This is probably one of the oldest questions that people have asked themselves. And for years psychologists have given the same pessimistic answer: personality does not change.
This was true three decades ago but in recent years an alarm signal has caused psychologists to reevaluate this position. In fact, it has been observed that people do not give the same answers to personality questionnaires at different stages of their lives. But… is this a meaningful and true measure of personality change?
This same question was asked by researchers at the University of Warwick. Neither quick nor lazy, they dedicated themselves to analyzing the data of 8,625 people. For this, questionnaires were applied over two years. We already know that it is a relatively short period if we compare it to a lifetime, but precisely for this reason, the researchers were interested in seeing if in such a short period of time, changes had occurred in their personality.
What did you find?
They found that, indeed, the personality of some people had undergone a change during those two years. And these transformations were fundamentally linked to changes in marital status, employment and the level of economic income.
In other words, when the conditions around us change, especially those that are most significant to us, our personality also changes in order to adapt to our environment.
An essential point about the immutability of personality
This study demonstrates that our personality is not an immutable instance but can change over time and depending on the transformations that our environment undergoes. Of course, we must keep in mind that talking about personality as a great construct can lead to misunderstandings. That is, personality is a large macrocategory that includes everything from our thoughts to our emotions, attitudes and ways of behaving.
Therefore, instead of talking about changes in personality, in a general sense, the most correct thing would be to refer to certain transformations that occur within it, due to which, a person can behave in a more or less extroverted way and be more or less open to new experiences.
Obviously, the trick is that when one of these changes occurs, it almost always generates a series of cascading transformations. Because if we learn to be more open to new experiences, almost inevitably, we will be enhancing extroversion, we will be assuming a more relaxed attitude towards life, we will stop being so critical of others…
So, the answer to the question that titles the article is that personality can change but as long as the conditions for it are met. Furthermore, sometimes these are small changes that do not generate chain reactions but are limited to certain areas.
Reference:
Boyce, C. J. et. Al (2013) Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction. Social Indicators Research; 111(1): 287-305.
