Personality changes: do we change over the years?
It is usual to think that our personality it is determined from the moment we are born and it is very difficult to change it. However, are you the same person today as 10 years ago? Surely if you look back and think about the things that you liked and attracted you when you were young, or in how you were and how you are now, you will realize that you have modified aspects of your personality. So, what makes us think that we do not change?
What does science say about changes in personality?
Until recently it was believed that people after thirty years of age did not experience personality changesHowever, recent studies, such as the one carried out by psychologists from the University of California at Berkeley, show that over time, people are evolving and changing.
The research carried out in different universities focuses on the five great personality factors that are: openness to new experiences, responsibility, extroversion, kindness and emotional instability and conclude that, effectively, people are changing as the years go by. Many of these changes have to do with external changes such as those related to work or marital status that, in a certain way, cause us to modify our personality traits in order to adapt to our environment.
Another study conducted in 2014 with more than 23,000 people in Germany revealed that the25 percent of participants experienced a dramatic change in personality after age 70. The researchers suggest that because we suffer many small changes in personality throughout our lives, these become more evident in the big picture when we value the changes between youth and old age.
The results also indicate that, although most people recognize that our lives have changed in the last decade, we tend to believe that just as we are right now, we will always be the same. The reasons that lead us to think like this are two, on the one hand, that we like ourselves as we are now what prevents us from thinking about the possibility of changing in the future "I want to continue being that way" and on the other hand, it is more It is easy at the cognitive level to reconstruct something that has already happened that to build new things, which leads us to think that we will not change in the future.
Heritage and environment: this is how our personality changes
Personality traits are determined on the one hand by inheritance and genetics, and on the other hand by the context in which we develop and how we relate to it, that is, by all the experiences and learning we experience. As a result of this combination we are shaping our personality, defining our way of thinking, feeling and acting.
Therefore, unlike what we believe, the personality is not something static, but it is molded and adapted in response to the circumstances we live. This does not mean that we become totally different people, but that we are able to modify aspects to be an improved version of ourselves.
Rocío Navarro Psychologist Director of Psicolari, integral psychology
