2/10/20091Personality Dispositions Over Time:Stability, Change, and CoherenceChapter 5Conceptual Issues Personality Development Stability Change Coherence2/10/20092What Is Personality Development? Personality development: Continuities, consistencies, stabilities in people over time, and the way in which people change over timeThree Key Forms of Stability Rank order stability: Maintenance of an individual position’s within group Mean level stability: Constancy of level in population Personality coherence: Maintaining rank order relative to others but changing in the manifestations of trait2/10/20093Personality Change: Two Defining Qualities Internal: Changes are internal to a person, not changes in the external surrounding Enduring: Changes are enduring over time, not temporaryThree Levels of Analysis Population level: Changes or constancies that apply more or less to everyone Group differences level: Changes or constancies that affect different groups differently Individual difference level: e.g., Can we predict who is at risk for psychological disturbance later in life based in earlier measures of personality?2/10/20094Personality Stability Over TimeStability of Temperaments During Infancy Temperament: Individual differences that emerge very early in life, are heritable, and involved behaviors are linked with emotionality As assessed by caregivers, temperament factors include activity level, smiling and laughter, fear, distress to limitations, soothability, and the duration of orientingPersonality Stability Over TimeStability of Temperaments During Infancy Research points to the following conclusions Stable individual differences emerge early in life, where they can be assessed by observers For most temperament variables, there are moderate levels of stability over time during the first year of life2/10/20095Personality Stability Over TimeStability of Temperaments During Infancy Research points to the following conclusions Stability of temperament is higher over short intervals of time than over long intervals of time Level of stability of temperament increases as infants mature Personality Stability Over TimeStability During Childhood Longitudinal study: Investigation of same group of individuals over time Block and Block Longitudinal Study: Study of 100 children assessed at three, four, five, seven, and 11 years2/10/20096Personality Stability Over TimeStability During Childhood One study using Block and Block Longitudinal Study: Individual differences in activity level Activity level assessed in two ways: Using actometer and independent assessments of behavior and personality provided by teachers Stability coefficients: Correlations between same measures obtained at two different points in time (test-retest reliability)Personality Stability Over TimeStability During Childhood Validity coefficients: Coefficients between different measures of the same trait at the same time Actometer measurements of activity level had positive validity coefficients with teach measurements of activity level: Thus, activity level in childhood can be validly assessed with measures2/10/20097Personality Stability Over TimeStability During Childhood Activity level measurements are all positively correlated with measures of activity level taken at later ages: Activity level shows moderate stability during childhood Size of correlations decreases as the time interval between different testings increasesPersonality Stability Over Time Stability of childhood aggression Individual differences in aggression emerge early in life, by three years Individuals retain rank order stability on aggression over many years Stability coefficients decline as interval between two times of measurement increases2/10/20098Personality Stability Over TimeRank Order Stability in Adulthood Across different self-report measures of personality, conducted by different investigators, over differing time intervals (3 to 30 years), broad personality traits show moderate to high levels of stability Average correlations across traits, scales, and time intervals is about +.65Personality Stability Over TimeRank Order Stability in Adulthood Stability also found using spouse-report and peer-report Personality consistency tends to increase in stepwise fashion with increasing age—personality appears to become more and more “set in plaster” with age2/10/20099Personality Stability Over TimeMean Level Stability in Adulthood “Big five” personality factors show a consistent mean level stability over time Especially after 50, very little change in the average levelPersonality Stability Over TimeMean Level Stability in Adulthood Small but consistent changes, especially the during 20s Openness, extraversion, neuroticism decline with age until 50 Conscientiousness and agreeableness show gradual increase with time2/10/200910Personality Changes Across Cohorts: Women’s Assertiveness in Response to Changes in Social Status and Roles Cohort effects: changes (for example, in personality) over time that are attributable to living in different time periods rather than to “true” change Research by Jean TwengePersonality Coherence Over Time  Marital Stability, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce (Kelly and Conley, 1987) Longitudinal study of 300 couples from engagements in 1930s to 1980s During first testing session in 1930s, friends rated each participant’s personality on many dimensions2/10/200911Personality Coherence Over Time  Marital Stability, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce (Kelly and Conley, 1987) Three aspects of personality strongly predicted marital dissatisfaction and divorce Husband’s neuroticism Husband’s impulsivity Wife’s Neuroticism Personality Coherence Over Time Alcoholism and Emotional Disturbance In a longitudinal study of men, high neuroticism predicted the later development of alcoholism and emotional disturbance Alcoholic men had lower impulse control scores than men with emotional disturbance2/10/200912Personality Coherence Over Time Adult Outcomes of Children with Temper Tantrums (Caspi, 1987) Longitudinal study spanning 40 years Men who, as children, had frequent and severe temper tantrums achieved lower levels of education, lower occupational status at their first job, changed jobs frequently, and had erratic work