Personality Development During the School-Aged Years: Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice

• In Event: Psychosocial Skills in the 21st Century: Theory, Research, and Applications

Abstract

In this talk, we will focus on personality development across the lifespan with an emphasis on childhood and adolescence and discuss implications for educational research, theory, and practice. We will discuss the various methods of assessing the continuity and change of personality traits, including rank-order stability, mean-level change, individual-level change, and ipsative continuity, and review the findings of personality development from studies employing each method. Studies of rank-order stability show that personality is fairly stable over time and that personality attributes increase in stability with age. Mean-level change studies show that while young adulthood is the period for the most significant changes, personality continues to develop throughout adulthood, even into late adulthood. Normative changes are in a positive direction with people becoming more conscientious and emotionally stable, for example, as they age. Studies of individual-level change show that most people remain stable. Of those who do exhibit change, most exhibit normative development, but there are individuals who develop in a non-normative manner. Ipsative continuity studies suggest that there is moderate-high profile similarity during childhood and adolescence.

These findings, particularly the conclusion that personality is not set in stone but instead continues to develop into adulthood, have implications for many important outcomes, including academic achievement. Personality, most notably the trait of conscientiousness, is known to be related to academic success and educational attainment. Indeed, the association between conscientiousness and academic performance is nearly as strong as that between intelligence and academic performance. Studies have shown that experimental, pharmacological, and therapeutic interventions are effective in altering personality traits, and these may be used to enhance or reduce traits that have a positive or negative effect on educational outcomes. For example, although conscientiousness shows little to no normative change during the school-aged years, interventions designed to increase conscientiousness may be useful to enhance scholastic performance. Practical recommendations will be discussed.

Authors

• Kate Walton, St. John's University

• Kimberly Billera, St. John's University