Personality Psychology 6th Edition Larsen Solutions Manual 1

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Chapter 5 Personality Dispositions over Time: Stability, Coherence, and Change
Personality Psychology 6th Edition

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Chapter 5
Personality Dispositions over Time: Stability,
Coherence, and Change
Chapter Overview
This chapter provides students with an introduction to stability, change, and the coherence of
personality dispositions over time. The authors begin by reviewing several key conceptual issues
in personality development. They define personality development, then define and differentiate
between rank order stability, mean level stability, and personality coherence. Next, the authors
review what should and should not be considered under personality change. The authors note
that personality change has two defining qualities: First, that the changes are internal to the
person, and second, that the changes are enduring over time. The authors then review personality
development from the perspective of three levels of analysis: the population level, the group
differences level, and the individual differences level. The authors then consider personality
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stability over time by addressing the stability of temperaments during infancy, stability during
childhood, and rank order and mean level personality stability in adulthood. The authors then
address personality change, beginning with a review of work on the changes in self-esteem from
adolescence to adulthood. The authors also take into consideration the day-to-day changes in
self-esteem. Next, the authors review change during adulthood along with several personality
dimensions, including flexibility, impulsivity, ambition, sensation seeking, femininity,
competence, and independence. The authors then consider personality coherence over time and
the prediction of socially relevant outcomes from personality assessed earlier in life. These
socially relevant outcomes include marital dissatisfaction and divorce, alcoholism and emotional
disturbance, and education and academic achievement. The authors review work indicating that
childhood temper tantrums predict adult outcomes such as criminality. The authors next review
work suggesting that the choice of marriage partner predicts personality stability and change.
Learning Objectives
1. Define personality development.
2. Define and distinguish between the three forms of personality stability: rank order stability,
mean level stability, and personality coherence.
3. Define personality change, and discuss the two key features required for the identification
of “real” personality change.
4. Identify and discuss the three levels of analysis taken into consideration while examining
personality change and stability.
5. Discuss the stability of temperaments during infancy.
6. Discuss personality stability during childhood.
7. Discuss the empirical studies examining the life trajectories of bullies and “whipping boys”
from childhood to adulthood.
8. Discuss the empirical work done on rank order personality stability in adulthood.
9. Discuss the empirical work done on mean level personality stability in adulthood.
10. Discuss the work done on the changes in self-esteem from adolescence to adulthood and
the day-to-day changes in self-esteem (self-esteem variability).
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11. Discuss the empirical work done on the changes over time in flexibility and impulsivity.
12. Discuss the empirical work done on the changes over time in autonomy, dominance,
leadership, and ambition.
13. Discuss the empirical work done on the changes over time in sensation seeking.
14. Discuss the empirical work done on the changes over time in femininity, competence,
independence, and traditional roles based on the Mills College study.
15. Discuss the relationship between wife’s personality, husband’s personality, and subsequent
marital dissatisfaction and divorce in a relationship.
16. Discuss the relationship between personality and subsequent alcoholism and emotional
disturbance in the context of socially relevant outcomes.
17. Discuss the role impulsivity plays in subsequent educational and academic achievement.
18. Discuss the empirical work done on the relationships between childhood temper tantrums
and adult outcomes such as criminality.
19. Discuss the work that suggests that one’s choice of marriage partner is a predictor of
personality change and stability over time.
20. Identify and discuss the other personality dimensions besides the traits that might change
over time.
Chapter Outline
I. Conceptual Issues: Personality Development, Stability, Coherence, and Change
A. What Is Personality Development?
• Personality development can be defined as the continuities, consistencies, and

stabilities in people over time and the ways in which people change over time.
B. Rank Order Stability
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• Rank Order Stability is the maintenance of individual position within a group
C. Mean Level Stability
• Constancy of level, or mean level stability is another kind of personality stability.

• Consider political orientation.
o If the average level of liberalism or conservatism in a group remains the same
over time, the group exhibits high mean level stability.
o If the average degree of political orientation changes—for example, if people tend
to get increasingly conservative as they get older—then that population is
displaying mean level change.
D. Personality Coherence
• The form of personality development—maintaining rank order in relation to other

individuals but changing the manifestations of the trait—is called personality
coherence.
E. Personality Change
• Personality change has the following two defining qualities:

o The changes are typically internal to the person, not merely changes in the
external surroundings, such as walking into another room.
o The changes are relatively enduring over time, rather than being merely
temporary.
II. Three Levels of Analysis
A. Population Level
• This level of personality development deals with the changes and constancies that apply
more or less to everyone.
B. Group Differences Level
• Some changes over time affect different groups of people differently.

o Sex differences are one type of group differences.
o Other group differences include cultural or ethnic group differences.
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C. Individual Differences Level
• Personality psychologists also focus on individual differences in personality

development.
o For example, can one predict, based on an individuals’ personalities, which
individuals will go through a midlife crisis? Can one predict who will be at risk
for a psychological disturbance later in life based on earlier measures of
personality?
III. Personality Stability over Time
A. Stability of Temperament During Infancy
• Most researchers define temperament as the individual differences that emerge very
early in life, are likely to have a heritable basis, and are often involved with
emotionality or arousability.
• Mary Rothbart (1981, 1986; Rothbart & Hwang, 2005) studied infants at different ages,
starting at 3 months of age.
o She examined six factors of temperament, using ratings completed by the
caregivers: activity level, smiling and laughter, fear, distress to limitations,
soothability, and the duration of orienting.
• Research findings reveal the following four important points :
o Stable individual differences appear to emerge very early in life, when they can be
assessed by observers
o For most temperament variables, there are moderate levels of stability over time
during the first year of life.
o The stability of temperament tends to be higher over short intervals of time than
over long intervals of time—a finding that occurs in adulthood as well.
o The level of stability of temperament tends to increase as infants mature
(Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1991; Rothbart & Hwang, 2005).
B. Stability During Childhood
• Longitudinal studies, which examine the same groups of individuals over time, are
costly and difficult to conduct.
• A major exception is the Block and Block Longitudinal Study, which initiated the
testing of a sample of more than 100 children from the Berkeley-Oakland area of
California when the children were 3 years old (see, e.g., Block & Robbins, 1993).
o Since that time, the sample has been followed and repeatedly tested at ages 4, 5, 7,
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11, and into adulthood.

o One of the first publications from this project focused on individual differences in
activity level (Buss, Block, & Block, 1980).
o When the children were three years old, and then again at four, their activity
levels were assessed in the following two ways:
▪ Actometer: a recording device attached to the wrists of the children during
several play periods.
o The correlations between the same measures obtained at two different points in
time are called stability coefficients (these are also sometimes called test-retest
reliability coefficients).
o The correlations between different measures of the same trait obtained at the same
time are called validity coefficients.
o The actometer-based measurements of activity level have significant positive
validity coefficients with the judge-based measurements of activity level.
▪ Activity level in childhood can be validly assessed through both
observational judgments and activity recordings from the actometers.
o The correlations of the activity level measurements are all positively correlated
with measurements of activity level taken at later ages.
▪ Activity level shows moderate stability during childhood.
o The size of correlations tends to decrease as the time interval between the
different testings increases.
• Marked individual differences in aggression emerge very early in life, certainly by the
age of 3 (Olweus, 1979).
• Individuals retain their rank order stability on aggression to a substantial degree over the
years.
• As seen with infant temperament and childhood activity level, the stability coefficients
tend to decline as the interval between the two times of measurement increases.
C. Rank Order Stability in Adulthood
• Results of different studies conducted on the stability of adult personality yield a strong
general conclusion: across self-report measures of personality, conducted by different
investigators and over differing time intervals of adulthood, the traits of Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness all show moderate to
high levels of stability.
o The average correlations across these traits, scales, and time intervals is roughly
+.65.
• Moderate to high levels of personality stability, in the individual differences sense, are
found whether the data source is self-report, spouse-report, or peer-report.
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• Roberts and DelVecchio (2000) found two key results from a meta-analysis of 152
longitudinal studies on personality, which are as follows:
o Personality consistency tends to increase with increasing age.
o As people age, personality appears to become more and more “set.”
D. Mean Level Stability and Change in Adulthood
• The five-factor model of personality also shows fairly consistent mean level stability
over time.
o Especially after age 50, there is little change in the average level of stability in
Openness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness.
o There are small but consistent changes in the personality traits mentioned above,
especially during the decade of the twenties.
▪ There is a tendency for Openness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism to
gradually decline with increasing age until around age 50.
▪ At the same time, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness show a gradual
increase over time.
IV. Personality Change
A. Changes in Self-Esteem from Adolescence to Adulthood
• Self-esteem was defined as “the extent to which one perceives oneself as relatively
close to being the person one wants to be and/or as relatively distant from being the kind
of person one does not want to be, with respect to person-qualities one positively and
negatively values” (Block & Robbins, 1993, p. 911).
• The transition from early adolescence to early adulthood appears to be harder on women
than on men, at least in terms of self-esteem.
o Females tend to decrease in self-esteem, showing an increasing gap between their
current self-conceptions and their ideal selves.
o Males tend to show a smaller discrepancy between their real and ideal selves over
the same time period.
B. Autonomy, Dominance, Leadership, and Ambition
• A longitudinal study examined 266 male managerial candidates at the business AT&T
(Howard & Bray, 1988).
o The researchers first tested these men when they were in their twenties (in the late
1950s) and then followed them up periodically over a 20-year time span when
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they were in their forties (in the late 1970s).

o The following personality changes were observed for the sample as a whole:
▪ A Steep drop in ambition score: this drop was steepest during the first eight
years but continued to drop over next the 12 years.
▪ Supplementary interview data suggested that the men had become more
realistic about their limited possibilities for promotion in the company.
▪ Scores on autonomy, leadership motivation, achievement, and dominance all
increased over time.
C. Sensation Seeking
• Sensation seeking increases with age from childhood to adolescence and peaks in late
adolescence around ages 18–20; then it falls more or less continuously as people get
older (Zuckerman, 1974).
D. Femininity
• In a longitudinal study of women from Mills College in the San Francisco bay area,
Helson and Wink (1992) examined changes in personality between the early forties and
early fifties.
o Fascinating change occurred in this sample of educated women—they showed a
consistent drop in femininity as they moved from their early forties to their early
fifties—a group level change in this personality variable.
E. Independence and Traditional Roles
• The longitudinal study of Mills College women (Helson & Picano, 1990) yielded
another fascinating finding.
• The researchers used a CPI independence scale, which measured two related facets of
personality:
o Self-assurance, resourcefulness, and competence
o Distancing self from others and not bowing to conventional demands of society
• The following are the findings from the study:
o For the divorced mothers, non-mothers, and working mothers, independence
scores increased significantly over time.
o Only the traditional homemakers showed no increase in independence over time.
• Regardless of the interpretation, the study illustrates the utility of examining subgroups
within the population.
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F. Personality Changes Across Cohorts: Assertiveness and Narcissism
• One of the interesting issues in exploring personality change over time is determining
whether the changes observed are due to true personal change that all people undergo as
they age, as can be determined by longitudinal studies of the sort just presented, or,
conversely, changes in the cohort effects—the social times in which they lived. Jean
Twenge
• Jean Twenge (2000, 2001a, 2001b) has been at the forefront in exploring personality
change that is likely to be caused by cohort effects.
o She argues that American society has changed dramatically over the past seven
decades.
V. Personality Coherence Over Time: Prediction of Socially Relevant Outcomes
• Personality coherence is defined as predictable changes in manifestations or outcomes of

personality factors over time, even if the underlying characteristics remain stable.
A. Marital Stability, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce
• In a longitudinal study of unprecedented length, Kelly and Conley (1987) studied a

sample of 300 couples from their engagements in the 1930s all the way through their
status later in life in the 1980s.
• During the first testing session in 1930s, acquaintances provided ratings of each
participant’s personality on a wide variety of dimensions.
• Three aspects of personality proved to be strong predictors of marital dissatisfaction and
divorce—the neuroticism of the husband, the lack of impulse control of the husband,
and the neuroticism of the wife.
B. Alcoholism, Drug Use, and Emotional Disturbance
• Personality also predicts the later development of alcoholism and emotional disturbance
(Conley & Angelides, 1984).
• Of the 233 men in one longitudinal study, 40 were judged to develop a serious
emotional problem or alcoholism.
o The alcoholic men had impulse control scores a full standard deviation lower than
those who had an emotional disturbance.
C. Religiousness and Spirituality
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• Another important life outcome pertains to spirituality—the degree to which individuals

embrace religion or seek to lead a spiritual life.
• Personality in youth, in short, appears to influence spirituality and religiousness later in
life, regardless of the early socialization practices to which people are exposed.
D. Education, Academic Achievement, and Dropping Out
• Kipnis (1971) had a group of individuals self-report on their levels of impulsivity; He

also obtained their SAT scores.
o Among those with low SAT scores, there was no link between impulsivity and
subsequent grade point average.
o Among those with high SAT scorers, however, the impulsive individuals had
consistently lower GPAs than did their less impulsive peers.
o Furthermore, the impulsive individuals were more likely to flunk out of college
than were those who were less impulsive.
E. Health and Longevity
• The most important traits conducive to living a long life are high conscientiousness,
positive emotionality (extraversion), low levels of hostility, and low levels of neuroticism
(Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001; Friedman et al., 1995; Miller et al., 1996; Mroczek
et al., 2009).
F. Predicting Personality Change
• In a fascinating longitudinal study, Caspi and Herbener (1990) studied middle-aged

couples over an 11-year period.
• The couples were tested twice, once in 1970 and again in 1981.
• The study was focused on the following question: Is the choice of marriage partner a
cause of personality stability or change?
• Findings of the study are as follows
o The people married to spouses who were highly similar to themselves showed the
most personality stability.
o The People married to spouses least similar to themselves showed the most
personality change.
Summary and Evaluation
Personality development includes both the continuities and changes over time. There are three
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forms of personality stability: (1) rank order stability is the maintenance of one’s relative
position within a group over time; (2) mean level stability is the maintenance of the average level
of a trait or characteristic over time; and (3) personality coherence is predictable changes in the
manifestations of a trait. Researchers can examine personality development at three levels of
personality analysis: the population level, the group differences level, and the individual
differences level.
There is strong evidence for personality rank order stability over time. Temperaments such as
activity level and fearfulness show moderate to high levels of stability during infancy. Activity
level and aggression show moderate to high levels of stability during childhood. Bullies in
childhood tend to become juvenile delinquents in adolescence and criminals in adulthood.
Personality traits, such as those captured by the five factor model, show moderate to high levels
of stability during adulthood. As a general rule, the stability coefficients decrease as the length of
time between the two periods of testing increases.
Personality also changes in predictable ways over time. With respect to the Big Five,
Neuroticism generally decreases over time; people become a bit more emotionally stable as they
age. Furthermore, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness tend to increase over time. All these
changes suggest increased maturity, as the sometimes tumultuous times of adolescence settle out
into the maturity of adulthood. Moving into adult roles such as a serious romantic relationship,
becoming a parent, and investing heavily in work appear to increases people's level of
Conscientiousness. From early adolescence to early adulthood, men’s self-esteem tends to
increase, whereas women’s self-esteem tends to decrease. In adulthood, there is some evidence
from a study of creative architects that flexibility and impulsivity decline with increasing age.
Sensation seeking also declines predictably with age. And in women, femininity tends to
decrease over time, notably from the early forties to the early fifties. On the other hand, several
studies suggest that the personality characteristics of autonomy, independence, and competence
tend to increase as people get older, especially among women.
In addition to personality change due to age, there is also evidence that mean personality levels
can be affected by the social cohort in which one grows up. Jean Twenge has documented
several such effects, most notably on women’s levels of assertiveness or dominance. Women’s
assertiveness levels were high following the 1930s, in which women had to be extremely
independent; they fell during the 1950s and 1960s, when women were largely homemakers and
fewer became professionals. From 1967 to 1993, however, women’s levels of assertiveness
increased, corresponding to changes in their social roles and increasing participation in
professional occupations.
Personality also shows evidence of coherence over time. Early measures of personality can be
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used to predict socially relevant outcomes later in life. High levels of neuroticism in both sexes
and impulsivity in men, for example, predict marital dissatisfaction and divorce. Neuroticism
early in adulthood is also a good predictor of later alcoholism and the development of emotional
problems. Impulsivity plays a key role in the development of alcoholism and the failure to
achieve one’s academic potential. Highly impulsive individuals tend to get poorer grades and
drop out of school more than their less impulsive peers. Children with explosive temper tantrums
tend to manifest their personalities as adults through downward occupational mobility, more
frequent job switching, lower attainment of rank in the military, and higher frequencies of
divorce. People who are impulsive at age 18 tend to do more poorly in the workplace—they
attain less occupational success and less financial security. Work experiences, in turn, appear to
affect personality change. Those who attain occupational success tend to become happier, more
self-confident, and less anxious over time.
Although little is known about what factors maintain these forms of personality stability and
coherence over time, one possibility pertains to the choices of marriage partners. There is
evidence that people tend to choose those who are similar to themselves in personality, and the
more similar the partners, the more stable the personality traits remain over time.
How can researchers best reconcile the findings of considerable personality stability over time
with evidence of important changes? First, longitudinal studies have shown conclusively that
personality traits, such as those subsumed by the Big Five, show substantial rank order stability
over time. These personality traits also show evidence of coherence over time. Bullies in middle
school, for example, tend to become criminals in adulthood. Those with self-control and
conscientiousness in adolescence tend to perform well academically and well in the workplace
later in life. In the context of these broad brushstrokes of stability, it is also clear that people
show mean level changes with age—as a group people become less neurotic, less anxious, less
impulsive, lower in sensation seeking, more agreeable, and more conscientious. Some changes
are more pronounced in women—they become less feminine and more competent and
autonomous over time. And some personality change affects only some individuals, such as
those who succeed in the workplace. In short, although personality dispositions tend to be stable
over time, they are not “set in plaster” in the sense that some change occurs in some individuals
some of the time.
Key Terms
Personality development Personality coherence

Rank order stability Temperament
Mean level stability Longitudinal studies
Mean level change Actometer
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Stability coefficients Self-esteem

Validity coefficients Cohort effects
Lecture Topics and Lecture Suggestions
1. Two Personalities, One Relationship: Both Partners’ Personality Traits Shape the Quality
of Their Relationship (Robins, Caspi, & Moffitt, 2000)
This lecture is designed to encourage students to think about how personality can generate
socially relevant outcomes. This study elaborates how students appreciate work at the
interface of personality and interpersonal relationships. Use this lecture as a springboard
for an in-depth discussion of the impact of personality on socially relevant outcomes, with
a special focus on satisfaction and happiness in romantic relationships. Challenge students
to consider how the results of this study are consistent or inconsistent with similar research
presented by Larsen and Buss. Note at the outset of the lecture that there is evidence for the
stability of the personality dimensions identified as key predictors of relationship quality in
this research.
• Robins, Caspi, and Moffitt (2000) tested six models of the independent and
interactive effects of stable personality traits on partners’ reports of relationship
satisfaction and quality.
• Of the 360 couples, both members (N = 720) completed the Multidimensional
Personality Questionnaire and were interviewed about their relationships.
• The following are the findings of the study:
o A woman’s relationship happiness is predicted by her partner’s low negative
emotionality, high positive emotionality, and high constraint, whereas a man’s
relationship happiness is predicted only by his partner’s low negative
emotionality.
o Evidence showed additive effects and not interactive effects: Each partner’s
personality contributed independently to relationship outcomes, but not in a
synergistic way.
• Robins et al. (2000) discuss the results in relation to models that seek to integrate
research on individual differences in personality traits with research on interpersonal
processes in intimate relationships.
Reference:
Robins, R. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2000). Two personalities, one relationship:
Both partners’ personality traits shape the quality of their relationship. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 251–259.
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2. Children’s Self-Reported Psychotic Symptoms and Adult Schizophreniform Disorder: A 15-

Year Longitudinal Study (Poulton, Caspi, Moffitt, Cannon, Murray, & Harrington, 2000)
This lecture provides students with an example of personality stability and the
predictability of adult personality from childhood personality. In this study, the focus is on
mental disorders and, in particular, disorders that might be characterized as related to
personality. Alternatively, the instructor can present these disorders as characterized by a
particular set of individual differences and, therefore, within the realm of traditional
personality psychology. This study demonstrates that a suite of psychological and
personality aberrations are stable from childhood to adulthood. Use this lecture as a
springboard for discussing the issue of personality stability, with a special focus on mental
disorders that are related to stable individual differences. Also, the instructor might
encourage the discussion of what these results mean in reference to the identification and
treatment of mental disorders.
• Poulton et al. (2000) investigated whether self-reported delusional beliefs and

hallucinatory experiences at age 11 predicted schizophrenic outcomes 15 years later.
• Participants were members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and
Development Study born between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973, in Dunedin,
New Zealand.
• The cohort was assessed at ages 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, and 26.
• For the 761 participants, data were reported from age 11 onward (1983–1984) and
assessments were done at age 26 (1998–1999).
• Participants were administered based on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for
Children for DSM-III at ages 11 and 26.
• The following are the findings of the study:
o A strong linear relationship was found between self-reported psychotic
symptoms in childhood and adult schizophreniform disorder (SD).
o Children showing strong symptoms were 16 times more likely to have an SD
diagnosis by age 26 (and individual psychosis symptoms) when compared to
the controls.
o Twenty-five percent of the 11-year-old participants showing strong symptoms
met the criteria for SD diagnosis by age 26, and almost 70 percent had at least
one of either hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, catatonia, or
anhedonia.
o The strong-symptom group was at an increased risk for SD but not for mania or
depression at age 26.
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Reference:
Poulton, R., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Cannon, M., Murray, R., & Harrington, H. (2000).
Children’s self-reported psychotic symptoms and adult schizophreniform disorder: A
15-year longitudinal study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 1053–1058.
Classroom Activities and Demonstrations
1. Larsen and Buss discuss three important forms of personality stability: rank order stability,
mean level stability, and personality coherence. Begin by asking volunteers to define each
of these forms. Guide students to the following definitions: Rank order stability refers to
the maintenance of an individual position within the group; mean level stability refers to
the constancy of level in a particular group; and personality coherence refers to
maintaining rank order in relation to other individuals in a group but changing the
manifestations of the trait. Next, distribute Activity Handout 5-1 (“Three Forms of
Personality Stability”). Give students about five minutes to complete the handout. Ask
them to volunteer the examples they used for each of the three forms of stability. Use this
activity as a springboard for discussing personality stability, personality change, and the
relationships among the three different forms of personality stability.
2. Larsen and Buss review the three levels of analysis at which one can consider personality
change and stability. Begin by asking students to identify and define each of these three
levels (population level, group differences level, and individual differences level). Next,
distribute Activity Handout 5-2 (“Three Levels of Analysis of Personality Change”). Give
students about five minutes to complete the handout. Ask them to volunteer the examples
they used for personality change at each of the three levels of analysis. Use this activity as
a springboard for discussing the different levels at which one can address personality
stability and change. Ask students to consider whether one of the levels of analysis is more
important than either or both of the other two. Why, or why not?
3. This activity is designed to give students an opportunity to consider what personality

coherence means. Begin by distributing Activity Handout 5-3 (“Hobbies in Junior High
School and Today”). Do not give students any particular instructions. Simply ask them to
complete the handout. Give them about five minutes to do this. Next, ask students to list
out a couple of their favorite hobbies when they were in junior high school and a couple of
their favorite hobbies today. Encourage them to identify the personality traits that underlie
or are expressed in hobbies that appear rather different at first glance. Next, ask students to
consider whether fundamentally different personality traits underlie or are expressed in the
hobbies they enjoy today and those they enjoyed in junior high school. Students are likely
to comment that there are no such fundamental personality differences. The fact that the
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hobbies students enjoy today and the hobbies they enjoyed in junior high school might
represent different manifestations of the same personality traits is one expression of
personality coherence.
Questions for In-Class Discussion
1. Larsen and Buss note that personality change has two defining qualities. Ask students to
identify these qualities. Guide students to these two qualities: The changes are internal to
the person and not merely changes in the external surrounding, such as walking into
another room. Also, the changes are relatively enduring over time, rather than being merely
temporary or transient. Once students have identified each of these two defining qualities,
ask them to provide examples of change that would not qualify as personality change,
because the changes are not internal to the person or because the changes are not enduring
over time or because neither defining quality nor personality change is present.
2. Larsen and Buss present three key levels of analysis for considering personality stability
and change: the population level, the group differences level, and the individual differences
level. Begin the discussion by asking students to clearly define each of these levels of
analysis. Ask them to focus for a moment on the group differences level of analysis. One
facet of such group differences is cultural differences. Ask students to suggest possible
examples of a cultural difference in the stability or instability of any individual difference
variable. Ask students who provide the examples to clearly identify the possible cultural
difference, and encourage other students to either agree or disagree. Once the class
identifies a particular example of a possible cultural difference in stability or change, ask
students to consider what might account for or explain this difference.
3. Larsen and Buss review empirical work on the trajectories of bullies and whipping boys
from childhood to adulthood. This work reveals that bullies in childhood are more likely to
become juvenile delinquents in adolescence and criminals in adulthood. Indeed, 65 percent
of the boys who were classified by their second grade teachers as bullies ended up with
felony convictions by age 24. Ask students to discuss what precisely has remained stable
about these childhood bullies. Guide them especially to consider the personality traits that
might be expressed as bullying in childhood, delinquency in adolescence, and criminality
in adulthood. Finally, ask students to comment on whether this appears to be an example of
personality coherence. Why, or why not?
Critical Thinking Essays
1. Larsen and Buss present a brief biography of the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Provide
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specific examples of the actions he took or the beliefs he expressed that indicate
personality coherence. What are the underlying personality traits that might have generated
these actions or beliefs?
2. Larsen and Buss note that temperament, the precursor to personality, appears to become
more stable over the course of infancy. They suggest two possible explanations for this
increasing stability. One possibility is that older infants tend to exhibit more measurable
behavior traits than younger infants, so it is easier for researchers to secure more reliable
assessments of their personality traits. Another possibility is that early infancy is
characterized as a “blooming, buzzing confusion,” (William James, “The Principles of
Psychology”) whereas later infants develop more stable and predictable modes of coping
with, and responding to, their environments and caretakers. Suppose that future research
rules out these two possibilities. What else might account for the apparent increase in
temperament or personality over the course of infancy? How might your suggested
explanation be tested empirically?
3. Larsen and Buss review research indicating that for divorced mothers, nonmothers, and
working mothers, scores on the personality trait of independence increase significantly
over time. Only traditional homemakers showed no increase in independence over time.
What might account for this stability of independence for traditional homemakers?
Alternatively, what might account for the increasing independence of women who were not
traditional homemakers? Provide an explanation other than the one suggested by Larsen
and Buss. How might your explanation be tested empirically?
Research Papers
1. Conduct a review of literature on psychological research. Identify three articles published

in the past five years that address the stability of temperaments during infancy. Select
articles that were not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss. For each article, summarize
the objectives, the process involved, and the findings of that research.

in the past five years that address the stability of temperaments during childhood. Select
articles that were not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss. For each article, summarize
the objectives, the process involved, and the findings of that research.

in the past five years that document the presentation of sex differences or similarities in
development over time. Select articles that were not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss.
6
For each article, summarize the objectives, the process involved, and the findings of that
research.
Recent Research Articles and Other Scholarly Readings
Aitken, L., Simpson, S., & Burns, A. (1999). Personality change in dementia. International
Psychogeriatrics, 11, 263–271.
Arseneault, L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., et al. (2000). Mental disorders and violence in a total
birth cohort: Results from the Dunedin Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57, 979–986.
Bardone, A. M., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., et al. (1998). Adult physical health outcomes of
adolescent girls with conduct disorder, depression, and anxiety. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 594–601.
Biesanz, J. C., West, S. G., & Graziano, W. G. (1998). Moderators of self-other agreement:
Reconsidering temporal stability in personality. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 75, 467–477.
Caspi, A. (2000). The child is father of the man: Personality continuities from childhood to
adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 158–172.
Caspi, A., Wright, B. R. E., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (1998). Early failure in the labor market:
Childhood and adolescent predictors of unemployment in the transition to adulthood.
American Sociological Review, 63, 424–451.
Clausen, J. A., & Jones, C. J. (1998). Predicting personality stability across the life span: The
role of competence and work and family commitments. Journal of Adult Development, 5,
73–83.
Costa, P. T., Jr., Herbst, J. H., McCrae, R. R., et al. (2000). Personality at midlife: Stability,
intrinsic maturation, and response to life events. Assessment, 7, 365–378.
Danielson, K. K., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., et al. (1998). Comorbidity between the abuse of an
adult and DSM-III-R mental disorders: Evidence from an epidemiological study. American
Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 131–133.
Henry, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (1999). Staying in school protects boys with poor self-
regulation in childhood from later crime: A longitudinal study. International Journal of
7
Behavioral Development, 23, 1049–1073.
Karoly, P. (1999). A goal systems self-regulatory perspective on personality, psychopathology,

and change. Review of General Psychology, 3, 264–291.
Krueger, R. F., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2000). Epidemiological personology: The unifying
role of personality in population-based research on problem behaviors. Journal of
Personality, 68, 967–998.
Lenzenweger, M. F. (1999). Stability and change in personality disorder features: The

longitudinal study of personality disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 1009–1015.
Magdol, L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., et al. (1998). Developmental antecedents of partner abuse:
A prospective-longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 375–389.
Malatesta-Magai, C. (1999). Personality change in adulthood: Loci of change and the role of
interpersonal processes. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 49, 339–
352.
Max, J. E., Robertson, B. A. M., & Lansing, A. E. (2001). The phenomenology of personality
change due to traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents. Journal of Neuropsychiatry
and Clinical Neurosciences, 13, 161–170.
Miech, R. A., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (1999). Low socioeconomic status and mental
disorders: A longitudinal study of selection and causation during young adulthood.
American Journal of Sociology, 104, 1096–1131.
Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (2001). Childhood predictors differentiate life-course persistent and
adolescence-limited antisocial pathways among males and females. Development and
Psychopathology, 13, 355–375.
O’Connor, T. G., Caspi, A., DeFries, J. C., et al. (2000). Are associations between parental
divorce and children’s adjustment genetically mediated? An adoption study. Developmental
Psychology, 36, 429–437.
Paloutzian, R. F., Richardson, J. T., & Rambo, L. R. (1999). Religious conversion and
personality change. Journal of Personality, 67, 1047–1079.
Pals, J. L. (1999). Identity consolidation in early adulthood: Relations with ego-resiliency, the
8
context of marriage, and personality change. Journal of Personality, 67, 295–329.
Pedersen, N. L., & Reynolds, C. A. (1998). Stability and change in adult personality: Genetic
and environmental components. European Journal of Personality, 12, 365–386.
Poulton, R., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (2000). Children’s self-reported psychotic symptoms
and adult schizophreniform disorder: A 15-year longitudinal study. Archives of General
Psychiatry, 57, 1053–1058.
9
Activity Handout 5-1: Three Forms of

Personality Stability
Instructions: Provide an example of each of the following three forms of personality stability.
Use an example that was not provided by Larsen and Buss. Use your own experiences with the
people in your life.
1. Example of rank order personality stability:
2. Example of mean level personality stability:
3. Example of personality coherence:
10
Activity Handout 5-2: Three Levels of Analysis of

Personality Change
Instructions: Larsen and Buss present three levels of analysis at which one can consider
personality change and stability: the population level, the group differences level, and the
individual differences level. In the spaces provided below, give an example of personality
change for each of the three levels of analysis. Use different personality traits for each level and
provide examples that are different from those presented by Larsen and Buss.
1. Example of personality change at the population level:
2. Example of personality change at the group differences level:
3. Example of personality change at the individual differences level:
11
Activity Handout 5-3: Hobbies in Junior High

School and Today
Instructions: In the spaces provided below, first write down five hobbies that you most enjoyed
during junior high school, or five ways you most enjoyed spending your free time during junior
high school. Then, write down five hobbies that you most enjoy today, or five ways you most
enjoy spending your free time today.
During junior high school:
1. __________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________________________
Today:
1. __________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________
4. __________________________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________________________

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Chapter 5 Personality Dispositions over Time: Stability, Coherence, and Change

Personality Psychology 6th Edition

Full download at link:

Solution Manual: https://testbankpack.com/p/solution-manual-for-

Test Bank: https://testbankpack.com/p/test-bank-for-personality-

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

1. Define personality development.

5. Discuss the stability of temperaments during infancy.

6. Discuss personality stability during childhood.

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

I. Conceptual Issues: Personality Development, Stability, Coherence, and Change

A. What Is Personality Development?

• Personality development can be defined as the continuities, consistencies, and

B. Rank Order Stability

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

• Rank Order Stability is the maintenance of individual position within a group

C. Mean Level Stability

• Constancy of level, or mean level stability is another kind of personality stability.

• The form of personality development—maintaining rank order in relation to other

• Personality change has the following two defining qualities:

II. Three Levels of Analysis

B. Group Differences Level

• Some changes over time affect different groups of people differently.

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

C. Individual Differences Level

• Personality psychologists also focus on individual differences in personality

III. Personality Stability over Time

A. Stability of Temperament During Infancy

B. Stability During Childhood

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

11, and into adulthood.

C. Rank Order Stability in Adulthood

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

D. Mean Level Stability and Change in Adulthood

IV. Personality Change

A. Changes in Self-Esteem from Adolescence to Adulthood

B. Autonomy, Dominance, Leadership, and Ambition

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

they were in their forties (in the late 1970s).

E. Independence and Traditional Roles

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

F. Personality Changes Across Cohorts: Assertiveness and Narcissism

V. Personality Coherence Over Time: Prediction of Socially Relevant Outcomes

• Personality coherence is defined as predictable changes in manifestations or outcomes of

A. Marital Stability, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce

• In a longitudinal study of unprecedented length, Kelly and Conley (1987) studied a

B. Alcoholism, Drug Use, and Emotional Disturbance

C. Religiousness and Spirituality

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

• Another important life outcome pertains to spirituality—the degree to which individuals

D. Education, Academic Achievement, and Dropping Out

• Kipnis (1971) had a group of individuals self-report on their levels of impulsivity; He

E. Health and Longevity

F. Predicting Personality Change

• In a fascinating longitudinal study, Caspi and Herbener (1990) studied middle-aged

Summary and Evaluation

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

Personality development Personality coherence

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e

Stability coefficients Self-esteem

Lecture Topics and Lecture Suggestions

Larsen, Personality Psychology, 6e