Ch.7 - Personality Stability, Development, And Change Flashcards
Key Forms of Stability
Personality development, rank order consistency, and mean level stability
Rank Order Consistency
Maintenance of an individual’s position within a group
Mean Level Stability
Constancy of level in population
Qualities of Personality Change
Internal or Enduring
Internal
Changes inside the person, no changes in environment
Enduring
Changes are enduring over time and not temporary
Temperament
Individual differences that emerge very early in life, heritable traits
Heterotypic Continuity
Effects of fundamental tendencies change with age, manifestations of behavior change
Person-environmental transactions
People choosing environments that go with their predispositions or manipulating their environments unintentionally
Cumulative Continuity Principle
Consistency of personality increases with age, environments become more stable as we settle down
Psychological Maturity
Self-control with interpersonal sensitivity, emotional stability
Cross-Sectional Studies
Surveys different people at the same time
Cohort effect
May contribute to age differences in cross sectional studies, describes some shared experience amongst subjects
Longitudinal Studies
Follows the same group of people over time: people become more agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable
Self Esteem Variability
Magnitude of short term changes in self esteem, is an indicator of vulnerability to stressful life events. High self variability correlates to low self esteem.
Causes of Personality Development
Increase in abilities, hormone changes, change in social roles and responsibilities
Social Clock
Places pressure on people to accomplish certain things by certain ages
Three Aspects of Personality Development
- Actor - learning new skills for different roles
- Agent - plans for the future and striving for outcomes
- Author - narrative you can tell, how a person views their life
Four Methods of Personality Change
- Psychotherapy or psychiatric drugs
- General interventions
- Targeted interventions
- Behaviors and life experiences
Preconditions to Personality Change
• Precondition 1
- changing trait related behaviors is considered desirable
• Precondition 2
- changing trait related behaviors is considered accomplishable
• Precondition 3 (after self regulated behavior changes)
- self regulated changes become habit
Maturity Principle
People become better equipped to deal with demands of life as they acquire skills
Plasticity Principles
Personality can change at any time
Role Continuity Principle
Taking on roles can lead to personality becoming consistent
Identity Development Principle
People seek to gain a sense of self, and try to act consistent with this sense of self-view
Social Investment Principle
Changing social roles at different life stages, such as becoming a parent or boss can cause change in personality
Corresponsive Principle
Person environment transactions can cause traits to magnify or remain constant
Personality Change Predictions
Capsi and Herberner found that people married to a spouse similar to themselves showed the most personality stability, those that married the least similar spouses showed the most personality change
