Personality Development & Processes (Nov 20) PDF

Personality Developme nt & Processes Professor Willroth Introduction to Psychology November 20, 2024 Week Overview Monday 11/18 Friday 11/22 Personality Structure & Personality Personality Assessment Applications (Textbook Modules 44-46)...

Personality Developme nt & Processes Professor Willroth Introduction to Psychology November 20, 2024 Week Overview Monday 11/18 Friday 11/22 Personality Structure & Personality Personality Assessment Applications (Textbook Modules 44-46) Personality Development & Personality Processes Looking Ahead: Wednesday 11/20 Intro to Psychological Disorders Quiz 10 next week Recap: How do researchers measure individual differences in personality? Personality Assessment The methodological toolkit of a personality psychologist Self-report questionnaires (100%) Informant-reports (86%) Structured interviews (76%) Behavioral observations, experience sampling, reaction time measures, neuroimaging, hormone levels, behavioral responses, open-ended questions, implicit measures, memory tasks Informant-reports Romantic partner, friend, family member Benefits Provide an outside perspective Can aggregate across multiple informants Moderate self-other agreement Little evidence for self-enhancement effect  On your own time… Retake the Big Five Inventory, but this time choose a friend or family member to rate. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/personality-quiz/ How did this experience compare to rating yourself? Narrative interviews Trained interviewers Divide your life into chapters and to recount key scenes An early memory, a high point, a low point, a turning point Trained coders apply validated coding schemes to these narratives Structure Motivational and affective themes Autobiographical reasoning  Which assessment method is the best? Do you think self- or informant-reports come closer to “truth”? Why? Do the benefits of using trait approaches that can be applied to everyone outweigh the specificity of more idiographic or individualized approaches like narratives? Key Takeaways Personality traits, motives, and narrative identity are three of the most commonly studied building blocks of personality. Personality psychologists use a wide variety of assessment tools, including self-reports, informant-reports, narrative interviews, and other methods. Each building block and each assessment method has unique strengths and weaknesses and most personality psychologists use a multi-method approach. New Learning Goal 1. Describe personality development across the lifespan, including key principles and average trajectories of change. How does personality change across the lifespan? Personality Development When does personality emerge? Temperament in early childhood positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and effortful control What about agreeableness and openness? Actors  agents  authors Nature or nurture? Twin and adoption studies suggest that ~half of the variance in personality is accounted for by genetics Identical twins separated at birth and raised in different households tend to have similar personalities Personality is impacted by thousands of genetic variants Gene x environment interactions Does personality change across the lifespan? Personality traits are at least moderately stable even across long periods of time Personality becomes more stable with age But continues to change across the entire lifespan Plasticity principle: personality can be influenced by the environment at any age How does personality change as we age? Maturity principle People tend to become more conscientious, agreeable, and emotionally stable But individuals differ! Do life events change personality? Small effects likely because not everyone experiences the same changes Bühler et al., 2023 Would you change your personality if you could? Volitional change Large meta-analysis demonstrated neuroticism reductions after therapy Think, Pair, Share What realistic, actionable, and persistent goals would you set for the tinman to become more compassionate? For the lion to become more courageous? For the strawman to become more intellectually curious? Key Takeaways Personality emerges in early childhood and is influenced by genetics and environment Personality can and does change across the adult lifespan, typically in the direction of greater maturity Emerging field of volitional personality change suggests we may be able to intentionally make changes to our personalities A myriad of personality processes contribute to personality differences Faculty and Course Spotlight Psychology of Personality (L33 Psych 353) Personality Measurement and Development Lab Dr. Joshua Jackson