Personality Psychology - Midterm 2

What is the Plaster Hypothesis?

Personality is fully determined by the time a person turns thirty years old with the biggest developments happening during childhood/adolescene

What is a Paradigm Shift?

Personality is not stable and has persistent plasticity that is determined by many factors besides genetics

What are the two data collection methodology when studying age groups?

Cross-sectional data and Longitudinal data

What are the pros of cross-sectional data?

It can cover lifespans in one collection, is cheap, and is fast

What is the con of cross-sectional data?

It potentially has biases

What are the pros of longitudinal data?

It can have track real within-person change and can no impact from cohort effects

What are the cons of longitudinal data?

It can take decades to collect the data, is slow, and is expensive

What are the two indicators of personality stability?

Absolute stability and differential stability

What is absolute stability?

Consistency in the level or amount of a personality attribute over time, also known as mean-level stability

What is differential stability?

Observes the difference between people and compare the correlation between two assessments over time, also known as rank-order stability. This rises throughout young/middle adulthood and peaks around sixty years old

What is homotypic stability?

A trait gets expressed the same way across the entire lifespan

What is heterotypic stability?

The trait might be the same but comes out differently over time. It can only be studies if researches have a theory that clearly specifies which expressions reflect the trait at which ages

What is the disruption hypothesis?

Recurrent empirical pattern in adolescence which has a temporary dip in socially relevant traits and rise in neurotic traits

What is the maturity principle?

Recurrent empirical pattern in emerging and early adulthood that peaks at middle adulthood. The increase in traits demonstrates higher psychological maturity which also participates in the social investment theory

What is the social investment theory?

Response to the pressures life puts on

What are the different mechanisms of stability?

Biological, physical environmental, stable environmental, early experiences, social norms, cultural norms, social roles, person-environment transaction, and life events

When do important differences in personality occur?

They are small but significant across all life changes and it differs in the rate, timing, and discrection

When do the bigger interdividual changes occur?

They usually occur during emerging adulthood

What are the two main reasons that individual changes occur?

Everyone has different experiences that shape their personality and development, and significant life events can lead to shifts in an individual's personality traits. Cultural norms and social expectations also play a role.

What happens to individuals that live in societies with earlier onset of job-roles?

They tend of mature earlier

What happens to individual that lives in societies with later onset of job-role?

They tend to have higher openness

What are the patterns that could be found in machiavellianism?

It peaks during adolescence, decreases over time, and there is a possibility of a slight spike after retirement