Personality Stability & Change
Introduction
• What do we mean by personality stability/change?
• What aspects of personality show stability / change?
Stability/Change
• Mean Level Stability/Change
• Refers to maintaining the same absolute level of a characteristic despite changes
in age. Could apply to an individual or a group
• One’s values, political orientation, etc. may be variables that do not change
during (stability)
• Rank Order Stability/change
• Refers to maintenance of one’s position relative to a group even though the
entire group may be changing / developing
• Height, cognitive ability levels are examples of characteristics that change during
our life but your position relative to others in your age group may not change
• Aggression, impulsivity, and risk-taking are example of personality
characteristics that change (generally decline) during people’s adult lives, but
relative standing may not.
• Changing one’s position relative to your cohort would be rank order change
• Personality Coherence
• Refers to changes in the way a trait is manifested, but with out having changes in
the underlying trait.
• Book uses examples of dominance and disagreeableness having different
manifestations early in life
In groups of 5 to 8 people come up with examples of each kind of stability / change.
Stability during Infancy
• We’ve already talked about temperament as biologically influenced characteristics
that relate to one’s emotional disposition.
• Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus (1992) documented evidence of stability for infants with a
reactive temperament
- Infants were tested for their reactivity to novel stimuli (mobiles, unfamiliar
voices, q-tips dipped in alcohol) at 4 months of age
- Those who displayed extreme motor reactions (20%) were labeled “high
reactive,” whereas those that showed little evidence of distress (40%) were
labeled “low reactive.”
- They were tested again at 14 and 21 months to see how they responded to a
series of events involving unfamiliar people and situations. Displays of fear
(crying or unwilling to engage new situation) were recorded at both times
- Proportion of High & Low Reactive Infants Displaying Low or High Fear at both
14 and 21 months
Level of Reactivity Low Fear High Fear
High 9 43
Low 39 7
• Rothbart (1986) found evidence of stability in temperament during infancy
- she studied infants at different ages starting at 3 months up to 1 year
- examined six types of temperament with rating completed by primary caregiver
- Activity (motor activity, sensation-seeking); Fear (reactivity); Smiling (sociability)
Scale 3-6 3-9 3-12 6-9 6-12 9-12
Activity .58 .48 .48 .56 .60 .68
Smiling .55 .55 .57 .67 .72 .72
Fear .27 .15 .06 .43 .37 .61
- Stable differences emerge early
- Notice that stability increases toward the end of infancy
- Stability is greater over shorter time intervals
• Reactions to situations can vary as a result of their personality differences
- hostile children interpret others behavior as having hostile intent
• Select situations that match their personality type
- shy children feel uncomfortable in social situations so they avoid them
- Cumulative continuity -- aspects of personality guides the selection of situations
that end up reinforcing those traits and limiting future options
- These choices can have a cumulative effect, shy children may not develop the
social skills that enable them to feel confident in future social interactions. As a
result they become more and more likely to avoid future social settings.
- Developing social skills and self-confidence (self-efficacy) in social situations is
what is most important
- Aggressive people may select situations that limit their future choices
- cumulative continuity in parenting and choice of preschools, etc...
- choice of friends
• People can also manipulate situations -- Buss study
• Evoke reactions that change the situation -- people’s personality characteristics can
influence the way others respond
- example of a crying infant vs. calm one in the book
- when in a social interaction with an Extrovert people report being more upbeat,
happier, energetic, etc.. whereas, with an introvert much more serious, less
animated
- research into shyness shows that shy people are less socially skilled so they ask
fewer questions about the person they’re interacting with, focus more on
themselves not their partner, feel as if they being evaluated. They tend to evoke
reinforcing reactions from their department.
• Interactional or interpersonal continuity -- behavior is reinforced by others or a
self-fulfilling prophecy occurs
Caspi et al. study -- Life course patterns of explosive children
• Explosive children have difficulty with impulse control -- are prone to temper
tantrums, can’t control impulses & emotional reactions, difficulty delaying
gratification
• This personality characteristic may persist in later life as many situations require us
to control our behavior -- interpersonal interactions (marriage, parenting) &
interactions with authority (school, job)
• Use the ideas of cumulative and interactional continuity to predict that early
differences in ego-control will have far reaching effects -- personality descriptions,
occupational achievement, relationship success
Method
• Sample -- every third child born in CA during 1928
Temper tantrums -- assessed at age 7-9 by interviews with mothers and averaged
• 38% of boys and 28% of girls categorized as ill-tempered
Adult Assessments
• Age thirty and again at age 40
• Interviewer assessment using Q-sort (EXPLAIN)
• Life data -- education level, employment history, military service history
• Spouse / Children ratings -- relationship satisfaction, parenting styles, etc.
Results
• Do ill-tempered boys become ill-tempered men?
- Q-sort says yes they are more likely to be under controlled, moody, irritable
- lower educational achievement (overhead)
- lower occupational level of first job (overhead) -- become more like lower SES
- lower rank during military service
- lower overall occupational level at age forty
? results also suggest support for the notion of cumulative continuity -- effect of
childhood temperament on occupational status is accounted for by education
level -- temper tantrums are as good a predictor of education level as IQ
- Show path diagram of model temper -->education level --> occupation level
? Support for interactional continuity is implied by the strong correlation with an
erratic work history
- also effects in relationships greater likelihood of divorce (46% vs 22%)
• Do ill-tempered girls become ill-tempered women?
- Q-sort says no -- no differences between well-tempered and ill-tempered women,
but family members ratings and life history give a different story
- no differences in education & occupational levels of women -- because of the
differences in gender roles during the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s there’s isn’t much range
- become more likely to marry a man from a lower social class -- “marry below
their station”
- lower occupational level of husband (overhead) -- support for cumulative
continuity
? Support for interactional continuity is implied by the strong correlation with
their husbands ratings of marital conflicts and their (husband’s) satisfaction
- also a greater likelihood of divorce (25% vs 12%)
- children and husbands perceive them as poorer mothers
- Yes, ill-tempered girls tend to make ill-tempered women!!
?? What ways can you criticize this methodology and the results of this study?
- historical changes in women’s roles make generalization to today’s woman
suspect.
- loss of subjects can be a problem
- extremely time consuming & expensive
- difficulty in matching measures collected at different times