稳定性与可变性：西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展研究概述

弄清儿童青少年人格发展特点,可为人格发展与教育工作提供参考。文章梳理了近30年西方儿童青少年“大五”人格发展的研究进展,区分了人格发展的两种主要表现形式,并分别从这两方面总结出儿童青少年“大五”人格结构的稳定性、人格特质平均水平的可变性。最后基于现有研究存在的问题,结合当前时代特点,提出未来研究方向。     

The developmental psychometrics of big five self-reports: acquiescence, factor structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20

How do youths' personality reports differ from those of adults? To identify the year-by-year timing of developmental trends from late childhood (age 10) to early adulthood (age 20), the authors examined Big Five self-report data from a large and diverse Internet sample. At younger ages within this range, there were large individual differences in acquiescent responding, and acquiescence variability had pronounced effects on psychometric characteristics. Beyond the effects of acquiescence, self-reports generally became more coherent within domains, and better differentiated across domains, at older ages. Importantly, however, different Big Five domains showed different developmental trends. Extraversion showed especially pronounced age gains in coherence but no gains in differentiation. In contrast, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness showed large age gains in differentiation but only trivial gains in coherence. Neuroticism and Openness showed moderate gains in both coherence and differentiation. Comparisons of items that were relatively easy versus difficult to comprehend indicated that these patterns were not simply due to verbal comprehension. These findings have important implications for the study of personality characteristics and other psychological attributes in childhood and adolescence.     

Development of big five domains and facets in adulthood: mean-level age trends and broadly versus narrowly acting mechanisms

Data from a cross‐sectional sample (N = 601 men and women) and a longitudinal sample (N = 125 women) were used to test hypotheses about the development of Big Five domains and facets from early adulthood through middle age. Analyses of mean‐level age trends indicated that overall Agreeableness and Conscientiousness increased with age and that several facets showed distinctive trends that replicated across the samples. Cross‐sectional analyses of trait intercorrelations and covariances indicated that interrelations between the Big Five domains, and between their more specific facets, were quite similar at older versus younger ages. Finally, longitudinal analyses of individual‐level changes indicated that (a) different people's personalities changed in markedly different ways; (b) these changes were predominantly independent, rather than correlated, across Big Five domains; and (c) the pattern of change correlations between Big Five facets could be explained by the facets’ interrelations at the first assessment time. Taken together, these results suggest that a complete understanding of personality development requires consideration of facet‐level traits and that adult personality development is predominantly influenced by narrowly acting mechanisms that each affect a single Big Five domain, or a small cluster of related facets, rather than by broadly acting mechanisms that simultaneously affect previously independent traits.     

Adversity in adolescence predicts personality trait change from childhood to adulthood

This study examined whether cumulative adversity in adolescence predicted changes in the Big Five traits from childhood to adulthood in the Project Competence Longitudinal Study sample (N = 205) followed from childhood (age 10) through adolescence into adulthood (age 30). Personality traits were measured in childhood through multiple methods and in adulthood by self-report. Cumulative adversity, assessed in adolescence, differentiated independent adversity (likely unrelated to participants’ behavior) from dependent adversity (resulting from participants’ own behavior). Participants’ personality traits were modestly stable over 20 years, although Openness showed greater stability. Independent and dependent adversity predicted increases in Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism, and dependent adversity predicted decreases in Constraint/Conscientiousness and Agreeableness from childhood to adulthood, suggesting that cumulative adversity shapes personality development in young people.     

Short and extra-short forms of the Big Five Inventory–2: The BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS

The Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2) uses 60 items to hierarchically assess the Big Five personality domains and 15 more-specific facet traits. The present research develops two abbreviated forms of the BFI-2—the 30-item BFI-2-S and the 15-item BFI-2-XS—and then examines their measurement properties. At the level of the Big Five domains, we find that the BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS retain much of the full measure’s reliability and validity. At the facet level, we find that the BFI-2-S may be useful for examining facet traits in reasonably large samples, whereas the BFI-2-XS should not be used to assess facets. Finally, we discuss some key tradeoffs to consider when deciding whether to administer an abbreviated form instead of the full BFI-2.     

A developmental perspective on personality disorders: lessons from research on normal personality development in childhood and adolescence

Recent work on normal personality development in children and adolescents points to several conclusions that are relevant for understanding personality pathology. First, child temperament and adult personality traits share many features in common. Second, youths' individual differences can be described in terms of the Big Five personality traits observed in adults; an integrative taxonomy of individual differences in childhood and adolescence is articulated in this article. Third, personality is already moderately stable by the preschool years, but considerable personality change occurs well into the adult years. Taken together, these findings suggest that childhood personality functioning can and should be integrated into developmental research and applied work on personality disorders.     

The Big Five Personality Traits and the Life Course: A 45-Year Longitudinal Study

One hundred sixty-three men who have been followed prospectively for over 45 years were rated on a set of 25 personality traits at the end of their college careers and took the NEO-PI at approximately ages 67–68. The college traits were transformed, via a rating procedure, to scales assessing each of the Big Five dimensions and related to the NEO-PI. Three traits—Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness—exhibited significant correlations across the 45-year interval. Furthermore, the trait profiles remained relatively stable over that interval. Both sets of personality traits were related to a wide variety of life course variables representing the domains of global adult adjustment, career functioning/success, creativity, social relations, mental health, substance abuse, childhood characteristics, familial history of pathology, maturity of defenses, and political attitudes. Conscientiousness in college was the best predictor of what happened to the men in the future, whereas Neuroticism in late midlife was the best correlate of life course functioning across a variety of domains.     

Mapping the Landscape of Personality in Childhood and Adolescence

From infancy, children vary in their typical emotions and behaviors, and by the middle of childhood, children have richly differentiated personalities. In this paper, I review the personality differences that youths exhibit from early childhood through adolescence, using a three-part taxonomy developed by (McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. American Psychologist, 2006; 61, 204–217). First, children exhibit a dispositional signature, including first temperament traits and later the Big Five personality traits, which show some consistency across situations and over time. Second, youths display characteristic adaptations that are more specific to particular life contexts; these include mental representations, strategies, and goals. Third, adolescents form personal narratives, stories about their lives that reflect and shape their identities. I describe the differences youths exhibit in these three domains and situate these differences in the context of overall development in childhood and adolescence. New work on youths’ personalities can serve as the foundation for future lifespan perspectives on personality development.     

大五人格5个维度及10个面的发展水平——基于我国15～75岁横断样本调查

基于人格毕生发展理论及中国社会文化背景,调查了我国从青少年到老年3192名被试,探究了中国人大五人格5维度及10个面毕生发展水平。总体上,年龄与神经质、焦虑、抑郁、活跃、开放性、审美、创意显著负相关,与外倾性、宜人性、尽责性、自信、利他、顺从、条理和自律显著正相关。在60岁以下的人群中,年龄大的个体神经质更低,而在大于60岁的人群中,年龄大的个体神经质反而更高;在50岁以下的人群中,年龄大的个体外倾性水平相对较高,但50岁之后年龄大的个体外倾性相对较低;整体上,年龄大的个体开放性水平相对较低,而年龄大的个体宜人性水平反而更高;年龄大的个体尽责性水平也相对较高,但较之40到49岁群体而言,50岁以上群体的尽责性则相对较低。男性和女性不同年龄群体的大五人格具有一定差异性,特别是男性的尽责性高于女性,以及女性的神经质高于男性等性别差异。进一步分析了年龄与大五人格10个面的关系,描绘了不同年龄群体10个面的发展水平。     

A random walk down university avenue: life paths, life events, and personality trait change at the transition to university life

This longitudinal study examined the relation between continuity and change in the Big Five personality traits and life events. Approximately 2,000 German students were tracked from high school to university or to vocational training or work, with 3 assessments over 4 years. Life events were reported retrospectively at the 2nd and 3rd assessment. Latent curve analyses were used to assess change in personality traits, revealing 3 main findings. First, mean-level changes in the Big Five factors over the 4 years were in line with the maturity principle, indicating increasing psychological maturity from adolescence to young adulthood. Second, personality development was characterized by substantive individual differences relating to the life path followed; participants on a more vocationally oriented path showed higher increases in conscientiousness and lower increases in agreeableness than their peers at university. Third, initial level and change in the Big Five factors (especially Neuroticism and Extraversion) were linked to the occurrence of aggregated as well as single positive and negative life events. The analyses suggest that individual differences in personality development are associated with life transitions and individual life experiences.     

A Big Five approach to self-regulation: personality traits and health trajectories in the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health

Self-regulatory processes influencing health outcomes may have their origins in childhood personality traits. The Big Five approach to personality was used here to investigate the associations between childhood traits, trait-related regulatory processes and changes in health across middle age. Participants (N = 1176) were members of the Hawaii longitudinal study of personality and health. Teacher assessments of the participants’ traits when they were in elementary school were related to trajectories of self-rated health measured on 6 occasions over 14 years in middle age. Five trajectories of self-rated health were identified by latent class growth analysis: Stable Excellent, Stable Very Good, Good, Decreasing and Poor. Childhood Conscientiousness was the only childhood trait to predict membership in the Decreasing class vs. the combined healthy classes (Stable Excellent, Stable Very Good and Good), even after controlling for adult Conscientiousness and the other adult Big Five traits. The Decreasing class had poorer objectively assessed clinical health measured on one occasion in middle age, was less well-educated, and had a history of more lifespan health-damaging behaviors compared to the combined healthy classes. These findings suggest that higher levels of childhood Conscientiousness (i.e. greater self-discipline and goal-directedness) may prevent subsequent health decline decades later through self-regulatory processes involving the acquisition of lifelong healthful behavior patterns and higher educational attainment.     

The prospective relationship between child personality and perceived parenting: Mediation by parental sense of competence

This study examined the prospective relationship between childhood Big Five personality characteristics and perceived parenting in adolescence. In addition, we investigated whether this relationship was mediated by parental sense of competence, and whether associations were different for mothers and fathers. For 274 children, teachers reported on children’s Big Five personality characteristics at Time 1, mothers and fathers reported on their sense of competence at Time 2, and the children (who had now become adolescents) rated their parents’ warmth, overreactivity and psychological control at Time 3. Mediation analysis revealed both direct and indirect effects. No differences in associations were found for perceived parenting of mothers and fathers. This study demonstrates that child personality in late childhood is significantly related to perceived parental warmth, overreactivity and psychological control in adolescence. In addition, parental sense of competence mediates the relationship between child conscientiousness and perceived parental warmth, overreactivity and psychological control.     

Age differences in the Big Five across the life span: evidence from two national samples

Cross-sectional age differences in the Big Five personality traits were investigated using 2 large datasets from Great Britain and Germany: the British Household Panel Study (BHPS; N > or = 14,039) and the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSEOP; N > or = 20,852). Participants, who ranged in age from 16 to the mid-80s, completed a 15-item version of the Big Five Inventory (e.g., John & Srivastava, 1999) in either 2005 or 2006. The observed age trends were generally consistent across both datasets. Extraversion and Openness were negatively associated with age, whereas Agreeableness was positively associated with age. Average levels of Conscientiousness were highest for participants in middle age. The only exception was Neuroticism, which was slightly negatively associated with age in the BHPS and slightly positively associated with age in the GSEOP. Neither gender nor education level were consistent moderators of age differences in the Big Five.     

Age trends in HEXACO-PI-R self-reports

We examined age differences in the six broad HEXACO personality factors and their defining facets, using self-reports from an online sample (N ≈ 100,000, ages 14–74). Honesty-Humility showed an upward trend of about one full standard deviation unit between ages 18 and 60. Age trends for Emotionality and Extraversion differed by facet, but overall were downward for Emotionality and upward for Extraversion. Agreeableness showed relatively weak age trends. Conscientiousness and Openness showed upward age trends during the teen years (extending to the mid-20s for Conscientiousness), but age trends thereafter differed considerably by facet. Results are discussed in relation to previous findings for the Big Five, to the “age-crime curve”, and to possible evolved developmental origins.     

Are All Kids Alike? The Magnitude of Individual Differences in Personality Characteristics Tends to Increase from Early Childhood to Early Adolescence

Do individual differences in personality traits become more or less pronounced over childhood and adolescence? The present research examined age differences in the variance of a range of personality traits, using parent reports of two large samples of children from predominantly the USA and Russia, respectively. Results indicate (i) that individual differences in most traits tend to increase with age from early childhood into early adolescence and then plateau, (ii) that this general pattern of greater personality variance at older childhood age is consistent across the two countries, and (iii) that this pattern is not an artefact of age differences in means or floor/ceiling effects. These findings are consistent with several (noncontradictory) developmental mechanisms, including youths' expanding behavioural capacities and person–environment transactions (corresponsive principle). However, these mechanisms may predominantly characterize periods before adolescence, or they may be offset by countervailing processes, such as socialization pressure towards a mature personality profile, in late adolescence and adulthood. Finally, the findings also suggest that interpreting age trajectories in mean trait scores as pertaining to age differences in a typical person may sometimes be misleading. Investigating variance should become an integral part of studying personality development. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Do you see my growth? Two longitudinal studies on personality development from childhood to young adulthood from multiple perspectives

Personality developmental studies typically rely on single reporter data, while multi-informant studies are rare. In two longitudinal studies, the present investigation examined inter-judge differences in the development of the Big Five personality traits from childhood to young adulthood. Study 1 investigated personality development as judged by the self and parents from age 12 to 17 to 29 (N = 186). Study 2 investigated personality development annually from age 12 to 18 as judged by the self, and both parents and siblings (N = 574). Results showed personality maturation from childhood to young adulthood with disruptions during adolescence. Only parent-reports indicated maturation in adolescents’ negative affectivity (decreases in N), while self-reports indicated maturation in self-regulatory traits (increases in A and C).     

Bidirectional links and concurrent development of parent-child relationships and boys' offending behavior

This study examined different types of longitudinal associations (i.e., directional links and overlapping developmental changes) between children's delinquency and the quality of parent-child relationships from middle childhood to late adolescence. We used 10-wave interview data of 503 boys, their primary caregivers, and their teachers. Our first aim was to unravel the direction of effects between parent-child relationships and children's offending. Cross-lagged panel models revealed bidirectional links over time between poorer quality parent-child relationships and boys' offending across late childhood (age 7-10), early adolescence (age 10-13) and middle adolescence (age 13-16). Second, we examined the associations between mean changes in delinquency, on the one hand, and mean changes in relationship quality, on the other hand. Although parent-child relationships improved during childhood, their quality decreased in early adolescence and remained stable in middle adolescence. Delinquency increased only in middle adolescence. In five out of six models, the slope factors of relationship quality and offending were strongly correlated, indicating that stronger increases in delinquency were associated with stronger decreases in parent-child relationship quality across childhood, early adolescence, and middle adolescence. The discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of these two types of longitudinal associations.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Egoistic and Moralistic Self-Enhancement

This study used a 3-wave longitudinal design to investigate stability and change of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement. Participants (n = 195) were followed for 6 years, from late adolescence (age 15) to emerging adulthood (age 21). A significant degree of rank-order stability was found that reveals a reasonable continuity in the individuals’ relative standing on measures of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement. Latent growth curve analysis was used to track the developmental trajectories of the examined constructs. Findings revealed that egoistic self-enhancement is stable from 15 to 21 years, whereas moralistic self-enhancement slightly decreases during the same developmental period. Cross-lagged models were used to examine the reciprocal relations between self-enhancement and the Big Five personality traits. No prospective effects were found between the constructs, which develop independently from late adolescence to young adulthood, showing only synchronous associations. Implications for personality research and assessment are discussed.     

Personality-relationship transaction in adolescence: core versus surface personality characteristics

Personality effects on perceived support from social relationships and vice versa were longitudinally studied over adolescence. Within personality, core (Big Five personality traits) and surface characteristics (global self-worth, perceived peer acceptance, and loneliness) were distinguished. Core, but not surface, characteristics at age 12 predicted support from both parents and peers at age 17 after controlling for support at age 12. Support at age 12 predicted surface, but not core, characteristics at age 17 after controlling for personality at age 12. These findings are interpreted within a dual model of personality-relationship transaction. Core characteristics are relatively stable traits that are largely immune against experiences in relationships and continuously influence their flux and flow. Surface characteristics are more open to relationship influences, and are therefore less stable.