Personality development lecture 9

• What events/circumstances/factors have contributed to this change?
• If you have not changed, what may have contributed to this stability?
• Biological factors as forces in personality development

  Primarily considered in terms of genes, brain structures, and physiological mechanisms
• Some biological factors are stable (e.g. one's DNA). Other biological influences (e.g. gene expression and hormonal changes) are more flexible and can change across the life span due to age-related maturation and degeneration processes, as well as environmental influences such as nutrition, drugs, stressors and toxins
• Personality traits


  Relatively stable and enduring patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings that are relatively consistent across a wide variety of situations and contexts
• Trait theorists regard personality as an entity that reflects innate dispositions (internal, biological characteristics)
• Personality traits are useful in summarising, predicting, and explaining an individual's behaviour
• Five-factor theory (FFT)


  A comprehensive theory that covers traits, behaviour, and social-cognitive constructs, and the connections between these
• Basic tendencies


  • Influenced solely by biological factors, including genetics and brain structures
• Five-factor model (FFM)


  The five broad trait dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
• Facets of the five-factor model

  • Neuroticism: anxiety, hostility, self-consciousness, depression, impulsiveness, vulnerability
  • Extraversion: warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions
  • Openness to experience: fantasy, aesthetics, actions, ideas, values, feelings
  • Agreeableness: sincerity, altruism, trust, modesty, compliance, kindness
  • Conscientiousness: orderliness, self-discipline, reliability, competence, achievement, striving
• Personality traits are sets of characteristics that everyone possesses, and differ only in terms of the quantity of their manifestation
• Factors such as age and culture play a role in how a trait is manifested
• Characteristic adaptations


  Manifest as goals, attitudes, self-schemas, personal strivings, personal myths, and so forth
• The development of personality is driven by an intrinsic, genetically programmed process, but external influences can also contribute through the process of accommodation and assimilation
• Forms of personality trait stability and change


  • Mean level stability/change
  • Rank order stability/change
  • Individual differences
  • Stability of variance
  • Structural stability
• Personality traits can change or remain stable throughout the life span
• Personality traits may become more agreeable as people age
• Individual differences refer to the fact that traits might increase, decrease or remain stable across age groups or over time
• Some people may become emotionally more stable as they age, while others may become less stable, and others may remain the same throughout
• Stability of variance implies that individual differences remain stable over time and/or across different ages, even though the mean levels or rank orders are unstable
• Structural stability refers to the stability of patterns of covariation (relationship) among traits or items (or facets) on a personality scale
• Agreeableness


  Correlates with kindness and compliance
• Reasons why understanding personality trait stability is important


  • Predicting important life outcomes like mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment
  • Identifying mechanisms (or causes) of stability and the conditions under which stability is most prominent
  • Assessment of personality to understand personality traits over time
  • Interventions to change behaviour can be more effective if we know which traits are more or less likely to change
• Costa and McCrae found remarkable consistency and stability in all five personality dimensions, especially after age 30
• This led Costa and McCrae to believe that after age 30, personality seems to be "set in plaster"
• Empirical evidence for personality trait stability in adulthood

  • High levels of rank order (differential) stability across the adult years
  • Trait variances remain relatively stable over time and/or across ages
  • The positioning of traits relative to each other remain stable and is unaffected by age and ageing
• Trait stability


  • Provides a sense of sameness and continuity, which is central to having a sense of identity
  • Contributes to the individual's sense of routine and control, which may help avoid stress and gain pleasure
  • Provides structure and reduces the complexity of social interactions, increasing the predictability and continuity of behaviour
• Lack of stability often indicates a psychological disorder
• Personality traits demonstrate systematic mean level changes from childhood to old age
• Mean level age trends for personality traits

  • Neuroticism declines until middle adulthood and then remains stable, but increases slightly around age 80
  • Extraversion shows some decline during emerging adulthood, a relatively flat trend from young adulthood through middle age, and a more noticeable drop in later years
  • Openness to experience shows increases in emerging adulthood, stability in middle adulthood, and decreases in older adulthood
  • Agreeableness remains at a stable level until age 50 and then increases with age
  • Conscientiousness increases in young and middle adulthood, increases to a peak between ages 50 and 70, and then declines
• Personality traits not only change with age, but there are also distinct patterns of change
• As individuals grow older, they seem to increase in traits related to social interest and communion (fellowship) and to decrease in traits related to agency (activity) and a zestful (lively) approach to life
• Mean level trait changes are much more common in young adulthood before age 30 than in middle age, but changes do occur after age 30, although at a slower rate
• There are mixed results regarding mean level changes in very old adults, with some studies finding no change and others showing increases in agreeableness and decreases in extraversion
• Empirical evidence supports the claim that personality continues to change in adulthood at the mean levels, but there is also evidence for individual differences in personality development across the adult years
• Some individuals change, while others remain stable throughout the adult years, reflecting different pathways or trajectories that individuals may encounter in adulthood
• Change in personality traits may be more adaptive for adults who seek new experiences, as it allows them to adapt better to new opportunities and situations, while stability may be better for others as it provides greater consistency and control
• Adulthood is characterised by a multitude of life experiences and environmental influences that may affect the stability of personality traits
• Biological factors, environmental factors, and the complex interplay between individuals and their environment can contribute to personality trait stability and change