Developmental Tasks as a Framework to Study Personality Development in Adulthood and Old Age

TLDR

Personality undergoes both mean‑level and rank‑order changes throughout the lifespan, indicating a lifelong developmental process. The paper investigates how specific developmental tasks in adulthood phases explain these personality changes. The authors review literature and categorize developmental tasks that shift from establishing new social roles in early adulthood to maintaining them in middle adulthood and preventing losses in old age. They report that personality moves toward greater maturity—higher social dominance, conscientiousness, and emotional stability—in early and middle adulthood, with weaker shifts near death, and that task handling predicts rank‑order stability. © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology.

Abstract

Research consistently shows that personality development is a lifelong phenomenon, with mean–level and rank–order changes occurring in all life phases. What happens during specific life phases that can explain these developmental patterns? In the present paper, we review literature linking personality development in different phases of adulthood to developmental tasks associated with these phases. Building on previous work, we describe several categories of developmental tasks that are present in all phases of adulthood. However, the specific tasks within these categories change across adulthood from establishing new social roles in early adulthood to maintaining them in middle adulthood and preventing losses in old age. This trajectory is reflected in mean–level changes in personality, which indicates development towards greater maturity (increases in social dominance, conscientiousness, and emotional stability) in early and middle adulthood, but less so at the end of life. Importantly, developmental tasks are not only associated with mean–level changes, but the way in which people deal with these tasks is also related to rank–order changes in personality. We provide an outlook for future research on how the influence of historical time on the normativeness of developmental tasks might be reflected in personality development. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology