Personality changes

rdf:langString Personality changes

rdf:langString Personality Changes: Originally thought to be concrete and unchanging, recent studies have found evidence that personality can change throughout a person's life. An important idea to keep in mind is that differences in personality traits among individuals tend to stay consistent throughout fairly long periods of time. However, that doesn't mean that personality traits do not change during an individual's life. Gradual changes to trait levels tend to happen throughout the lifetime of an individual and can become quite substantial. Trait levels can also change as a result of a major event in an individual's life. To understand the changes that can happen within personality, one must first understand it. Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. Every person has their own "individual differences in particular personality characteristics" that separate them from others. The overall study of personality "focuses on two broad areas: One is understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics... The other is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole." An easier way to understand or describe personality is simply to say: one's personality is made up of events, circumstances, and genetics, that come together to influence the development of defining characteristics and traits. Those traits and characteristics that define someone are what the general public like to describe as personality. With each person having their own personality, there are bound to be many differences and changes that confuse people. Personality psychologists have taken much time to search for answers and solutions to the changes that can come to someone's personality. Although there is little research overall, there has been compelling initial evidence for personality change. The development of personality is often dependent on the stage of life a person is in, and the extent to which one's levels of characteristics, relative to their age cohort, is stable across long periods of time. Cultural and environmental influence are large factors in personality trait differences. Personality change is usually seen over longer periods of time and is analogical to height, as most development occurs in the earlier stages of life and becomes more stable as one grows into adulthood. The Big Five, or Five Factor Model, is the most widely accepted form of personality theory, and especially in terms of personality change. While still uncertain, research suggests that genetics play a role in the change and stability of certain traits in a personality. They have also discovered environmental and situational/contextual sources affect personality. Some debates have pervaded the field of psychology since its beginning. One of the most debated topics has to do with the nature and development of personality. Personality psychology studies one's distinctive style of cognition, behavior, and affect. However, this concept elicits discord among psychologists as some have insisted that it does not exist, while others struggle with issues of measurement.