Social expectations as a possible mechanism for adult personality change: Limited empirical evidence for the social investment principle

OBJECTIVE

Personality traits change in both mean levels and variance across the life span but the mechanisms underlying these developmental trends remain unclear. Social Investment Principle (SIP) suggests that social expectations drive personality changes in adulthood. Accordingly, we tested whether differences between personality traits in social expectations for them can explain their different change trajectories in young adulthood.

METHODS

A pool of 257 personality items was used to measure personality traits' means and variances (N = 1096), and levels expected by friends, partners and bosses/supervisors (N = 121).

RESULTS

Raters were consistent in their expectations for how young adults should think, feel and behave. Traits under stronger expectations had higher mean levels and lower variances than traits under lower expectations; trait means and variances increased with age, but inconsistently with the SIP, these increases were unrelated to the traits' expected levels.

CONCLUSION

Our results are only partially consistent with the SIP.

Four types of change and self-other agreement on change in personality traits during college years: A multi-informant longitudinal study

Research in personality trait change has largely relied on mean-level and rank-order change across the lifespan. The current research expanded the literature in several ways: analyzing four types of change and correlated change patterns, obtaining multi-informant reports, including lower-order personality traits, and collecting multiple assessments during a short yet important time for college-attending emerging adults (baseline N = 259, M_age  = 18.79). There was little evidence for mean-level change, yet participants showed significant individual differences such that rank-ordering and ipsative profiles were much more dynamic than mean score patterns. Informant-reports from close others demonstrated largely similar patterns: little to no mean-level change, significant increase in rank-ordering, and about half of participants reporting configural change mostly in elevation and scatter rather than in profile shapes. Interestingly, there was no correlated change between self and other-reports. This indicated that close others do not share individuals' perception of their own personality trait change, at least not in the demographic group studied. By examining individual-level, sample-level, and multi-informant perspectives, our thorough investigation provided useful benchmarks for future research to examine the source of variability in change trajectories.

Social expectations and abilities to meet them as possible mechanisms of youth personality development

OBJECTIVE

Personality traits change from childhood through late-adolescence, however the effects of social expectations and self-regulatory efforts remain unknown. This study aims to explore mechanisms underlying personality development by assessing mean levels personality traits from childhood to late-adolescence.

METHOD

We used Common-Language California Child Q-Set to measure youths' (N=11,000) mean personality trait levels; social expectations for these traits as perceived by parents (N=47), teachers (N=42) and students (N=120); and self-regulatory efforts required for achieving the desired levels in these traits as perceived by parents (N=27), teachers (N=26) and students (N=54).

RESULTS

Expectations for youths' traits were consistent, regardless of raters' or youths' age. In our unique between-trait study design, traits' mean levels were positively associated with expectations for them, but age differences minimally tracked these expectations. Traits' required self-regulatory efforts were not associated with their developmental trends.

CONCLUSIONS

Results were only partially consistent with existing developmental theories of personality development.