Personality traits are associated with a range of important life outcomes related to occupational success, close relationships, mental and physical health, and other domains. For example, people with a moody or fearful personality are more likely to have conflicts with partners, co-workers, neighbors and so on, and therefore are at risk for distressed relationships. Previously, the predominant view of personality regarded traits like "moody" as endogenous dispositions that become stable in early adulthood and change very little thereafter. However, a growing body of recent research has challenged this viewpoint and documented that personality traits can and do change throughout the lifespan, sometimes substantially. The primary goal of this research is to better understand the dynamics underlying personality changes during adulthood.
This research is designed to test two broad categories of explanations for personality change. The first concerns social roles, and begins with the observation that across the lifespan, adults move through a variety of evolving social roles as workers, parents, and caregivers, among others. Over time, social roles may dynamically interact with personality traits, with social roles promoting changes in personality and one's traits providing the basis for self-selection into, and identification with, different social roles. The second explanation involves an individual's worldview and values, defined as broad motivational orientations that prioritize desirable end-states across a variety of situations. Values and worldview have the potential to shape and reorganize personality (e.g., pursuit of communitarian values may shift an individual toward a more generous and other-oriented disposition). To test these and related hypotheses, two longitudinal studies will be conducted. Study 1 will focus on young adults who are beginning to take on adult social roles and consolidating a sense of identity and a set of personal values. Study 2 will focus on adults from a broader range of ages. In both studies, participants will complete an in-depth assessment of personality, social roles, values/worldview, and relevant control variables at four points in time, each separated by one year. This will allow the examination of whether changes in social roles or values precipitate shifts in personality traits or vice versa.
Broadly, this research seeks a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of personality traits: what makes them stable and what makes them change. While traits are partially rooted in genetic influences, they evidently develop through as yet poorly understood dynamic interactions between genetic and environmental processes. New models, then, are needed that more exactly specify how personality interacts with belief systems and with social environments, which can then direct research that examines how lower-level processes like gene expression and gene-environment interactions lead to important behavioral outcomes. The dynamic processes underlying personality, once identified, will point to transactional sources of change that can usefully inform and be incorporated into public policy and education. Among other possibilities, this might lead to targeted interventions to promote optimal development of key desirable psychological attributes, including civility, altruism, integrity, and achievement orientation.
