Personality and Well-being Across the Life-Span

Marek Blatný

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781137439963
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Psicología del desarrollo

Both an individual's personality and well-being are important throughout their lives. This book explores the current research on links between personality predictors of well-being and social adjustment using empirical studies to suggest that their influence can vary depending on the key developmental stage.

1

Introduction

Marek Blatný and Katarína Millová

Looking back at the history of psychology, it will hardly escape one’s attention that a great part of it has been devoted to the study of personality pathology and pathological development (Pulkkinen, Nygren, & Kokko, 2002; Myers & Diener, 1995). Particularly when the science of psychology was still in its infancy, researchers tended to be much more interested in the relationship between the norm and pathology rather than the relationship between the norm and successful functioning. Obviously, defining something successful, optimal or positive may sometimes be more than slightly challenging. All of these terms are strongly evaluative and liable to subjective judgement – what one perceives as success or an optimal state can be seen as a normal standard or even as failure by another. Moreover, perceptions of success or optimal states are not only affected by individual attitudes, but also by the culture people live in (Pulkkinen & Caspi, 2002). Yet most things and phenomena in the world exist in dichotomies: white–black, good–evil, positive–negative, success–failure. Without knowledge of the other side of the issue, researchers’ assumptions of human functioning may turn out to be very biased.

Notwithstanding, it was not until the second half of the 20th century that positive features began to be commented on in the writings of humanistic psychologists (Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1989) and life span development theorists (Erikson, 1963; Baltes, 1997). In fact, before the 1980s, one can barely talk about any systematic study of positive psychological states and well-being. At that time, a new scientific field emerged, labelled the “psychology of well-being” – a field which has since become a fully established psychological discipline. At the turn of the century, a new direction called “positive psychology” began to take shape, aiming at the explanation and enhancement of positive tendencies in the human individual (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Aspinwall & Staudinger, 2003).

Today, researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the study of optimal, positive or successful development of the individual. The study draws on many psychological disciplines including developmental psychology, personality psychology, clinical psychology, health psy- chology and, naturally, psychology of well-being. It could be concluded that theorists and scientists in different fields followed different paths to arrive at the same destination: the topic of a happy – or at least a good – life. As far as theory is concerned, the greatest credit historically is given to humanistic psychology, which devoted a great amount of attention to the issues of a fully functioning person and meaningful existence (Allport, 1961; Rogers, 1989). More recently, most of the basic theoretical background for the study of optimal development has been provided by positive psychology (see Robbins, 2008, for a review) or modern life span theories (Elder & Giele, 2009; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 2006).

Every year, hundreds of studies are undertaken to map the varied factors contributing to successful well-being and sense of well-being. That is why we have limited our focus on a specific segment of this area in our book, namely on the relations between well-being and person- ality traits. As this area has also been extensively examined within current research, we have decided to take a less frequently considered point of view: the life span perspective. We will study the way in which personality traits influence successful development and contribute to well-being in different stages of life, such as adolescence, and middle or late adulthood.

The first part of the book (Chapters 1–5) will discuss successful devel- opment and its aspects. We will focus on its psychological dimension, well-being and social dimensions, such as peer relations, partnership or marital relationships, family and career. In agreement with the current views, which understand personality as a multi-level system that includes traits, characteristic adaptations and personal narratives, we will examine the relationships between well-being and personality on all the aforementioned levels and will also try to capture the interplay and interactions between the personality levels regarding their influence on well-being. With regard to concepts of well-being, we will focus on subjective well-being (Diener, 1984) and psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989) which have been widely respected within theory and research over the long term. The great numbers of studies conducted with these concepts provide plentiful material as a basis for further research on the personality associations with well-being.

The second part of the book consists of four empirical studies which were produced on the basis of the papers presented within the symposium at the 13th European Congress of Psychology in 2013 on the subject of “Well-being in a Life-Span Perspective”. These studies focus on personality predictors of well-being and adjustment in key developmental stages: adolescence, middle adulthood and old age. They deal with various aspects of well-being in different cultural contexts and life settings. The two studies are based on life span longitudinal data, one on the data from over 6,000 youths, collected in six different cultural contexts, and the other on the comparison of young and elderly adults. Alexander T. Vazsonyi and colleagues (Chapter 6) tried to find out to what extent three of the Big Five personality dimensions were associated with an indicator of adolescent well-being and adjustment. Marek Blatný and colleagues (Chapter 7) used the Brno Longitudinal Study of Life Span Human Development to examine personality predictors of successful development in middle adulthood as suggested by the behaviours observed in toddlerhood and personality traits in adolescence. Katja Kokko and colleagues (Chapter 8) analysed the links between well-being and personality, based on the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, in which the same participants were followed from age 8 to 50. Peter Halama (Chapter 9) focused on personality and perceived stress as influential factors on meaning in life in old age.

We hope that this book, through its consistent focus on a specific subject – the relationships between personality characteristics and well-being in different stages of human development – may contribute to the clarification of the general links between personality and perceived happiness and satisfaction and their developmental regularities.

References

Allport, G. W. (1961). Pattern and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Aspinwall, L. G., & Staudinger, U. M. (Eds) (2003). A psychology of human strengths. Fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology. Washington: American Psychological Association.

Baltes, P. B. (1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. American Psychologist, 52, 366–380.

Baltes, P. B., Staudinger, U. M., & Lindenberger, U. (2006). Life-span theory in developmental psychology. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 569–664). Hoboken: Wiley.

Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.

Elder, G. H., Jr, & Giele, J. Z. (2009). Life course studies: An evolving field. In G. H. Elder, Jr & J. Z. Giele (Eds), The craft of life course research (pp. 1–24). New York: Guilford Publications.

Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed., rev. & enl.). New York: Norton.

Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand.

Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10–19.

Pulkkinen, L., & Caspi, A. (2002). Personality paths and successful development: An overview. In L. Pulkkinen & A. Caspi (Eds), Paths to successful development: Personality in the life course (pp. 1–16). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Pulkkinen, L., Nygren, H., & Kokko, K. (2002). Successful development: Childhood antecedents of adaptive psychosocial functioning in adulthood. Journal of Adult Development, 9, 251–265.

Robbins, B. D. (2008). What is the good life? Positive psychology and the renaissance of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36, 96–112.

Rogers, C. (1989). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5–14.

2

Successful Development

Katarína Millová

2.1 Definition

With the start of the new millennium – especially in the context of a new positive psychology discipline – demand grew for a more extensive study of positive aspects of human development and personality (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Along with that, researchers began to pay more attention to the issue of successful development (Pulkkinen & Caspi, 2002). Although positive psychology has given major impetus to system-atic research on successful development (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), the topic of successful development is also closely interlinked with the fields of social, developmental, individual and health psychology.

What does the term “successful development” apply to? One of the leading contemporary researchers in this area, Paul B. Baltes, understands successful development as “the maximization of gains and the minimization of losses” (Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1998, p. 1030). The process includes dealing with normative events shared by all members of the society (for example, compulsory education or obtaining the right to vote) as well as individually specific non-normative events (such as illness, the death of an important person, or parenthood). Successful management of these events produces gains (such as acquisition of new knowledge), while unsuccessful management results in losses (for example, a decrease in physical performance) (Baltes, 1987, 1997; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999, 2006). Other authors focus on the idea of maintaining balance, specifically between primary control (influencing and shaping one’s environment and other people) and secondary control (influencing and shaping one’s own opinions, values and so on) (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1993, 1995). A similar concept, described by Brandstädter (1998), involves balance between assimilation (active intervention in external events) and accommodation (changes within the individual).

Ryff (1989) views successful development not only as life satisfaction, but also as continued growth and development in old age. Her model includes six dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth (Ryff & Keyes, 1995).

From the biological perspective, successful development might be defined as good health and functioning (Rowe & Kahn, 1997). Rowe and Khan – particularly in connection with successful ageing – list three principal criteria: (1) absence of disease and risk factors of disease, (2) maintenance of physical and mental functioning, and (3) active engagement with life.

From the sociological perspective, successful development is characterized as effective functioning in society (see Helson & Wink, 1987, for a review). This approach places emphasis primarily on the observable social reality. The model of effective functioning in society incorporates the following aspects: (1) orientation toward external or internal envi- ronment (externalization versus internalization), (2) adherence to norms versus criticism of norms, and (3) the level of realization of one’s potential for effective functioning.

Today, the area of successful development is studied from several viewpoints, which differ from each other in the way they deal with the concept of adaptation mechanisms in the course of human development (Pulkkinen & Caspi, 2002): (1) growth models, (2) life span models, and (3) life course models. Each of these models brings a unique perspective of human development, has distinct criteria for assessing adaptation, and focuses on different ways human beings strive to meet the demands presented by the environment, as well as the developmental process itself. Nonetheless, despite divergent theoretical backgrounds, all of the three models attempt to answer the same key question: How do people deal with the challenges that come up with age and major changes in life?

Growth models constitute a largely heterogeneous group. Some of them describe individual development as a discontinuous process which occurs in stages (psychoanalytic theories), while others rely on a more holistic framework (humanistic approach). Whereas psychoanalytic theories address the issue of successful development of the ego (Erikson, 2002; Loevinger, 1997), humanistic theories focus mainly on positive development of the personality, which culminates in self-fulfilment and self-actualization (Maslow, 2000).

Life span theories deal primarily with psychological characteristics, such as control or stress management. Some of them pursue a broader perspective, taking into account social, historical and environmental factors in addition to psychological variables. Pulkkinen and Caspi (2002) classify three major theories as members of this group: the life span developmental theory (Baltes, 1987; Baltes, Staudinger, & Lindenberger, 1999, 2006), the life span theory of control (Heckhausen & Schultz, 1993, 1995) and the action theory (Brandtstädter, 1989, 1993, 1998). All of these theories are very similar ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Introduction
• 2  Successful Development
• 3  Well-being
• 4  Social Functioning
• 5  Cultural Aspects of Successful Development
• 6  Openness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and Adolescent Well-being: Evidence from Six Cultural Contexts
• 7  Personality Predictors of Successful Development
• 8  Associations between Mental Well-being and Personality from a Life Span Perspective
• 9  Maintaining Meaning in Life in Old Age: Personality and Social Factors
• 10  Final Remarks
• Index