Recall that theories we just examined described the processes involved in aging as either age-irrelevant (age constancy) or age-relevant (age change).

Some issues to consider before we begin studying personality in later adulthood

Based on research done by Bernice Neugarten and her colleagues: used the TAT as part of the Kansas City Studies of Adult Life and two major findings with regard to age changes in personality

1) greater disengagement: in one’s early 50’s, descriptions relating to active mastery and ego energy began to decline; disengagement theory - proposed that social and emotional withdrawal was an expected and desirable aspect of aging

2) greater androgyny: as compared with younger men and women (40 -54), older men and women (55-70) used more androgynous characteristics in describing men and women in the TAT

these ideas both support Jung’s theory, but how do they hold up?

there was some later evidence that people who were engaged in an active lifestyle were doing better mentally (activity theory), however, it became clear that people who chose either disengagement or activity were better off mentally

Baltes’ selective-optimization-compensation theory is relevant here; we must at some level choose those areas into which will put our energy and leave others alone - selective disengagement

Is androgyny a function of the parental imperative? There is evidence that gender roles and the division of labor change as related to parenting, but there is also evidence that this "change" to greater androgyny may reflect cultural differences (African-American women are more likely to be androgynous even in the child-bearing years; Asian-Americans are more likely to be traditional) and generational differences (less androgyny was found for the mothers of the Mills College students).

The case for stability

Based on the research of Costa and McCrae who study the Big 5 personality traits examined in participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study -

found consistent evidence for the stability of personality — that is the characteristics that were presumed to change with age (e.g., neuroticism, openness, and extraversion) were present in the same proportions at the ages tested

they also did some validation studies by:

1) looking at additional cross-sectional samples to see if people had similar scores on these traits - they did, and

2) correlating the self-reports with others’ reports;

with a more longitudinal-like method (examining diary entries), Burns and Seligman (1989) found evidence for the stability of explanatory style

what might account for stability?

genetics: The Swedish Longitudinal Study found that twins separated at birth were likely to report similar events in their lives; plus we know that traits like extraversion, conservatism, etc. have an inherited component

Genetics are hypothesized to shape one’s environment via 2 mechanisms:

cumulative consistency: a general trend to have certain kinds of events in one’s life based on the traits one exhibits - the trait is therefore reinforced

interactional consistency: immediate social impact based on an exhibited trait

but knowing a trait exists doesn’t mean we can predict how it will turn out nor does it mean that the environment can’t affect behavior

Caspi et al.’s (1989) temperament study of explosive, shy, and dependent children - studied at age 10 and then followed through to midlife:

tended to have different outcomes based in temperament type and gender -->

• explosive fared the worst - they had difficulty throughout: greater problems at work, less happy marriages, more likely to be divorced
• shy children - females tended to do fine, males, although they married and entered the workforce a little later, were also doing fine at midlife
• dependent children - more problematic for females, but the males were "unusually happy" - calm, giving, insightful, and socially poised; more likely to have stable marriages, be nurturing fathers, and have satisfied wives

Stability doesn’t mean that a given trait won’t be expressed in different ways at different points in one’s life; it doesn’t mean that there is no change, but rather a tendency towards stability; much of this based on cross-sectional research and about 20 years of longitudinal research and covers only those over 30

Some suggestions:

1 . Change is more likely over longer periods of time and over certain periods of life.

For example, in the longitudinal Berkeley/Oakland Studies there was evidence for both stability and change.

2. Change is more likely if we look beyond traits. Some researchers argue that the core of personality is best studied with projective tests such as the TAT or California Q-sort.

Further, personality may be a multi-layered concept (McAdams, 1992):

• Level 1= traits and dispositions
• Level 2 = themes and concerns that organize a person’s everyday life
• Level 3 = the life plan that integrates these themes and plans over the years