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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
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Dispositional Traits Across Adulthood
Neuroticism• Has six facets:
– Anxiety– Hostility– Self-consciousness– Depression– Impulsiveness– Vulnerability
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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
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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.”