Personality Change Key Concepts of Personality Change · Rank Order Stability · Mean Level Shifts Rank Order Stability · Measuring individuals on a personality trait at different age brackets, ranking the group from high to low · Across time remeasure and see any changes in the group . The level of changes can be recorded as strong/weak correlation - How much has it changed ?? · Rank Order Stability (high correlation)/ Rank Order Plasticity (low correlation) . High rank order stability results in high correlation from time point 1 to time point 2 Mean Level Shifts · Population average rises/falls in a trait · Mean level of a group and how it changes over time · More focused on a whole group and the presence of a personality trait amongst them at different time points Rank Order Consistency: Roberts & DelVecchion (2000) · Meta-analysis of all studies regarding Rank Order stability · Studied the results of 152 studies in their meta-analysis · Consistent rise in stability over time Life Experiences & Change (Jackson et al) · Studied if Military training impacted personality traits or built upon pre-existing traits · Large German panel sample of late adolescence/early adulthood · Compulsory military service · 1,261 male participants · Found individuals who worked in the military were: less agreeable, less open and less neurotic Negative Life Events (Lockenhoff et al) · Studied self-reported adverse life events through longitudinal changes in FFM · Work on personality change in response to serious life events is rare · Hard to systematically study such events · Often serious and non-serious events lumped into same category · Reliance on student samples Personality Predicting Life Events · Disproven · Quite a lot of work suggests personality leads to positive/negative life outcomes · Might simply reflect the randomness of life Life Events Predicting Personality Change
· Proven · Increases in the tendency to experience negative affect (neuroticism) · Especially anger and frustration (N2: angry hostility) · less likely to cooperate and deescalate in situations of interpersonal conflict (A4: compliance) · Consistent with the "scar" perspective - i.e. personality scarred by negative events Intentional Change (Hudson & Fraley) . Studied the volatility of personality change and the ability to chose to change their personality traits · 16-week longitudinal studies and 2 randomised interventions · Found people may be able to change their self-reported personality through volitional means