Everyone has a little bit of popular wisdom to offer when it comes to the mysteries of the human personality. They’ll tell you that people can change but in the same breath they’ll contradict that statement.
For a change, all the misconception that the media shows you and the over use of pithy observations actually reflect the way science handles the subject. Experts in psychology have been fighting with the question of personality for over a hundred years.
Some believe that your personality is carved out when you’re just a baby and it never changes from there. But there are also lots of studies which clearly show how personality develops through the years.
Most of the work points to individuals slowly developing as time passes. Characteristics that are looked down on like anxiety and rashness lessen in intensity with age.
However this doesn’t mean that every aspect of you will transform at one point. Recent research indicates that there is one facet of who you are that is not subject to even the slightest change.
Released by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study collated the data of over 1500 people and their changing characteristics over half a century. Scientists analyzed subjects’ personality from 1960 to 2010.
Their work showed that people could be counted on to change a minimum of one of the ten characteristics which were analyzed. This change also indicated maturity more often than not.
But there were also some parts of a person which did not change in relation to everyone else. For instance, subjects who the most confidence in 1960 had tended to stay that way even in 2010.
According to Rodica Damia who teaches psychology at Houston University, if people were ranked according to one characteristic in their teenage years, the rankings would be more or less similar even half a century later.
So a person who was a socialite in school is most probably still a socialite in their adulthood. While even these aspects might transform, they will mostly do so only in relation to how pronounced they were earlier.
It may be that people develop parallel. Therefore the guy who was goofing off in class will still be a fun person many years down the line.
If our work has made a positive impact on your life, we kindly ask for your support so we can continue our work. Thank you!
Now, you can follow Conscious Reminder on Facebook & Instagram!
∼If you like our article, give Conscious Reminder a thumbs up, and help us spread LOVE & LIGHT!∼
