Abstract

Little attention has been paid to middle adulthood in research on personality stability and change. In addition, previous research on individual differences in personality change has not fully explained its variability. This study focused on the differential susceptibility model, which suggests that individual susceptibility interacts with environmental factors and produces variability in outcomes, and investigated individual differences in personality change with a middle adult sample. A total of 1051 Japanese middle adults (M = 41.61 years; SD = 5.31; range 30–50 years; 534 females) participated in this two-wave short-term longitudinal study. Latent change score model analyses revealed substantial mean-level declines in Agreeableness and Honesty–Humility. Moreover, the results showed that the influences of some life events on personality change are moderated for better and for worse by individual susceptibility to one’s environment. These findings suggest that the trends of personality development may differ between Western and non-Western countries and that differential susceptibility model may play an important role in deriving individual differences in personality stability and change.

摘要

在人格稳定和改变的研究中，很少关注成年中期。此外，先前关于人格变化的个体差异的研究尚未完全解释其变异性。这项研究集中在差异敏感性模型上，该模型表明个体敏感性与环境因素相互作用并产生结果变异性，并研究了一个成年中年人格变化中的个体差异。共有1051名日本中成年人（M = 41.61年；SD = 5.31；范围30–50年；534名女性）参加了该两波短期纵向研究。潜在变化评分模型分析显示，在“愉快程度”和“诚实谦卑性”方面平均水平显着下降。此外，结果表明，某些生活事件对人格改变的影响因个人对环境的易感性而变好或变差。这些发现表明，西方国家和非西方国家的人格发展趋势可能有所不同，并且不同的易感性模型可能在推导人格稳定和变化的个体差异中起重要作用。