Personality Change

Question 1

What did William James have to say about personality changing?

Answer 1

By age 30, the character has set like plaster

Question 2

What does the trait theory imply about personality change?

Answer 2

Traits are stable by definition

Question 3

What does the cognitive approach imply about personality change?

Answer 3

If personality is made up of cognitions (and we accept that cognitions can change), then personality can change

Question 4

What did Mischel et al. (1990) find in their delayed gratification task in 4 year olds?

Answer 4

Delay was associated with greater planfulness, greater stress tolerance, better SAT scores

Therefore personality must be persisting somewhat

Question 5

What happens to personality stability as you age?

Answer 5

Personality becomes more stable

Unlikely to guess what a 5 year old will be like 10 years
Likely to guess what a 45 year old will be like in 10 years

Question 6

What are six things that cause personality stability?

Answer 6

Genetic influences
Environmental channeling
Environmental selection
Less disruptive life changes
Psychological resources
Self identity crystallises

Question 7

What’s the difference between mean-level stability and rank-order stability?

Answer 7

Rank order- everybody’s score changes but all in the same pattern

Mean level- everyone’s scores change, but the mean score stays relatively the same.

Question 8

Which of the big five decline as you get older?

Answer 8

All but agreeableness

Question 9

What did the Mills College longitudinal study tell us about personality change?

Answer 9

Those who became young mums became more responsible, tolerant, feminine, less sociable

Those who became homemakers showed less increases independence

Question 10

Educational challenges are associated with an increase of which aspect of the big five?

Answer 10

Conscientiousness

Question 11

How does having an intimate partner affect the big five (1 decreases)?

Answer 11

Less neuroticism

Question 12

Is there any demonstration of historical personality changes?

Answer 12

Yes!
For example, women’s assertiveness rose, then dropped, and is now on the rise

Question 13

Why is it important that we consider personality change?

Answer 13

Wellbeing and self-improvement
Optimism about psychological treatment
Attitudes toward rehabilitation (e.g. justice system)
Our view of human nature

Question 14

What is the entity theory of personality and what are these theorists more likely to do?

Answer 14

Personality is totally fixed

Theorists are
more like to enforce stereotypes
make rapid judgements about others
less likely to resolve conflicts