Positive Adult Personality Development

Abstract

Abstract. Does personality stay stable after young adulthood or is there continued change throughout middle and later adulthood? For decades, this question has caused heated debate. Over the last couple of years, a consensus has emerged based on recent cross-cultural as well as longitudinal evidence. This consensus confirms that indeed there is personality change in middle and later adulthood. Many authors have labeled this change personality maturation or growth. In somewhat simplified terms the observed pattern is as follows: neuroticism declines, conscientiousness and agreeableness increase. At the same time it has been argued that this pattern of personality change is the result of coping with the developmental tasks of adulthood and, thus, increased adjustment. We would like to examine this practice of equating developmental adjustment with growth and ask how to define personality growth. To answer this question, we consult theories of personality development as well as lifespan theory.

Focus on opportunities as a mediator of the relationship between business owners' age and venture growth

“…Baltes, 1987Baltes, , 1997. However, scholars from various disciplines suggested that mental health contributes to successful aging because it helps older individuals to obtain, protect, and replenish other important personal resources such as competencies and social networks (Hobfoll & Wells, 1998;Keyes, 2007;Knight, Kaskie, Shurgot, & Dave, 2006;Lazarus & Delongis, 1983;Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005;Warr, 1997). Mental health is also positively related to learning motivation (Colquitt, LePine, & Noe, 2000).…”

Wisdom, bias, and balance: Toward a process-sensitive measurement of wisdom-related cognition.

“…Whereas wise reasoners may not necessarily be happier people (consistent with Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005), wiser reflection on a concrete situation at hand may in fact be aligned with psychological benefits of more adaptive emotion regulation and greater satisfaction with one's life (Gross & Thompson, 2007;Kekes, 1983Kekes, , 1995Kross & Ayduk, 2011). In a given situation, focusing on sustaining one's well-being may be a healthy tendency.…”

“…First, it suggests that any theoretical claims about the relationship between wisdom and various well-being enhancing or prosocial tendencies ought to consider the level of analysis. For instance, consider the debate about the role of wisdom-related characteristics for various markers of subjective well-being (for review, see Grossmann, 2017): Whereas some scholars suggest that wisdom may promote more positive emotions and greater life satisfaction (e.g., Bergsma & Ardelt, 2012), other scholars proposed that wisdom is linked with a deeper understanding of twists and turns of one's life, and therefore may not necessary contribute to one's subjective feeling of happiness (Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005). Importantly, in most of these cases wisdom-related characteristics were measured only once, thus it is unclear whether effects concerned trait-or state-level associations between wisdom and happiness/mood, or could even be accounted by various additional situational contingencies (e.g., desire to present oneself in a positive light; Zacher et al, 2013).…”

Life Span Theory in Developmental Psychology

“…In the following, as we characterize gains and losses in life span development of self and personality, we use two approaches (see also Staudinger & Kunzmann, 2005). A first is based on evaluating developmental changes with regard to the adaptivity and functionality of the outcome for the individual, be it from a subjective (e.g., subjective well-being) or an objective perspective (e.g., longevity).…”