Multilingualism and Personality Profiles of Multilinguals

Abstract The article discusses the relationship between the individual speaker's personality and multilingual competence. Individual multilingualism is defined as the unique configuration of languages known and used by a speaker. It is highlighted how psychological frameworks are employed in order to examine the relationship between personality and multilingualism, particularly through the lens of the Big Five personality traits and the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Representative and exemplary empirical studies that explore this relationship are presented. Then, internal factors such as language learning aptitude, cognitive abilities, and affective experiences like language learning anxiety and enjoyment are highlighted with respect to their potential influence on the personality profiles of multilinguals. The conclusion calls for further longitudinal and mixed‐methods research to investigate how multilingual experiences influence identity and self‐concept, emphasizing the need to integrate further variables related to emotions and attitudes into research investigating multilingual personality profiles.