Question 1
Using the Big Five personality factors as your reference point, answer the question
“can personality change?” Use theory and research to support your answer.
Make sure you define all key terms (including the personality factors).
Personality is defined as relatively enduring patterns of individual differences in how a
person feels, thinks and behaves; and has now been reduced to “The Big Five”, (Costa &
McCrae, 1992; Goldberg,1982), a framework involving 5 personality traits which each
represent a continuum where a higher score represents an increased personality trait.
Including: Openness, emphasising imagination; Conscientiousness, ability to regulate
impulse control; Extroversion, tendency to seek environmental interaction; Agreeableness,
treatment of relationships with others; Neuroticism, emotional stability. In this essay I will
argue that personality can change.
McCrae & Costa (1994), investigated many longitudinal studies and their findings can be
summarised. They did find that personality does change however they also found that the
five personality factors appear to be stable after the age of 30. They concluded that overtime
adults personality wont change significantly, and reported that these generalisations about
stability apply to almost everyone.
Alternatively, more recent research argues that personality can change in adulthood.
Stivastaya, John, Gosling & Potter. 2003. Report that personality trait development can
substantially change in adulthood and old age, after finding 60 year olds scored higher than
40 year olds across all factors and middle-aged people scored higher than young people on
conscientiousness and agreeableness, but lower on openness, extraversion and
neuroticism. All recent longitudinal western studies seem to show similar findings of change
in adulthood, including Roberts Walton, Viechtbauer 2006. They investigated patterns of
mean-level change in personality traits using meta-analytic techniques on 92 samples. They
found that agreeableness changed only in old age, and from ages 20-40 there was an
increase in Conscientiousness; Neuroticism; and Social Dominance, a subdomain of
extroversion which measures one’s support for social hierarchy. However in adolescence
people increased in Openness; and Social Validity, another subdomain of Extraversion
which includes the traits sociability, positive affect, gregariousness. They found a 75%
change in personality traits in middle and old age.
However, despite clear evidence that personalities can change, individual differences mean
that not everyone follows the same patterns of change, some deviate from trends by not
changing at all, changing quicker, or changing in contradicting ways from the trends. Growth
models of personality traits show unmistakable variability of the big 5 across individuals in
change (Nelson, Jones & Kwan. 2002); (Mrazek & Spiro. 2003). It has been suggested that
this could be due to life and work experiences (Roberts, Wood & Caspi, in press).
Therefore with this research I conclude that personality can change and people retain this
ability to change throughout a lifespan, with there being a positive association between time
and mean-level change as more favourable personality traits develop at a later age, which is
significant for theories about human nature. Furthermore, this recent research demonstrates
young adulthood is the most important to study, as this is where the most change takes
place contradicting the idea that early and late in life are the most interesting study periods,
however the degree of change depends on developmental and environmental factors.
Question 2
Using the Big Five personality factors as your reference point, answer the question
“can personality change?” Use theory and research to support your answer.
Make sure you define all key terms (including the personality factors).
Personality is defined as relatively enduring patterns of individual differences in how a
person feels, thinks and behaves; and has now been reduced to “The Big Five”, (Costa &
McCrae, 1992; Goldberg,1982), a framework involving 5 personality traits which each
represent a continuum where a higher score represents an increased personality trait.
Including: Openness, emphasising imagination; Conscientiousness, ability to regulate
impulse control; Extroversion, tendency to seek environmental interaction; Agreeableness,
treatment of relationships with others; Neuroticism, emotional stability. In this essay I will
argue that personality can change.
McCrae & Costa (1994), investigated many longitudinal studies and their findings can be
summarised. They did find that personality does change however they also found that the
five personality factors appear to be stable after the age of 30. They concluded that overtime
adults personality wont change significantly, and reported that these generalisations about
stability apply to almost everyone.
Alternatively, more recent research argues that personality can change in adulthood.
Stivastaya, John, Gosling & Potter. 2003. Report that personality trait development can
substantially change in adulthood and old age, after finding 60 year olds scored higher than
40 year olds across all factors and middle-aged people scored higher than young people on
conscientiousness and agreeableness, but lower on openness, extraversion and
neuroticism. All recent longitudinal western studies seem to show similar findings of change
in adulthood, including Roberts Walton, Viechtbauer 2006. They investigated patterns of
mean-level change in personality traits using meta-analytic techniques on 92 samples. They
found that agreeableness changed only in old age, and from ages 20-40 there was an
increase in Conscientiousness; Neuroticism; and Social Dominance, a subdomain of
extroversion which measures one’s support for social hierarchy. However in adolescence
people increased in Openness; and Social Validity, another subdomain of Extraversion
which includes the traits sociability, positive affect, gregariousness. They found a 75%
change in personality traits in middle and old age.
However, despite clear evidence that personalities can change, individual differences mean
that not everyone follows the same patterns of change, some deviate from trends by not
changing at all, changing quicker, or changing in contradicting ways from the trends. Growth
models of personality traits show unmistakable variability of the big 5 across individuals in
change (Nelson, Jones & Kwan. 2002); (Mrazek & Spiro. 2003). It has been suggested that
this could be due to life and work experiences (Roberts, Wood & Caspi, in press).
Therefore with this research I conclude that personality can change and people retain this
ability to change throughout a lifespan, with there being a positive association between time
and mean-level change as more favourable personality traits develop at a later age, which is
significant for theories about human nature. Furthermore, this recent research demonstrates
young adulthood is the most important to study, as this is where the most change takes
place contradicting the idea that early and late in life are the most interesting study periods,
however the degree of change depends on developmental and environmental factors.
Question 2
