Developmental Tasks as a Framework to Study Personality Development in Adulthood and Old Age
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
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Some theories of personality development emphasize the impact of major life events such as marriage, unemployment, or parenthood on personality traits.
“Accounts differ in the role given to environmental influences, with some emphasizing the impact of major life events such as marriage, unemployment, or parenthood”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Hutteman, Hennecke, Orth, Reitz, & Specht, 2014
Cites
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“, contingencies), may however change as people are confronted with changing developmental tasks (Hutteman et al., 2014).”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Hutteman, R., Hennecke, M., Orth, U., Reitz, A. K., & Specht, J.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- University of Bern (CH)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Hutteman, Roos
- Venue
- European Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-05
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 267-278
- ISSN
- 0890-2070 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0984
- OpenAlex
- W1918670453
- Cited by
- 341
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 7
- FWCI
- 23.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
- BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Ego Development and Educational Practices
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Keywords
- developmental tasks, personality development, adulthood, old age, early adulthood, midlife, social roles, social dominance, conscientiousness, emotional stability, historical time
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