Stability and Change in Adult Personality: Contributions of Process-Oriented Perspectives

The issue of personality stability versus change during adulthood is a major focus of research and theory within the field of adult development and aging (Hetherton & Weinberger, 1994). Data and models involving this issue in the years of adulthood are particularly relevant to this issue in the context of the more general developmental debate regarding personality development throughout life. In the adult years, changes in other domains of functioning, such as physical and cognitive abilities, occur at a relatively gradual rate compared to the changes in childhood and adolescence (Whitbourne, 2001). In fact, early theorists, including James and Freud, believed that stability and quiescence are the hallmark of adult personality. Fewer theorists speculated about the years of later adulthood or, for that matter, childhood and adolescence. This accepted wisdom was also consistent with the views held by laypersons that adults experienced little change or even a need or stimulation to change. Adulthood was seen as synonymous with stability. A new approach to adulthood was ushered in with the introduction of the termmid-life crisis (Jaques, 1965; Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, & McKee, 1978), which stimulated a burst of activity and interest in the adult years as a period not just of change, but of turmoil. On the one hand, the concept that change was not only possible, but universal, counteracted the image of adulthood as a time of little interest psychologically. On the other hand, the notion that personality change was tied in, like clockwork, to chronological age was seen as overly simplistic. Moreover, there were essentially no empirical data to support the idea of a mid-life crisis (McCrae & Costa, 1990), and most academic psychologists therefore have since moved on to explore other issues pertaining to stability versus change in adulthood. Issues seen as relevant to personality in adulthood are, of course, continuous with issues relevant to change from childhood and onward. Adult personality, conceptualized in terms of traits, is beginning to be understood as having its origins in childhood temperament (Bouchard, 1997). In later life, personality development is regarded as an unfolding of themes and issues present throughout previous decades. Furthermore, adult personality, again conceptualized in terms of traits, is beginning to be viewed as an influence on the way in which an individual reacts to intrapersonal and interpersonal changes throughout life. As stated by Plato (427–346 B.C.), “he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition, youth and age are equally a burden. ” Contemporary researchers are adopting this approach of examining the reciprocal relationships between personality and development in physical, psychological, and sociocultural domains. For example, childhood personality traits such as conscientiousness may predict important outcomes in adult mortality (Friedman et al., 1995). Adding further to the notion of reciprocity, it is becoming increasingly clear that people select environments that reflect their personal dispositions that in turn, affect the outcome of person–environment transactions. For example, certain individuals are more likely to be at the cutting edge of social trends and therefore more affected by the outside world in the subsequent development of their own personalities (Agronick & Duncan, 1998). Furthermore, higher levels of personal resources in terms of adaptiveness of ego functioning may help individuals more successfully negotiate the paths of development in the middle adult years (Klohnen, Vandewater, & Young, 1996). This discussion of stability versus change in terms of personality traits, though intriguing, has one important theoretical and methodological confound. This debate centers around measures based in trait theory that, by definition, assumes the presence of stable, dispositional entities as constituting the essence of personality. Therefore, stability may be expected to be observed, as it is stability that forms the basis for measurement. There is a need to incorporate more developmentally based personality measures, ones that are designed to be sensitive to change because they have their roots in theories that assume the existence of change. For example, studies based on ego psychology, such as those involving measures of coping and defense mechanisms (Diehl, Coyle, & Labouvie-Vief, 1996), attempt to determine whether adults become increasingly able to adapt to life stresses. Although conclusions from specific studies vary somewhat, together this research is consistent with a view of adulthood as a time of increasing ability to regulate emotions, engage in effective coping processes, and maintain rewarding relationships with others. These changes are seen as evolving gradually over the middle years of adulthood, and occur in response to (and influence) events in the sociocultural context. Similarly, studies based on stage theories of ego development show stronger evidence for developmental processes in adulthood than do