Stability, Development, & Change

Personality is _________________ over time.

stable develops, and change

What is rank-order consistency?

The tendency for people to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people who are the same age.

What becomes more stable over the lifespan?

Rank-order consistency

People become more consistent with…

age

What is the cumulative continuity principle?

The idea that personality becomes more stable and unchanging as the person gets older.

Are personality disorders typically stable?

Yes

What predicts adult behavior and life outcomes?

Childhood personality

If adaptability is present during childhood personality, what will likely happen in adulthood?

Being cheerful & intellectually curious

If inhibition is present during childhood personality, what will likely happen in adulthood?

Taking a longer time to find a stable romantic partner & job

If agreeableness is present during childhood personality, what will likely happen in adulthood?

Having better relationships

If conscientiousness is present during childhood personality, what will likely happen in adulthood?

Longevity

What is temperament?

The “personality” of very young, pre-verbal children.

What are the aspects of temperament?

Activity level, emotional reactivity, and cheerfulness.

What partially determines temperament?

Genetics

What are causes of stability?

• Temperament

• Physical and environmental factors

• Person-environment transactions

• Early life experiences

Is birth order a cause of stability?

Probably not

If parental rejection happens early in life, what could happen in the future?

Difficulty forming relationships

If bullying happens early in life, what could happen in the future?

Anxiety & paranoia

If positive experiences happens early in life, what could happen in the future?

Feelings of security and self-confidence

What are person-environment transactions?

The tendency for people to respond to, seek out, and create environments that are compatible with, and may magnify, their personality.

What other concepts do person-environment transactions sound similar to?

???

What are reactive person-environment transactions?

The tendency for different people to respond differently to the same situation.

What are evocative person-environment transactions?

The tendency for people to change situations they encounter through behaviors that express their personality.

People tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people who are the same age. This is called:

Rank-order consistency

What is personality development?

The change in mean level of a personality trait over time (at a population level).

What is cross-sectional research?

People of different ages are assessed at the same time.

In cross-sectional research, conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness ______ over time.

increase

In cross-sectional research, extraversion ______ over time.

stabilizes

In cross-sectional research, neuroticism ______ over time.

decreases

Overall, in cross-sectional research, personality traits ______ over time.

develop

What are cohort effects?

The tendency for a research finding to be limited to one group, or cohort, of people, such as people all living during a particular era or location.

What is a recent example of cohort effects?

The impacts of the pandemic on adolescence

What is an example of a cohort effect?

Lower digital literacy for people over 60 years old.

What is longitudinal research?

The same people are assessed repeatedly over extended periods of time, sometimes many years.

In what type of research is cohort effects constant?

Longitudinal research

What type of research is better able to isolate age effects from cohort effects?

Longitudinal research

In longitudinal research, people become more…

socially dominant, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable

In longitudinal research, risk-taking behavior ________ as people age.

decreases

What is the maturity principle?

The idea of describing how agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and dominance, increase, as people get older.

What is heterotypic continuity?

The behaviors that people engage in change over the lifespan, given social norms.

What are the causes of development?

• Biological maturation (e.g., physical development)

• Increases in intelligence and linguistic abilities

• Changes in social roles and responsibilities

• Goals across the life span change

• Life experiences

What is the evidence for stability?

• High test-retest correlations over time

• Stable personality disorders

• Predictive validity