Do People Change?- Personality shown not to be as stable as first thought
9th February 2017
Personality has long thought to be a fairly stable construct. Sure, people might change slightly over the course of their life due to circumstance, major life events and the natural process of ageing and maturing but all in all people tend to stay the same.
A new piece of research in Psychology and Ageing has found evidence suggesting the opposite. In the first study of its kind, the authors were able to compare individual’s personality in their adolescence (14) to that in their old age (77). They found no relationship between personality traits between the two time points indicating that our personality as a teenager is markedly different from our personality as an older adult.
Researchers took data from the Scottish Mental Survey which was conducted in 1947. School children were rated by their teachers on 6 personality characteristics (Self-Confidence, Perseverance, Stability of Moods, Conscientiousness, Originality and Desire to Excel). The same participants were then contacted again at age 77 and asked to rate themselves on the same 6 characteristics as well as asking a close friend or family member to do the same. No correlation was found between the ratings given by a teacher at age 14 and the ratings participants gave themselves at age 77 or the ones given to them by a loved one. This was true when looking at each personality trait individually or when looking at “dependability”, a trait made up of all 6 aspects of personality.
When we think about it maybe it isn’t such a stretch to think that, personality-wise, we are very different people when we are in our old age compared to in our adolescence. After all, adolescence and early adulthood is a time of great change and development, not just socially but also developmentally. Old age too, is a time of change and adjustment for many so it may not be surprising that our personalities are constantly being noticeably shaped throughout our lifetime.
Of course, it is worth remembering that personality theories have changed a great deal since 1947. These days personality is generally thought to be made up of 5 distinct characteristics (Extroversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness and Conscientiousness) but this wasn’t the case back then. If the participants in this study had been examined on these 5 traits at age 14 and then again at age 77 would the results have been different?
The full article can be read here