Personality Change

Question 1

Historical Perspectives

Answer 1

Freud (1923), personality fixed by age 5 - psychosexual development suggests personality determined in childhood
- McCrae & Costa (1999), personality fixed by 30
- Lewis (1999) environment is only influence of personality

Question 2

Problems with personality being set

Answer 2

• There would be no point in rehab
• If personality can change then people will be more open to attempts at bettering a person

Question 3

Rank order consistency

Answer 3

• How are people placed within a group over time, is most anxious person always the most anxious.

Question 4

Test-retest correlation

Answer 4

• across two assessment time points easiest way to quanitify rank rank order stability

Question 5

Mean level change

Answer 5

• How the group changes over time. I.e. whole population of 21 year olds over time.

Question 6

Individual differences

Answer 6

• Personality change on a individual level

Question 7

Longitudinal study

Answer 7

• same measure used on a population at time point 1 and 2
• Could be a large loss of participants it’s called attrition when this happens

Question 8

Meta analysis

Answer 8

• Quantitative statistical analysis of several but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance

Question 9

How to carry out meta analysis

Answer 9

• Inclusion criteria has to be set.
• All the studies have to meet the strict criteria for example, size of the sample

Question 10

Roberts & DelVecchio (2000)

Answer 10

• meta analysis examining longitudinal studies
• Strict Criteria i.e sample non clinical
• Results suggest personality is stable after 20 years
• no gender differences found.

Question 11

How can childhood temperament predict adult behaviours
Slustke et al (2012)

Answer 11

• 1000 children recruited at birth
• Assessed at 3 years
• cog and motor assessment
• Observer completed behaviour rating scales
• only 100ps undercontrolled, this group was used
• They had above mean for neurotcism
• More likely to have gambling problems
• This study is important as interventions can be put in place at a young age.

Question 12

Cross sectional study

Answer 12

• Different people at different ages at one point in time

Question 13

Roberts, Walton and Viechtbaur (2006)

Answer 13

• Meta analysis
• 50,000 participants
• openness to experience increases in teenage years, decline over all
• Extraversion decreases from 25-55
• More agreeable the older you get
• Personality traits continue to change at any point
• Time has positive affect on personality trait change

Question 14

Individual differences in personality traits

Answer 14

• RCI - amount of change that occurs against the amount of change that could be expected given the fact that measures are not perfectly reliable.

Question 15

Individuals differences for personality trait change can be as a result of many different reasons

Answer 15

• Parenting styles
• Fork force participation
• Romantic relationship

Question 16

Participating in the work force
Roberts, Bogg, Walton & Caspi, 2006

Answer 16

• Workers who participate in stealing and fighting with co workers have more neurotic traits

Question 17

Involvement in romantic relationships
Robins, Caspi & Moffitt, 2002

Answer 17

• Young adults in dissatisfying and abusive relationships tend to become neurotic and less agreeable

Question 18

Is Happiness good for your personality

Answer 18

Positive personality changes occur when people are leading meaningful and satisfying lives (Soto, 2015)
- sample 16,367 australians

Question 19

The Sociogenomic Theory of Personality

Answer 19

• Changes to personality traits is believed to occur by consistent experiences that lead to lasting changes in the way one behaves thinks or feels.

Question 20

Does the military make the man or the man make the military?
Jackson et al (2012)

Answer 20

• Compulsory military service
• 1,261 male participants
• Some performed military service some performed civilian community service
• individuals who chose military service were less agreeable, less open and less neurotic
• Life experience associated with lasting personality change

Question 21

Do adverse life events affect personality

Answer 21

• Lockenhoff et al (2009)
• time one OCEAN traits assessed in 458 people
• time 2 reassessed 8 years later
• Structured interviews where asked about life up to 2 years between t1 and t2
• Asked about extreme events or if witnessed anything horrifying
• Found ‘scar’ perspective i.e. personality scarred by negative events
• more neurotic
• Two years not enough time for personality to revert

Question 22

Conclusions

Answer 22

• personality traits show normative trends, more mature with age
• Traits aren’t static
• Individual differences in traits