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Volitional personality change
Abstract
An emerging body of research has begun to examine volitional personality change—people’s desires and attempts to change their own personality traits. Studies have found that the vast majority of people want to change aspects of their personalities—usually in order to attain an external goal (e.g., wanting to increase in extraversion in order to achieve more satisfying social relationships). Moreover, several studies have found that people may actually be able to moderately and slowly change their personality traits in desired ways—at least over a short period of time. As the literature on volitional personality change is in its infancy, much future research is needed to understand which strategies for volitional change are most efficacious, and whether volitional trait changes can be maintained over extended periods of time.
... Over extended periods of time (perhaps as short as 6 weeks; , these new, conscientious patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are thought to become learned, automatized, and habitual (i.e. people start behaving more conscientiously in a relatively automatic fashion); accommodated into individuals' identities (i.e. they start to see themselves as more conscientious); and perhaps even etched into their biology through changes to the nervous system or epigenome (Allemand & Flückiger, 2017;Burke, 2006;Hennecke et al., 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Magidson, Roberts, Collado-Rodriguez, & Lejuez, 2014;Roberts, 2018;Roberts & Jackson, 2008). Stated more simply, many modern theories of personality development suggest that any changes to patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that are maintained for a sufficiently long time can eventually coalesce into enduring trait change, through a variety of psychological and biological mechanisms (Allemand & Flückiger, 2017;Hennecke et al., 2014;Magidson et al., 2014;Roberts, Hill, & Davis, 2017). ...
... lovingkindness and warmth) are critical to facilitating trait change (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007;Roberts & Wood, 2006). Other models of development more generally emphasize that people's motives and desires to adopt new behavioural patterns are key (Baumeister, 1994;Hennecke et al., 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Kiecolt, 1994). Namely, motives influence behaviour (e.g. ...
... Thus, Study 2 provides information on potential contextual moderators of the links between mindsets and trait change (e.g. beliefs might only predict trait change for people who want to change)-and it also provides data with respect to theoretical claims that self-change efforts might be easiest for people who believe that such self-change is possible (Allemand & Flückiger, 2017;Hennecke et al., 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017). ...
Theorists have suggested that beliefs about whether personality can change might operate in a self‐fulfilling fashion, leading to growth in personality traits across time. In the present two studies, we collected intensive longitudinal data from a total of 1339 emerging adults (n s = 254 and 1085) and examined the extent to which both global beliefs that personality can change (e.g. ‘You can change even your most basic qualities’) and granular beliefs that the individual Big Five personality domains can change (e.g. ‘You can change how extraverted and enthusiastic you generally are’) predicted trait change across approximately 4 months. Results indicated that traits did change across time, yet beliefs that personality can change were almost completely unrelated to actual change in personality traits. Our findings suggest that personality development during emerging adulthood does not depend to any meaningful degree on whether or not individuals believe that their traits can change. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology
... How, though, is it possible that people might be able to change their own traits? In terms of mechanisms, modern personality theories suggest that trait growth occurs whenever state-level thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are altered for a sufficient period of time (Allemand, 2008;Hennecke, Bleidorn, Denissen, & Wood, 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Jackson, Hill, Payne, Roberts, & Stine-Morrow, 2012;Magidson, Roberts, Collado-Rodriguez, & Lejuez, 2014). As one example of this principle in action, people tend to become more conscientious when they commit to their careers (Hudson & Roberts, 2016). ...
... This may occur because new patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours become relatively automatic and habitual and eventually even incorporated into individuals' identities (i.e. how they see themselves) and biology (e.g. via changes to the epigenome or nervous system) (Burke, 2006;Hennecke et al., 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Kandler & Zapko-Willmes, 2017;Magidson et al., 2014;Roberts, 2018). ...
... Do people want to change their attachment styles?. Theoretically, people generally formulate desires to change their personality traits for at least two reasons (Baumeister, 1994;Hennecke et al., 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Hudson & Roberts, 2014;Kiecolt, 1994). First, people may wish to increase in socially desirable traits that they lack for the intrinsic value of possessing the trait per se. ...
People value relationships and want to relate to both friends and romantic partners in a secure and comfortable fashion. But can individuals move towards realizing this goal of their own volition? To address this question, across three studies with a combined total of more than 4000 participants, we developed and validated a new measure of people's desires to change their attachment anxiety and avoidance. In Study 1, we created the new, 16‐item Change Goals—Experiences in Close Relationships measure. In Study 2, we replicated the Change Goals—Experiences in Close Relationships' factor structure and demonstrated that it correlates in theoretically expected ways with criterion variables (e.g. people who were high in undesirable traits such as anxiety or avoidance generally wanted to change those traits; change goals were linked to dissatisfaction with relevant life domains). Finally, in Study 3, we conducted a 16‐wave, weekly longitudinal study. Results indicated that goals to change attachment anxiety and avoidance predicted corresponding growth across time (e.g. people who wanted to become less anxious tended to experience declines in attachment anxiety across time). Thus, our research provides a new measure for studying changes in attachment and suggests people may be able to increase in attachment security per their own volition. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology
... The current research literature suggests that personalities can and do change through processes and events that include self-development efforts (Hudson & Fraley, 2017), experiences within organizations, and processes outside of the workplace (as summarized in the left part of Figure 1). As people's personalities change, there are likely to be changes in organizationally relevant outcomes, including how they construct themselves in terms of career choices, job roles, competencies, and other outcomes that we consider under the broad rubric of work-related identity. ...
... Thus, the view of the Big Five as a stable input into many organizational processes (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012: 11) is challenged by the extent to which personality changes (in part driven by volitional change - Hudson & Fraley, 2017). In organizations, the pressure for people to adapt themselves to changing roles and requirements is often intense (e.g., Raghuram, Wiesenfeld, & Garud, 2003). ...
This article focuses on an emergent debate in organizational behavior concerning personality stability and change. We introduce foundational psychological research concerning whether individual personality, in terms of traits, needs, and personal constructs, is fixed or changeable. Based on this background, we review recent research evidence on the antecedents and outcomes associated with personality change. We build on this review of personality change to introduce new directions for personality research in organizational behavior. Specifically, we discuss how a view of personality as changeable contributes to key topics for organizational behavior research and how this new approach can help broaden and deepen the scope of personality theory and measurement. The study of personality change offers a range of new ideas and research opportunities for the study of organizational behavior.
... Given the accumulating evidence that personality traits can change because of developmental factors, life events, and psychological interventions, it is natural to explore whether people can also change their personality traits by setting personal goals to do so. Volitional personality change is defined as people's desires and attempts to change their own personality traits (Hudson and Fraley 2017;Hudson et al. 2020). A methodology for studying volitional personality change was introduced by adapting the Big 5 Inventory (BFI; John and Srivastava 1999), a widely used scale for assessing the Big 5 traits, to ask young adults the extent to which they wanted to increase, stay the same, or decrease on each of the 44 BFI trait term items (Hudson and Roberts 2014). ...
... It is unclear whether the personality change paradigm developed by Hudson and Fraley (2017) is capturing true goal intentions to change one's personality. By prompting participants with the 44 BFI trait-term items and asking if participants desire to change on each of these traits, there would seem to be a risk that participants are reporting momentary (perhaps reactive) desires, rather than true goal intentions, or even simply responding in socially desirable ways (John and Srivastava 1999). ...
The frequency, effectiveness, and impact of personality change goal (PCG) pursuit was explored using a longitudinal goal-setting paradigm within two multi-wave prospective studies employing both a university student (study 1; n=1468) and community adult (study 2; n=248) sample. Self-determination theory (SDT) was incorporated to explore the extent to which PCGs reflect autonomous processes. Six major findings were revealed in study 1: 1) 20% of participants generated a PCG; 2) higher neuroticism and lower extraversion and conscientiousness was associated with pursuing a PCG; 3) participants reported more progress on their PCGs than on other goals; 4) PCGs were more autonomous relative to other personal goals; 5) Autonomous motivation for goal pursuit was more strongly associated with PCG progress, relative to other goals; and 6) PCG progress resulted in improved psychological well-being over time. Study 2 successfully replicated the motivational findings of study 1 within a community adult sample, and found evidence supporting the validity of the proposed longitudinal goal-setting paradigm. The present studies contribute to current PCG literature by using an alternate goal-assessment method that distinguishes desires to change from meaningful goal intentions and integrated SDT to enhance our understanding of volitional personality change.
... Second, researchers have tested interventions and found that modifying one's behavior predicts corresponding trait changes (e.g., behaving in an extraverted fashion predicts gains in extraversion across time; Hudson, Briley, Chopik, & Derringer, 2019;Hudson & Fraley, 2015;Jacques-Hamilton, Sun, & Smillie, 2019;Roberts et al., 2017). These findings are important because they suggest people may be able to take an active role in changing their traits through behavioral modifications (see Allemand & Flückiger, 2017;Hudson, 2019;Hudson & Fraley, 2017;Magidson, Roberts, Collado-Rodriguez, & Lejuez, 2014;Roberts & Jackson, 2008). This may have important implications for understanding personality development more broadly. ...
... This may have important implications for understanding personality development more broadly. For example, individuals' desires and attempts to change their own personality traits may contribute to the observed maturational trends in the big five (e.g., the fact that most people want to become more conscientious may partially explain normative increases in the trait across the life span; Hennecke, Bleidorn, Denissen, & Wood, 2014;Hudson & Fraley, 2017). ...
Research suggests that change goals (desires to change personality traits) predict subsequent trait growth. In this article, we (re)analyzed all data our labs have collected as of May 2019 that included measures of change goals and repeated measures of personality traits (12 studies; total n = 2,238). Results indicated that change goals robustly predicted growth in all five traits. Effect sizes were largest for extraversion and emotional stability (people with high change goals were predicted to experience ∼0.16 SDs greater growth across 16 weeks than their peers with average goals) and smallest for agreeableness and openness (people with high change goals were predicted to experience ∼0.05 SDs greater growth across 16 weeks than their peers with average goals). Thus, our analyses reinforce that people change in ways that align with their desires across time.
... Thus, it remains unclear whether older adults—whose personalities may be less plastic (e.g., Roberts, Wood, & Caspi, 2008)—would also experience similar levels of success in attaining their change goals. Future research should therefore examine whether change goals predict corresponding trait changes for adults of varying ages (Hudson & Fraley, 2017). Another implication of our study is that the traits individuals wish to change may vary as a function of their current developmental tasks (Hennecke et al., 2014; Hudson & Roberts, 2014; Hutteman et al., 2014). ...
Research suggests most people want to change their personality traits. Existing studies have, however, almost exclusively examined college-aged samples. Thus, it remains unclear whether older adults also wish to change their personalities. In the present study, the authors sampled 6,800 adults, aged 18 to 70, and examined the associations between age and change goals. Results indicated change goals were slightly less prevalent among older adults. Moreover, older adults expressed desires for slightly smaller increases in each trait. Nevertheless, these effects were small, and a minimum of 78% of people of any age wanted to increase in each big five dimension. These findings have implications for understanding people’s attempts to change their traits—and personality development more broadly—across adulthood.
... Intended personality change refers to active and self-regulated efforts to change personality in the desired direction that is guided by intentions and goals for change (Allemand & Flückiger, 2017;Hudson & Fraley, 2017). Personality change in a desired direction includes being aware of a gap between the actual and desired personality, setting goals to change personality, and actively seeking opportunities to close this gap. ...
Research indicates that it might be possible to change personality traits through intervention, but this clinical research has primarily focused on changing neuroticism. To date, there are no established, proven techniques for changing other domains of personality, such as conscientiousness and openness. This research examined the effects of a two‐week smartphone‐based intervention to either change one facet of conscientiousness (i.e. self‐discipline) or one facet of openness to experience (i.e. openness to action). Two intervention studies (total N = 255) with two active intervention groups for mutual comparisons were conducted. Results of self‐reports and observer reports showed that people who wanted to become more self‐disciplined were less self‐disciplined at pretest. Similarly, people who wanted to become more open to action were less open to action at pretest. The results showed that people who chose the self‐discipline intervention showed greater increases in self‐discipline, and people who chose the openness to action intervention showed greater increases in openness to action compared with the other group. Changes were maintained until follow‐up two and six weeks after the end of the intervention. Future work is needed to examine whether these personality changes are enduring or reflect temporary accentuation as a result of participation in the intervention. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology
... That is, although people cannot change their genetic makeup by choice, other personal and environmental sources are subject to individual control. For example, research on volitional personality change shows that people who want to change specific aspects of their personality can develop in the direction of their desired trait levels (Hudson & Fraley, 2017). Accordingly, individuals' personalities are themselves a source of stability and change as individuals select themselves into environments (e.g., through choice of a profession and workplace) and alter their behavioral styles to better fit into those environments (e.g., through becoming more reliable and organized in the workplace). ...
There is now compelling evidence that people’s typical patterns of thinking, feeling, striving, and behaving are both consistent and malleable. Therefore, researchers have begun to examine the distinct sources of personality stability and change. In this article, we discuss traditional classifications of sources, review key findings, and highlight limitations and open questions in research on personality stability and change. We conclude by describing an integrative model and by outlining important directions for future research.
... That is, although people cannot change their genetic makeup by choice, other personal and environmental sources are subject to individual control. For example, research on volitional personality change shows that people who want to change specific aspects of their personality can develop in the direction of their desired trait levels (Hudson & Fraley, 2017). Accordingly, individuals' personalities are themselves a source of stability and change as individuals select themselves into environments (e.g., through choice of a profession and workplace) and alter their behavioral styles to better fit into those environments (e.g., through becoming more reliable and organized in the workplace). ...
There is now compelling evidence that people’s typical patterns of thinking, feeling, striving, and behaving are both consistent and malleable. Therefore, researchers have begun to examine the distinct sources of personality stability and change. In this article, we discuss traditional classifications of sources, review key findings, and highlight limitations and open questions in research on personality stability and change. We conclude by describing an integrative model and by outlining important directions for future research.
... Typically, a student with a tendency to extraversion may be externally focused and interested in its social environment and could be characterized as outgoing, talkative, assertive, and energetic. As for a student with a tendency to introversion, he/she may be considered as being internally focused, somewhat calm, reserved, and displaying a more reflective nature [12]. Studies suggest that these tendencies are quite stable throughout time [13], and some evidence indicates that they could influence the level of motivation (their expectancies and values) that students may exhibit in different situations or contexts [14,15], but this relationship remains unclear. ...
Students’ mental health has been an increased concern since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, academic outcomes have received very little attention. In this study, changes in students’ achievement motivation are investigated using an expectancy-value framework. Participants (n=90) were high school students (grades 9 and 10) who reported on their expectancy and value perceptions in regard to learning before and during the pandemic (i.e., January and November 2020). Changes over time and as a function of extraversion/introversion were analyzed using repeated measures MANOVAs. Most perceptions were found to be stable with the exception of interest in learning, which increased as a function of extraversion. Results are discussed in light of relevant pre-pandemic evidence.
A growing body of research suggests that personality traits can be changed through intervention. Theorists have speculated that successful interventions may require (1) that participants autonomously choose which traits they change and (2) that they be deeply invested in the change process. The present studies tested these propositions by examining whether interventions to change conscientiousness and emotional stability can be successful when (1) participants are randomly assigned traits to change or (2) they are naïve with respect to the intervention’s target trait. Results indicated that participants could be randomly assigned to change conscientiousness—even if they were unaware that the intervention was targeting conscientiousness. In contrast, interventions targeting emotional stability were effective only if participants both (1) autonomously chose to work on emotional stability and (2) received an effective intervention. These findings have practical implications for designing interventions—and they suggest that different traits may develop via different processes.
Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease (COVID-19) was a major public health emergency and psychosocial shock event that affects most humans on Earth. The virus emerged around Wuhan in China and spread around the globe over 2020-22 and in these years >16 million humans died and >70% of humanity had been subjected to social restrictions and societal lockdown. Coronavirus exploited societies marked by social interaction, urbanization, public transport, and liberalism, and elicited the strongest global economic perturbation in a century (-3% world GDP). This study describes the emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and societal responses over 2020-2022; a snapshot of time marked by loneliness, polarization, demonstrations, riots, violence, long-Covid, virus mutations, vaccines, and breakthrough infections, up to conspiracy theories, and individual, sociocultural, and geopolitical changes. Humans have to improve their engagement with natural hazards as a master task of civilization now the climate disaster deepens and this coronavirus pandemic was a unique period in time to learn about human preparedness and psychology, as its relevance has rarely been so clear.
Method: To structure the immense amount of available information we use the Dutch (NL) mainstream media (MSM) as our lens and frame of reference to document societal responses over 2020-22. This unique story is enriched with examples and perspectives from Europe and the United States, and a range of academic and government studies. The review revolves around five key interests: (a) differences in what humans felt, thought, did, need, and wanted during the years 2020-2021 i.e. the role of personality differences; (b) how humans coped with the rapid changes in daily rhythms and societal restrictions and who was able to maintain their subjective well-being (resilience); (c) how human (pandemic) preparedness panned out over 2020-22; (d) how did the Dutch MSM reflect on this unfolding Covid pandemic, the largest in a century; and (e) how did the pandemic influence development, with a special focus on youth (aged 0-30).
Results: Globally governments decisions to curb the pandemic were driven by public sentiment rather than ratio and science. These collective emotions shifted like the weather, however, as populations are unpredictable, contradictory, and prone to emotional swings. Most humans tolerated repeated lockdowns over 2020-22 (e.g., 675 days with restrictions in NL) against the consensus prediction by social scientists. Humans grappled with the asymptomatic transmission of coronavirus, the duration and ambiguity of the pandemic, and the reevaluation of their lives. The Dutch construed a collective master narrative to structure their understanding and handling of the pandemic, and to accept their continuous vulnerability as a collective despite high vaccination rates. Over 2020-22 humans were forced to adjust to a rapidly changing world and many citizens struggled to return to a normal that was lost. Human resilience and adjustment to coronavirus was influenced primarily by social and financial resources, cognitive ability and risk position, values, personality profiles, skills, and contextual differences (e.g., living in a rich social welfare state), among others. Several countries started with an aim to derive herd immunity while others employed a zero-tolerance strategy that became untenable after the rise of Delta and Omicron variants. One cardinal observation over 2020-22 was the lack of human prudence, such as the genuine surprise when humans and governments where confronted with novel coronavirus, the series of climate disasters, and open wars over 2020-22; and their general lack of preparedness despite the certainty these events would come. Moreover, many humans and governments continued to be surprised by the second to sixth waves of Covid-19, often months apart, which illustrates that anticipatory failure was a system feature rather than a bug. In the Netherlands the polarization and loss of government trust was phenomenal (from 80% to 25% of adults). Citizens entered a prisoners dillemma as a subgroup participated in massive protests, riots, and refused to be vaccinated (~10%), while many Dutch adults and companies refused to adhere to even the most basic measures of social distancing (1.5m), testing, quarantining, and a reduction in social contact, at the expense of healthcare workers and people in need of intensive hospital treatment and prolonged the restrictions for all.
Conclusion: Coronavirus was a risk multiplier that helped identify specific human weaknesses, from their hubris and lack of prudence to poor international collaboration. MSM described how human irrationality, naievity, ignorance, complacency, hubris, immoderation, recklessness, callousness, self-centredness, and hostility and greed, were part of the personality trais that stimulated the observed catastrophies over 2020-22, including Covid-19, the rapidly accelerating climate disasster, and European war. Pandemic studies also highlighted human flexibility and positive capacities, and the key role of family and friends in human health and well-being, as well as rapid advances in public medicine and health. The coming decade we can witness how humans managed the coronavirus pandemic and geopolitical changes, adapted their social and healthcare systems to the new challenges, and whether those young in 2020-21 remained slightly more insecure, introverted, risk aversive, and collectivistic, compared to previous cohorts. The coronavirus pandemic was a symptom of a rapidly changing climate that stared humanity in the face in terms of an unprecedented series of extreme heat waves, wildfires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes over 2020-22, and the ongoing (sixth) global mass extinction event, all human made; a species both astonishing powerful and stupid. The events over 2020-22 changed the world and their shadow influences decades ahead. It is therefore key that humans take stock of the lessons learned and aim for prudence and collaboration to successfully navigate the next two centuries and flourish.
Jeder kann von einer Substanzabhängigkeit betroffen sein und jeder hat ein Bild im Kopf, wenn es um die Vorstellung von einer oder einem klassischen Drogenabhängigen geht, und dieses ist leider fast immer extrem negativ. Viele stellen sich unter Drogenabhängigen Menschen der unteren Gesellschaftsschicht vor, weil im Grunde genommen diese in der Öffentlichkeit am häufigsten wahrgenommen werden. Auch Massenmedien stellen Drogensüchtige in schlimmster Verfassung dar und zeigen, wie sich diese verwahrlost in der Innenstadt und in Bahnhofsvierteln tummeln.
Prior research has found that most people want to change their personalities. Moreover, these change goals predict trait growth. The present study extended this by examining both actual change in self-report traits and people’s perceptions of how they have changed across 16 weeks. Results indicated moderate alignment between trait growth and perceived change (average r = 0.49)—with 39% of responses indicating perceived changes in the opposite direction of trait growth. Moreover, change goals predicted trait growth holding perceptions constant, and both trait growth and perceptions independently predicted well-being. These data elucidate how people perceive the process of volitional change. Moreover, these data suggest people change in desired ways, even if they do not perceive those changes.
This study intends to explore the effect of Financial Attitude, Financial Literacy, and ParentalFinancial Socialization on the prudent financial management practices, amid the youth of Pakistan with moderating effect of Financial Well-Being. The population consist over the youth of Pakistan for which the data was collected through an online questionnaire. The study adopted the quantitative approach for which the data from 450 respondents was collected. Subsequently, the data was analyzed with the help of Smart PLS. The results indicated that Parental Financial Socialization, Financial Attitude, and Financial Literacy have a significant and positive relationship with Prudent Financial Management Practices. However, Financial Well-Being does not have significant moderating effect with Parental Financial Socialization, Financial Literacy, and FinancialAttitude. The results further highlighted serious concerns of the effectiveness of Financial Well-Being towards improving youth capabilities in managing their financial affairs in the marketprudently. It shows that challenges faced by the youth in the country market to strengthen thefinancial well-being of an individual by guiding them thoroughly, enhance the effectiveness, andencompass the right elements pertains to financial well-being to ensure today's young Pakistaniability to apply that in the real market place and have full financial freedom Keywords: Financial Attitude, Parental Financial Socialization, Financial Literacy, Prudent FinancialManagement Practices, Financial Well-Being
There is a recent debate in the field of personality development whether and how personality traits can be modified or changed over short periods of time. Whereas traditional positions highlight the relative stability of personality traits in adulthood, recent research investigates intentional personality trait change, that is, desires and attempts to change personality traits. The main goal of the present article is to connect recent activities and intervention efforts in personality psychology with psychotherapy process-outcome research. More specifically, we argue that 4 empirically derived common change factors in psychotherapy research might provide some useful heuristic principles for personality change interventions in normal population that do not particularly suffer from personality disorders. We discuss the implications of the use of these principles to change personality traits and suggest some ideas for future research and practice.
Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über das transaktionale Paradigma, das sich mit dynamischen Wechselwirkungen von Personenmerkmalen (z. B. Biologie, Persönlichkeit, Verhalten) und Umweltmerkmalen (z. B. Situationen, Beziehungen, Kultur) beschäftigt. Es handelt sich um eines der modernen Paradigmen, das derzeit am stärksten in der Persönlichkeitspsychologie wächst. Die Beliebtheit dieses Paradigmas gründet sich in seinem weiten Anwendungsbereich auf verschiedenste Forschungsfragen (z. B. Persönlichkeit und soziale Beziehungen, Persönlichkeitsentwicklung), was das Paradigma inhaltlich aber auch sehr heterogen erscheinen lässt.
Objective:
Previous research suggests that people want to change their big five traits-and moreover, they may be able to do so. The present paper extends these findings in three ways. First, I examined the extent to which people want to change their levels of the dark triad-Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Second, I tested whether desires to change the dark triad predicted actual changes in the corresponding traits across approximately four months. Finally, participants received an intervention designed to change their big five personality traits. Consequently, I tested whether this intervention could also facilitate changes in the dark triad.
Method:
The present study was a 16-wave, weekly, intensive longitudinal design (N = 467).
Results:
Results revealed that participants generally did not want to change their levels of the dark triad. Nevertheless, individual variance in desires to change the dark triad did predict actual changes in the dark triad across four months. Moreover, interventions targeting agreeableness spurred changes in all three dark triad traits.
Conclusions:
This research suggests that taking small steps to become more agreeable may also reduce individuals' levels of the dark triad. These findings may have implications for future research, as well as therapeutic treatments.
Research suggests most people want to change their personality traits. Existing studies have, however, almost exclusively examined college-aged samples. Thus, it remains unclear whether older adults also wish to change their personalities. In the present study, the authors sampled 6,800 adults, aged 18 to 70, and examined the associations between age and change goals. Results indicated change goals were slightly less prevalent among older adults. Moreover, older adults expressed desires for slightly smaller increases in each trait. Nevertheless, these effects were small, and a minimum of 78% of people of any age wanted to increase in each big five dimension. These findings have implications for understanding people’s attempts to change their traits—and personality development more broadly—across adulthood.
Recent research has found that a vast majority of people want to change their personality traits-and they may be able to find some degree of success in doing so. However, desires for self-change have been theoretically and empirically linked to reduced well-being. The present study utilized a longitudinal design to better understand the associations between people's desires and attempts to change their personality traits and their psychological well-being. Results indicated that possessing change goals did not necessarily predict growing deficits in well-being over time. In contrast, people who were able to change their personality traits in ways that aligned with their desires tended to experience increases in well-being over time. These findings are consistent with theory that dissatisfaction can precipitate change goals, and successful change can ameliorate dissatisfaction.
Recently, researchers interested in personality development have begun to acknowledge the roles of motivation and self-regulation for why traits change across adulthood. We propose three preconditions under which individuals may change their own levels of a personality trait through self-directed efforts. First, individuals need to desire changing their trait-related behaviors either as an end in itself or in order to achieve other goals. Second, they need to consider behavioral changes feasible and be able to implement the desired changes. Third, behavioral changes need to become habitual in order to constitute a stable trait. After elaborating on these three conditions, we review evidence attesting to the importance of motivation and self-regulation for trait development. We conclude with a discussion of the mutual interdependence of traits and goals as well as the limits of self-regulated personality change. From our framework we derive why personality changes across adulthood tend to be small to medium only, namely because they may require that all three preconditions for self-regulated personality change are fulfilled. We provide reasons for why people might not view change as desirable, feasible, or fail to maintain it over time. Finally, we propose ideas for potential study designs to research self-regulated personality change.
Increasing numbers of empirical studies provide compelling evidence that personality traits change across the entire lifespan. What initiates this continuing personality development and how does this development proceed? In this paper, we compare six theoretical perspectives that offer testable predictions about why personality develops the way it does and identify limitations and potentials of these perspectives by reviewing how they hold up against the empirical evidence. While all of these perspectives have received some empirical support, there is only little direct evidence for propositions put forward by the five-factor theory of personality and the theory of genotype environment effects. In contrast, the neo-socioanalytic theory appears to offer a comprehensive framework that fits the empirical findings and allows the integration of other, more specialized, perspectives that focus on specific aspects of personality development like the role of time, systematic differences between categories of social roles or the active partake of the person him- or herself. We draw conclusions on the likely driving factors for adult personality development and identify avenues for future research.
This paper explores the under‐researched area of extracurricular activity undertaken by students through the lens of the possible selves literature, which has largely been developed in the North American context. In the UK the employability agenda assumes an orientation towards the future and employers are increasingly expecting students to display capacities beyond those of simply achieving a degree. Extracurricular activity is one site where students might be able to develop these additional capacities towards their future imagined selves. Our case study, based on in‐depth interviews with 61 students, found different orientations towards the future, with only some displaying future selves attuned to employability. Other students were more firmly orientated to the present and developing student identities or unable to elaborate or act on imaged futures because of the contingencies of the present. We conclude that paying attention to differing temporalities and to the insights derived from the possible selves literature are likely to be fruitful for further research on extracurricular activity.
A prospective survey was conducted to identify predictors of university students' grade point average (GPA) using separate samples of female (N = 472) and male (N = 142) students over 9 months. Big five personality traits and achievement motivation were measured. Correlations show that conscientiousness (C) and achievement motivation explained variation in GPA. Latent variable structural equation modelling showed that the effect of C on GPA is fully mediated by achievement motivation for both female and male students. Invariant factor and structural mediation models across the female and male groups are also reported. Finally, the mediation model is shown to remain significant after scholastic achievement is controlled. The findings are interpreted within the framework of Neo-Socioanalytic theory. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this article, we address a number of issues surrounding biological models of personality traits. Most traditional and many contemporary biological models of personality traits assume that biological systems underlying personality traits are causal and immutable. In contrast, sociogenomic biology, which we introduce to readers in this article, directly contradicts the widely held assumption that something that is biological, heritable, or temperamental, is unchangeable. We provide examples of how seemingly unchanging biological systems, such as DNA, are both dependent on environments for elicitation and can be modified by environmental changes. Finally, we synthesize sociogenomic biology with personality psychology in a model of personality traits that integrates this more modern perspective on biology, physiology, and environment that we term sociogenomic personality psychology. We end the article with a discussion of the future directions of sociogenomic personality psychology.