Human Growth and Development

Stability vs. Change in Personality Research suggests that personality traits can stay the same, but also change over time. While core personality traits remain relatively stable, people can still become more agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable as they age. Evidence for Stability: Studies show that personality traits become more stable in early adulthood. People tend to act, think and feel in more consistent ways. For example , conscientiousness tends to increase with age, as people often become more responsible and organized. Evidence for Change: Personality can change in response to life experiences such as marriage, parenthood, career shifts, or trauma. People may actively work on changing certain traits. For example , individuals might try to reduce anxiety or improve social skills, leading to changes in their levels of neuroticism or extraversion. The idea of stability vs. change in personality is often examined from two different perspectives: mean-level change and rank-order stability . Both are important in understanding how personality develops over time.

Characteristics

Mean-Level Change

Rank-Order Stability

Description

Focuses on average changes in personality traits in a population over time. Measures whether the average level of a trait goes up or down in a group.

Focuses on how an individual's traits stay the same or change compared to others over time. Measures how much an individual's relative position on a trait remains the same. A person who was more conscientious at age 18 will likely remain more conscientious than others at age 40. Can show consistency of individual differences over time.

Measurement

Example

Conscientiousness may increase on average as people age.

Implications

Can indicate developmental trends in the general population.

Attribution Styles Attribution styles is the way people explain how things happened, especially their successes and failures. These explanations can show what a person believes and what motivates them. Locus of control is a similar idea that describes whether people think their results come from their own actions(like hard work and skills) or from outside forces(like luck or fate). The examples provided illustrate this concept well: ●​ "The professor just hates me" – This statement reflects an external locus of control, attributing failure to an uncontrollable factor (the professor's feelings). ●​ "I didn't study enough!" - Here, the cause reflects an internal locus of control. I can control how much I study, suggesting it won't necessarily impact future performance.

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