Developmental Perspectives

Developmental Perspectives

In this chapter I provide an overview of major developmental issues for personality psychology at the intersection of personality and developmental psychology. Whereas personologists have mainly focused on the long-term stability of personality and the long-term prediction of personality from antecedents at earlier ages such as socioeconomic status or parenting styles, develop-mentalists have been more interested in personality change and the reasons thereof, and the prediction of major developmental outcomes such as social and emotional adaptation from personality at earlier ages. Answering any of these questions requires consideration of personality across developmental time, and conduction of longitudinal studies that follow a sample of individuals over a considerable period of time, including at least one assessment of personality and at least another assessment of personality, antecedents of personality, or consequences of personality.

Thus, considering personality from a developmental perspective is more than asking questions about stability and change of personality; it includes questions about the context of personality. Therefore I proceed in this chapter by discussing: (1) personality stability and change; (2) antecedents of adult personality in childhood; (3) consequences of childhood personality in adulthood; and (4) some principles of personality development. Thus, I illustrate the discussion of the developmental context of personality with questions that bridge childhood and adulthood, ignoring questions about the context of personality development during childhood and adolescence, and during adulthood. An additional discussion of the latter questions in some detail would not be possible within the space limitations of this chapter.

Before proceeding further, a conceptual note about personality is in order. The definition of personality advocated here for the purpose of this chapter includes at any age any social-emotional characteristic of an individual that shows some stability over shorter time periods such as a few weeks and that varies between individuals of the same culture (personality trait). This definition includes temperament (traits related to affect, arousal, and attention) but does not restrict early personality to temperament. It does exclude traits related to cognition such as general intelligence, in line with mainstream North American research, mainly because such traits are studied in a different research tradition, and including it would be difficult within the space limitations of this chapter.