Personality Development In Adulthood Research Articles

Personality Development at Work: Workplace Conditions, Personality Changes, and the Corresponsive Principle

Investigations concerning adult personality development have increasingly focused on factors that are associated with apparent personality trait changes. The current study contributes to this literature by replicating and extending previous research concerning personality trait development in young adulthood and perceptions of workplace conditions. Analyses were based on up to 442 individuals who participated in the ongoing Family Transitions Project (e.g., Conger & Conger, 2002). The current analyses included personality trait data from 1994 and 2003, high school grades and socioeconomic status indicators from 1994, and reports about work conditions in 2001, 2003, and 2005. Personality attributes were prospectively associated with work conditions and income. Findings also support the corresponsive principle of personality development (e.g., Roberts, Caspi, & Moffitt, 2003): Traits that were prospectively associated with particular workplace conditions often seemed to be accentuated by those conditions. Personality traits are prospectively associated with perceptions of the workplace. Workplace conditions are also associated with trait development.

Adult Personality Development: Dynamics and Processes

The focus of this special issue of Research in Human Development is on adult personality and how personality may contribute to and be involved in adult development. Specifically, the contributions in this issue focus on the links between personality structures (e.g., traits) and personality processes (e.g., goal pursuit, self-regulation) and emphasize the contributions that intensive repeated measurement approaches can make to the understanding of personality and development across the adult life span.

Placing Dispositional Forgiveness Within Theories of Adult Personality Development

Compared to the longstanding literature on the process of forgiveness or state forgiveness, relatively less research has focused on how to develop a dispositional tendency to forgive others, known as forgivingness. This holds particularly true with respect to adulthood, which has been typically viewed as a period of personality consistency rather than change. In the current paper, we begin by discussing forgivingness and its potential for promoting adult well-being. Next, we describe three literatures that help us understand possible influences on forgivingness development in adulthood, which focus on (a) how adults respond to their changing societal roles, (b) the choices they make with respect to social and emotional regulation, and (c) their relationship attachment models. Finally, we conclude by presenting important questions for the future research on this personality trait.

Cross-sectional personality differences from age 16–90 in a Vietnamese sample

Although a coherent picture of personality development in adulthood is emerging, the literature is limited to cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of Western samples. In the current study, cross-sectional age differences in the Big Five personality traits were examined in a sample of Vietnamese participants whose ages ranged from 16 to 90. Extraversion scores were lower for older participants, while agreeableness, emotional stability, and intellect were higher for older participants. Conscientiousness showed the greatest differences between younger and older age groups and a curvilinear relationship with age with rapid increases until later adulthood when it leveled off.

Development of Big Five Domains and Facets in Adulthood: Mean‐Level Age Trends and Broadly Versus Narrowly Acting Mechanisms

Data from a cross-sectional sample (N = 601 men and women) and a longitudinal sample (N = 125 women) were used to test hypotheses about the development of Big Five domains and facets from early adulthood through middle age. Analyses of mean-level age trends indicated that overall Agreeableness and Conscientiousness increased with age and that several facets showed distinctive trends that replicated across the samples. Cross-sectional analyses of trait intercorrelations and covariances indicated that interrelations between the Big Five domains, and between their more specific facets, were quite similar at older versus younger ages. Finally, longitudinal analyses of individual-level changes indicated that (a) different people's personalities changed in markedly different ways; (b) these changes were predominantly independent, rather than correlated, across Big Five domains; and (c) the pattern of change correlations between Big Five facets could be explained by the facets' interrelations at the first assessment time. Taken together, these results suggest that a complete understanding of personality development requires consideration of facet-level traits and that adult personality development is predominantly influenced by narrowly acting mechanisms that each affect a single Big Five domain, or a small cluster of related facets, rather than by broadly acting mechanisms that simultaneously affect previously independent traits.

Cross-sectional age differences in personality: Evidence from nationally representative samples from Switzerland and the United States

Identifying reliable patterns of age differences in personality can help clarify the nature of adult personality development. Previous studies have been limited because many have relied on convenience samples. In this study, we examined age differences in personality in two nationally representative samples, one from Switzerland and one from the United States. The results indicated that Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were positively associated with age, whereas Extraversion was negatively associated with age. However, the magnitude of age differences for Extraversion was much smaller than for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Openness showed a more complex trend such that 30- to 34-year-olds scored lower on Openness than younger age groups, whereas older groups scored somewhere in between. Inconsistent age differences were observed for Neuroticism.

Patterns and sources of adult personality development: Growth curve analyses of the NEO PI-R scales in a longitudinal twin study.

The present study examined the patterns and sources of 10-year stability and change of adult personality assessed by the 5 domains and 30 facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Phenotypic and biometric analyses were performed on data from 126 identical and 61 fraternal twins from the Bielefeld Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins (BiLSAT). Consistent with previous research, LGM analyses revealed significant mean-level changes in domains and facets suggesting maturation of personality. There were also substantial individual differences in the change trajectories of both domain and facet scales. Correlations between age and trait changes were modest and there were no significant associations between change and gender. Biometric extensions of growth curve models showed that 10-year stability and change of personality were influenced by both genetic as well as environmental factors. Regarding the etiology of change, the analyses uncovered a more complex picture than originally stated, as findings suggest noticeable differences between traits with respect to the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects.

The Role of Adult Attachment Style in Forgiveness Following an Interpersonal Offense

The role of attachment style in relation to forgiveness was investigated in 2 betrayal interviews. Blood pressure and heart rate were assessed, along with attachment style, forgiveness, empathy, and emotional expressiveness. Securely attached individuals were more forgiving of the specific offense, had higher levels of trait forgiveness, and expressed more positive emotion. Securely attached adults had lower interview systolic blood pressure and exhibited greater blood pressure recovery. Attachment style may be an independent antecedent of forgiveness.

Personality development in emerging adulthood: Integrating evidence from self-ratings and spouse ratings.

The authors examined self-ratings and spouse ratings in a young adult newlywed sample across a 2-year interval. Rank-order stability correlations were consistently high and did not differ across the 2 types of ratings. As expected, self-ratings showed significant increases in conscientiousness and agreeableness--and declines in neuroticism/negative affectivity--over time. Spouse ratings yielded a very different pattern, however, showing significant decreases in conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness across the study interval. Spouse ratings also showed evidence of a "honeymoon effect," such that they tended to be more positive than self-ratings at Time 1. This effect had dissipated by the 2nd assessment; in fact, the spouse ratings tended to be more negative at Time 2. Analyses of individual-level change revealed little convergence between self- and spouse-rated change, using both raw change scores and reliable change index scores. Finally, correlational and regression analyses indicated that changes in spouse ratings were significantly associated with changes in marital satisfaction; in contrast, changes in self-ratings essentially were unrelated to marital satisfaction. These results highlight the value of collecting multimethod data in studies of adult personality development.

Introduction to the Special Section

Introduction to the Special Section

The maturation of personality psychology: Adult personality development and psychological well-being

Personality psychology has made striking advances in the past two decades, demonstrating the importance of individual differences in a wide variety of life domains. Longitudinal studies of adult development contributed to these advances by revealing the stability of personality traits even in the face of changing life circumstances. More recently, cross-culturally replicated patterns of adult age differences have suggested that traits are endogenous dispositions with intrinsic paths of development. The importance of personality traits was underscored by research linking dimensions of personality to psychological well-being and mental health, and the rapidly maturing science of personality psychology holds promise for understanding many other social and psychological phenomena.

College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

Adulthood encompasses a large time span and includes a series of psychosocial challenges (E. H. Erikson, 1950). Five aspects of personality (identity certainty, confident power, concern with aging, generativity, and personal distress) were assessed in a cross-sectional study of college-educated women who at the time of data collection were young adults (age: M = 26 years), middle-aged adults (age: M = 46 years), or older adults (age: M = 66 years). Respondents rated each personality domain for how true it was of them at the time, and they then rated the other 2 ages either retrospectively or prospectively. Results are discussed with attention to the ways in which women's adult development may have been shaped by experiences particular to both gender and birth cohort, and to how these women fit with E. H. Erikson's theory of adult development.

College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

Trait Stability as a Noncontingent Truth

Numerous studies have yielded data consistent with the hypothesis that the `Big Five' personality traits are highly stable in adulthood. For McCrae and Costa, such findings suggest a need to significantly revise our understanding of adult personality development: stability, rather than change, appears to be the rule. The central purpose of the present essay is to demonstrate that McCrae and Costa's strong claims in favor of personality stability are not contingent upon any set of empirical observations. Rather, they necessarily follow from the acceptance of two related pre-empirical assumptions: (a) personality traits are transcontextual; and (b) revelations of the `true' personality structure must be reliable. If these propositions are accepted without qualification, then evidence inconsistent with the stability thesis can simply be attributed to the `inadequate' conceptualization or measurement of traits. Thus, McCrae and Costa's arguments in favor of personality stability are insensitive to falsification. Implications for researchers interested in the study of life-span personality development are discussed.

A Friendly Text on Personality Development in Adulthood

A Friendly Text on Personality Development in Adulthood

More or less "me" in past, present, and future: perceived lifetime personality during adulthood.

This article examines whether adults perceive different levels of their own personality traits at different target ages, and what the differences are. Using abbreviated versions of assessments of the 5-factor model of personality (NEO-FFI, P.T. Costa & R.R. McCrae, 1989) and of well-being (C. D. Ryff, 1989), 398 heterogeneous participants (age 26-64) described their own personality (a) in the present, (b) when they were 20-25 years old, (c) when they will be 65-70 years old, and (d) in the ideal. Participants' responses across the 3 target ages indicated moderate change across adulthood and more variability than is typically observed in longitudinal studies of adult personality development. Anticipated late adulthood personality contained more losses than gains, although all target ages showed some gains. Participants' perceptions were characterized by early adulthood exploration, middle adulthood productivity, and later adulthood comfortableness. Additionally, older adults reported slightly lower ideals but in other ways responded very similarly to younger and middle-aged adults.

Remembering autobiographically consequential experiences: Content analysis of psychologists' accounts of their lives.

The autobiographies of 49 eminent psychologists were content analyzed in terms of autobiographically consequential experiences (ACEs). Most memories for ACE were not single episodes. Episodic ACEs did, however, share many characteristics of "flashbulb" and vivid memories elicited in studies using more traditional experimental procedures. Memories were concentrated during the college and early adult years. Thus, as in other autobiographical memory studies that have used older subjects, there was a pronounced reminiscence effect. These results were considered in light of Erikson's theory of adult personality development.

Gender and perceptions of grandparenthood.

Grandparents (N = 301) were interviewed concerning their relationship with one grandchild; topics included the meaning of the relationship, responsibility toward the grandchild, and satisfaction with the relationship. Grandparent gender by grandchild gender by maternal/paternal grandparent MANOVA's revealed no differences in the relationships associated with grandchild gender or with maternal/paternal grandparent status; nor were there significant interaction effects. Grandmothers expressed greater satisfaction than did grandfathers; grandfathers stressed family extension through grandchildren and the pleasures of indulging grandchildren to a greater extent than did grandmothers. These gender differences may reflect personality development in adulthood and the cultural context of the research.

Personality development in adulthood

Conceptions of Personality Development in Adulthood Psychoanalysis as an Early-Formation Theory Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development Psychobiography and Personality Development in Adulthood Contemporary Stage Theories The Dialectical Approach and the Issue of Change Versus Consistency in Personality Occupational Changes in Adulthood Sex Roles and Androgyny Sexual Relationships and Marriage Changes in Values and Attitudes Reactions to Death and Dying The Use of Personal Documents in Understanding Adult Personality Development

Toward a psychology of person–environment (PE) correlation: The role of spouse selection.

Identifying the important ways in which attributes of persons correlate with features of the interpersonal environment is perhaps one of the most intriguing issues facing the development of an interactional psychology. Little empirical progress has yet been made, however, in documenting the domains within which person-environment (PE) correspondence occurs, in identifying the mechanisms by which such correspondence is brought about, and in exploring the consequences of obtained correspondence. One hypothesis of this article is that nonrandom spouse selection (assortative marriage) is one mechanism by which correspondences between persons and their interpersonal environments are created. An empirical study of 93 married couples examined spouse correlations within eight interpersonal categories (e.g., dominance, submissivness, extraversion) by using self and observer reports of the performance frequencies of 800 acts. Substantial spouse correspondence was found, particularly for the domains of extraversion, dominance, quarrelsomeness, and ingenuousness. In addition, changes in degree of spouse correspondence were associated with length of marital relationship. Discussion focuses on different types of PE correspondence, implications for the study of adult personality development, and the emergence of a psychology of PE correlation.