021). Age differences in the personality hierarchy: A replication across the life span. Journal of Research in Personality, 93, 104121. PDF

Kalugin, A., Shchebetenko, S., Mishkevich, A., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2021). Psychometric properties of the Russian version of the Big Five Inventory–2. Psychology Journal of the Higher School of Economics, 18, 7-33. PDF

Napolitano, C. M., Sewell, M. N., Yoon, H. J., Soto, C. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2021). Social, emotional, and behavioral skills: An integrative model of the skills associated with success during adolescence and across the life span. Frontiers in Education, 6, 679561. PDF

Shiner, R. L., Soto, C. J., & De Fruyt, F. (2021). Personality assessment of children and adolescents. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 3, 113-137. PDF

Vedel, A. Wellnitz, K. B., Ludeke, S., Soto, C. J., John, O. P., & Andersen, S. C. (2021). Development and validation of the Danish Big Five Inventory-2: Domain- and facet-level structure, construct validity, and reliability. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 37, 42-51. PDF

Xu, X., Soto, C. J., & Plaks, J. E. (2021). Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower-level personality traits and American political orientation. Journal of Personality, 89, 754-773. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2020). Commentary: Four confessions from a Big Fiver about a six-dimensional model of personality traits. European Journal of Personality, 34, 549-550. PDF

Soto, C. J., & Jackson, J. J. (2020). Five-factor model of personality. In D. S. Dunn (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. PDF

Anderson, C., Sharps, D. L., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). People with disagreeable personalities (selfish, combative, and manipulative) do not have an advantage in pursuing power at work. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 22780-22786.

Denissen, J. J. A., Geenen, R., Soto, C. J., John, O. P., & van Aken, M. A. G. (2020). The Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2): Replication of psychometric properties of the Dutch adaptation and first evidence for the discriminant predictive validity of the facet scales. Journal of Personality Assessment, 3, 309-324. PDF

Halama, P., Kohút, M., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). Slovak adaptation of the Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Psychometric properties and initial validation. Studia Psychologica, 62, 74-87. PDF

Hřebíčková, M., Jelínek, M., Květon, P., Benkovič, A., Botek, M., Sudzina, F., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). Five-factor questionnaire BFI-2: Hierarchical model with 15 subscales. Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 64, 437-460. PDF

Kohút, M., Halama, P., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). Psychometric properties of Slovak short and extra-short forms of Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2). Československá psychologie, 64, 550-563. PDF

Rammstedt, B., Danner, D., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). Validation of the short and extra-short forms of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) and their German adaptations. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 36, 149-161. PDF

Shchebetenko, S., Kalugin, A. Y., Mishkevich, A. M., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2020). Measurement invariance and sex and age differences of the Big Five Inventory–2: Evidence from the Russian version. Assessment, 27, 472-486. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2019). How replicable are links between personality traits and consequential life outcomes? The Life Outcomes Of Personality Replication Project. Psychological Science, 30, 711-727. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2019). Optimizing the length, width, and balance of a personality scale: How do internal characteristics affect external validity? Psychological Assessment, 31, 444-459. PDF

Danner, D., Rammstedt, B., Bluemke, M., Lechner, C., Berres, S., Knopf, T., Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2019). The Big Five Inventory–2: Validating a personality inventory to capture 5 personality domains and 15 facets. Diagnostica, 65, 121-132. PDF

Malka, A., Lelkes, Y., & Soto, C. J. (2019). Are cultural and economic conservatism positively correlated? A large-scale cross-national test. British Journal of Political Science, 49, 1045-1069. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2018). Big Five personality traits. In M. H. Bornstein, M. E. Arterberry, K. L. Fingerman, & J. E. Lansford (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of lifespan human development (pp. 240-241). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. PDF

Soto, C. J., & Sheets, E. S. (2018). Commentary: Moving toward an integrative understanding of personality disorder: It’s about time. European Journal of Personality, 32, 587-588. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 117-143. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). Short and extra-short forms of the Big Five Inventory–2: The BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS. Journal of Research in Personality, 68, 69-81. PDF

Mottus, R., Soto, C. J., & Slobodskaya, H. R. (2017). Are all kids alike? The magnitude of individual differences in personality characteristics tends to increase from early childhood to early adolescence. European Journal of Personality, 31, 313-328. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2016). The Little Six personality dimensions from early childhood to early adulthood: Mean-level age and gender differences in parents’ reports. Journal of Personality, 84, 409-422. PDF

Soto, C. J., Kronauer, A., & Liang, J. K. (2016). Five-factor model of personality. In S. K. Whitbourne (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adulthood and aging (Vol. 2, pp. 506-510). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. PDF

Malka, A., Osborne, D., Soto, C. J., Greaves, L., Sibley, C. G., & Lelkes, Y. (2016). Binding moral foundations and the narrowing of ideological conflict to the traditional morality domain. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 42, 1243-1257. PDF

Soto, C. J. (2015). Is happiness good for your personality? Concurrent and prospective relations of the Big Five with subjective well-being. Journal of Personality, 83, 45-55. PDF

Soto, C. J., & Tackett, J. L. (2015). Personality traits in childhood and adolescence: Structure, development, and outcomes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 358-362. PDF

Malka, A., & Soto, C. J. (2015). Rigidity of the economic right? Menu-independent and menu-dependent influences of psychological dispositions on political attitudes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24, 137-142. PDF

Soto, C. J. & John, O. P. (2014). Traits in transition: The structure of parent-reported personality traits from early childhood to early adulthood. Journal of Personality, 82, 182-199. PDF

Malka, A., & Soto, C. J. (2014). How encompassing is the effect of negativity bias on political conservatism? Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 37, 320-321. PDF

Malka, A., Soto, C. J., Inzlicht, M., & Lelkes, Y. (2014). Do needs for security and certainty predict cultural and economic conservatism? A cross-national analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 1031-1051. PDF

Soto, C. J. & Luhmann, M. (2013). Who can buy happiness? Personality traits moderate the effects of stable income differences and income fluctuations on life satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 46-53. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2012). Development of Big-Five domains and facets in adulthood: Mean-level age trends and broadly versus narrowly acting mechanisms. Journal of Personality, 80, 881-914. PDF

Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2011). Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big-Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 330-348. PDF

Malka, A., & Soto, C. J. (2011). The conflicting influences of religiosity on attitude toward torture. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1091-1103. PDF

Malka, A., Soto, C. J., Cohen, A. B., & Miller, D. T. (2011). Religiosity and social welfare: Competing influences of cultural conservatism and prosocial value orientation. Journal of Personality, 79, 763-792. PDF

Orth, U., Robins, R. W., & Soto, C. J. (2010). Tracking the trajectory of shame, guilt, and pride across the life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 1061-1071. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2009). Ten facet scales for the Big Five Inventory: Convergence with NEO PI-R facets, self-peer agreement, and discriminant validity. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 84-90. PDF

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2009). Using the California Psychological Inventory to assess the Big Five personality domains: A hierarchical approach. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 25-38. PDF

John, O. P., Naumann, L., & Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, & L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed., pp. 114-158). New York, NY: Guilford. PDF

Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The developmental psychometrics of Big Five self-reports: Acquiescence, factor structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 718-737. PDF

John, O. P., & Soto, C. J. (2007). The importance of being valid: Reliability and the process of construct validation. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 461-494). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. PDF

Helson, R., Soto, C. J., & Cate, R. A. (2006). From young adulthood through the middle ages. In D. K. Mroczek & T. D. Little (Eds.), Handbook of personality development (pp. 337-352). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. PDF

Helson, R., & Soto, C. J. (2005). Up and down in middle age: Monotonic and nonmonotonic changes in roles, status, and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 194-204. PDF