Cross-cultural experiences and self-development: a psychobiographical study of Bruce Lee.

A common challenge people face in today's cross-cultural world is how to solve a series of adaptation problems caused by cultural conflict. Exploring Bruce Lee's successful cross-cultural experiences through psychobiography offers some inspiration and thoughts. How did Bruce Lee successfully integrate martial arts, symbolising the Eastern culture, with films representing the Western culture, finally propelling kung fu films onto the international stage? Numerous publicly available materials about Bruce Lee were collected for this study, and the research data were evaluated using thematic analysis. Bruce Lee's success benefitted from reconstructing cultural environment information and exercising his initiative to shape a new cultural environment. His life experiences reflect individual cognition behaviour and social and cultural environments as two aspects of a dynamic circulation system and show that the two have reached internal and spiralling harmony through mutual integration. In the context of the Oriental collectivism culture's family narrative, Chinese adults' personality development features the unique theme of 'inheritance and innovation'. Dealing with the relationship between self-actualisation and familism is another important and challenging task in developing the Chinese personality.

Schoolwork effort and emotions predict self-control in a weekly diary study.

OBJECTIVE: Self-control supports many positive life outcomes. However, the processes underlying the development of self-control are not well understood. Drawing on the TESSERA model of personality development, we examined whether weekly schoolwork effort predicts self-control (in the subsequent week). We also examined the role of schoolwork emotions and whether these emotions moderated the impact of schoolwork effort on self-control based on predictions from the TESSERA model. METHODS: Data are from a weekly diary study (N = 98) that measured children's schoolwork effort, schoolwork emotions, and self-control during five consecutive weeks. Data were analyzed at the between- and within-person levels using multilevel models. RESULTS: Between-person results show that schoolwork effort is related to variations in children's self-control. Furthermore, some emotions moderated the influence of schoolwork effort on self-control at the between- and within-person levels. CONCLUSION: In line with the TESSERA model of personality development, positive state expressions of effort during schoolwork (e.g., putting in effort) predicted higher self-control in the subsequent week. However, this finding was dependent on the reactions and reinforcement children felt about their effort (e.g., emotional responses to their remote schoolwork). The discussion examines how these findings extend to previous literature.

Explicating narrow and broad conceptualizations of environmental influences on personality.

BACKGROUND: A surge of studies aims to identify environmental factors that explain individual differences, personality stability, and personality development. This special issue builds on this large interest and solicited articles on broad and narrow environmental factors of personality. OBJECTIVE: We provide an overview of the motivations behind the special issue, review each of the articles, and present data on researchers' perceptions of environmental factors contributing to personality expression and development. METHOD: We review 16 special issue articles, thematically grouped into seven topics-culture and race, genes and environment, geography and habitat, major/minor life events, social relationships, socioeconomic status and economic inequality, and work. We also present data on researchers' (N = 223) responses and ratings of environmental influences on personality expression and development. RESULTS: In the open-ended responses, the most important environmental influences were family, culture, peers, relationships, and trauma. Among the least important were weather, birth order, geography, climate, and shared environment. Nearly all the environmental influences featured in this special issue were considered at least somewhat important; however, there was considerable heterogeneity in how important researchers found each topic. CONCLUSIONS: There is no perfect consensus among researchers as to which environmental factors contribute most to personality expression and development. We hope that there is a larger surge of studies on personality constructs beyond traits, that contextualize concepts within a cultural and historical framework and develop more stringent theories to hypothesize about the environmental influences on personality.

Job characteristics and personality change in young adulthood: A 12-year longitudinal study and replication.

OBJECTIVE: Personality changes are related to successfully performing adult occupational roles which require teamwork, duty, and managing stress. However, it is unclear how personality development relates to specific job characteristics that vary across occupations. METHOD: We investigated whether 151 objective job characteristics, derived from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), were associated with personality levels and changes in a 12-year longitudinal sample followed over the school to work transition. Using cross-validated regularized modeling, we combined two Icelandic longitudinal datasets (total N = 1054) and constructed an individual-level, aggregated job characteristics score that maximized prediction of personality levels at baseline and change over time. RESULTS: The strongest association was found for level of openness (0.25), followed by conscientiousness (0.16) and extraversion (0.14). Overall, aggregated job characteristics had a stronger prediction for personality intercepts (0.14) than slopes (0.10). These results were subsequently replicated in a U.S. sample using levels of the Big Five as the dependent variable. This indicates that associations between job characteristics and personality are generalizable across life stages and nations. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that job titles are a valuable resource that can be linked to personality to better understand factors that influence psychological development. Further work is needed to document the prospective validity of job characteristics across a wider range of occupations and age.

Life events sometimes alter the trajectory of personality development: Effect sizes for 25 life events estimated using a large, frequently assessed sample.

OBJECTIVE: Personality changes across the life span. Life events, such as marriage, becoming a parent, and retirement, have been proposed as facilitating personality growth via the adoption of novel social roles. However, empirical evidence linking life events with personality development is sparse. Most studies have relied on few assessments separated by long time intervals and have focused on a single life event. In contrast, the content of life is composed of small, recurrent experiences (e.g., getting sick or practicing a hobby), with relatively few major events (e.g., childbirth). Small, frequently experienced life events may play an important and overlooked role in personality development. METHOD: The present study examined the extent to which 25 major and minor life events alter the trajectory of personality development in a large, frequently assessed sample (Nsample = 4904, Nassessments = 47,814, median retest interval = 35 days). RESULTS: Using a flexible analytic strategy to accommodate the repeated occurrence of life events, we found that the trajectory of personality development shifted in response to a single occurrence of some major life events (e.g., divorce), and recurrent, "minor" life experiences (e.g., one's partner doing something special). CONCLUSION: Both stark role changes and frequently reinforced minor experiences can lead to personality change.

The impact of childhood lead exposure on adult personality: Evidence from the United States, Europe, and a large-scale natural experiment.

Childhood lead exposure has devastating lifelong consequences, as even low-level exposure stunts intelligence and leads to delinquent behavior. However, these consequences may be more extensive than previously thought because childhood lead exposure may adversely affect normal-range personality traits. Personality influences nearly every aspect of human functioning, from well-being to career earnings to longevity, so effects of lead exposure on personality would have far-reaching societal consequences. In a preregistered investigation, we tested this hypothesis by linking historic atmospheric lead data from 269 US counties and 37 European nations to personality questionnaire data from over 1.5 million people who grew up in these areas. Adjusting for age and socioeconomic status, US adults who grew up in counties with higher atmospheric lead levels had less adaptive personality profiles: they were less agreeable and conscientious and, among younger participants, more neurotic. Next, we utilized a natural experiment, the removal of leaded gasoline because of the 1970 Clean Air Act, to test whether lead exposure caused these personality differences. Participants born after atmospheric lead levels began to decline in their county had more mature, psychologically healthy adult personalities (higher agreeableness and conscientiousness and lower neuroticism), but these findings were not discriminable from pure cohort effects. Finally, we replicated associations in Europeans. European participants who spent their childhood in areas with more atmospheric lead were less agreeable and more neurotic in adulthood. Our findings suggest that further reduction of lead exposure is a critical public health issue.

Unravelling the Longitudinal Relations Between Developmental Milestones, General Psychopathology, and Personality Functioning in a Youth Clinical Sample.

Personality functioning, general psychopathology, and developmental milestones achievement are critical domains in the field of young people's mental health; however, no prior research has considered these variables jointly or examined the temporal dynamics between them. To fill these gaps, the present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between the above constructs in a clinical sample of Dutch youth. 525 outpatients (72.5% women; age range: 12-26 years, M = 18.8 ± 2.83) diagnosed with different psychological difficulties were recruited from specialized mental health care services in The Netherlands. They completed self-report measures assessing personality functioning, psychopathological symptoms, and the achievement of youth-specific developmental milestones. Data were collected on three occasions within a year and modelled using a Cross-Lagged Panel Model approach. The levels of personality dysfunction, general psychopathology, and developmental milestones achievement were found to fluctuate from one wave to the other. Personality dysfunction and general psychopathology were positively interrelated at each time point, while both constructs were negatively associated with developmental milestones achievement. Importantly, difficulties achieving developmental milestones predicted a worsening in personality functioning 6 months later. This result would suggest that the achievement of developmental milestones precedes personality functioning, supporting the importance of interventions promoting age-adequate functioning in youth.

Social expectations and abilities to meet them as possible mechanisms of youth personality development.

OBJECTIVE: Personality traits change from childhood through late-adolescence, however the effects of social expectations and self-regulatory efforts remain unknown. This study aims to explore mechanisms underlying personality development by assessing mean levels personality traits from childhood to late-adolescence. METHOD: We used Common-Language California Child Q-Set to measure youths' (N = 11,000) mean personality trait levels; social expectations for these traits as perceived by parents (N = 47), teachers (N = 42) and students (N = 120); and self-regulatory efforts required for achieving the desired levels in these traits as perceived by parents (N = 27), teachers (N = 26), and students (N = 54). RESULTS: Expectations for youths' traits were consistent, regardless of raters' or youths' age. In our unique between-trait study design, traits' mean levels were positively associated with expectations for them, but age differences minimally tracked these expectations. Traits' required self-regulatory efforts were not associated with their developmental trends. CONCLUSIONS: Results were only partially consistent with existing developmental theories of personality development.

Body mass predicts personality development across 18 years in middle to older adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Various personality traits have longitudinal relations with body mass index (BMI), a measure of body weight and a risk factor for numerous health concerns. We tested these associations' compatibility with causality in either direction. METHOD: Using three waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 12,235, Mage  = 53.33 at baseline), we tested how accurately the Five-Factor Model personality domains and their items could collectively predict BMI and change in it with elastic net models. With multilevel models, we tested (a) bidirectional and (b) within-person associations between BMI and personality traits. RESULTS: The five domains were able to predict concurrent (r = 0.08), but not future BMI. Twenty-nine personality items predicted concurrent and future BMI at r = 0.21 and r = 0.16 to 0.25, respectively. Neither the domains nor items could collectively predict change in BMI. Similarly, no individual trait predicted change in BMI, but BMI predicted changes in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and several items (|b*| = 0.03 to 0.08). BMI had within-person correlations with these same traits; time-invariant third factors like genetics or childhood environments therefore could not (fully) account for their relations. CONCLUSIONS: Body weight may contribute to adults' personality development, but the reverse appears less likely.

Does intelligence predict development of investment traits from mid to late adolescence? Evidence from a 3-year longitudinal study.

INTRODUCTION: Investment theories have claimed reciprocal relations between intelligence and investment traits (i.e., personality traits related to seeking out, and dealing with, cognitive challenges). However, previous research has primarily addressed the effects of investment traits on intellectual development (environmental enrichment hypothesis) and often focused on either childhood or later adulthood. The present study investigated the effects of intelligence on investment traits (environmental success hypothesis) from mid to late adolescence. METHOD: In a 3-year longitudinal survey (2008-2011) covering four measurement occasions, the predictive effects of both fluid and crystallized intelligence on intraindividual change in both the achievement motive (i.e., hope for success and fear of failure) and need for cognition were examined. Overall, 476 adolescents (t1 : Mage = 16.43, SD = 0.55; 51.3% girls) from Germany participated. RESULTS: Second-order latent growth models indicated that fluid intelligence predicted a steeper growth in hope for success (ß = .40), but was unrelated to change in the other investment traits. Crystallized intelligence had no effects on the investment traits under study. CONCLUSIONS: The results contribute to the research on the bidirectionality of intelligence and investment traits and add to our understanding of personality development from mid to late adolescence. Specifically, they underline the importance of nurturing hope for success especially in individuals with lower intelligence, but also show that support for the environmental success hypothesis seems to be limited to certain investment traits.

Patterns of Personality Development and Psychosocial Functioning in Japanese Adolescents: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study.

While patterns of adolescent personality development are country-specific, previous studies that have examined them have been limited to the Netherlands and Finland. This study aimed to identify the patterns of personality development and examine the relationship between these patterns and psychosocial functioning among Japanese adolescents. Overall, 618 Japanese adolescents (49.5% girls; 16 years) participated in the annual longitudinal survey from 2013 to 2016. Using latent class growth analysis, the following four patterns of personality development were identified: resilient, over-controlled, vulnerable, and moderate. Although the mean-level changes in the Big Five domains were generally insignificant among the four patterns, the vulnerable pattern showed a progressive increase in conscientiousness, and the moderate pattern showed a decrease in neuroticism and an increase in conscientiousness. Furthermore, multivariate analysis of variance tests indicated that the resilient pattern showed higher subjective well-being and lower psychosocial problems than the other personality patterns; the over-controlled pattern showed higher internalizing problems than the resilient pattern; the vulnerable pattern showed lower subjective well-being and higher internalizing problems than the other patterns; and the moderate pattern scored between the resilient, over-controlled, and vulnerable patterns in both subjective well-being and psychosocial problems. These findings suggest that the vulnerable and moderate patterns, which are immature patterns compared to the resilient and over-controlled ones, showed positive changes to the direction of maturity from middle to late adolescence in Japan.

Determinants of personal growth and life satisfaction in divorced adults.

Divorce is a major life event that can trigger sudden changes in how adults perceive themselves and operate in their social environments. Some previous evidence has documented changes in personality in reaction to marital dissolution. However, little is known about the determinants of personality development in the post-divorce period. Guided by the positive personality development model in adulthood, this study examined sociodemographic characteristics, divorce-related variables and personality-related indicators as determinants of life satisfaction and personal growth in divorced adults. Participants included 460 divorced adults who completed self-reported measures regarding sociodemographic characteristics, divorce-related variables and personality development indicators. Results showed that autonomy, environmental mastery, self-acceptance, emotional self-regulation indicators and motivation for personality adjustment goals were associated with post-divorce life satisfaction. Personal growth was associated with purpose in life, self-expansion, psychological mindedness and motivation for personality growth goals. The sociodemographic characteristics and divorce-related variables differently predicted life satisfaction and personal growth. We discussed the implications of the positive personality development model in understanding post-divorce personality adjustment and maturity.

Fetal Fantasy and the Perfect Child: How Certain Challenges of Adolescence may Inform Aspects of the Abortion Debate.

This article explores psychic aspects of abortion, from the fixity of beliefs over its legalization, to conscious and unconscious fantasies related to the fetus, children, parenting, fertility, and so on. Generally speaking, the field has shown less direct interest in abortion per se than might be surmised, particularly given the centrality of sexuality and procreation in psychoanalysis. The recent legal changes may initiate more psychoanalytic interest in the topic. The current writing studies a possible strand of fantasy in which conscious and unconscious wishes for an unending, idealized, and blameless child-object are displaced onto a fetus or fetal imago. Speculations and suggestions are drawn from casework with an individual which points to a possible channeling or avoidance of unprocessed grief when the seeming perfection of childhood ends abruptly, almost without transition, with the imposition of adolescent personality development.

Stability and change in autobiographical reasoning: A 4-year longitudinal study of narrative identity development.

OBJECTIVE: Research on personality development has traditionally focused on rank-order stability and mean-level change in the context of personality traits. The present study expands this approach to the examination of change and stability at another level of personality-narrative identity-by focusing on autobiographical reasoning. Drawing from theory in personality and developmental science, we examine stability and change in exploratory processing and positive and negative self-event connections. METHOD: We take advantage of a longitudinal study of emerging adult personality and identity development, which includes four waves of data across 4 years, examining reasoning in two domains of identity, academics, and romance (n = 1520 narratives; n = 176-638 participants, depending on the analysis). RESULTS: We found moderate rank-order stability in autobiographical reasoning, but more so for exploratory processing than self-event connections. We found mean-level increases for exploratory processing in the context of romance and stability in the context of academics. For self-event connections, we saw a decrease for positive connections, and for negative connections about romance, with stability for negative connections about academics. CONCLUSIONS: Implications include developmental differences in types of reasoning as well as the sensitivity of narrative identity to revealing the contextual nature of personality development.

Evidence for distinct biodevelopmental influences on male sexual orientation.

Several biological mechanisms have been proposed to influence male sexual orientation, but the extent to which these mechanisms cooccur is unclear. Putative markers of biological processes are often used to evaluate the biological basis of male sexual orientation, including fraternal birth order, handedness, and familiality of same-sex sexual orientation; these biomarkers are proxies for immunological, endocrine, and genetic mechanisms. Here, we used latent profile analysis (LPA) to assess whether these biomarkers cluster within the same individuals or are present in different subgroups of nonheterosexual men. LPA defined four profiles of men based on these biomarkers: 1) A subgroup who did not have these biomarkers, 2) fraternal birth order, 3) handedness, and 4) familiality. While the majority of both heterosexual and nonheterosexual men were grouped in the profile that did not have any biomarker, the three profiles associated with a biomarker were composed primarily of nonheterosexual men. We then evaluated whether these subgroups differed on measures of gender nonconformity and personality that reliably show male sexual orientation differences. The subgroup without biomarkers was the most gender-conforming whereas the fraternal birth order subgroup was the most female-typical and agreeable, compared with the other profiles. Together, these findings suggest there are multiple distinct biodevelopmental pathways influencing same-sex sexual orientation in men.

[Personality Models in the Context of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Development, Change, Stability and Research Perspectives]. / Persönlichkeitsmodelle im Kontext der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie ­ Entwicklung, Veränderung, Stabilität und Forschungsperspektiven.

Personality models play an important role for the etiological understanding of abnormal development in clinical settings. In this selective review, relevant personality models are presented and, in particular, their developmental dynamics and adaptability over the life span, starting in childhood, are considered in detail. The focus is on the developmental psychopathological perspective of processes of ego-resiliency and self-regulation between the poles of disposition and social environment. This is particularly obvious in the discussion of developmental path models of personality dysfunction with experiences of abuse or disorganized attachment in the child's history. Psychopathologically, an ongoing impairment of self-regulation often results in stable patterns of maladaptation, which leads in the case of purely symptomatic treatment usually only to temporary behavioral modifications. On the other hand, the changeability of pathological personality traits through the use of targeted intervention approaches will favour of a positive outcome and contradicts a deterministic stability of personality characteristics. For future research perspectives in developmental psychopathology, various theoretical personality constructs are discussed and linked to clinical observations.

Comparison of Self-Differentiation and Identity Statuses in Twins and Nontwins.

Formation of identity and differentiation is crucial in the development process of adolescents and young people. Despite many studies on identity status and self-differentiation in adolescence and early adulthood stages, this issue has been less examined among twins. This study was conducted to compare self-differentiation and identity statuses in twins and nontwins. The sample of the study consisted of 128 identical twins, 176 nonidentical twins and 170 nontwins aged from 13 to 30 years and living in Mashhad in Iran, who completed the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status and Self-Differentiation questionnaires. The results showed that the self-differentiation of identical and nonidentical twins was significantly higher than nontwins. The results also showed that level of Foreclosure identity, Moratorium identity and Achieved identity was similar among identical twins, nonidentical twins and nontwins, but significantly different in terms of Diffusion identity. Further, the results showed that twins younger than 18 years had scores higher than nontwins and twins over 18 years in terms of Diffusion identity. Findings revealed that females were significantly lower than males for Moratorium identity. The adolescence period and co-twins may be the reason for the high levels of Diffusion identity and self-differentiation. Also, it seems that identity development and differentiation are related to emotional and cognitive development.

Personality maturation and personality relaxation: Differences of the Big Five personality traits in the years around the beginning and ending of working life.

OBJECTIVE: At work, people are confronted with clear behavioral expectations. In line with the Social Investment Principle, the beginning and ending of working life might thus promote changes in personality traits that are relevant at work (e.g., Conscientiousness). METHOD: Based on the data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), we examined nuanced differences of the Big Five personality traits in the years around the beginning and ending of working life. Whether participants had started working or retired in the past year was assessed yearly. The Big Five personality traits were assessed in four waves between 2005 and 2017. RESULTS: In people who started working, multilevel analyses revealed that Conscientiousness was higher in the first year of working life versus all other years. Extraversion was higher in and after the first year of working life versus before, and Agreeableness increased gradually in the three years after people had started working. In people who retired, Conscientiousness was lower in and after the first year of retirement versus before. No other traits differed around the start of retirement. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the start of working life might promote personality maturation and that retirement might promote personality "relaxation."

Hurricane exposure and personality development.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the role of natural disaster adversity on personality development in the wake of a hurricane, and the moderating role of previous hurricane exposure. METHOD: We used a two-wave longitudinal design and a diverse sample of emerging adults (n = 691; mean age = 22 years; 72% females, 27% European American, 29% Latino, 23% Asian American, 15% African American, 6% Multiracial/Other) who were exposed to one of the most damaging hurricanes on record, though to differing degrees. Immediately after the hurricane, we assessed objective individual-level hurricane exposure, previous exposure to hurricanes, demographics, socioeconomic status, and Big Five personality traits. One year later, we re-assessed Big Five personality traits. RESULTS: Using latent change models, we found significant individual differences both in participants' initial levels of personality traits at baseline, as well as in their developmental patterns of change in the year following the hurricane. However, there was no evidence of mean-level change. Moreover, neither hurricane exposure level, nor its interaction with previous exposure showed statistically significant associations with the rates of change in any personality trait. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings support a stability account, whereby individuals largely maintain their personality dispositions following an adverse life event, in this case a hurricane.

Age and gender differences in personality traits from early childhood through adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Most research on personality development has employed self-report questionnaires and concerned individuals older than 10 years. This is the first study to examine mean-level age differences in personality traits from early childhood to late adolescence in the non-Western cultural context. METHOD: Personality was measured in two community samples of parent reports of 2-18-year-old children (N = 4,330) and self-reports of 10-19-year-old adolescents (N = 4,663) from Russia by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S) at the three levels of the hierarchy, the two higher order traits, the Big Five, and lower order traits. RESULTS: Across childhood, the Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism traits increased, and the Extraversion and Openness traits decreased. In adolescence, parent-reported Conscientiousness traits increased and Neuroticism traits decreased, whereas youth-rated Alpha and Agreeableness decreased in middle adolescence. There were small gender differences in trait levels and age trends. Parents and youths did not agree on gender differences in age trends for Neuroticism and Extraversion. CONCLUSION: The findings support personality maturation from early childhood to late adolescence, with the exception of increasing Neuroticism across childhood, and provide some evidence for the disruption in personality maturation in adolescence. Parents and adolescents may have different perspectives on personality development.