chapter 9 3490 Aging and Personality Development

These flashcards cover the key concepts and definitions related to aging and personality development.

Personality

The consistent ways people think, feel, and behave across situations and over time.

Traits

Enduring tendencies that describe stable patterns such as being organized, sociable, anxious, kind, and emotionally stable.

Mean-level change

Examines whether the average level of a trait changes with age in a population.

Rank-order consistency

Examines whether people maintain their relative position compared with others over time.

Five Factor Model (Big Five)

The most widely used model of personality, consisting of five major traits.

Openness to Experience

A trait characterized by imagination, curiosity, creativity, and intellectual flexibility.

Conscientiousness

A trait that includes organization, responsibility, discipline, and dependability.

Extraversion

A trait that includes sociability, assertiveness, and energy.

Agreeableness

A trait that includes kindness, trust, warmth, and cooperation.

Neuroticism

A trait that includes emotional instability, anxiety, and mood fluctuations.

Hard Plaster Hypothesis

The idea that personality 'hardens' permanently after age 30.

Cohort effects

Differences in personality traits that may reflect generation rather than aging itself.

Maturity Principle

As people age, they generally become psychologically more mature.

Rank-Order Stability

Relative trait ranking between individuals over time.

Intra-individual change

How one individual changes across life.

Biological-Essentialist View

The idea that personality is determined mainly by biology and genetics.

Contextualist View

The idea that environment shapes personality and changes due to life roles and experiences.

Correspondence Principle

The idea that people choose environments matching their personality.

Interactional View

The concept that personality develops through interaction between person and environment.

Gender Differences in Big Five

Mixed findings about whether men and women differ in traits like neuroticism across age.

Cultural Differences in Personality

Personality differences between countries are small, but definitions of personality may differ across cultures.

Type A Personality

Characterized by competitiveness, urgency, and hostility, originally thought to be linked to disease.

Conscientiousness and health

High conscientiousness is linked to better health outcomes.

Neuroticism and health

High neuroticism predicts poorer health outcomes due to chronic stress and anxiety.

Cognitive training

Has been shown to increase openness to experience in older adults.

Mindfulness training

Increases agreeableness, empathy, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

Freud's Id

The primitive impulses component of personality.

Freud's Ego

The reality-based control component of personality.

Freud's Superego

The moral standards component of personality.

Carl Jung

Introduced concepts of introversion and extroversion in personality theory.

Generativity vs Stagnation

Erikson's stage where caring for future generations is contrasted with self-focus.

Generativity features

Includes cultural demand, inner desire, concern for future generations, commitment, action, and creation.

Integrity vs Despair

Final Erikson stage focusing on accepting life as meaningful versus regret and dissatisfaction.

Life narrative

A personal life story that becomes richer, more complex, and more positive with age.

Mid-Life Crisis

A term that reflects often a period of reflection, reassessment, and correction rather than true crisis.

Personality Disorder

A persistent pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from cultural expectations.

Diagnosis complexities in older adults

Difficulties arise due to overlapping symptoms with aging, illness, and cognitive decline.

Malleability of personality

Modern evidence suggests personality remains changeable even later in life.

Personality assessment

Methods used to measure personality, such as questionnaires and interviews.

Cohert differences

Variations in personality traits that are influenced by social conditions of different generations.

Personality maturation

The process by which individuals become psychologically more mature as they age.

Healthy aging

The concept that individuals can lead fulfilling lives while experiencing normal age-related changes.

Diverse aging experiences

Recognition of the varied personal growth paths individuals can take throughout their lives.

Social relationships and personality

Higher generativity is linked with stronger social relationships and better psychological well-being.

Cognitive flexibility

The mental ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts and to think about multiple concepts simultaneously.

Emotional regulation

The ability to manage and respond to an emotional experience appropriately.

Psychological well-being

An individual's overall emotional health and life satisfaction.