Personality Change

Does personality change is a question which 20 years ago would have received quite the categorical answer in psychology textbooks. The position used to be that personality is quite stable and changes only after very memorable and/or traumatic events. However, with advances in evolutionary, social and personality psychology this answer can be viewed as too general. We believe that personality change happens constantly in the sense that personality is the pattern of all our personal characteristics which constantly interact and adjust to the environment and its situations. But it is not so much that personality changes in each of these specific situations, as that its expression is moderated by the situations. Thus, for example, it might appear that a very agreeable person becomes disagreeable in a very hostile situation, but this effect is the result of the very strong situation which requires a certain behavior (i.e., defending oneself). However, operating for years in hostile situations would change the personality even of the greatest altruist. Think of Mahatma Gandhi and the evolution of his personality to non-violent non-cooperation.

In another example, please think of a brilliant accountant who is somewhat disorganized and tends to be late for meetings. As it turns out, the same individual secures a job at an excellent German company with great salary and benefits. As we know corporate culture in German companies is highly centered around punctuality. The accountant continues working in the company for years and I bet you that the accountant has learned not only to come to meetings on time but also to do their house chores relatively on time. Another example over a shorter time span is high school students in their last year of study. Bleidorn et al. (2012) found that high school graduates have significantly higher Consciousness compared to the year before they graduated.? In other words, the situational press to mature up and prepare for independent adult life causes increases in trait-level conscientiousness.

And still, yes, personality changes rather slowly. One slightly extreme theory consistent with the linguistic roots of the FFM is that this change is genetically-predisposed. However, there is very little support for this theory (Roberts et al., 2005). Change might be driven mostly by genes in childhood, but in adulthood change is driven mostly by the environment (e.g., culture, people, situations, random events, and determined conscious efforts). It seems that experiences around young adulthood impact the trajectory for personality change later in life (Roberts et al., 2006). Depending on the people we socialize with, the work we do, the information we perceive and learn, and the sheer reality of being independent adults responsible for our own survival, we start to iron out our juvenile personality’s inconsistencies or extremes. Life makes us form and develop stable-r personality dispositions. The greatest psychological pressure to adjust probably comes from the expectations of others (colleagues, partners, the society, kids) as well as what is realistic and financially possible at each stage in life (e.g., driving a Chevy at college before driving a BMW after securing a highly paying job after). In essence, most changes in personality occur before our 30s, consistency in personality peaks during the middle age, and some small inconsistencies start to appear in the 60s.

The cultural factors and norms at the historical time when one transitions to adulthood could be a moderator of personality change and stabilization. We, or at least our parents and grandparents, have thus far lived in traditionalistic societies with stable cultural norms. However, there are at least three grand processes which might change dramatically what is desirable for young adults to do - 1) the fourth technological revolution and its opportunities to work, communicate, and “be present” anywhere, 2) the fast advances in biology, medicine, and life expectancy, as well as 3) the increasing need for meaning and deeper purpose in life outside of religion. For example, would the disorganized teenager Billy become more conscientious in his early 20s to be able to afford a BMW in his 30s, when with some form of universal basic income Billy can afford to drive a BMW in the Metaverse all day long? Perhaps in the future, research on Billy’s generation would discover that personality change is refocusing on Openness to experience instead of Conscientiousness. This point exemplifies the changeable nature of psychological phenomena and why, especially discussing change, we should account for large environmental effects.

In terms of the FFM factors, meta-analyses have found that, in general, people become more conscientious and emotionally stable as they progress in life. However, one caveat with interpreting changes in adult personality is at what level personality was measured - factor or the more specific, facet level. For example, Bleidorn et al. (2009) found that whereas extraversion is relatively stable in adult twins, mean levels of the excitement-seeking and gregariousness facets decreased whereas the levels of assertiveness and activity facets increased. Also, in a large exploration of personality change among students from 55 countries, Baranski et al. (2021) recently found that young adults wanted to change more the sociability facet within Extraversion and the productivity facet within Conscientiousness.

Finally, there is also an emerging perspective that people can volitionally change their personality albeit the personal characteristics enabling such change are still under scientific debate. What we know so far is that unhappy, anxious, and depressed individuals are particularly motivated to change their personality (De Fruyt et al., 2006). More conscientious people might take the task of changing themselves more methodically and exert more effort along the way. Also, individuals with high openness to experience might be more successful changing their personality via creative exploration and experimentation with change techniques.

You might ask why individuals want to change their personality? In general, research has found that individuals would want to change their personality because there is a mismatch between their actual and ideal self and this mismatch leads to unhappiness. We also know that 1) individuals who want to change their personality want to decrease their Neuroticism and increase their Extraversion and Conscientiousness, 2) this desire for change is negatively related to psychological well-being, and 3) current levels of personality traits are inversely related to the desire to change them (Baranski et al., 2021). Specifically, decreasing Neuroticism seems to be the top priority to young adults (Robinson et al., 2015).?

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Baranski, E., Gardiner, G., Lee, D., & Funder, D. C. (2021). Who in the world is trying to change their personality traits? Volitional personality change among college students in six continents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(5), 1140-1156.

Bleidorn, W., Kandler, C., Riemann, R., Angleitner, A., & Spinath, F. M. (2009). Patterns and sources of adult personality development: Growth curve analyses of the NEO-PI-R scales in a longitudinal twin study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 142-155.

Bleidorn, W. (2012). Hitting the road to adulthood: Short-term personality development during a major life transition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(12), 1594–1608.

De Fruyt, F., Van Leeuwen, K., Bagby, R. M., Rolland, J. P., & Rouillon, F. (2006). Assessing and interpreting personality change and continuity in patients treated for major depression. Psychological Assessment, 18(1), 71–80.

Roberts, B. W., Wood, D., & Smith, J. L. (2005). Evaluating five factor theory and social investment perspectives on personality trait development. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 166–184.

Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A metaanalysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1), 1–25.

Robinson, O. C., Noftle, E. E., Guo, J., Asadi, S., & Zhang, X. (2015). Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adults. Journal of Research in Personality, 59(1), 31–43.