E

Stability and Change

Personality Stability and Change

Objectives

  • Appreciate the different measures of stability.

  • Outline expected levels of personality change throughout life.

Trait Approach

Big 3 (Eysenck)

  • Extraversion: Outgoing nature, prefers being around people.

  • Neuroticism: Emotional reactivity and volatility.

  • Psychoticism: Associated with antisocial behaviors.

Big 5 (Costa and McCrae)

  • Openness: Open-minded and receptive to new experiences.

  • Conscientiousness: Critical for success in work and education.

  • Extraversion: Energetic in social contexts.

  • Agreeableness: Kind and pleasant towards others.

  • Neuroticism: Related to emotional stability.

Life Changes

  • Coming to University: Significant life transition. Reflect on personal changes.

  • COVID-19 Impact: Global disruption; consider if personality traits changed or became more prominent.

Types of Stability and Change

Psychometric Considerations

  • Reliability: Assessing stability of personality scores over time.

  • Change: Theoretical perspectives on individual's capacity for personality change vary.

Test Retest Reliability

  • Consistency Measurement: How reliable is the questionnaire in yielding stable results?

  • Repeated measures often produce similar responses, more so in adults than children.

  • Roberts and Del Vecchio (2000) highlighted that adult test-retest reliability is higher than in childhood.

Limitations of Test Retest

  • Assumes retests occur under similar conditions.

  • Variability in individual circumstances and life events may affect consistency.

Relevance of Wording

  • Consider variations in response prompts:

    • "Get chores done right away."

    • "Shirk my duties."

    • "Feel short-changed in life."

    • Common phrases may impact self-assessment of traits.

Changes in Conformity

  • Reflection on personal engagement with risk-taking behaviors.

  • Explore independence and social involvement in changing lifestyles.

Real World Change

  • Recognize that many psychometric scales are historically grounded.

  • Cultural transformations affect collective beliefs and individual behaviors.

Intelligence Tests vs Personality Tests

  • Distinction: Personality stems from self-reporting, while intelligence necessitates demonstrated capability.

  • Variance in measurement reveals actual change versus misperception of change.

Capturing Change in Childhood

  • Prinzie and Deković (2008) fall findings on individual personality changes:

    • Majority maintain consistent traits with notable changes in emotional stability and benevolence.

    • Rank order stability notable across personality domains.

Personality's Role in Goal Achievement

  • Personality contributes to striving towards values and achieving goals.

  • The "maturity principle" influences trait dynamics over time (Roberts & Wood, 2006).

Characterization of Adolescence Change

  • Meta-analyses indicated:

    • Conscientiousness: Declines early, rises late adolescence.

    • Openness: Similar fluctuation noted.

    • Early capacity expectations versus gradually increasing personal growth propensity.

Beliefs About Personality Change

  • Study by Haslam et al. (2007): Students rated personal changes over time and normative expectations.

Cumulative Perceived Change Graph

  • Haslam et al. (2007) findings illustrate cumulative perceived changes across age.

Absolute Personality Change Graph

  • Assessed by Haslam et al. (2007) demonstrating trait shifts across defined age spans.

Graham et al. (2020) Analysis

  • Reviewed 60,000+ participants across studies from 20 to 100 years:

    • Neuroticism: Small decreases, exhibiting a U-shaped trajectory.

    • Extraversion: Linear decline pattern.

    • Openness and Conscientiousness: Stabilizes then declines in older adulthood.

    • Agreeableness: Patterns varied; some increase noted over age.

The Baltes Theory

  • Principles of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) explain trait shifts in older adulthood emphasizing loss management.

50-Year Longitudinal Study (Damian et al., 2019)

  • Assessed high school students to track:

    • Rank-order stability: Individuals maintain relative personality positions.

    • Personality trait changes: Average change consistent with maturation.

    • Reliable change: 97.9% exhibited measurable shifts in traits.

Conclusions

  • Perceptions of personality change generally align with empirical data.

  • Adolescence and young adulthood are identified as critical change periods.

  • Child temperament shows stability altered by societal norms.

  • Older adults typically demonstrate declines in personality traits, consistent with observed patterns yet indicating sensitivity to life changes.

References

  • Baltes PB (1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny...

  • Damian, R. I., et al. (2019). Sixteen going on sixty-six...

  • Denissen, J. J. A., et al. (2013). Self-regulation underlies temperament...

  • Roberts, B. W., et al. (2000). The rank-order consistency of personality traits...

  • Kandler C, et al. (2015). Patterns and sources of personality development in old age...

  • Haslam, N., et al. (2007) Beliefs about personality change and continuity...

  • Prinzie, P., Deković, M. (2008) Continuity and change of childhood personality characteristics...

  • Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits...