A Noisy Self Goes Online: Intraindividual Personality Variability and Self-Coherence in Digital Engagement

Personality research has traditionally focused on stable trait differences, but increasing attention has been devoted to the internal organization of personality traits within individuals. The present study examined whether intraindividual variability in the Big Five traits, operationalized as the within-person standard deviation across trait scores (iSD_BFI), is associated with problematic digital engagement in young adults. A sample of 316 participants completed the Big Five Inventory and selected subscales of the Behavioral Addiction Questionnaire assessing smartphone use, internet use and video gaming. Pearson correlations, hierarchical regression and independent samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate associations between personality trait-profile dispersion and digital behaviors. Results showed that higher iSD_BFI was weakly but significantly associated with greater problematic smartphone use (r = 0.115, p = 0.044) and internet use (r = 0.141, p = 0.012), whereas no significant association emerged with video gaming (r = 0.029, p = 0.764). Hierarchical regression analyses further indicated that iSD_BFI explained a small but statistically significant additional proportion of variance in smartphone use (ΔR2 = 0.014, p = 0.023) and internet use (ΔR2 = 0.019, p = 0.008) beyond age, sex, and the five Big Five traits, but not in video gaming. Participants in the problematic smartphone use group exhibited significantly higher iSD_BFI than those in the moderate risk group. Rather than representing a direct measure of self-coherence or identity fragmentation, iSD_BFI was considered an exploratory structural indicator of personality profile dispersion. Accordingly, a more heterogeneous personality profile may be associated with a greater approach to digitally mediated environments, possibly because these environments provide predictability, feedback, and reinforcement. Overall, the study highlights the importance of exploring intraindividual personality configuration as a complementary dimension to traditional trait-based approaches.