"Your husband, wife, or sweetheart probably doesn't come to work with you every day," says Brittany Solomon. But his or her influence clearly does.
Solomon, a Ph. D. candidate in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, recently led a study analyzing the careers and personalities of about 5,000 married people, aged 19 to 89, over a five-year period. About 75% were in two-career couples.
The conclusion: Employees of both sexes who scored highest on three measures of occupational success — salary increases, promotions, and job satisfaction — all went home at night to mates with the personality type known as "conscientious." These are people who are reliable, consistent, detail-oriented, and organized. The study result will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.
Note to singles: If you're aiming high at work, you might want to settle down with someone conscientious. Psychologists often sort out people according to four other broad measures: openness, outgoingness, agreeableness, and neuroticism (神经质). Although previous studies show that "people tend to look for a potential mate with a high degree of agreeableness and low neuroticism, our findings suggest that anyone with ambitious career goals would be better off looking for a supportive partner with a highly conscientious personality," Solomon notes.
A mate's conscientiousness boosts career success in three ways, the study found. First is what the researchers call "outsourcing," which means it's a lot easier to concentrate on your next brilliant idea at work if someone else can be counted on to make sure the dog has all his shots, the car gets inspected on time, and the kids are fed. Also, the ability to depend on a significant other cuts down on overall stress and makes work-life balance easier to manage, for men and women alike.
But beyond the day-to-day being practical, a conscientious partner can have a subtler, more pervasive influence. "Conscientious people tend to be resilient in the face of setbacks, and they're thorough. They finish what they start," says Solomon. Over time, those features can rub off on a spouse. People often unconsciously try to equal those they live with — and the qualities we associate with 'conscientious' types are the same ones that lead to success in a career.
【小题1】Which of the following qualities is what you can't find on a conscientious person?| A．Trustworthy. | B．Orderly. | C．Careful. | D．Neurotic. |
| A．To give examples of what a conscientious mate should be like. |
| B．To explain how one's mate's conscientiousness promotes one's career. |
| C．To describe what qualities can make a conscientious mate. |
| D．To stress the reliability of the final conclusion drawn from this study. |
| A．Erase off. | B．Wipe out. | C．Get influence. | D．Have effect. |
| A．conscientiousness is a must for career success |
| B．one's mate's personality influences one's career success |
| C．one's mate's personality promotes one's occupational success |
| D．conscientious persons are more suitable for ambitious ones |
