CHAP5: Personality over Time: Stability, Coherence, Change
Conceptual Issues in Personality Development
Personality Development: This field examines the continuities, consistencies, and stabilities in individuals over time, as well as the specific ways in which people change over their lifespan.
Conceptual Levels of Stability: * Rank Order Stability: Refers to the maintenance of an individual’s position within a group. * High stability means individuals maintain their position relative to others on a specific trait over time. * Change occurs when a person's trait changes relative to the group; for example, if submissive people rise in dominance and displace previously dominant individuals, this constitutes rank order change. * Measurement: Assessed via test-retest correlations. A high correlation indicates stable individual scores; a low correlation indicates rank order change. * Mean Level Stability: Refers to the average levels (means) of a trait within a population or group at different points in time. * Stability: The average level of a trait in a group remains constant over time. * Change: The average level changes over time, often referred to as normative change. * Measurement: Primarily assessed through longitudinal studies to identify mean differences. Research generally shows moderate evidence for mean-level change over the lifespan. * Personality Coherence: This involves changes in the manifestations of a trait while maintaining rank order stability. * Example (Dominance): A dominant -year-old might manifest this trait by showing toughness in play or calling rivals names. A dominant -year-old manifests the same underlying trait by persuading others of a political view or boldly asking someone on a date. * Coherence includes both stability in the underlying psychological trait and change in outward behavioral manifestations.
Life Outcomes and Personality Predictors
Marital Stability, Satisfaction, and Divorce: * A study of couples identified key predictors for marital dissatisfaction and divorce. * Predictors of Dissatisfaction/Divorce: * Husband's high Neuroticism. * Husband's lack of impulse control. * Wife's high Neuroticism. * Resilience: Individuals with low Neuroticism (high emotional stability) were found to grieve less, show less depression following loss, and exhibit quicker psychological recovery.
Alcoholism, Drug Use, and Emotional Disturbance: * Men are more likely to develop emotional problems or alcoholism if they score high in the following traits: * High Neuroticism. * High Sensation Seeking. * High Impulsivity. * Low Agreeableness. * Low Conscientiousness.
Achievement and Success: * Academic Achievement: Linked specifically to high self-control. * Occupational Attainment: High Conscientiousness is the best predictor of successful achievement at work and school. It is associated with greater involvement at work and increased financial security.
Health and Longevity: * Traits associated with living long lives include: * High Conscientiousness. * Extraversion. * Low Hostility. * Low Neuroticism.
Patterns of Personality Change and Development
Nature of Change: * Changes must be internal: They are not merely shifts in external surroundings (e.g., walking into a different room is not personality change). Consistent environmental influences can facilitate change or reveal underlying personality traits (e.g., divorce). * Changes must be enduring over time: Temporary shifts are not considered personality changes. For instance, if someone changes after a divorce but returns to their original self after years, it is considered recovery rather than a developmental change. A period of years is often not long enough to confirm an enduring change.
Sensation Seeking: * This is a normative, mean-level change. * Increases from childhood to adolescence, peaking between ages and . * Decreases from adolescence into adulthood, which correlates with a decrease in impulsivity and the development of the frontal lobe.
Ambition and Autonomy: * Ambition: A study showed a decline in ambition from the to the . This decline was steeper for those who had only a secondary education. * Increases: Scores for autonomy, motivation, achievement, and leadership tend to increase over time.
Self-Esteem: * Self-esteem variability: Refers to short-term changes in ongoing self-esteem. * Adolescence: Self-esteem generally declines during this period. The decline is more significant for girls than for boys. * Adulthood Recovery: Young men tend to recover self-esteem more quickly than young women. * College Years: There is a mean-level increase in self-esteem over the years of university, suggesting most people change in the same way during this transition.
The Big Five across the Lifespan: * Psychological Maturation: As people age from young adulthood to middle age, they typically show growth in: * Agreeableness. * Conscientiousness. * Emotional Stability. * Social Dominance. * Declines: There is a general decline in Openness, Extraversion (outside of social dominance), and the dark trait of Narcissism.
Analysis and Biological Bases of Personality
Extreme Personality Changes via Trauma: * Physical trauma to the frontal lobes can cause radical personality shifts. * Phineas Gage: Following his injury, he became more impulsive, indulgent, and disrespectful, showing less restraint and forethought. * Patient KC: Post-injury, became less sociable, less gregarious, and stopped seeking thrills.
Stability with Age: People become more stable in their personality as they get older, with stability peaking in the . However, there are still signs of change in the Big Five between the ages of and .
Levels of Analysis: * Population Level: Changes that apply to nearly everyone (e.g., universal increase in sexual motivation at puberty). * Group Difference Level: Changes affecting different groups differently. * Sex Differences: Females undergo puberty approximately years earlier than males. In Canada, men tend to die years earlier than women. During adolescence, males and females diverge in average levels of risk-taking and empathy. * Cultural/Ethnic Differences: European Canadians (EC) vs. Asian Canadians (AC). EC children show more externalizing behavior (higher risk for ADHD/conduct disorder), while AC children show more internalizing behavior (higher risk for depression/anxiety). They also show different levels of extraversion and antagonism. * Individual Difference Level: Identifying which individuals are at risk for midlife crises or psychological disturbances later in life based on early personality traits.
Temperament and Childhood Stability
Temperament: Individual differences emerging early in life, likely having a heritable/biological basis, often involving emotionality or arousability.
Dunedin Study: Followed a group of children for years. Findings showed that early behavioral styles are associated with behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in adulthood.
Rothbarth Study: Identified factors of temperament. * Infants scoring high on activity level, smiling, and laughter at one time period tend to score high at later periods. * Activity level and smiling/laughter show higher stability than other traits.
General Conclusions on Stability: * Temperament variables show moderate stability over time. * Stability is higher over short intervals than long intervals. * Stability of temperament increases as infants mature.
Childhood Longitudinal Studies: * Studies following participants from age through to adulthood focus on activity level. * Measurements: Used both an "actometer" (recording device on the wrist) and judge-based observations. * Validity Coefficients: Significant positive correlations were found between different measures (actometer vs. judge) of the same trait at the same time (). * Stability Coefficients: Correlations between the same measures at different points in time (). * Activity level shows moderate stability, but the stability coefficient decreases as the time interval between measurements increases. * Aggression: A review of studies showed that individuals retain their rank order for aggression during childhood, though coefficients decline as the interval increases.
Adulthood Stability and Volitional Change
Rank Order Stability in Adulthood: * Studies of participants aged using the Five Factor Model show moderate to high stability for all Big Five traits. * Findings are consistent across self-reports, spouse-reports, and peer-reports over intervals of to years. * Continuity is also high for self-esteem, prosocial orientation, and interpersonal empathy.
Therapy and Intervention: * Therapeutic programs can decrease Neuroticism and increase Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. * Volitional Change: Individuals can set intentional goals to become more extraverted or less anxious. * Mindfulness Meditation: Associated with improvements in Agreeableness, Extraversion, Openness, and Conscientiousness. * Cognitive Ability: Increasing cognitive ability is linked to increased Openness.
Pharmacological Influence: * A high dose of psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms) can increase Openness. * Psychedelics may reduce antisocial tendencies. Research into men using LSD/acid or mushrooms found a reduced likelihood of perpetrating physical violence against partners due to better emotion regulation.
Intervention Studies: * A -week intervention used Sudoku and puzzles alongside coaching to change Big Five traits. * Findings: Successful increases in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion by setting practical intentions. * The strongest changes were found for Extraversion and Neuroticism. * The mechanism for change involves shifting specific behaviors, which then leads to changes in thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, values, and social roles.
Questions & Discussion
Q: Can personality change after a major life event like a divorce? * A: Yes, consistent environmental influences like a divorce can change personality over time or reveal an underlying personality. However, for it to be considered a true personality change, it must be enduring. If a person returns to their pre-divorce personality within years, it is viewed as a recovery process rather than a permanent developmental change.
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