Personality changes

Question 1

What did Mischel state about personality?

Answer 1

• that personality differs across situations (social psychologist)
• added to the legacy of personality as many personality researchers did not want to acknowledge that trait levels may change over time

Question 2

What are some issues in studying personality change?

Answer 2

1. distinction between trait stability/consistency and maturational change
2. distinguishing test unreliability from range order changes
3. longitudinal vs. cross-sectional research designs
4. different models of personality used in childhood and adulthood.

Question 3

What did Costa and McCrae say about personality and stability?

Answer 3

Personality does not change –> higher correlations in rank order stability over time (lowest for A)

Question 4

What did Costa & McCrae find with regards to correlations of personality with age?

Answer 4

• Lower O, Higher C (close-minded, more work-focused)
• Low N, higher A, Lower E
  (Conclusion: personality does not change, large correlations over 6 yrs)

Question 5

What does consistency refer to? Change refer to?

Answer 5

Consistency refers to: the rank- order of people stays the same (correlations btw ppl at time 1 versus time 2)
Change: refers to absolute level of a trait differs (changes to personality means at time 2 compared to time 1)

Question 6

How is child personality often measured?

Answer 6

Looking at Rothbart’s temperament model:

1. negative affectivity
2. extraversion/surgency
3. effortful control

Question 7

What’s a current alternative way to assess personality in children?

Answer 7

• Berkeley Puppet Interview

Question 8

What did Roberts, Caspi & Moffitt (2001) find in their meta-analysis?

Answer 8

Rank order change:
- occurs when an individual is ranked on a trait and the rank order changes over time
- Roberts, Caspit & Moffit conducted a meta-analyses and found that correlations for negative emotionality, positive emotionality and constraint were all strong positive correlations. However these correlations were much smaller than Costa & McCrae had found in their meta-analysis. This is evidence that personality changes over time.
Mean level change:
- occurs when the mean level of a trait changes over time in a cohort
- Roberts, Caspi & Mofit demonstrated change in the Big 5 personality traits
- the greatest change is seen in social dominance (extraversion) shown to increase up until 30’s, then plateau
- emotional stability increases until 30’s, decrease in 70’s
- agreeableness doesn’t show alot of change (small increases through life-greatest in 50s)
- openness (increases mostly from 18-22 until 50’s, slight decreases in retirement)
- conscientiousness rapidly increases in 20s and 30s but continues to increase throughout life