Identity and
Personality Development
Models of Adult Personality



Stability or Change?
Organismic
Stage
• Universal sequence of development
• Individuals show predictable change


Erikson: psychodynamic
Levinson: stages of life
• Life transitions


Mechanistic
Trait
• Focus on attributes, temperament
• Reduce personality to basic elements
• Individual shows stability

McCrea & Costa: “Big Five” personality traits


Contextual
Timing of Events
• Change not age-related


Depends on circumstances and events in the
individual’s life
Bronfenbrenner: Ecological Systems
theory
Stage Models

Normative personality change
• Common to everyone
• Recognize individual variation, but

Successive periods
• Marked by “crises,” “transitions,” or “life
tasks”
• Occur at about the same age for all
• Psychodynamic theories: Freud, Jung
Erikson





Development through the life span
Balance positive (“syntonic”) and
negative (“dystonic”) tendencies
Eight critical stages (crises)
Successful resolution results in
emergence of a “virtue”
Four stages in adolescence to
adulthood (identity, intimacy,
generativity, integrity)




Identity/Identity Confusion (stage 5)
Adolescence
develop concept of self (“fidelity”)
integrate past with future direction





Intimacy vs Isolation (stage 6)
20’s – 30’s
tolerant acceptance of others
develop cooperative, affiliative
relationships (“love”)
“Who are the most important people
in your life?”






Generativity vs. Stagnation (stage 7)
40 – 65
personal concern about others
outward focus, mentoring
productivity, contributing (“care”)
“What advice would you give?”





Integrity vs. Despair (stage 8)
65 +
reflect positive qualities from earlier
stages (trust, autonomy, industry,
identity), self-acceptance
integrate past experience with
current realities, produce “wisdom”
“What have been the most significant
events of your life?”
Criticisms of Stage Theories

Overemphasis on chronological age
• Masks individual variability



No clear markers to denote start or
finish of a stage
Deviations from norm may
mistakenly be seen as
maladjustment
Downplay sociohistorical context
Criticisms

Meaning of time and age confused
• Multiple meanings of age
• Functional
• Biological
• Psychological
• Social
• Increased desynchrony between time
and aspects of age over life span

Chronological age poorer predictor later in
life

Western orientation
• Distinctions between “individualist” and
“collectivist” ignored

Validity of “final” stage
• May not reflect realities of terminal
period
• E.g., Joan Erikson’s revision
Trait Theories (mechanistic)


Consistent differences (not
similarities) between people
“constellations” of attributes
• Patterns of thoughts, feelings, actions
that define the individual

Assume little change after age 30

Personality traits identified using
factor analysis
• analyze correlations among attributes
(e.g., shyness, openness)
• Identify groups of variables (e.g.,
responses to questions “related” to
shyness) highly correlated with one
another (seem to go together)

Look for basic dimensions (factors or
“source” traits) along which people
differ
McRae/Costa Five Factor Model



Five traits help shape life course
Each trait a continuum
Uniqueness comes from combination
of traits that we possess

traits:
• Neuroticism (calm … worrying)
• Extraversion (quiet … talkative)
• Openness to experience (routine …
variety)
• Agreeableness (ruthless … softhearted)
• Conscientiousness (negligent …
conscientious)
Baltimore Longitudinal Study

Began in 1958 (ages 17 to 96)
• Testing every 2 years


Stability on all five dimensions
Later cross-sectional study
• 10,000 people
• Ages 32-88

Found:
• Stability on neuroticism, extroversion,
openness across lifespan (including midlife)
Timing of Events Model


Contextual
Time and age have different
meanings (chronological, biological,
psychological, social)

Bernice Neugarten
• Major life events determined by “social
age clock”


Learned from culture
Normative life events
• When to finish education, marry, have children,
retire

“Normative”
• Depends on social clock
• “on time” events become non-normative
if occur “off time” (too early, too late)
• Examples?


Crisis caused by unexpected
occurrence, timing of life events
Stress if “off-time”
• Lose job, slow career start
• Late parenthood, marriage

Cultural/historical variation
• Timing of first child (1970 v. 1987)
• Emphasis on individual life course
• Challenge to idea of universal, agerelated change
However…

Rapid social change undermines
predictability of model
• Late parenthood no longer a stressor
• Predictions specific to socio-historical
period (with stable norms)
Development of Self-Concept and
Adult Identity

Erikson: psychosocial
development
• Focus on 5th stage: the
“identity crisis”


Marcia’s extension of
Erikson’s work
Adult identity
• Damon & Hart: factors
affecting our views of
ourselves
Erikson


Adolescence (stage 5):
Identity/Identity Confusion
develop concept of self
• Transition from childhood to adulthood


integrate past with future direction
Positive resolution:
• Strong sense of self-identity

Negative resolution:
• Weak sense of self

Positive: likelihood of positive
resolution of adulthood stages
• Capacity to develop deep and
meaningful relationships and care for
others
• Consideration of future generations,
personal sense of worth and satisfaction

Negative:
• Isolation, unhappiness, selfishness,
stagnancy, sense of failure and regret
James Marcia

Developing personal identity in
adolescence involves:
• Experiencing crises
• Forming a commitment



Occupational
Ideological
Adolescents experience different
degrees of crisis and commitment
• Some don’t experience an “identity
crisis” at all
Marcia’s Four Identity Statuses
Have you engaged in a period of active search
for identity? (crisis)
Yes
Do you
make
commitments,
e.g., to a
career,
mate,
values?
No
Identity Achieved
(self-confident,
Yes high level of moral
development)
Foreclosure
(typically identify
strongly with
parents; don’t
consider other
identities; can be
dogmatic)
Moratorium
(currently having
No an identity crisis;
actively trying to
reach a commitment)
Identity Diffusion
(immature and
impulsive, with a
sense of hopelessness)

Limited generalization: most
research on university students
• Need replication with representative
samples

“Type” model may be unrealistic:
• Often two or more statuses operating at
once
• Stability of status can change
• Identity change possible (not endpoint)
Four Aspects of “The Self”
William Damon & Daniel Hart




The “physical self” (our name, body, and
material possessions): dominates in the
first 2- 3 years
The “active self” (how we behave and are
capable of behaving): dominates during
early elementary school years
The “social self” (the relationships we
have with other people): dominates during
early adolescence
The “psychological self” (our feelings,
thought, beliefs, and personality
characteristics): dominates in late
adolescence
Evidence suggesting that getting to
“know yourself” depends on gauging
other people’s reactions to you:


other people’s expectations of us affect
how we view ourselves
e.g., children who believe that respected
adults take a dim view of their abilities:
• are reluctant to sustain effort in difficult tasks
• are more anxious about being evaluated
• come to have low expectations of themselves


the social role that we’ve currently
adopted shapes how we think about
ourselves
social comparisons shape how we
view ourselves
Age and identity


Subjective age
Selective Optimization with
Compensation (Baltes, 1990)
• Adaptation
• Maximization of gains
• Minimization of losses
• Select goals, behaviour on
compensating for functional loss:
maintain acceptable levels of functioning
Personality - Identity

Models
• Stage
• Trait
• Timing of events


Identity formation
Self concept
11 DOMAINS OF COMPETENCY
THOUGHT TO BE CONSIDERED IN
ADULT EVALUATIONS OF SELF-WORTH
(Harter):
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
intelligence
(7) sociability
sense of humour
(8) intimacy
job competence
(9) nurturance
morality
(10) adequacy as a
athletic ability
provider
physical appearance (11) household
management