Problem 6: Personality Changes

Question 1

Relationships and Marriage

Answer 1

–> for most personality characteristics, spouses tend to be slightly similar to each other (0.0-0.25)
–> an individual’s martial satisfaction was positively related to one’s own levels of the Big Five Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience factors

Question 2

Attachments styles

Answer 2

= the ways in which people act, think, and feel in the specific context of their romantic relationship

anxious attachment: the tendency to worry about the loss of a partner’s love
–> low Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness

avoidant attachment: the tendency to feel uncomfortable being emotionally close to one’s partner
–> Low Extraversion and Conscientiousness

Question 3

Peer Relationships

Answer 3

Friends often share the same values
–> Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience are most strongly related to people’s values

Sociability is associated with being liked
Aggression is associated with being disliked

Extraversion was positively related to social status

Question 4

Substance use

Answer 4

Conscientiousness –> self-control, impulse control –> negatively related to excessive alcohol, illegal drug, and tobacco use

Neuroticism –> anxiety, moodiness, and irritability –> temptation to use drugs

Question 5

Longevity

Answer 5

Conscientiousness: more dependable persons…
–> would be less likely to engage in health-damaging behaviors
–> might have been better able to handle life’s stresses
–> took better care of their health

Question 6

Heart disease (Type A personality)

Answer 6

“Type A” behavior pattern:
Several characteristics are potential risk factors for heart-related illnesses –> competitiveness, impatience, excessive job involvement, hostility, and time urgency

–> persons who are high in hostility and dominance have greater physiological reactions to stress than do other persons, with greater increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of stress-related hormones and neurotransmitters

Question 7

Academic Performance

Answer 7

Conscientiousness is the strongest and most consistent predictor of academic performance
–> high-Conscientiousness students perform better than low-Conscientiousness students

–> self-discipline, organization, and diligence

–> elementary school: Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness to Experience

Question 8

Criminality

Answer 8

crime = acts of force or fraud undertaken in pursuit of self-interest

–> criminals tend to act impulsively, failing to delay gratification and instead seeking immediate pleasure even at the risk of later punishment or other negative consequences

–> the willingness to take risks and the tendency not to inhibit one’s impulses together have an important influence on criminal activity

Question 9

Primary and Secondary Psychopath

Answer 9

Primary psychopath: criminals who are more coolly calculating and rational
–> manipulation, deceit, grandiosity, callousness, and selfishness

Secondary psychopath: criminals who have very poor self-control
–> impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of planning, and poor self-control

Question 10

Life Satisfaction

Answer 10

–> strongly positively correlated with self-esteem and to a lesser extent with cheerfulness, assertiveness, and sociability

–> strong negative correlations with depressiveness and to a lesser extent with anxiety and anger

–> high levels of Extraversion and Emotional Stability

Question 11

Mean-Level Changes in Personality Traits

Answer 11

• Increase in Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability between adolescence and middle age –> people develop better impulse control –> more maturity
• Agreeableness increases until the age of 50
• Openness to Experience increases intensely until the age of 30 - slight decrease afterward
• Extraversion (sociable, lively) decreases from adolescence
• Extraversion (assertiveness) increases until the age of 50

–> personality-trait development can and does occur in all age periods of adulthood
–> most mean-level personality-trait change occurs between the ages of 20 and 40
–> life-span orientation: people retain the capacity to change at all ages
–> with age, people become more socially mature
–> become productive and involved
contributors to society - confident, warm,
responsible, and calm

Question 12

Individual Differences in Personality-Trait Change in Adulthood

Answer 12

There are individual differences in change: some go up, some go down, and some remain stable

–> life and work experiences
–> experiences and social roles
–> social investment serves as a catalyst for personality-trait change (e.g., higher mortality in people high on neuroticism)

Question 13

Stability of Personality Traits

Answer 13

–> stability over several weeks as well as years
–> not dependent on the trait or the personality inventory
–> stability of personality declines only modestly when longer time intervals are considered (12 years 0.70 - 24 years 0.65)
–> traits are rather stable during college years, but personality is undergoing some change during the college-age years, before entering a period of greater consistency later on in adulthood

Question 14

Personality in Childhood and Infancy

Answer 14

–> at least during much of childhood, personality structure is similar to that observed during adulthood

–> a version of the HEXACO-PI-R that is suitable for assessing personality in elementary school
- factors usually include dimensions representing activity level, irritability, fearfulness, positive emotions, attention span or persistence, soothability, and “rhythmicity”

–> children become lower in Extraversion, Emotional Stability (3-6), and Openness to Experience (8-15), and higher in Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (education)

–> personality was rather stable between adjacent intervals (i.e., between 2 and 3 years old, between 3 and 6, between 6 and 8, and between 8 and 15)

–> the stability of personality between childhood and adulthood could be rather weak, and different aspects of personality might differ in their levels of stability

Question 15

major life events

Answer 15

= time-discrete transitions that bring about a major change in status and/or social roles

Question 16

Neo-Socioanalytic Model

Answer 16

= personality changes can occur at any age and individuals change because of investments in social roles

If a major life event results in an important new social role that comes along with expectations about how to act, think, or feel, which an individual does not yet meet, this is expected to result in personality changes

Question 17

Developmental Perspective

Answer 17

= personality changes occur if major life events are accompanied by new developmental tasks

–> such tasks confront the majority of individuals within a society with age-graded expectations about how to behave, think, and feel

–> five domains: romantic relationships, family life, social life, job life, and physical changes

–> young adulthood: establishing roles
–> middle adulthood: maintaining these roles
–> old age: preventing loss

Question 18

Transactional Paradigm

Answer 18

= high importance on transparent role demands

–> personality changes in reaction to life events if these come along with new role demands an individual is aware of

Question 19

Dynamic Equilibrium Model

Answer 19

= personality changes only temporarily in reaction to major life events

–> a major life event may impact the level of a trait for a limited amount of time, but individuals are expected to return to their individual set point after some time
–> lasting personality changes would only occur if the individual set point changes enduringly or if adaptation back to set point takes very long

Question 20

Paradoxical Theory of Personality Coherence

Answer 20

= personality is particularly stable in the face of major life events

Personality does change if clear information on role-appropriate personality trait levels is available

Question 21

Major life events and stress

Answer 21

Experiencing positive/negative events lead to increases/decreases in the Big Five

–> changes in emotional stability lead to stress

Question 22

Occupational Domain

Answer 22

–> individuals tend to increase in conscientiousness in reaction to life events that mark the beginning of a new social role with occupational demands

–> changes in emotional stability depend on how the individuals evaluate the occupational event

–> changes in personality seem to be more consistent in reaction to job entry and less consistent in reaction to job changes

Question 23

Social Domain

Answer 23

–> major life events in the social domain –> major influence on personality maturation –> increases in emotional stability, social dominance, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

–> divorce: increase in agreeableness and openness
–> new relationship: increases in emotional stability and extraversion

–> personality did not mature in reaction to investments in a romantic relationship but rather in reaction to ending one

–> personality does not seem to mature on average in reaction to having a baby

–> changes in social networks impact personality development

Question 24

Health Domain

Answer 24

–> major life events in the health domain oftentimes mean the onset of a disease (sudden)

–> disease onset has mainly been associated with declines in most, if not all, of the Big Five personality traits

Question 25

Opportunities and Snares Hypothesis

Answer 25

Considers how childhood personality related to later outcomes predicting opportunities to enter pathways that affect a child’s future

Question 26

Differential Maturaltion Hypothesis

Answer 26

The trajectories and rates of personality change and development experienced prior to adulthood may affect later life outcomes

Question 27

Differential Pathways Hypothesis

Answer 27

The pathways explaining why personality affects later success may differ across life

Question 28

Binge Drinking

Answer 28

= a single drinking session leading to intoxication

–> binge drinking has significant effects on memory, particular with regards to the transfer of information to long-term storage
–> adverse effects: increased risk of injury or accidental death, drink driving, unsafe sexual practices, periods of unconsciousness, increased likelihood of being a perpetrator or victim of assault
–> youth represents a critical period in brain development that is particularly vulnerable to alcohol misuse
–> repetitive binge drinking in youth has detrimental effects on cognitive and social functioning
–> hippocampus: changes in this structure are associated with alcohol misuse in young people

Question 29

Alcohol-Induced Blackout

Answer 29

Blackout: a breakdown in the transfer of information from short-term to long-term storage

• Alcohol-Induced Blackout (AIB) leads to a failure in forming new explicit memories

‘En bloc’ blackout: the complete interruption of memory transfer (an absence of encoding)

Fragmentary blackout (FBs): partial obstruction of memory formation (a deficiency of encoding), which may be ameliorated via cueing

Question 30

Intelligence and Heritability

Answer 30

Intelligence = trait with unusual properties that create a large reservoir of hidden Gene-Environment (GE) networks, allowing for the contribution of high genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in IQ

Heritability = statistic that captures how much of trait variation is due to genetic differences. It can be estimated for any trait (ranging from 0 to 1)

–> heritability of general intelligence is as high as 0.80 but depends on where and when it is estimated

Question 31

Gene-Environment Interplay

Answer 31

= denotes both correlations as well as interactions between genes and environments

G-E correlation (rGE) = individuals with particular genotypes for a trait are more likely to experience a particular relevant environment –> environmental control of gene frequency

G-E interaction (GxE) = there is a difference in the effect of a given relevant environment on individuals depending on their genotype for a trait –> environmental control of differential gene effects

When G-E interplay is expected to be LOW – Heritability of IQ is LOW - at young ages and in poor populations
When G-E interplay is expected to be HIGH – Heritability of IQ is HIGH - at old age (accumulated experience) and in wealthy populations (more opportunities)