Chapter: Personality Stability, Development, and Change Flashcards
What is rank-order consistency?
People change but maintain the way they are different from other people the same age
(introverted younger & older)
*Personality stability
What is the evidence for personality stability?
- Over ten years personality stayed stable: r = 0.60-0.90
- Successful predictions of life outcomes/adult behavior from childhood personality
- Stable personality disorders
What causes personality stability?
Temperament, heterotopic continuum, physical attributes, environment, adverse childhood events, birth order, person-environment transactions, environment maturity, psychological maturity
What is temperament? What determines it?
personality in infant, mostly determined by genetics
How does birth order effect personality?
- supposedly small effects
- People often think that birth order affects how children are treated
- research debates this
How do adverse childhood events affect personality?
- Consequences from ACEs persist especially in sensitive/vulnerable children
- affect tendency to develop illnesses and diseases
- rejection of parents leads to difficulty building relationships
- many parents create good outcomes: highly educated, cognitively stimulating, feel good about selves
What are person-environment transactions?
People tend to seek or create environments they are compatible with
- Active: seek out environment
- Reactive: react to same environment differently
- Evocative: change the environment to personality
Why does environment and psychological maturity affect personality?
The longer something is around the more stable it becomes
What is personality development?
Consistent change in the mean level of a trait overtime
How do the five traits develop according to a cross-sectional study?
A, O, & C dip between 10 & 20 and then recover
- N increases then decreases
- E dips then decreases
What is the cohort effect?
The cross-sectional study of the five traits is not accurate because they indicate people that have similar life experiences not similar age
How do the five change according to longitudinal studies?
Increase social dominance, A, C and emotionally stability, self-esteem, and ego development from adolescence to 50 then decrease
- possibly do to need for adult performance, confirms “maturity principle”
What causes personality development?
Changes in
- intelligence
- linguistics
- hormones
- physical strength
- social roles
What is the social clock?
The idea that people are pressured to accomplish certain things by certain ages by society
What is narrative identity?
- three aspects: actor (skills), agent (guided by goals & values), author (own story)
- how person views their life and how its trajectory fits goals & dreams
- themes differ by culture
- related with personality: agency (challenge and accomplishment of goal) and conscientiousness
- Redemption: turn out for best
How do goals influence personality development?
- they change in perspective of time
- leads young to focus on exploration and achievement
- leads older to focus on emotional well being and lasting ties
What is the desire for personality change? What are the four methods?
Most people desire to change their personality regardless of age in the socially desirable way to make life better
- Psychotherapy
- General interventions
- Targeted interventions
- Behaviors and Life Experiences
How does psychotherapy influence personality change?
effective especially with drugs but not equally available and drugs have side effects
How do general interventions influence personality change?
Expensive and directed at outcome change, maybe only effective in the younger population
How do targeted interventions influence personality change?
activities that target changing a trait–set goals, monitor, and stick with it
How do behaviors and life experiences influence personality change?
changing a behavior (exercising) or having an experience changes personality
What are obstacles to change?
- not seeing reason/benefit, blame external factors, like life consistent and predictable
- Most see desirable and possible
What are the principles of personality continuity and change?
- cumulative continuity (increase consistency with age)
- maturity (increased equipment for life)
- plasticity: (change is always possible but not necessarily easy)
- role continuity (choose role)
- identity development (construct who I am)
- social investment (affect of structures and institutions)
- corrosive principle (life experiences magnify and establish)
Is personality change good or bad?
Both
- Instability and inconsistency can cause problems
- Most change is adaptive but slow
- Who do you want to be, and what can you do to make this happen?
