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Personality trait development in midlife: exploring the impact of psychological turning points.

ABSTRACT: This study examined long-term personality trait development in midlife and explored the impact of psychological turning points on personality change. Self-defined psychological turning points reflect major changes in the ways people think or feel about an important part of their life, such as work, family, and beliefs about themselves and about the world. This study used longitudinal data from the Midlife in the US survey to examine personality trait development in adults aged 40-60 years. The Big Five traits were assessed in 1995 and 2005 by means of self-descriptive adjectives. Seven types of self-identified psychological turning points were obtained in 1995. Results indicated relatively high stability with respect to rank-orders and mean-levels of personality traits, and at the same time reliable individual differences in change. This implies that despite the relative stability of personality traits in the overall sample, some individuals show systematic deviations from the sample mean-levels. Psychological turning points in general showed very little influence on personality trait change, although some effects were found for specific types of turning points that warrant further research, such as discovering that a close friend or relative was a much better person than one thought they were.

SUBMITTER: Allemand M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5547353 | biostudies-other | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The present study examined the association between personality pathology (PP) and alcohol dependence (AD; both lifetime and in the past 12 months) among middle-aged to older adults incorporating three sources of assessment, specifically, diagnostic interviews as well as self- and informant reports. We collected data from a representative sample of community participants (N = 1,630; ages 54-65 years) and their informants (N = 1,462). Measures employed were the substance use disorder sections of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Schedule for Mental Disorders, the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR SIDP) and the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R., Revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) manual, 1992, Odessa, FL, Psychological Assessment Resources; self-report and informant versions). To complement the diagnostic interview for personality disorders (PDs), we utilized a PD-count technique derived from the five-factor model (FFM), which provided an index of PP liability. Factors representing lifetime and past-12 month AD were regressed on each of the 10 PP factors constructed from the SIDP interview, as well as self-report and informant FFM-count scores. Lifetime diagnosis of AD was positively associated with higher scores on several PP measures, including paranoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic PP. There was an inverse relation between lifetime AD and the factor score for obsessive-compulsive PP. With regard to AD in the past 12 months, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic PP factors were significantly associated with increased risk for AD, whereas the obsessive-compulsive and schizoid PP factors were associated with decreased risk for AD. The present data indicate that features of antisocial and borderline PP continue to exhibit a relatively strong association with risk for AD in later middle age.

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Personality trait development in midlife: exploring the impact of psychological turning points.

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