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Consider for exemple the stereotype threat, of which a recent meta-analysis can be found here. People try to assess how can a stereotype might explain a difference between two groups.
However, they almost never control for IQ or Big Five which seems to me to be latent variables with much more explanatory power.
My questions are :
A quick look at your reference focussed on a meta-analysis of an intervention. Evaluating interventions is mostly about estimating the mean effect of an intervention. So, even if personality or intelligence influences the outcome, this is not directly relevant to evaluating whether on average the intervention has an effect.
In other contexts, controlling for personality and intelligence maybe quite relevant. In general, controlling for personality or intelligence is more relevant (a) where the predictors are conceptually or empirically related to personality or intelligence, and (b) where personality or intelligence is a strong predictor of the outcome of interest.
There are a whole range of psychological constructs that overlap substantially with either personality or intelligence. And in those cases, you do have a body of literature that examines the degree of overlap with personality or intelligence. And there's also literature that examines the incremental prediction of the variable of interest relative to personality.
For example:
Researchers are always confronted with issues of which variables to measures. It is often not practical to measure everything. In particular, intelligence takes quite a bit of time to measure well. So you often get research that doesn't control for these factors. And then later on, other studies come along and fill the gap. There is also a bit of a process "construct proliferation" in psychology. A researcher comes up with a new pet construct. And other researchers point out later on how it's not that different to personality or how it doesn't incrementally predict. A lot of heated debates arise over these things.
Researchers also differ in theoretical orientation and practical concerns. For instance, in industrial/organisational psychology, intelligence and Big 5 personality assessment are very well embedded. So, incremental prediction over and above these factors is a common question for a researchers to ask. In other fields, they may be less grounded in personality or intelligence frameworks.
You only control for factors that have been proven to matter. IQ has not been shown to be significant. So why measure or control IQ variation if there is no evidence of difference.
In fact there is evidence that the activation of stereotype threat confounds cognitive performance and therefore IQ. If a person has their stereotype threat activated, and they perform poorly in an IQ test, is that a fair representation of their cognitive abilities? Many articles and studies prove the confounding ability of stereotype threat and the need to minimise this factor in IQ testing, it seems complex and unfair to apply a measure that is significantly influenced by the stereotype threat factor that you are studying.
