College of Education

School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017

Lecturer: Dr. Joana Salifu Yendork, Department of Psychology

Contact Information: jyendork@ug.edu.gh

Session Overview

• Personality is the psychological organization of the individual as a whole and especially to those features that distinguish the individual from others. In the study of adult development, debate surrounds whether or not personality remains stable or changes with age. To discuss this topic, this session will focus on three levels of analysis (also known as traditions) of personality studies in adult development.

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Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• The concept of personality

• Level of analysis

– Dispositional traits

– Personal concerns

– Life narrative

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Reading List

• Read Chapter 10 of Recommended Text – Adult development and aging, Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields (2006).

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THE CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY Topic One

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Personality

• Personality has been defined in a variety of ways.

• One definition is that personality refers to the psychological organization of the individual as a whole and especially to those features that distinguish the individual from others’ (McCrae 1995, p.735)

• This definition of personality includes an internal component (i.e., characteristics or qualities] and an external component[i.e., behaviour) .

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Early debates on personality

• Does personality continue across the lifespan?

• Stability: William James, Freud argued that it is set before adulthood – Freud argued it was completed in childhood

• Change: Carl Jung, Erikson argued it is continually shaped throughout the lifespan

• Varied arguments comes from views on personality – Some level of stability is needed for human existence

– Some aspects change overtime • Existence of psychotherapy is evidence of modifiability of

personality

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Level of analysis/traditions of personality research/ structural components of personality

• McADams (1999) describes 3 parallel levels of personality structures and functions from several research and theories

• Dispositional traits: aspects of personality that are consistent across different contexts and can be compared across group along a continuum of high or low degrees of the characteristics – E.g., shy, talkative, authoritarian

• Personal concerns/ development tradition : things that are important to people, their goals and their major concerns – Reflect stage of person’s life and are described in motivational, developmental or

strategic terms – E.g., Freud’s and Erickson’s theories of human development

• Life narrative/ experiential-contextual tradition: aspects of personality that pull everything together, integrative aspects that give a person an identity or sense of self – Creation of identity is the goal at this level

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THE TRAIT TRADITION Topic Two

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The Trait Tradition

• The trait tradition focuses on the adjectives that people use to describe themselves and others.

• A trait is any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from others (Guilford, 1959, p. 6)

• The emphasis is on the description of internal characteristics/qualities – Based on this definition, trait theories assume that little

change in personality will occur across adulthood

• Relatively enduring/stable aspects of personality – E.g., calm, aggressive, independent etc.

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Assumptions of the trait tradition

• Traits are based on comparisons of individuals

• The qualities or behaviours marking up a particular trait must be distinctive enough to avoid confusion

• The traits attributed to a specific person assumed to be stable characteristics.

• Emphasis is on when trait peaks and when it stop changing

• Do dispositional traits change or remain stable with age?

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The Big-5 personality traits: Costa & McCrae, 1994

• Globally, more people are aging due to better health care – the global rate (60+) is at 3.2% per annun – by 2015, 1.5 billion (WHO, NIA & NIH, 2011) – highest rates will be in developing countries with over 250% between 2010 and

2050

• Educational levels of older individuals are increasing – Linked to well-being

• Europe is the “oldest” area in the world – Italy has the largest percentage of older people

• Africa is considered the youngest area in the world – due to poor access of health care and higher incidence of AIDS

• Sub-Saharan Africa, aging population is rising @207% (United Nations, 2011) – By 2050, the aged will constitute 10% of continent’s population

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Age-related changes in personality traits

• Costa and McCrae’s (1994) Baltimore Longitudinal Study of 114 men in the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS)

– Data collected on three occasions, 6 years apart

– Findings: over 12 years, 10 traits measured by the GZTS remained highly stable

• They concluded that considerable stability occurs in the five personality factors

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Age-related changes in personality traits

• Martin and colleagues (2003) study of 60-80 and 100-year-olds

– Find no significant changes across overall personality patterns

• Siegler et al. (1979) 8-years longitudinal, 30- year span by Leon et al. (1979) found trait stability over time

• Spousal ratings also confirm trait stability

• Overall findings: individuals change very little in self-reported personality traits over periods of up to 30 years long and over the range of 20 to 90 years.

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Age-related changes in personality traits

• Despite evidence of personality stability using the five-factor model, there is growing support for personality change.

• First, data indicate certain personality traits (self-confidence, cognitive commitment, outgoingness, and dependability) show some change over a 30- to 40-year period (Jones & Meredith, 1996).

• Second, a growing number of studies suggest that neuroticism may increase and extraversion may decrease as we grow older (Maiden et al., 2003; Small et al., 2003). – increases in neuroticism and decreases in extraversion were associated

with negative changes in life events such as loss of a spouse that befall older adults in the transition between old age and very old age (Maiden et al., 2003).

– the increase in neuroticism is more likely found in men than women.

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Age-related changes in trait personality

• Srivastava et al. (2003) in a study of 130,000 people ranging in age from 21 to 60 years found that none of the Big Five personality traits remained stable after age 30

• Meta-analysis by Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer (2006): – Included 92 longitudinal studies covering life course from age

10 to 101 – Found significant mean level change in all trait domains at some

point – Found statistically significant change in 75% of personality traits

in middle age and old age – Thus personality traits continues to develop – Most mean-level personality change occurs between age 20 and

40.

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PERSONAL CONCERNS AND QUALITATIVE CHANGES IN ADULTHOOD

Topic Three

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Personal concerns and qualitative changes in adulthood

• Do people’s priority change/remain the same through out adulthood? – Midlife crisis?

• Focus on changes in adults’ personality through out adulthood

• Personal concerns reflect what people want during particular times of their lives and within specific domains; – they are the strategies, plans, and defenses people use to get what

they want and to avoid getting what they don’t want

• Focus either on qualitative different stages or phases that occur during development, or on continuous development around certain themes throughout life.

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Jung’s theory

• Jung asserts that the parts of the personality are organized in such a way as to produce two basic orientations of the ego. – Extraversion: orientations is concerned with the external world – Introversion: orientation, toward the inner world of subjective experiences

• To be psychologically healthy, both of these orientations must be present, and they must be balanced.

• Jung advocates two important age-related trends in personality development

• First relates to the introversion–extraversion distinction – Young adults are more extraverted than older adults, perhaps because of

younger people’s needs to find a mate, have a career, and so forth – with age comes an increase in introversion: need to create balance hence

the focus on inward and exploration of personal feelings about aging and morality

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Jung’s theory

• Second involves the feminine and masculine aspects of our personalities

• First, Jung believed that each person has both feminine and masculine aspects of personality

– In young adulthood, however, most of us express only one of them while usually working hard to suppress the other

– Young adults most often act in accordance with gender-role stereotypes appropriate to their culture

– As they grow older, people begin to let out the suppressed parts of their personality.

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Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

• According to him, personality is determined by the interaction between an inner maturational plan and external societal demands.

• Erikson outlines eight ages of humanity that stretch from birth to death, with each representing a struggle between two opposing tendencies/crisis.

• The struggles are resolved through an interactive process involving both the inner psychological and the outer social influences

• Successful resolutions establish the basic areas of psychosocial strength;

• Unsuccessful resolutions impair ego development in a particular area and adversely affect the resolution of future struggles.

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Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

• 1. In early adulthood, the development of intimacy (including more than simply sexual intimacy) versus a sense of ego isolation. – Establishing a fully intimate relationship with another

– If intimacy is not achieved, isolation occurs

– Choosing a mate who represents the ideal of all one’s past experiences

– Love is the psychological strength

• 2. In middle adulthood, the development of generativity (the desire to become a caring and productive member of society) versus ego stagnation (the feeling of self absorption. – Seen in parenthood, teaching, providing goods and services for the benefit

of society

– Trust in the next generation is the psychological strength achieved

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Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

• 3. In late adulthood, a sense of ego integrity (including a basic acceptance of one’s life as having been appropriate and meaningful) versus a sense of despair – Begins with the realisation of the closeness of end of life

– Examination and evaluation of one’s accomplishments in order to try and make sense of one’s life

– People who have progressed successfully through earlier stages of life face old age enthusiastically and feel their life has been full

– Those who feel a sense of meaninglessness do not anxiously anticipate old age, and they experience despair

– Wisdom is the psychological strength

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Age changes in generativity

• McAdams, de st. Aubin, and Logan (1993) examined age differences in generativity, or the goal of providing for the next generation, among young, midlife, and older adults. Data were collected on four dimensions of generativity:

• 1. Generative concern described the extent to which an individual expresses concern about the future generation.

• 2. Generative commitments described the specific actions an individual would like to take to help nurture the next generation.

• 3. Generative actions: A listing of specific actions that an individual has already carried out.

• 4. Generative narration: The degree to which past memories reflect the theme of generativity.

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Age-related levels of generativity

• Can be expressed by adults of all ages, but certain types of generativity are more common at some ages than others. – Younger adults [22 to 27 years] showed the lowest levels of generativity.

• Middle-aged adults [37 to 42 years] scored higher than younger adults but not higher than older adults. Thus, generativity would seem to be more characteristic of middle-age and older adulthood than younger adulthood. – Middle-aged and older adults show a greater preoccupation with

generativity themes than do younger adults in their accounts of personally meaningful life experiences

– Middle-aged adults make more generative commitments

• McAdams et al. (1993) also reported that, within each age group, study participants showed a strong positive relationship between generativity and life satisfaction and happiness.

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LIFE NARRATIVE, IDENTITY AND THE SELF

Topic Four

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Life narratives, identity and the self

• Attempts to address the questions:

– Who are you?

– What kind of person are you trying to become?

– Focuses on the sense of the person’s identity or sense of self

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Life narratives, identity and the self

• Personality is conceptualized as an on-going process of development that results from individuals’ interactions with their environment.

• This tradition emphasizes the mutual importance of individual, social, and historical forces in shaping personality development.

• It is assumed that development can be understood only in the context of sociocultural and historical parameter.

• It focus on how people’s lives evolve, and the meaning that they place on the things that happen to them.

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Personality as life stories

• Several researchers rely on the life-story approach to examine development over time.

• A life-story approach seeks to learn how people integrate past, current, and anticipated experiences into a cohesive life story.

• As such, the emphasis is on how people actively create and modify their personalities through their life stories.

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McAdams’ life-story model

• McAdams believes that to understand a person’s personality, one must base on a story of how the person came into being, where the person has been, where he or she is going, and who he or she will become.

• Argues that people create a life story that is an internalized narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an anticipated ending.

• The life story is created and revised throughout adulthood as people change and the changing environment places different demands on them

• In Western societies, people begin forming their life story in late adolescence and early adulthood but it has its roots in the development of one’s earliest attachments in infancy

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McAdams’ life-story model

• Paramount in these life stories is the changing personal identity reflected in the emotions conveyed in the story

• Motivations change are reflected in the person repeatedly trying to attain his or her goals over time.

• The two most common goal themes are agency (reflecting power, achievement, and autonomy) and communion (reflecting love, intimacy, and a sense of belonging).

• Stories indicate one’s beliefs and values, or the ideology, a person uses to set the context for his or her actions.

• Every life story contains episodes that provide insight into perceived change and continuity in life

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McAdams’ life-story model

• The main characters in people’s lives represent idealizations of the self, such as “the dutiful mother” or “the reliable worker.” – Integrating various aspects of the self is a major challenge in midlife and

later adulthood

• Finally, all life stories need an ending through which the self can leave a legacy that creates new beginnings. – Life stories in midlife and older adults have clear quality of ‘giving birth

to’ a new generation.

• Autobiographical memory is one of the most popular methods for examining development of life stories

• Overall, McAdams (1994, 2001) believes that the model for change in identity over time is a process of fashioning and refashioning one’s life story.

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Whitbourne’s Identity Theory

• Whitbourne (1987) argues that people build their own conceptions of how their lives should proceed.

• The result of the process is the life-span construct, a person’s unified sense of the past, the present, and the future.

• There are two important components of this construct: – The scenario consists of the expectations an individual has for the

future. • It is the game plane of how a person expects and wants his or her life to

be in the future. • Strongly influenced by age norms that define key transition points • Individual checks their transitional progress with where their scenario

projects they should be • When current progress matches scenario, one is happy, if not, one may

revise/change scenario

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Whitbourne’s Identity Theory

• The life story is a personal narrative history that organizes past events into a coherent sequence, giving them meaning and continuity (autobiography).

• One characteristic of life stories is that they are frequently rewritten over the course of a lifetime .

• May contain distortions with time and retelling

• Life-story distortions are actually ways of coping that allow a person to feel that he or she was ‘on time’ rather than ‘off time’ in past events.

• Such distortions may allow people to feel better about their plans and goals, and make them less likely to feel a sense of failure.

• Whitbourne found that the family, work as major sources of identity

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Personality as Self-Concept

• One way to think about personality is in terms of a person’s self-concept. • Self-concept is the organized, coherent, integrated pattern of self-

perceptions. – The perceptions and attitudes that a person has about himself or herself as an

object. – Changes in self-perceptions are often manifested in changed beliefs, concerns,

and expectations. – Includes self-esteem and self-image

• Self-concept consists of three components (Giarrusso and Bengtson 1996)

• 1. Cognitive—How a person describes himself or herself and the roles that he or she plays.

• 2. Evaluative—The extent to which a person likes (or does not like) his or her identity.

• 3. Conative—A person’s motivations to reduce discrepancies between his or her real self and the self that he or she would like to be.

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Influence of aging on self-concept

• Mortimer, Finch, and Kumka (1982) studies self-image by following a group of men for 14 years, beginning when the participants were college freshmen

• They found that self-image consisted of four dimensions: wellbeing (happiness, lack of tension and confidence), interpersonal qualities (sociability, interest in others, openness and warmth), activity (strength, competence, success and activity), and unconventionality (impulsive, unconventional and dreamy).

• Findings: self-concept remained stable when assesses on group level with few changes. – Well-being and competence declined during college but rebounded

after graduation, self-perception of unconventionality declined after college, sociability showed a steady decline across the entire study

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Possible selves

• One popular way to conceptualize self-concept is in terms of possible selves (Markus & Nurius 1986).

• Possible selves represent individuals’ ideas of what they might become – can include both hoped-for selves ( i.e. what they would like to

become) and feared selves (i. e. what they are afraid of becoming) .

• Markus and Nurius hypothesize that possible selves function as incentives for future behaviour and provide an evaluative and interpretive context for the current view of self. – as such, possible selves can motivate an individual to change

certain characteristic and aspects of his or her behaviour.

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Possible selves

• Possible selves tend to remain stable for at least some time and are measurable with psychometrically sound scales

• Possible selves may change in response to efforts at personal growth and facilitates adaption to new roles across the lifespan.

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Age differences and possible selves

• Hoped-for possible selves

– Young adults listed as most important family concerns and starting an occupation

– Middle adults listed family concerns last; their main issues were personal concerns (such as being a more loving and caring person)

• By ages 40 to 59, family issues again became most common

– Reaching and maintaining satisfactory performance in one’s occupational career and accepting and adjusting to the physiological changes of middle age were also important to this age group

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Age differences and possible selves

• Feared possible selves – For young adults, being overweight and, for women, becoming

wrinkled and unattractive when old were commonly mentioned as feared possible selves

– Middle-aged and older adults fear of having Alzheimer’s disease or being unable to care for oneself was frequent responses

• Overall, young adults are more likely to have multiple selves and to believe more strongly that they can actually become the hoped-for self and successfully avoid the feared possible self

• By old age, both the number of possible selves and strength of belief have decreased – Due to beliefs of lack of control

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Sample Questions

• What is the five-factor model of dispositional traits?

• What evidence is there for long-term stability in dispositional traits?

• What criticisms have been leveled at the five-factor model?

• What conclusions can be drawn on theory and research on dispositional traits?

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References

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