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Personality > Change and Stability of Personality > Flashcards

Change and Stability of Personality Flashcards

Personality throughout the life span. How do people change in personality through different stages of life? To what extent are personality characteristics relatively stable?

1
Q

Change and Stability

A

In adults
In children
From childhood to adulthood

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2
Q

How does the average person CHANGE in his or her levels of personality traits across the lifetime?

A

How STABLE are the difference between people in their levels of personality traits?

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3
Q

How do we know?


A

Cross sectional research

Longitudinal research

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4
Q

Cross sectional research

A

Can compare different population groups at a single point in time

Allows researchers to compare many different variables at the same time

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5
Q

Longitudinal research

A

Observations of the same subjects over a period of time, sometimes lasting many years

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6
Q

Change: Adult personality

A

Changes in mean levels of traits over the life course

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7
Q

Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer (2006): Meta-analysis of 92 samples

  • Changes in mean levels of traits over the life course
A

Emotional stability (N): especially large changes from teens to college then remain stable

Extraversion (Social dominance facet - power): increase, and no large changes beyond 40

Extraversion 
(social vitality facet - active): Only slight decreases

Openness to experience (O): No change after 30

Agreeableness (A): Slight changes, only small increase from 50 to 60

Conscientiousness (C): Clear positive slope – increases over time

All six trait domains show significant changes past the age of 30

Personality traits change most during young adulthood (age 20 to 40), not adolescence

Mean-level changes reveal a more complicated pattern than analyses of stability

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8
Q

What’s a meta-analysis?

A

Statistical technique for combining findings from independent research studies

Helps see overall trends

Helps analyse where differences between studies come from

Helps overcome the “file drawer problem” of unpublished studies

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9
Q

Change across cultures between 18-50+ (McCrae et al., 1999)

A 
O: mean-level decrease 
E: mean-level decreases
C: mean-level increase
A: mean-level increase
N: no significance changes
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10
Q

Why do we change?

A

Five Factor Theory (McCrae & Costa, 1999)

Social Investment Hypothesis (Roberts, Wood, & Smith, 2005)

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11
Q

Five Factor Theory

McCrae & Costa, 1999

A

Humans have a species-wide genetic predisposition to develop in certain directions

Hard-wired to become more socially dominant, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and less open to experience

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12
Q

Social Investment Hypothesis (Roberts, Wood, & Smith, 2005)

A

Investment in universal tasks of social living (e.g., getting a job, being married)

Similar tasks supported in most cultures

Normative experiences associated with increases in personality traits of social dominance, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

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13
Q

Generational changes: Trzesniewski et al. (2008)
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)


A 
Sample Items (forced choice between two responses):
e.g. I am an extraordinary person vs. I am much like everybody else

Mean Full-Scale and Subscale Scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) by Year of Data Collection:

Superiority: people have more superiority than the past 1982

Self-sufficiency: higher than before

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14
Q

Differences in personality changes studies

A

bias/differences may due to self-selected

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15
Q

Stability of traits in adults

A

Multiple studies have used different samples

Found similar results from time 1 and time 2, showed stable pattern

6 years apart: r = .70
Few weeks apart: r = .80
6 years apart: r = .70
24 years apart: r = .65

regardless of the trait that is considered

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16
Q

Stability of traits in adolescence and young adulthood

A

Lower correlations

4 years in college: r = .60
Between age 18 and 26: r = .55
Between age 12 and 16: r = .40 (.50 for C)

There is no much stability in personality between age 12-16

17
Q

Self-esteem across life-span in women and men

Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005

A

Mean-level changes, but high stability

18
Q

Self-esteem: Can relationships change personality?

Neyer & Lehnart, 2007

A

Looked at German over 8 years period for 3 times

Remain single: increases then stable

Single-single-partner: stable then increase

Single-partner-partner: increases and remain

Remain partner: remain stable

-> Being in a relationship helps to develop self-esteem, because the sense of security

19
Q

Personality in infancy and childhood

How to measure Personality structure in kids?

A

Observer reports

Similar personality factor structure

Infants “temperament” traits (Caspi et al. 2005)

20
Q

Similar personality factor structure:

Digman et al. (1981) 5-factors from teacher ratings of Cattell’s traits

A

Openness is not always clearly found (Halverson et al., 2003)

Ditto Honesty-humility (Farrell et al., 2014)

21
Q

Infants “temperament” traits (Caspi et al. 2005)

A

Activity level, fearfulness, soothability, positive emotions

Similarity with factors, others do not emerge until adulthood

22
Q

Personality structure in children

Lamb et al., 2002

A

Internal reliability for Openness to experience was very low

Suggest the measures might not be measuring what the researchers think they were measuring (tend to measure)

23
Q

Developmental change in children

Lamb et al., 2002

A

E: decreases
A: increases
C: increases
N: increases when school starts

24
Q

From childhood to adulthood

The “Hawaiian Studies”

(Goldberg, 2001; Hampson & Goldberg, 2006)

A

longitudinal study, comparing interviewer ratings and self-reports in adulthood with teachers’ assessments in childhood

Show a weak stability between childhood to adulthood, especially in N

25
Q

Trait aggression: peer assessment and self report

A

personality traits can make a great prediction for aggression in childhood to adulthood, but not neuroticism

26
Q

The differences between prediction across personality traits can explained by the SOKA model

The self-other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model

A

Who knows what about a person?

Low observability, low evaluativeness trait (e.g., anxious) = better predicted by self-reports

High observability (e.g., talkative) = better predicted by observer-reports

Low observability, high evaluativeness trait (e.g., anxious) = better predicted by observer-reports

27
Q

Delay of Gratification Paradigm
 (Mischel et al., 1988)

A

The marshmallow experiment

28
Q

Perfectionism: 
How does it develop?

Flett et al., 2002

A

Perfectionism

  • Parental factors
  • Child factors
  • Environmental pressure
  • Self-Orientated
  • Socially-Prescribed (pressure from others)
29
Q

Parental factors

A

Personality 
(e.g., perfectionism)

Parental expectations

Parenting practices/
parenting style

30
Q

Child factors

A

Personality/
temperament

Attachment style

31
Q

Environmental pressure

A

Cultural

Teachers

Peers

Work

32
Q

Self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) vs. socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP)

A

Two longitudinal studies with adolescents (aged 14-19 years)

T1 = Time 1
T2 = Time 2 (5-9 months later)
33
Q

Stoeber et al. (2009): Big 5

A

Conscientiousness at T1 predicted increases in SOP from T1 to T2, 

but neuroticism at T1 did not predict increases in SPP

SOP may be driven by child factors

34
Q

Damian et al. (2013): Parental pressure

A

Perceived parental expectations at T1 predicted increases in SPP
from T1 to T2,
but not increases in SOP

SPP may be driven by parental factors

35
Q

Self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) vs. socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP)

A

SOP more stable than
 SPP

Personality (9 decks)

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