Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade

[The Spartan]

Live Science through Yahoo

Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests
LiveScience Staff

Our personalities stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, from our early childhood years to after we're over the hill, according to a new study.

The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.

"We remain recognizably the same person," said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. "This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts."

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Tracking personalities

Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 - 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.

They examined four personality attributes - talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one's importance).

Among the findings:

Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.

Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.

Changing personality

Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it's not an easy undertaking.

Personality is "a part of us, a part of our biology," Nave said. "Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well."

Future research will "help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality," Nave said.

Makes me wonder why I was such a picky eater. I say that because I've seen parents watching their children eat something or asking to eat something that's "not usual" to the parent, but perfectly harmless, even really good, and the parent says something like, "Ewww you don't want to eat that."

[Simon_Jester]

I'm not sure how far to take this. This looks like a fairly low-level popularization, one that may be taking "we found a correlation" and reading it as "kids don't change as they grow up."

[Covenant]

Well, cue standard "that seems like a load of horseshit from my seat" response. My personality underwent a series of huge shifts in response to the way I was treated at school, and these events didn't take place in 1st grade. I'd like them to show their math so other people can pick it over for handy data, but it seems way outside my experience.

I do agree with the assessment that you do stay recognizably the same person throughout most of your life, but experiences can shape your mood and perception to such a degree that your 'personality traits' are entirely overwhelmed by the need to act in certain ways. We are rarely existing in a state of nature. It also seems somewhat culturally centric. I'd be surprised if this tracked as-is across other cultures that value reservedness as a sign of intelligence, or when humility is a sign of strength and restraint and not emotional fragility or self-doubt. Which isn't to say that's what they said in this study (I don't exactly know how to take their assessments) but I honestly don't buy it with regard to the way I've lived.

[Themightytom]

This seems like garbage. From what I can tell its not even a longitudinal study its a complete guess. It doesn't appear peer reviewed, the first thing I wanted to see was what their definition of personalities were and their using umbrella terms that aren't even consistent with the DSM IV. The second thing I checked was sample size, and seriously...

a population size of 116??

I Think We're Done Here.