Chapter 7 - Personality Stability, Development and Change

Question 1

What is rank order consistency?

Answer 1

People tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people the same age (ex. Julia is always going to be more extraverted than me)

Question 2

What is some evidence for the consistency of personality?

Answer 2

• r=.60 - .90 for 10 year span (remains consistent)
• childhood personality predicts adult behaviour (predictive validity)
• personality disorders are stable

Question 3

What is considered the precursor to personality?

Answer 3

Temperament

Question 4

What is temperament affected by?

Answer 4

Genetics

Question 5

What are the two dimensions of temperament?

Answer 5

1. positive emotionality, negative emotionality and effortful control
2. heterotypic continuity: effects of fundamental temperamental tendencies change with age, but temperament and personality stay the same (ex. aggressivity in kids vs. adults)

Question 6

What are the causes of personality stability?

Answer 6

• temperament
• physical and environmental factors
• early experience: stress
• cumulative continuity principle
• person-environment transactions

Question 7

What is the cumulative continuity principle?

Answer 7

Individual differences in personality become more consistent as we get older

• environment also becomes more stable as we age
• psychological maturity

Question 8

What is an active person-environment transaction?

Answer 8

when we seek out environments that enhance personalities and avoid incompatible ones (reinforces personality)

Question 9

What is a reactive person-environment transaction?

Answer 9

the way that people react to situations are different (ex. introvert vs. extravert at a party)

Question 10

What is an evocative person-environment transaction?

Answer 10

the personality manipulates the environment to enhance personality where other people are involved

Question 11

How does personality development go in hand with personality stability?

Answer 11

we can see this in a cross-sectional study (with the largest N in history @ about 1 million)
- this study showed small periods of time where personality spiked or plummeted, but then stabilized (evidence that personality development causes personality stability over time)

Question 12

What is another word for cohort effects?

Answer 12

Generational gaps

Question 13

What is the maturity principle?

Answer 13

the traits we need to perform adult roles increases with age

Question 14

Why do we see changes in personality over time?

Answer 14

the goals across the lifespan change

• young people are preparing for the future
• old people experience more emotional events

Question 15

What tends to be typical regarding personality change?

Answer 15

The desire for change is typical (they want to make their lives better)

Question 16

What promotes processes that stabilize personality?

Answer 16

Person-environment transactions

Question 17

What are the 4 potential methods of changing personality?

Answer 17

1. psychotherapy and psychiatric drugs
2. general interventions (ex. improving important outcomes like health - side effect is personality change)
3. targeted interventions (addresses certain personality traits)
4. behaviours and life experiences (positive can increase positive traits and negative can increase negative traits)

Question 18

What is cumulative lifetime adversity?

Answer 18

having some negative life experiences can produce positive personality traits
- can help or hinder in stressful situations; people who experienced a medium amount of adversity were overall more successful

Question 19

What are some obstacles that lie in the way of personality change?

Answer 19

• the person not seeing a reason to change
• it takes effort
• we tend to blame negative experiences and failures on external forces
• people like consistency in personality

Question 20

What are the pre-conditions to overcoming the obstacles of personality change?

Answer 20

1. the behaviour you are trying to change is desirable (you have to want to do it)
2. it has to be feasible

Question 21

What are the “steps” to personality change?

Answer 21

1. self-regulated behavioural changes
2. development of habit as a consequence
3. trait changes

Question 22

What kind of plans promote self-regulation?

Answer 22

If-then plans

Question 23

What is personality stability’s continuity and change characterized by?

Answer 23

• stability over lifespan (continuity)

- significant changes (change)

Question 24

What is role continuity?

Answer 24

People choose roles to play that may stay the same over their lives

Question 25

What things can we conclude about personality stability?

Answer 25

• personality change is both good and bad
• instability and inconsistency can cause problems
• most change is adaptive but slow