Are you the same person you've always been? A part of you may say yes. Maybe you've always slept a certain way since you were a baby and separated your food for as long as you can remember. But chances are, few of us can say we've remained the same. We grow, we mature, and we learn from our experiences. This issue often arises for developmental psychologists: To what degree do we remain stable versus change throughout our lives or change?
- What are developmental psychology theories?
- What is stability vs change theories of development?
- What is the stability of development?
- What are some examples of stability in human development?
Stability and Change in Psychology
Developmental psychologists have several goals but generally aim to describe, predict, explain, and optimize how a person develops through their life span.
Developmental psychology is a field of psychology that focuses on studying physical, cognitive, and social development and changes through a life span.
Essentially, developmental psychologists and research scientists study how we change (or stay the same) throughout our lives. As a result, several developmental psychology theories have been formed addressing the issue of stability vs change. But how are you supposed to measure how someone changes or remains the same throughout their lives? Are you just supposed to check in with them from the age of, say, 12 to the age of 72?
Well, that is, in fact, a very common method developmental psychologists use to form their theories. This research method is called a longitudinal study.
Longitudinal studies are a type of research that follow the same people over some time while periodically retesting them for any changes or developments.
Now consider the ways we can change throughout our lives. Is it gradual or in stages? Do we change from when we were children to fully grown adults, or are there parts of ourselves that remain constant for our entire lives? In this article, we'll explore the latter question by examining stability vs change theories of development.
Fig. 1 - Longitudinal studies observe people through a span of time
Differences Between Stability vs Change in Human Development
Issues of stability vs change theories of development in psychology address whether a person's attributes remain the same or change as we age. Stability vs change theories of development suggests either closed systems (stabilization occurs early and persists through life), open systems (major attributes are potentially changeable throughout life), or a combination of both.
If you were a calm and even-tempered baby, would you also be a calm and even-tempered adult? Can that change?
Stability vs change of an attribute may depend on our genes; those genetic attributes influence our environment, and our environment impacts which attributes stabilize and change throughout our lives.
Additionally, it was once believed, per William James' suggestion, that attributes such as personality become fixed by age 30. However, developmental psychologists today believe that some traits can continue to change through old age. The main idea to take away from the stability vs change theories of development is that we all remain the same and change throughout life. Good thing too. Without stabilization, it would be difficult for us to form our identity. But with instability, we can remain hopeful that we can change parts of ourselves in the future.
Example of Stability in Human Development
Not all traits stabilize the same way or at the same time. Some traits, especially those more heritable than others, are more likely to stabilize throughout a person's lifespan.
Heritability is the percentage of variation within a population attributed to our genes.
Let's look at the stability of development for temperament, personality, and intelligence.
Temperament
Developmental psychologists frequently use twin studies to determine which traits are more heritable than others. Concerning temperament, twin studies reveal that identical twins are likelier to have similar temperaments than fraternal twins, suggesting that temperament is a genetically influenced trait (Kandler et al., 2013).
Temperament refers to an aspect of a person's personality related to their emotional reactions and the intensity of those reactions.
Considering its heritability, it should come as little surprise that temperament stabilizes more than other traits. Many people would admit, including former president Donald Trump, that their temperament is relatively similar to when they were a child.
When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I'm basically the same. The temperament is not that different" (Never Enough, 2015)
Can you think back to when you were really young? Can you recognize any similarities in your temperament than to your temperament now?
Fig. 2 - Temperament is related to how we handle our emotions
While temperament is more stable than other traits, it remains changeable. Remember that, similar to how nature vs nurture is an ongoing issue, stability vs change is also an ongoing issue. In other words, just as a genetically influenced trait can still be affected by the environment, so too can a relatively stable trait still have the potential to change later in life.
Personality
Stability versus change theories of development also considers how personality develops throughout a person's life span. Personality and temperament can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from one another. The thing to remember is that temperament is a part of someone's personality.
Personality refers to a person's combination of key characteristics related to how they think, feel, and behave.
Personality is more or less stable across a person's lifespan. However, most psychologists agree that stabilization of personality occurs the most in adulthood after adolescence (McGue et al., 1993). For most of us, adolescence can be the most turbulent period of our lives and a time when we truly begin to discover who we are and who we want to be. As we (hopefully) begin to mature, our personality stabilizes.
Antisocial behavior, criminal activity, violent behavior, and drug and alcohol abuse peak before the age of 25. (McGue et al., 1993).
Intelligence
Another highly heritable rate is intelligence. Our performance on intelligence tests at as young as 4 years old can, to a certain degree, begin to predict our intelligence later in life. Ian Deary et al. (2009) would find that intelligence stabilizes as early as 11 years old in their longitudinal study of several hundred Scottish citizens.
On June 1, 1932, 87,498 Scottish children aged 11 took an intelligence test. Ian Deary and his colleagues (2009) discovered the test results nearly 70 years later in an old storeroom. They were able to track down 542 survivors of the study and administer the same intelligence test they took when they were children. They found a positive correlation of +.66 between the test scores, suggesting that intelligence has high stability throughout a person's lifetime.
Example of Change in Human Development
The heritability of a trait can play a role in whether a trait will remain stable throughout our lifetimes. On the other hand, the environment can often play a role in whether a trait is likely to change throughout our lifetimes. Personality may change throughout a person's lifetime based on their own experiences.
A person may be shy since they were born or become shy due to several challenging social encounters. Alternatively, someone born shy may become more outgoing based on the social group they surround themselves with.
Some traits are especially sensitive to a person's environment and, therefore, change throughout our lifespan. Here are a few examples of change in human development:
Job occupation
Social views
Resiliency
Stability versus Change - Key takeaways
- Longitudinal studies are a type of research that follow the same people over a span of time while periodically retesting them for any changes or developments.
- Without stabilization, it would be difficult for us to form our identity. But with instability, we can remain hopeful that we can change parts of ourselves in the future.
- Some traits, especially those that are more heritable than others are more likely to stabilize throughout a person's lifespan including temperament, personality, and intelligence.
- The environment can play a role in whether a trait is likely to change throughout our lifetimes. Personality may change throughout a person's lifetime based on their own personal experiences.
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