A traditional belief about personalities is that we can’t change once we hit our thirties, but recent research shows that our personalities continue to change throughout our lives, and this has surprising benefits.
In October 1984, President Ronald Reagan was engaged in the presidential debates for re-election. His performance in last week’s debate was very poor in front of his opponents. Everyone here was whispering that this responsibility is quite heavy for a 77-year-old person.
After all, even at that time, Reagan had won the honor of becoming the oldest president in the history of the United States. One of his predecessors worked continuously for days without sleep during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Trewhitt wanted to know if Reagan believed that he would be able to discharge the duties of the presidency under such circumstances.
Mocking Reagan in this way was, however, more true than he knew. Not only did he have experience, but he also had a ‘solid personality’.
We are all aware of the physical changes that come with aging: the skin starts to sag, the gums start to weaken, our noses get bigger, hair starts to grow in certain places and so on. At the same time, in a few other places, they disappear altogether, and the precious few inches of our height that make us visible seem to disappear.
Now, after decades of research into the effects of aging, scientists are discovering new aspects of this mysterious change.
René Moats, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, says that the gist of this research is: that we don’t stay the same personality throughout our lives.’
Most of us would like to think that our personalities remain relatively stable or the same throughout life. But new research says that doesn’t happen.
Our personality traits change, and by the time we hit our 70s or 80s, we’ve already changed a lot. And while we’re learning to equip ourselves to cope with the physical decay and deterioration of aging, the gradual changes in our personality also have surprising benefits.
We become more sincere and agreeable while being less prone to nervous breakdowns. The ‘dark trinity’ personality traits, Machiavellianism, narcissism, will also decrease in intensity, and as they decrease in intensity, our behavior will be less prone to anti-social behaviour, such as crime or drug use.
Research shows that we develop a sense of altruism and become trustworthy individuals. Our willpower increases and we develop a better sense of humor. Because of these things, older people develop the ability to control their emotions better. Either way, it’s a win-win combination, and it signals that we’re rethinking the traditional perception of older people as grumpy and irritable.
In stark contrast to the idea, which experts have long held that it is completed in childhood or around age 30, it is now understood that our personality is fluid and malleable. Is. ‘People become happier, more socially flexible,’ says Professor Moats. They develop a better ability to balance their expectations and societal demands.
Psychologists call this change that occurs in us as we age ‘personality maturation’. This change comes gradually, invisibly, starting at an early age and continuing even after we reach our 80s on this planet.
Interestingly, this change seems to be universal: such a change is seen in all human cultures, from Guatemala to India.
Dr. Rodica Damian, a social psychologist at the University of Houston in the US, says that ‘forming a specific opinion about personality change, whether it is good or bad, is generally considered controversial. But we have evidence that it is beneficial.’ For example, emotional instability is directly related to mental problems, including increased mortality rates, increased divorce rates, etc.
Dr. Damian explains that during these situations, a travel partner with a higher trait of sincerity is more likely to be happier because he or she is more likely to wash the dishes on time while helping with household chores. There are less chances of cheating on your travel partner.
Similarly, it would be very logical to think that due to this continuous process of change, the traditional concept of ‘personality’ becomes meaningless. But this is not entirely true. This is because there are two aspects of personality change: one is average change and the other is relative change. During research, it has been found that the change in our personality due to increasing age, i.e. how much we have changed in our relationship with others in terms of people of the same age, then there is a lot of possibility to remain stable in our personality.
For example, a person with an overall decline in the level of the nervous system is just as likely to develop a neurological disease at the age of 81 as an eleven-year-old child. There will be possibilities. Such categorization is the most enduring characteristic of our personality and distinguishes us from others.
Dr Rodika Damian says ‘Knowing is a key part of who we are, in terms of how we rate ourselves in comparison to others. But in relation to our own personality, our personality is not a final letter. We can change.’
A study of Japanese centenarians found that they were more likely to have good scores on sincerity, extraversion, and openness.
How do personality changes occur? “There is a lot of discussion on this topic at the moment,” says Moats.
Because personality maturation is a universal fact, some scientists believe that we continue to learn new rules as we age.
On the other hand, some experts say that our personalities change due to an imposed genetic factors which are then shaped by social pressures during our life journey. For example, according to research by University of California personality psychologist Wiebke Blydorn, in cultures where people are expected to grow up quickly, get married, start working, take on adult responsibilities, Their personality starts to mature at an early age.
“People tend to force a change in their behavior over time to become more responsible,” says Dr. Damian. Our personalities help us adapt to meet the challenges of our lives.’
But what happens when we get too old?
There are two possible ways of knowing how we change in our lives. The first way is to take a large group of people of different ages and then see how their personalities differ.
An alternative to this method is to take people from the same group and then continue the study until they are older.
This is exactly what was done with ‘Lothian Birth Control’. This was a group of people who were studied and their intelligence tested in June 1932 or June 1947 when they were still school students. He was eleven years old at that time. Motts, with the help of his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, tracked down hundreds of them when they were in their seventies or eighties. And then make them repeat the same tests after several years, similar to those previous tests.
“Because we now had these two groups, and they were both tested at two different times, we were now able to compare the two methods of testing them at two different times,” Motts said. can use at the same time.’ This was fortunate because the test results of these two groups were markedly different.
While the personalities of the younger age group remained more or less the same, the personalities of the older age group began to change, in that their openness and extroversion decreased on average, and At the same time, their sincerity also decreased and their ability to agree also decreased. And the beneficial changes that had taken place throughout their lives were beginning to reverse.
‘I think it is also pre-understanding. Because for people in old age the speed of the process of happening is accelerated.’ These explaining mots indicate that these people may be in declining health and are beginning to lose friends and relatives. ‘This has a profound effect on their interaction with ordinary people’s lives.’
So far, no one has studied whether this trend persists into the over 100 years of age. A study of Japanese centenarians found that they were more likely to improve scores on sincerity, extraversion, and openness. But they were already likely to have many such features. It may have played a role in his longevity.