Chapter 5

Question 1

What is personality development?

Answer 1

The continuities, consistencies and stabilities in people over time and the ways in which people change over time.

Question 2

What are the two kinds of stability?

Answer 2

1. Rank order stability - the maintenance of a relative individual position within a group
2. Mean level stability - the constancy of levels

Question 3

What counts as personality change?

Answer 3

1. It needs to be a change that is not temporary, but enduring
2. It needs to be internal and not from external surroundings

Question 4

What is the most common measurement of personality in infants?

Answer 4

Temperament or the individual differences that emerge very early in life, are likely to have a heritable basis.

Question 5

What did research in temperament reveal?

Answer 5

1. Stable individual differences appear to emerge very early in life, when they can be assessed by observers.
2. For most temperament variables, there are moderate levels of stability over time during the first year of life.
3. The stability of temperament tends to be higher over short intervals of time than over long intervals of time – a finding that occurs in adulthood as well.
4. The level of stability of temperament tends to increase as infants mature

Question 6

How can one measure personality in children?

Answer 6

They can be estimated by adults, through five-factor models and through actigraphs which record the motion of children.

Question 7

How is stability found in personality reports?

Answer 7

Personality traits are found to be moderate to highly stable even if measured in a self-report, spouse-report or peer-report.

Question 8

What are some factors that affect the stability of personality traits?

Answer 8

Age and therapy.

Question 9

What do the authors of the Five-factor theory believe in?

Answer 9

That the environment has little effect over someone’s personaity and that it is largely genetically predetermined.

Question 10

What do the authors of the social-investment theory believe in?

Answer 10

They believe that through phases in life, people adopt different social roles - where the expectations of society (the external environment) affect behaviour.

Question 11

What is sensation seeking?

Answer 11

When someone wants to seek new experiences or thrills