Personality Development Across the Lifespan

Personality Development across the Lifespan examines the development of personality characteristics from childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, adulthood, and old age. It provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical perspectives, methods, and empirical findings of personality and developmental psychology, also detailing insights on how individuals differ from each other, how they change during life, and how these changes relate to biological and environmental factors, including major life events, social relationships, and health.

The book begins with chapters on personality development in different life phases before moving on to theoretical perspectives, the development of specific personality characteristics, and personality development in relation to different contexts, like close others, health, and culture.

Final sections cover methods in research on the topic and the future directions of research in personality development.

• Introduces and reviews the most important personality characteristics
• Examines personality in relation to different contexts and how it is related to important life outcomes
• Discusses patterns and sources of personality development

Contenu

Part One: Introduction 1. Personality development research: State-of-the-art and future directions

Part Two: Personality Development in Different Life Phases 2. Personality development in childhood 3. Personality development in adolescence 4. Personality development in emerging adulthood 5. Personality development in adulthood and old age 6. On the role of personality in late life

Part Three: Theoretical Perspectives on Personality Development 7. Five-Factor Theory and personality development 8. Theoretical perspectives on the interplay of nature and nurture in personality development 9. Set-Point Theory and personality development: Reconciliation of a paradox 10. Evolutionary aspects of personality development: Evidence from nonhuman animals 11. A critical evaluation of the Neo-Socioanalytic Model of personality

Part Four: Important Personality Characteristics and Their Development 12. The lifespan development of self-esteem 13. The development of subjective well-being 14. Getting older, getting better? Toward understanding positive personality development across adulthood 15. The development of perceived control 16. The development of goals and motivation 17. The development of attachment styles 18. Identity formation in adolescence and young adulthood 19. Development of cognition and intelligence 20. And the story evolves: The development of personal narratives and narrative identity

Part Five: Personality Development in Context 21. Personality development in reaction to major life events 22. Personality development in close relationships 23. Personality development and health 24. Personality development and psychopathology 25. Vocational interests as personality traits: Characteristics, development, and significance in educational and organizational environments 26. Intercultural similarities and differences in personality development

Part Six: Methods in Research on Personality Development 27. Personality assessment in daily life: A roadmap for future personality development research 28. Analyzing processes in personality development 29. Behavior genetics and personality development: A methodological and meta-analytic review 30. Analyzing personality change: From average trajectories to within-person dynamics

Part Seven: New Areas of Research on Personality Development 31. Cohort differences in personality 32. Development of implicit personality 33. Volitional personality change