Personality Development

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Personality Development

Personality traits are defined as the relatively enduring patterns of


thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguish individuals from one
another. The dominant view in the field of personality psychology today
holds that personality emerges early and continues to change in
meaningful ways throughout the lifespan. Evidence from large-scale, longterm studies has supported this perspective.
Adult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant
temperament, meaning that individual differences in disposition and
behavior appear early in life, possibly even before language or conscious
self-representation develop. The Five Factor Model of personality has been
found to map onto dimensions of childhood temperament, suggesting that
individual differences in levels of the big five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness) are present from young ages.

Evolutionary perspective
An evolutionary perspective has been proposed to explain why
humans have personality and individuality. This perspective traces
personality and individuality back to when the early humans were learning
how to function in complex social groups. Many specialists from different
fields have a general agreement that early humans saw themselves as a
part of the group to which they belonged, rather than seeing themselves as
individuals with independent personalities. In terms of personality at this
time, the whole group was identical.
A member of the group associated themselves as one with the tribe
and therefore the responsibility rested in the group and not the individual.
Kropotkin explained the importance of this by stating that because the
primitive man identified his existence with the existence of his tribe it has
allowed for mankind to reach the remarkable level present today. A small
step of differentiation that later led to personality and individuality was the
division of labor. This differentiation was necessary in order for the group to
function in a much more efficient way. This differentiation became adaptive
since it increased the groups functionality. These early humans then
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continued to develop personality and individuality, which stemmed from


their group and the social interactions they encountered. Individual life, and
thus individuality and personality essentially arose from collective life.
In order to explain some of the variations in human personality and
individuality it's possible to look at the evolutionary process of natural
selection. Evolution introduced variations of the human mind, natural
selection acted on these by choosing which were the most beneficial and
which led to a greater fitness. Since humans are so complex, many
opposing personality traits proved to be beneficial in different ways. An
example of this is that in some situations a more aggressive personality
could be beneficial, yet a more submissive personality could be beneficial
in another situation.
Another type of selection helps to take on the evolutionary aspect of
human personality and individuality. This type of selection is referred to as
emotional selection. It considers emotions as the core emergence of
humans in the world. The emotions of humans are what have led to the
evolution of human personality and individuality. The ability to adapt to all
conditions of life is usually called, intelligence, but is founded in the
complexity and flexibility of the emotional system.
The concept of emotional representation as a way of selectively
modeling the environment is the key idea underlying our understanding of
human individuality. With these basic understandings introduced,
hopefully it will help make more sense out of the development of
personality.

Lifespan perspectives
Classic theories of personality, such as Freuds tripartite theory, and
post-Freudian theory, including developmental stage theories and type
theories, have often held the perspective that most personality
development occurs in childhood, and that personality is stable by the end
of adolescence. As recently as the 1990s, modern personality theorists
concurred with William James 1890 assertion that, by age 30, personality
is set like plaster. Currently, lifespan perspectives that integrate theory
and empirical findings dominate the research literature. The lifespan
perspective of personality is based on the plasticity principle, that
personality traits are open systems that can be influenced by the
environment at any age.
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This interactional model of development emphasizes the relationships


between an individual and her environment, and suggests that there is
dialectic between continuity and change throughout the lifespan. Largescale longitudinal studies have demonstrated that the most active period of
personality development appears to be between the ages of 20-40.
Personality grows increasingly consistent with age and plateaus sometime
around age 50, but never reaches a period of total stability. Although
change is less likely later in life, individuals retain the potential for change
from infancy to old age.

Influencing factors
Personality traits demonstrate moderate levels of continuity, smaller
but still significant normative or mean-level changes, and individual
differences in change, often late into the life course. This pattern is
influenced by genetic, environmental, transactional, and stochastic factors.
Genetics
Twin and adoption studies have demonstrated that the heritability of
personality traits ranges from .3-.6, with a mean of .5. Heritability of .5
means that 50% of variation in observable personality traits is attributable
to genetic influences. But a given genotype will lead to a certain phenotype
only under the right environmental circumstances. In other words, the
heritability of a trait may change depending on an individuals environment
and/or life events.
An example of the way environment can moderate the expression of
a gene is the finding by Heath, Eaves, and Martin (1998) that marriage was
a protective factor against depression in genetically identical twins, such
that the heritability of depression was as low as 29% in a married twin and
as high as 51% in an unmarried twin. Ultimately, emerging evidence
suggests that genetic and environmental influences on personality differ
depending on other circumstances in a persons life.
Environmental
With the effects of genetic similarity are removed, children from the
same family often appear no more alike than randomly selected strangers;
yet identical twins raised apart are nearly as similar in personality as
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identical twins raised together. What these findings suggest is that shared
family environment has virtually no effect on personality development, and
that similarity between relatives is almost entirely due to shared genetics.
Although the shared environment (including features like the personality,
parenting styles, and beliefs of parents; socioeconomic status;
neighborhood; nutrition; schools attended; number of books in the home;
etc.) may have a lasting impact at the extremes of parenting practice, such
as outright abuse, most personality researchers have concluded that the
majority of average expectable environments do not have an effect on
personality development.
The weakness of shared environmental effects in shaping personality
came as a surprise to many psychologists, and spurred research into nonshared environment, or the environmental influences that make siblings
different from one another instead of similar. Non-shared environmental
effects encompass the variability in behavioral outcomes that is not
explained by genetic and family environmental influences. The non-shared
environment may include differential treatment by parents, individually
distinct reactions to the shared family environment, peer influences, and
experiences that occur outside the family. In adults, non-shared
environment also encompasses the unique roles and environments
experienced after leaving the family of origin.
Further effects of environment in adulthood are demonstrated by
findings that different work, marital, and family experiences are associated
with personality change, and by the impact of major positive and negative
life events on personality.
Gene-environment interactions
Van Gestel and Van Broeckhoven (2003) write, Almost by definition,
complex traits originate from interplay between (multiple) genetic factors
and environment. Interactions between genetic predisposition and the
environment are a major factor in personality development. The
corresponsive principle of personality development states that life
experiences may accentuate and reinforce the personality characteristics
that were partially responsible for the particular environmental elicitations in
the first place.

This principle is summarizes how gene-environment interactions (also


called person-situation transactions) maintain and reinforce the continuity
of personality throughout the lifespan.
Three main types of gene-environment interactions are active (the
process by which individuals with certain genotypes select and create
environments that facilitate the expression of those genotypes), passive
(the process by which genetic parents provide both the genes and the early
environmental influences that contribute to the development of a
characteristic in their children), and reactive (the process by which nonfamily individuals respond to the behavior produced by a genotype in
characteristic ways).

Theories
Of
Personality

Theories of Personality
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What is this thing we call personality? Consider the following


definitions, what do they have in common?
"Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and
though" (Allport, 1961, p. 28).
The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique
(Weinberg & Gould, 1999).
Both definitions emphasize the uniqueness of the individual and
consequently adopt an idiographic view.
The idiographic view assumes that each person has a unique
psychological structure and that some traits are possessed by only one
person; and that there are times when it is impossible to compare one
person with others. It tends to use case studies for information gathering.
The nomothetic view, on the other hand, emphasizes comparability among
individuals. This viewpoint sees traits as having the same psychological
meaning in everyone. This approach tends to use self-report personality
questions, factor analysis etc. People differ in their positions along a
continuum in the same set of traits.
We must also consider the influence and interaction of nature (biology,
genetics etc.) and nurture (the environment, upbringing) with respect to
personality development.
Trait theories of personality imply personality is biological based, whereas
state theories such as Bandura's (1977) Social Learning Theory emphasize
the role of nurture and environmental influence. Sigmund Freud's
psychodynamic theory of personality assumes there is an interaction
between nature (innate instincts) and nurture (parental influences).

Freud's Theory
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Personality involves several factors:

Instinctual drives food, sex, aggression

Unconscious processes

Early childhood influences (re: psychosexual stages) especially the


parents
Personality development depends on the interplay of instinct and
environment during the first five years of life. Parental behavior is crucial to
normal and abnormal development. Personality and mental health
problems in adulthood can usually be traced back to the first five years.
Psychosexual Development
People including children are basically hedonistic they are driven to
seek pleasure by gratifying the Ids desires (Freud, 1920). Sources of
pleasure are determined by the location of the libido (life-force).
As a child moves through different developmental stages, the location of
the libido, and hence sources of pleasure, change (Freud, 1905).

Freud's Tripartite Theory of Personality


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Freud (1923) saw the personality structured into three parts (i.e.
tripartite), the id, ego and superego (also known as the psyche), all
developing at different stages in our lives.
These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical.

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It


consists of all the inherited (i.e. biological) components of personality,
including the sex (life) instinct Eros (which contains the libido), and
aggressive (death) instinct - Thanatos.
It operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that
every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the
consequences.

The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and


the external real world (like a referee). It is the decision making component
of personality
The ego operates according to the reality principle, working our realistic
ways of satisfying the ids demands, often compromising or postponing
satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers
social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which


are learned from one's parents and others. It is similar to a conscience
which can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt.
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Eysencks Personality Theory


Eysenck (1952, 1967, 1982) developed a very influential model of
personality. Based on the results of factor analyses of responses on
personality questionnaires he identified three dimensions of personality:
extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.
During 1940s Eysenck was working at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in
London. His job was to make an initial assessment of each patient before
their mental disorder was diagnosed by a psychiatrist. Through this position
he compiled a battery of questions about behavior, which he latter applied
to 700 soldiers who were being treated for neurotic disorders at the hospital
(Eysenck (1947).
He found that the soldiers's answers seemed to link naturally with one
another, suggesting that there were a number of different personality traits
which were being revealed by the soldier's answers. He called these first
order personality traits

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He used a technique called factor analysis. This technique reduces


behavior to a number of factors which can be grouped together under
separate headings, called dimensions.
Eysenck (1947) found that their behavior could be represented by two
dimensions: Introversion / Extroversion (E); Neuroticism / Stability (N).
Eysenck called these second-order personality traits.

According to Eysenck, the two dimensions of neuroticism (stable vs.


unstable) and introversion-extroversion combine to form a variety of
personality characteristics.
Extraverts are sociable and crave excitement and change, and thus can
become bored easily. They tend to be carefree, optimistic and impulsive.
Introverts are reserved, plan their actions and control their emotions. They
tend to be serious, reliable and pessimistic.
Neurotics / unstables tend to be anxious, worrying and moody. They are
overly emotional and find it difficult to calm down once upset.
Stables are emotionally calm, unreactive and unworried.
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Eysenck (1966) later added a third trait / dimension - Psychoticism e.g.


lacking in empathy, cruel, a loner, aggressive and troublesome.
Eysenck related the personality of an individual to the functioning of the
autonomic nervous system (ANS). Personality has dependent on the
balance between excitation and inhibition process of the nervous system.
Neurotic individuals have a ANS that responds quickly to stress.

Cattell's 16PF Trait Theory


Cattell (1965) disagreed with Eysencks view that personality can be
understood by looking at only two or three dimensions of behavior.
Instead he argued that that is was necessary to look at a much larger
number of traits in order to get a complete picture of someones personality.
Whereas Eysenck based his theory based on the responses of hospitalized
servicemen, Cattell collected data from a range of people through three
different of sources of data.
L-data - this is life record data such as school grades, absence from work
etc.
Q-data - this was questionnaire designed to rate an individual's personality.
T-data - this is data from objective tests designed to 'tap' into a personality
construct.
Cattell analyzed the T-data and Q-data using a mathematical technique
called factor analysis to look at which types of behavior tended to be
grouped together in the same people. He identified 16 personality traits /
factors common to all people.
Cattell made a distinction between source and surface traits. Surface traits
are very obvious and can be easily identified by other people, whereas
source traits are less visible to other people and appear to underlie several
different aspects of behavior. Cattell regarded source traits are more
important in describing personality than surface traits.

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Allport's Trait Theory


Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the
individual and the internal cognitive and motivational processes that
influence behavior. For example, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills,
attitudes, and traits.
Allport (1937) believes that personality is biologically determined at birth,
and shaped by a person's environmental experiences.

Critical Evaluation of Trait Theories


Twin studies can be used to see if personality is genetic. However,
the findings are conflicting and non-conclusive.
Shields (1976) found that monozygotic (identical) twins were significantly
more alike on the Introvert Extrovert (E) and Psychoticism (P) dimensions
than dizygotic (non-identical) twins.
Loehlin, Willerman and Horn (1988) found that only 50% of the variations of
scores on personality dimensions are due to inherited traits. This suggests
that social factors are also important.

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PERSONALIT
Y
TESTS

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