scholarly journals Are All Kids Alike? The Magnitude of Individual Differences in Personality Characteristics Tends to Increase from Early Childhood to Early Adolescence

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Mõttus ◽  
Christopher J. Soto ◽  
Helena R. Slobodskaya ◽  
Mitja Back
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
The Usa

Do individual differences in personality traits become more or less pronounced over childhood and adolescence? The present research examined age differences in the variance of a range of personality traits, using parent reports of two large samples of children from predominantly the USA and Russia, respectively. Results indicate (i) that individual differences in most traits tend to increase with age from early childhood into early adolescence and then plateau, (ii) that this general pattern of greater personality variance at older childhood age is consistent across the two countries, and (iii) that this pattern is not an artefact of age differences in means or floor/ceiling effects. These findings are consistent with several (noncontradictory) developmental mechanisms, including youths’ expanding behavioural capacities and person–environment transactions (corresponsive principle). However, these mechanisms may predominantly characterize periods before adolescence, or they may be offset by countervailing processes, such as socialization pressure towards a mature personality profile, in late adolescence and adulthood. Finally, the findings also suggest that interpreting age trajectories in mean trait scores as pertaining to age differences in a typical person may sometimes be misleading. Investigating variance should become an integral part of studying personality development. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Age Differences in the Variance of Personality Characteristics

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Mõttus ◽  
Jüri Allik ◽  
Martina Hřebíčková ◽  
Liisi Kööts–Ausmees ◽  
Anu Realo
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Model Domain

In contrast to mean–level comparisons, age group differences in personality trait variance have received only passing research interest. This may seem surprising because individual differences in personality characteristics are exactly what most of personality psychology is about. Because different proposed mechanisms of personality development may entail either increases or decreases in variance over time, the current study is exploratory in nature. Age differences in variance were tested by comparing the standard deviations of the five–factor model domain and facet scales across two age groups (20 to 30 years old versus 50 to 60 years old). Samples from three cultures (Estonia, the Czech Republic and Russia) were employed, and two methods (self–reports and informant–reports) were used. The results showed modest convergence across samples and methods. Age group differences were significant for 11 of 150 facet–level comparisons but never consistently for the same facets. No significant age group differences were observed for the five–factor model domain variance. Therefore, there is little evidence for individual differences in personality characteristics being systematically smaller or larger in older as opposed to younger people. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding personality development. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Theories of Personality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra M Brandes ◽  
Kathleen Wade Reardon ◽  
Jennifer L Tackett
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Adult Individual ◽  
Foundational Research ◽  
The Life Course

The study of personality development has seen significant advances in the last two decades. For many years, youth and adult individual differences were studied from separate theoretical standpoints. However, more recent research has indicated that teenagers display personality traits in many of the same ways as adults. These personality traits are moderately stable throughout the life course, but there are important developmental shifts in their expression, structure, and maturation, especially in adolescence. This has resulted in an effort to study youth personality “in its own right” (Tackett, Kushner, De Fruyt, & Mervielde, 2013). Early personality associations with important lifelong outcomes including academic achievement, mental health, and interpersonal relationships further underscore the importance of studying traits in youth. Here we discuss current consensus and controversy on adolescent personality and highlight foundational research on the topic.

scholarly journals Breadth of Emotion Vocabulary in Early Adolescence

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Bazhydai ◽  
Zorana Ivcevic ◽  
Marc A. Brackett ◽  
Sherri C. Widen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Recognition Test ◽  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Social Experiences ◽  
Emotion Understanding ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
And Performance

Studies of emotion vocabulary and understanding typically focus on early childhood. Yet, emotion abilities continue to develop into adolescence, making it an important and underinvestigated area of research. This study presents evidence that adolescents’ emotion vocabulary undergoes active development, becomes more broad and sophisticated, varies by gender, and is not captured adequately by recognition-based approaches. Adolescents were asked to generate emotion words for five emotion categories— happy, relaxed, angry, sad, and nervous. Responses included emotion words (e.g., joyous) and nonemotion terms such as metaphors (e.g., boiling), social experiences (e.g., underappreciated), and personality traits (e.g., shy). Girls generated significantly more responses than boys. Older adolescents generated significantly more emotion words (e.g., describing someone who is happy as joyful, exuberant or ecstatic), while younger adolescents produced more nonemotion responses (e.g., describing someone who is happy as smiley, friendly, or full of life). Students’ grade, total number of responses they produced, and performance on the recognition test of emotion understanding predicted their emotion vocabulary.

Social Expectations and Abilities to Meet Them as Possible Mechanisms of Youth Personality Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuzhan Hang ◽  
Christopher J. Soto ◽  
Billy Lee ◽  
René Mõttus
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Regulatory Requirements ◽  
Developmental Trends ◽  
The Common

Rationale: Personality traits change in both mean levels and variance from childhood through mid-adolescence, but the mechanisms underlying these developmental trends remain unknown. We tested the possible roles of social pressure and self-regulation. Methods: The Common-Language California Child Q-Set was used to measure youths’ mean-level personality, social expectations for youths’ behavior from multiple perspectives (parents, teachers, peers) and the self-regulatory requirements for achieving the desired trait levels. Results: There were consistent expectations for youths’ traits, regardless of who described the expectations or whether these pertained to children or adolescents. Mean trait levels were moderately commensurate with social expectations, but age differences in the means did not follow these expectations. Traits with strong expectations showed more pronounced individual differences and increased even more in variance with age. In contrast, traits’ self-regulation requirements did not predict their developmental trends. Implications: Strong social expectations may contribute to the development of individual differences.

The Behavioural Genetics of Personality Development in Adulthood—Classic, Contemporary, and Future Trends

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiebke Bleidorn ◽  
Christian Kandler ◽  
Avshalom Caspi
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Genetic Studies ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Stability And Change ◽  
Personality Stability

Behavioural genetic research has led to important advances in the field of personality psychology. When carried out on longitudinal data, behavioural genetic studies also offer promising ways to examine the genetic and environmental origins of personality stability and change. Here, we review the findings of longitudinal twin studies, discuss their implications for our understanding of adult personality development, and point out open questions that need to be addressed by future research. Three general conclusions stand out. First, there is a strong and relatively stable genetic foundation of individual differences in personality throughout the adult life span; second, environmental influences become more important and contribute to an increasing rank–order stability of personality traits from early to middle adulthood; and third, both genetic and nonshared environmental influences contribute to both stability and change in personality traits. Equipped with this knowledge, the most urgent tasks for the next generation of behavioural genetic studies on personality development will be to (i) identify measurable environmental factors that matter and (ii) to capture the interplay between genetic and environmental influences on personality stability and change throughout adulthood. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology

The development of personality disorders: Perspectives from normal personality development in childhood and adolescence

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Shiner
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Disorders ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Personality Pathology ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Personality Differences ◽  
Normal Personality

AbstractThe developmental pathways leading to personality disorders are poorly understood, but clues to these pathways come from recent research on personality disorders and normal personality development in childhood and adolescence. The first section of this paper reviews recent work on personality disorders in childhood and adolescence, and concludes that personality disorders in adolescence are already prevalent, moderately stable, and impairing. The second section draws on McAdams and Pals' personality model to offer a taxonomy of personality differences that can account for the known patterns of emerging personality pathology. This taxonomy includes youths' temperament and personality traits, mental representations (including attachment), coping strategies, and narrative identities. Individual differences in all of these domains may play critical roles in the development, manifestation, and course of personality disorders. Existing knowledge of normal and abnormal personality development can inform future research on the developmental pathways leading to personality pathology, the diagnostic criteria for personality disorders, and the development of validated treatments for personality disorders in the first two decades of life.

scholarly journals The Stability of Temperament from Early Childhood to Early Adolescence: A Multi–Method, Multi–Informant Examination

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Kopala–Sibley ◽  
Thomas Olino ◽  
Emily Durbin ◽  
Margaret W. Dyson ◽  
Daniel N. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Effortful Control ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Positive Emotionality ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Convergent And Divergent Validity ◽  
The Stability

Temperament is a core aspect of children's psychological functioning and is assumed to be at least somewhat stable across childhood. However, little research has assessed the stability of temperament from early childhood to early adolescence. Moreover, few studies have examined the influence of measurement and analytic methods on the stability of early temperament over periods of more than a few years. We obtained laboratory observations and mother and father reports of temperamental negative and positive emotionality and effortful control from 559 three–year–olds. Approximately nine years later, children and both parents completed questionnaire measures of similar temperament constructs. Zero–order correlations revealed greater within–informant than cross–informant stability. In addition, compared with parent reports, early childhood laboratory measures showed greater convergent and divergent validity with child, mother, and father reports at age 12. Finally, latent temperament variables at age 3 composed of laboratory and parent–report measures and latent variables at age 12 composed of parent and child reports showed moderate stability. There was also a weak but significant association of early effortful control with later negative and positive emotionality. Results have implications for assessing temperament and knowledge of the stability of temperament across childhood. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Age Differences in Personality Traits and Social Desirability: A Multi-Rater Multi-Sample Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liisi Kööts-Ausmees ◽  
Christian Kandler ◽  
Anu Realo ◽  
Jüri Allik ◽  
Peter Borkenau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Five Factor Model ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Socially Desirable Responding ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Total N ◽  
Self Reports

Age differences in personality traits can inform us on the magnitude and qualities of personality development and describing them accurately is therefore of utmost importance. Little research yet has examined age differences by combining more than one source of information, despite many psychologists knowing that any one assessment method is prone to artefacts. We compared age differences in a range of personality traits such as Five-Factor Model (FFM) facets and nuances in self-reports and ratings by knowledgeable informants. Relying on samples from three countries (total N = 5,624) allowed us to cross-validate and meta-analyze the findings. We hypothesized that age differences would be larger in self-reports, because socially desirable responding increases with age. Indeed, we found that age-differences were systematically smaller in informant-reported facets and nuances compared to their self-reported counterparts and that this trend was stronger for traits independently rated as socially desirable. These findings replicated across multiple samples. We also hypothesized that variance of self-reported traits would decrease with age for evaluative traits, but this hypothesis received inconsistent support. We conclude that age differences may be inflated in self-reports partly because of socially desirable responding. However, since we cannot definitively rule out that age differences are underestimated in informant-ratings, they may be best approximated by average trends of self- and informant-reports. We therefore provide meta-analytic age trends for multi-rater composite scores of the FFM traits, their facets, and items. This is among the most rigorous studies yet into cross-sectional age differences in personality traits.

Personality Traits Predict Smartphone Usage

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 701-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Stachl ◽  
Sven Hilbert ◽  
Jiew–Quay Au ◽  
Daniel Buschek ◽  
Alexander De Luca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
European Association ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Data Logging ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Actual Behaviour

The present study investigates to what degree individual differences can predict frequency and duration of actual behaviour, manifested in mobile application (app) usage on smartphones. In particular, this work focuses on the identification of stable associations between personality on the factor and facet level, fluid intelligence, demography and app usage in 16 distinct categories. A total of 137 subjects (87 women and 50 men), with an average age of 24 ( SD = 4.72), participated in a 90–min psychometric lab session as well as in a subsequent 60–day data logging study in the field. Our data suggest that personality traits predict mobile application usage in several specific categories such as communication, photography, gaming, transportation and entertainment. Extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness are better predictors of mobile application usage than basic demographic variables in several distinct categories. Furthermore, predictive performance is slightly higher for single factor—in comparison with facet–level personality scores. Fluid intelligence and demographics additionally show stable associations with categorical app usage. In sum, this study demonstrates how individual differences can be effectively related to actual behaviour and how this can assist in understanding the behavioural underpinnings of personality. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

scholarly journals Longitudinal Associations Between Parenting and Child Big Five Personality Traits

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Ayoub ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Richard Göllner ◽  
Olivia E. Atherton ◽  
Ulrich Trautwein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Big Five Personality Traits ◽  
Childhood And Adolescence ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
Child Personality ◽  
Parenting Dimensions

The goal of this research was to explore the relationships between four parenting dimensions (academic involvement, structure, cultural stimulation, and goals) and child personality development. Many theories, such as social learning, attachment theory, and the psychological resources principle assume that parenting practices influence child personality development. Most of past research on the associations between parenting and child Big Five traits specifically has used cross-sectional data. The few longitudinal studies that examined these associations found small relations between parenting and child personality. We extended this research by examining the long-term relations between four underexplored parenting dimensions and child Big Five personality traits using bivariate latent growth models in a large longitudinal dataset (N = 3,880). Results from growth models revealed a preponderance of null relations between these parenting measures and child personality, especially between changes in parenting and changes in child personality. In general, the observed associations between parenting and child Big Five personality were comparable in magnitude to the association between factors such as SES and birth order, and child personality—that is, small. The small associations between environmental factors and personality suggest that personality development in childhood and adolescence may be driven by multiple factors, each of which makes a small contribution.

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