Lecture 8

Question 1

Pam in office over time

Answer 1

more confident

Question 2

The longitudinal stability of adult personality Costa & McCrae

Answer 2

Personality is set and does not change

based on Baltimore longitudinal study

2000 On average 43 year olds
Big 5 assessed and followed up 6 years later
Found massive corellent for all variables about .8 except Agreeableness which was a mistake
Concluded personalities don’t change

Weaknesses

Only 6 years
Average age of 43 is old!

Question 3

Prof feels he changed a lot

Answer 3

Perceives this, might not be accurate

Question 4

Bruce - 49 and up

Answer 4

British tv show that assessed people at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and soon 63
Bruce is low in N and low in E, specifically dominance.

Question 5

Results from 6-30

Answer 5

5 studies
about .6
No real difference between the dimensions

Quite a high correlation

Question 6

Trait stability correlations by length of time between assessements

Answer 6

6 year gap - .7-.8

20 year gap - .6

Question 7

Finn 1987

Answer 7

Assessed people at

(a) 25 and follow up at 55 - .47
(b) 45 and follow up at 75 - .78

Thus the traits measured at 25 were less stable than those at 45

This suggests things are more flexible in early life and personality may change more here.

Question 8

Rank order change

Answer 8

The level you are relative to your peers at high school is constant. You are unlikely to change your rank order.

There is often normative change that allows you to do stuff you did not do before though this occurs for everyone so the rank does not change

Question 9

Hardened plaster vs social investment

Answer 9

Costa and McRae felt personality was like hardened plaster/ Initially perhaps a bit flexible when wet but then stuck like stone.

Roberts felt there was normative change in predictable ways as people age through the social investment principle. Identification with important roles that exert maturation pressures so that we become more socially mature

ie N decreases, C E and A increase so we can do these roles

Question 10

Brent Roberts 2007

Answer 10

Meta analysis of 92 studies
Imposed the big 5 on the scales the studies already used
Reverses N and calls it emotional stability
Divides E into social vitality and also dominance

FOUND

Emotional stability increases from 18-33 which has been replicated a lot

No real change in social vitality

A large increase in social dominance from teenage years to 33

A big jump in Openness to experience in the teenage years, followed by more or less stability

Increase in agreeableness between 20 and 30 and also again at 50 - old ppl are MORE Agreeable than they would have been while younger

Conscientiousness trends upwards by almost a whole SD

Question 11

Culture and ROberts 2007

Answer 11

Used a north American subjects only

Some evidence that Asians start higher on average in C and that westerners catch up later, maybe because of different societal expectations

Question 12

Roberts 2007 conclusion

Answer 12

People become more confident, warm, responsible and calm with age

Or Socially Mature

Roberts et al, 2011

Question 13

University has been shown to increase (in youths)

Answer 13

agreeableness, we learn to get on with others

Question 14

Work has been shown to increase (in youths)

Answer 14

C

Question 15

How much do people change over time

Answer 15

Most of us change a bit and about 1SD on at least one trait

Question 16

First job and first love

Answer 16

Change things

Question 17

Particular life events:

Answer 17

Stressful life events
First meaningful relationship
Success in occupation
Substance abuse - decreases agreeableness conscientiousness
Psychotherapy

Question 18

Results for change in N and Confidence by new relationships (Neyer & Lenhart, 2007)

Answer 18

Large sample of people were assessed for big 5 at 23 and asked if they were single

Reassessed at 21 and (big 5 and single again)

Some were single at both assessments, coupled at both some were single at the first and in a relationship at the second.

You see coupled people have less neuroticism, more social dominance and more C

In the condition where they got couples this flipped from high N at 23 (maybe wanted to be in a couple and were not) to low N once they had a partner. Similar flip for Social dominance (low to high)

Question 19

Psychological interventions and the big 5 (Roberts et al, 2017)

Answer 19

207 studies that used pre post designs to examine personality change in therapy

Interventions were associated with marked changes in personality over 24 weeks r=.19

Biggest effect on Neuroticism/Emotional stability
Next biggest was E

No difference between therapeutic modalities

Anxiety and personality disorder patients showed the greatest change.