Class 9: Changes in Personality Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are ways of testing stability vs. change?
- cross sectional
- longitudinal design
- mean level
- rank order
What is cross sectional research design?
commonly used when assessing changes in personality and uses two different groups of people from two different times
What is the mean level approach?
comparing the average level of trait between two different time points
What do the effect sizes mean for mean level approach?
- > 0 = increase
- = 0 = stable
- < 0 = decreased
What are the mean levels of extraversion?
increase until middle age then stabilizes in adulthood
What are the mean levels of negative emotionality?
decrease until middle age, then stabilizes in adulthood
What are the mean levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness?
steadily increases across the lifespan
What are the mean levels of opennes?
initial increases until young adulthood, stability until later in life, decreases
What does the mean level approach tell us?
- personality changes throughout our lives
- small incremental steps
- different patterns for different traits
- maturity principle
What is the maturity principle?
people mature in predictable ways
What is the rank order approach?
analyzing the ranks of the level of trait of the same people over two time periods
What do the quadrants mean?
- top left = change
- top right = stable
- bottom left = stable
- bottom right = change
What do the effect sizes mean for rank order approach?
- r > 0 = more stability
- r < 0 = more change
What does it mean when there is more data on either of the top or bottom right quadrants?
more likely to be stay the same or change
What does the rank order approach say about the Big Five Traits?
increasing stability for all of them
What is the continuity principle?
personality is increasingly stable
What is the plasticity principle?
you can always change but gets harder as you get older
What are drivers of personality change and stability?
- environmental
- biological
- transactional
What are environmental drivers of personality change and stability?
- have kids
- find partners
- start career
- social investment principle
What is the social investment principle?
changes in roles can change our personalities
What are biological drivers of personality change and stability?
- brain development and decline (negative emotionality decreases over time)
- prozac (to make ourselves feel better)
- alcohol (abuse)
- psilocybin
What are transactional drivers of personality change and stability?
- active
- reactive
- evocative
What is active?
people can choose their environments
What is reactive?
people experience environments differently
