CHAPTER NINEPersonality

Your Life Events

• For each of the age ranges listed, write down a memory from that time period. If you do not remember or have not yet reached a particular age range, write down one event that you believe would be important for the age range in question.

• 0-1• 2-3• 4-5 • 6-12 • 13-20• 21-39• 40-64• 65+

Traits as building blocks of personality

Personality Traits

• You will be mostly the same 50 years from now, according to trait theory research.

• How do you feel about being the same in the future?

• What about some of your undesirable habits?

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

• Dispositional traits– Aspects of personality that are consistent across different

contexts– Can be represented on a continuum showing high to low degrees

of the characteristic

The Case for Stability:The Five-Factor Model• 5 dimensions of personality:

– Neuroticism– Extraversion– Openness to experience– Agreeableness– Conscientiousness

6 of 42

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

Neuroticism• Has six facets:

– Anxiety– Hostility– Self-consciousness– Depression– Impulsiveness– Vulnerability

7 of 42

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

Extraversion• Has six facets in two groups:

– Interpersonal traits• Warmth• Gregariousness• Assertiveness

– Temperamental traits• Activity• Excitement seeking• Positive emotions

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

Openness to Experience• Has six areas:

– Fantasy– Aesthetics– Action– Ideas – Values – Occupational choice

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

Agreeableness (Opposite of Antagonism)• Agreeable people are not:

– Skeptical– Mistrustful– Callous– Unsympathetic– Stubborn– Rude– Skillful manipulators– Aggressive go-getters

10 of 42

Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood

Conscientiousness• Conscientious people are:

– Hardworking– Ambitious– Energetic– Scrupulous– Persevering– Desirous to make something of themselves

What is the Evidence for Trait Stability?

• Costa and McCrae (1988, 1994, 1997) used the Five Factor model:– Asserted that personality was stable past age 30– Over a 12-year period, 10 personality traits remained

stable, as measured by a survey given to 114 males.– Other studies have found equivalent results– Martin and colleagues found, however, that in the very

old, suspiciousness and sensitivity increased.

Additional Studies of Dispositional Traits

• Some studies have shown increasing evidence for personality changes as we grow older.

• Current Big Five research shows that, as people age there tends to be:– Absence of neuroticism– Presence of agreeableness and conscientiousness– Decrease in openness to new experiences

• Perhaps due to both normative processes of aging and cohort differences.

• Looking at specific aspects of personality in specific kinds of people, there may be less stability and more change.

Personal Concerns andQualitative Stages in Adulthood

• Personal concerns:– Things that are important to people– Goals– Major concerns in life

• Personal concerns are different from dispositional traits in that they:– Are viewed within a context– Are narrative descriptions that rely on life

circumstances– Change over time

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

• Erikson developed a lifespan theory of personality development

• His 8 stages represent the 8 great psychosocial struggles that he believed people must undergo.

Epigenetic Principle:

• Erikson’s idea that development occurs in such a way that certain issues have their own particular times of importance

Possible Outcomes of Psychosocial Stages

Weekly Work Assignment

• Using the memories and events noted in “Your Life Events” at the beginning of this lecture, apply Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Personality Development. For each stage discuss:– Which psychosocial struggle is occurring– The important relationships or strengths formed in that stage– The outcome of the struggle

Theories Based on Life Transitions

• Among the most popular theories of adult personality development

• Research in area has contained many methodological problems

• Midlife crisis: The idea that in middle age one has a personal crisis that changes how one thinks about oneself– Many adults face difficult issues

and make behavioral changes to try to better themselves

The Midlife Crisis

• Very little data supports the claim that all people inevitably experience a crisis in middle age. – Most middle-aged people do point to both gains and

losses, positives and negatives in their lives.• Midlife correction:

– Reevaluating ones’ roles and dreams and making the necessary corrections

Conclusions about Personal Concerns

• Evidence supports a sharp change in personal concerns as adults age.

• Change is not specific to an age but is dependent on many factors.

• There is a need for more research in this area.

Life Narratives, Identity, and the Self

• Life narrative– Consists of the aspects of personality that pull

everything together– Those integrative aspects that give a person an

identity or sense of self

Life Narratives, Identity, and the Self

McAdams’s Life-story Model • Argues that people create a life story

– That is, an internalized narrative with a beginning, middle, and an anticipated ending

• Adults are said to reformulate their life stories throughout adulthood both at the conscious and unconscious levels.

• Goals of a life story are to be: – Coherent– Credible– Open to new possibilities– Richly differentiated– Reconciling of opposite aspects of oneself– Integrated within one’s sociocultural context

Life Narrative:Optional Extra Credit (5 points possible)

• Create a “Tree of My Life”– Using any artistic medium

you’d like, create a collage (drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.) that represents YOU and your life story. Please provide a key to help explain your “story tree.”