W10.a Flashcards
Rank-order stability Mean-level change People's beliefs and intuitions about personality change
Three “stability”
Rank-order
Mean-level
Individual
What is Rank-order stability
Relative ranking of individuals
Some indications from rank-order stability findings
Relatively high
Increase with age
Decrease as the test-retest interval increases
Trait general - do not vary across Big Five, assessment method, gender
Few cohort effects
What influences rank-order stability?
Genetic influence
Environmental channeling
Environmental selection
Evidence for genetic influence on rank-order stability
Probabilistic influences of genes on behaviour/experience
Longitudinal twin studies
But the environment also contribute to stability
Evidence for environmental channeling on rank-order stability
‘Settling down’: increased stability in environment, friends, routine etc.
Rank order stability was higher for couples with more similar personalities
Evidence for environmental selection on rank-order stability
We seek environments that match, support, and maintain our traits
Assortive mating (may be underestimated due to the ‘reference group effect’
Migration (live among people with similarities)
Vocational choice
What is mean level personality change?
Refers to changes in the quantity of an attribute over time in a sample or population of individuals.
Some indications from mean level personality change findings
Change tends to be positive: “Psycho-social Maturity”
Factors like gender did not affect patterns of mean-level change
A longer period of time reported larger mean-level change estimates
Differs by trait
Extraversion components show different change trajectories
- Social Vitality slowly declines: Openness plateaus in early adulthood and declines gently in later adulthood
- Social Dominance rises: A & C and emotional stability rise steadily
What influences mean-level change?
Genetic influences (Universal maturation maturity)
Environmental effects
Evidence for genetic influences on mean level change
Evolved ‘maturation processes’
‘Developmental tasks’: E & O more helpful around reproductive age; C more helpful during parenting
In cross-cultural comparisons, data showed universal maturation.
Cross-species universal maturation
MZ twins; DZ twins. (But only partially responsible)
Evidence for environmental effects on mean level change
Major life transitions/stages/role shifts
Historical events
- Cohort effects, which might be difficult to detect due to confounding factors such as age
- Little support for any marked cohort effect
What do people believe about mean level personality change?
Part of “implicit personality theory”: Laypeople’s understanding of traits and trait structure
Beliefs about normative mean level personality change through the lifespan are reasonably accurate (People believe that personality changes less with age).
What do people believe about their own personality change?
People may underestimate the extent to which their own personality will change in the future
The “end of history illusion” : the tendency to believe that we are ‘complete’ when we are always ‘works in progress’
Actual personality change substantially larger than the magnitude of predicted change in the ‘predictor’ condition.
People value the future “band” more (they expect)
Struggle to report the “predictor” condition is not the same to say that “I don’t think I will change”. They just don’t know what to predict.
