Personality Change vs Stability Over Time - Coursework Example

Personality Change vs. Stability over Time School affiliation: Like other topics that tend to attract a debate, psychologists have differed when it comes to a number of topics including personality change. To some, people exhibit signs of change as they age, and their personalities change with time. On the other hand, others contend that individuals simply stabilise on their characters. In other words, a child who tends to exhibit signs of shyness will most likely remain the same even into adulthood. One thing though, that is agreed by al is that individuals traits do not remain constant throughout one’s life. They do change; but to what extent? In this paper, it is asserted that personalities do change completely; stability is realised over time. Personality change and trait stability are normally argued from two points of view including rank-order and Mean-level changes. In the former case, it focuses on an individual’s personality trait that tends to be relative to the others. Mean-level changes refer to the absolute change of an individual’s level of a particular train within time. Mean level stability focuses on the areas that have come to be known as the Big Five including Neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientious (Watson, 2004). Normally, measurements in these areas are conducted in latitudinal and longitudinal where the former implies measurement within similar age group while the latter individual as per the age of the person within the unlike and like populations. Mean-level changes As indicated above, mean-level changes tend to evaluate the changes that are absolute in a person’s life in terms of personality with time. It has been noted that while an individual might not change fully to take other personalities, there tends to occur some changes depending on the stages of life. For instance, it was reported that when it comes female change could occur during puberty or once one enters parenthood. In addition, it was noted that the experiences that tend to surround females have the potential to significantly change their personalities (Watson, 2004). The events that occur in one’s life, as the ones described above, normally change individuals. Weak or premature traits are more prone to change than others are, and an individual can easily change at this time. Watson (2004) reported that individuals have less-functioning mature personalities are susceptible to change than others. Therefore, this implies that a person could be changed at this stage, though it does not mean absolute change. The last conclusion is informed by the fact that this person’s trait is unreliable meaning the same could happen the next time a more influential person initiates the change in them. The mean-level change helps in explaining the reason humans are not precisely the same in terms of behaviour, thinking and character. Even though at childhood one might behave in a particular way, there are changes that are evident as the person grows up, and this is explained by the theory of mean-level change. As individuals mature, there are changes, which are evident in their personalities, and these can be attributed to both the environment and their traits (Hudson & Fraley, 2015). As noted earlier, individuals can be influenced by their surroundings to either solidify their characters or somehow drift away from the same. For that reason, mean-level stability tends to show that changes do occur in a person’s life mainly because of maturation or experiences or a combination of the two. It is possible for individuals to change not because of the experiences that encounter in life, but because of their age. It was earlier noted that children tend to exhibit some traits, which then change with time. This is caused more by maturity than experiences. Similarly, there are experiences in one’s life that are capable of transforming their traits, some of which have been mentioned earlier. Rank –order change Rank order is seen by many as having dominant yet contradicting perspectives of understanding the change patterns in humans. First, there is the essentialist-trait perspective whose suggestion is that personality traits take an intrinsic maturation model throughout the adulthood. Further, it states that the environment does not at all influence the patterns (Blonigen, Carlson, Hicks, Krueger& Iacono, 2008). While these might seem a contradiction of the previous model of mean-level, the statements were made after a study. In a study involving 1000 participants, who were aged between 21 and 96 years both male and females, it was noted that personality was reported to be stable across the group. It was noted that the average correlations stood at 70, thus concluding that individuals’ personalities remained stable upon the attainment of age 30. The second perspective, radical contextual, in the rank-order change entails the assertions that personality traits have to yield “low test-retest correlations since personality is fluid throughout the human lifespan” (Blonigen et al, 2008 p.3). This model contradicts the first on in the sense that argues that there has to be a relationship between personality traits and the environment. In a study, the findings showed there were lower levels of test-retest stability at childhood in comparison to the midlife. Rank-order was confirmed to increase from the stability correlations of .55 in adulthood from .36 in childhood to .79 and .70 after 40 years. In yet another study that using meta-analysis from previous 152 longitudinal studies, Blonigen et al (2008 p.3) reported that personality traits tended to become stable over the time. It is because of these statistics that this perspective finds it rather inaccurate to state that personality traits could change without an external influence. It is further argued that this consistency is affected by both the environment and maturation especially as one keep growing up. Additionally, it is not always that people exhibit some characters because of their traits. Some traits are weak, and tend to be influenced by other occurrences or views of other people, thus confirming that external factors do indeed play a role in the personality stability. For that reason, this perspective asserts a very fundamental principle, which validates the thesis mentioned at the beginning of this paper. The assertion is that personalities do not necessarily change; they develop. Contrary to what is popularly believed that change in personalities permanently occurs later, there is evidence disputing these assertions and confirming that it is stability. According to Hudson and Fraley (2015), the reason there seems to be confusion on the issue of personality is the lack of understanding of personality stability. When a person is developing, there is a likelihood variance in the areas of behaviour, thoughts and characters because there is no stability yet. It is common to find a person behaving somewhat differently from the previous trend but this is does not indicate total change. Instead, the personality is yet to settle, thus the inconsistencies. The above assertions are replicated Hudson and Fraley (2015) who stated the lack of understanding on the stability of one’s personality is a result of having limited knowledge about the factors contributing to the trend. At least three major factors that tend to influence one’s stability pattern. These factors include genes; identify development and Niche-building process. It has been estimated that the genetic effects catalyse 50% of the differences evident in individual personality traits. For that reason, the personality trait exhibited by an individual could be attributed to genetics Niche-building process entails the pattern of individuals seeking the environments, which tend to correspond to their personality. Because of the traits these people possess, it becomes almost impossible for them to seek environments which is opposite of their personalities. When this happens, the subsequent result is that these individuals tend to have their personalities stabilised because there is nothing working against their traits. When the opposite is the case, one can then easily make erroneous judgments because the traits of these individuals might not be conclusive. Thus, there is a likelihood of assuming that their development will change with time, which is not the case. Identify development comes when an individual is committed to ensuring that their identity is outstanding among a group of people normally, this occurs when an individual views themselves as assertive, and others around them agree. Consequently, others tend to seek the opinions, which are often viewed as the best. As a result of this trend, the person who has become trusted by others establishes their identity. From these qualities, it is clear that personalities do not necessarily change; they stabilise with time as per the environment. Worth noting here is that the claim made is not that there are no changes that occur with time, but rather it is clear that changes tend to either solidify or modify the already existing personality, not completely change it. Watson (2004) who reported that it has been empirically proven that changes tend to occur in various stages of life shares these assertions. Changes include adolescent and adulthood, but there are influenced by the environment, and tend to stabilise the personality of people. As people age, there are changes that occur in their lives, but do not necessarily change the personality. One of the reasons the debate on personality change and stability seems to heat up so often lack of clarity as to how much change could occur. However, it has been noted this emanates from researchers first failing to understand what compromises personality. Personality forms traits depending g on the emotional, behavioural and cognitive patterns 9ghh). It is possible for individuals to endure in either of these, but this does not mean they do change. It is not possible for anybody to remain constantly fixed to their traits given the environment and the inevitable growth. Analysis The information on personality change versus stability seems to suggest that there are similarities, but one thing that is clear is that there are permanent changes in personality. When a child is growing up, it is likely to assume that the characters they have will remain intact. However, as evidenced by the findings above, the traits tend to have some changes depending on a number of things including environment and the stages of life. That is to say; some behaviours seen in a child could either disappear or be solidified in the future. If a person, while growing up, chooses a group that has similar qualities, the traits once witnessed at childhood might persist. Conversely, the environment a person grows may challenge the traits. There is a likelihood of some modifications. Nonetheless, modifications do not necessarily mean that the person will forsake the traits; instead, they could be influenced to a situation whereby the person only a bit different, but not fully changed. However, it is also imperative to understand that it is not possible for a person to remain fully constant on certain traits. As noted above, changes do occur mainly because of maturation, experiences or environment. For instance, traits could be different in individuals who are entering puberty from the time they were childhood. Conclusion In conclusion, personalities traits do not completely cease being in a human, but do change, and in some cases significantly. Many factors contribute to this change including the influence of other people, the strength of a particular trait as well as the development stages of life. As indicated in this paper, there is evidence that people experience change in various areas of their live. A teenager, might exhibit seemingly different traits from the time of childhood, but this is not an indication of total personality trait. As the person grows up, the various stages will cause some changes on their personality traits, but a complete overhaul of the personality. Therefore, one can conclude that during the lifespan of humans, significant changes will be evident, but they will all be geared toward the development and stability of the personality traits, not completely change them References Blonigen, D., Carlson, M., Hicks, B., Krueger, R., & Iacono, W. (2008). Stability and Change in Personality Traits From Late Adolescence to Early Adulthood: A Longitudinal Twin Study. Journal Of Personality, 76(2), 229-31 Hudson, N., & Fraley, R. (2015). Volitional Personality Trait Change: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits?. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology. Watson, D. (2004). Stability versus change, dependability versus error: Issues in the assessment of personality over time. Journal Of Research In Personality, 38(4), 319-322. Read More