Personality Change

Theories also differ in the degree to which a person’s personality is seen as
changing over time. Most personality theories address the development of
personality in childhood and the possibility for change in adulthood. Psychoanalytic
theorists believe that the most basic personality characteristics
are established by the age of five or six, although there are some minor further
developments in adolescence. While the person may change in adulthood
in the course of psychotherapy and become better able to cope with
the conflicts and traumas experienced during the early years, major personality
transformations are not expected. Again, humanists are more optimistic
than psychoanalytic theorists about personality change, although humanists,
too, see the childhood years as important. For example, Rogers
suggests that during childhood the parents may communicate their approval
of some of the child’s feelings and their disapproval of others, leaving
the child with a distorted self-concept. Yet, from the humanistic point of
view, the person’s true inner self will constantly strive for expression. Thus,
positive personality change is always seen as possible. Social learning theorists
also see personality as changeable. Behaviors learned in childhood may
later be changed by direct training, by altering the environment, or by revising
one’s expectations.

A final issue is the relationship between personality and behavior. For social learning theorists, behaviors and related expectations are personality. A
person’s behaviors are taken as a sample of a full behavioral repertoire
which forms who the person is. Both psychoanalytic and humanistic theorists
view behavior as a symptom or sign of underlying, internal personality
dynamics rather than a sample of the personality itself. According to this
viewpoint, a person’s behaviors reflect personality only when interpreted in
the light of the underlying traits they reveal. Diverse behaviors may thus be
related to a single internal characteristic.