Personality Across a Lifespan - Essay Sample

Introduction

Personality is the incorporation characteristics that distinguish the characteristics or the behaviors of a person. It is the discernment and psychological designs that develop from biological and environmental factors (Brustman, B., 1972,308). There are five r types of personalities, they are; psychopathic, carefulness, recessive, agreeableness and outspokenness. This personality types are the character traits that define a person. An outspoken person shows respect to the diversity of experiences. A psychopathic person likes to plan for his or her spending earlier instead of being unconstrained. Personality changes as a person grow and learn the behavior of other people better. Major life event changes also may lead to a change in personality changes (Schustack, M.W., 1999). As one grows older many lifestyle changes happen because people learn about better ways to live without spending too much and still have fun. They try to become responsible due to various happenings in their lives, like having a child and getting a family.

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Past researches show that personality traits become stable when one reaches the age of thirty years and just have little or no change before that age. After the age of thirty-one has the same personality traits up to his end life (Gendlin, E.T., 1964,100-138). The research admits that the personality traits are never perfect at any age but when one is growing him or she forms certain character traits that become permanent or stable throughout their adulthood. The old research also suggests that a person's personality is inborn and so it cannot be changed or transformed. Either way, the research explains that some behaviors and traits can be developed that go against the original born with traits which may dispute or counter the original traits (McCrae R.R., 1986,407-423).

New study research differs with the old research and explains that personality traits changes in different stages of life or as one gets older. Personality continues to change over a person's life although there is a consistent trend of some traits (South, S.C., 2019). Personality traits can sometimes be changed due to certain illnesses. Mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, and bipolar the post-traumatic stress disorders are the major causes of personality changes mostly in the adult people. A mentally ill person can change his full personality but in normal cases, people develop new traits and keep the old ones due to changes in life which are either positive or negative. When one gets a personality disorder he is put under medication but some extreme cases cannot be treated (Friedman, H., 2019,127). An adult person can easily change his or her character traits because he has learned and passed through a lot in life. A person who can differentiate wrong and right can change their personalities. Also, people with good listening skills can learn from others and accept correction so they can change their personality traits for the better. Though the research also includes that there are some few characters and some people who never change no matter what. From the age of two to six years children start to become independent and start formulating their own character traits as well as copying a few from the mother (Helen Cheng,2019,105-110).in most cases some personalities change as people tend to change from childhood to adulthood.

My personality has changed a lot over the years. As I was growing up and still growing old I have learned to differentiate between the good and the bad, and also learned how different character traits have affected my life hence changed along the way. Understanding how people expect of someone has also made me change as I realized that I should live to my ability and to feel good first unlike wanting to impress other people. When growing up I had some character traits that helped me to fit in but now I realized that character trait define a person so I have to be very cautious on my character. By listening to my parents, friends, and teachers, I try to change wherever they correct me for my betterment. Being responsible make one to drop some character traits.

Personality traits in my opinion changes over a person's life span. I have observed some people change drastically due to certain events in their lives some major and some minor (Angst, J., 2019,175-189). Addition to drugs can lead to a personal change of personality but this is not permanent as it can be treated through rehabilitation (Nichols, L.R,2019,178-189). Mental sickness also changes a person as they are unable to think right anymore or make day to day life decisions. Major life events like having a family may lead to some people adopting new personality traits in order to be role models to their children. Change of religion also affects a person's character trait because different religions expect different behaviors from their followers (Cloutier, D., 2019,12444). Clever people like change, seeing certain behaviors from other people cause harm in their lives it can motivate one to change and live differently to escape the bad outcome of the character trait. Personality traits can be learned and one can choose the right and wrong. Character traits can be chosen as one grows by listening, observing and learning.

Bibliography

Friedman, H.S. and Schustack, M.W., 1999. Personality: Classic theories and modern research. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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Gendlin, E.T., 1964. A theory of personality change. Personality change, pp.100-148.

Costa Jr, P.T. and McCrae, R.R., 1986. Personality stability and its implications for clinical psychology. Clinical Psychology Review, 6(5), pp.407-423.

O'Meara, M.S. and South, S.C., 2019. Big Five Personality Domains and Relationship Satisfaction: Direct Effects and Correlated Change Over Time. Journal of personality.

Heilmayr, D. and Friedman, H., 2019. 29 Personality and Health. Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health, and Medicine, p.127.

Furnham, Adrian, and Helen Cheng. "The change and stability of NEO scores over six-years: A British study and a short review." Personality and Individual Differences 144 (2019): 105-110.

Muller-Oswald, U., Ruppen, R., Baumann, U. and Angst, J., 2019. Study on Personality Aspects and Drug Abuse. In Ursula Oswald Spring: Pioneer on Gender, Peace, Development, Environment, Food, and Water (pp. 175-189). Springer, Cham.

Ahrens, A.H., and Cloutier, D., 2019. Acting for good reasons: Integrating virtue theory and social cognitive theory. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, p.e12444.

Nichols, L.R., Samek, D.R. and McConnell, L., 2019. Key personality traits and alcohol use disorder symptoms in first and second-year college students: detangling antecedent from consequence. Addictive behaviors, 89, pp.178-187.