#706 Wiebke Bleidorn: Personality Change Across the Lifespan
RECORDED ON SEPTEMBER 16th 2022.
Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Zurich. Dr. Bleidorn examines the conditions, mechanisms, and consequences of personality change. Personality change is an emerging subfield that straddles the areas of personality, developmental, and social psychology. Dr. Bleidorn’s work sits at this intersection. Her current research involves questions about the cultural and social conditions under which people change, the genetic and environmental mechanisms that account for change, and the consequences of these changes for psychological functioning and important life outcomes.
In this episode, we talk about personality changes. We first contextualize the conversation, by talking about the Big Five personality traits and their structure. We talk about the heritability of these traits, and how they are influenced by the environment. We get into personality plasticity, and go through individual differences in it; patterns in personality changes across the lifespan; the transition to adulthood, and the transition to parenthood; and the impact of life events. Finally, we discuss if people can deliberately change their personality.
Time Links:
Intro
The Big Five personality traits
The heritability of personality traits, and environmental influences
Does personality change?
Individual differences in personality plasticity
Patterns in personality changes across the lifespan
The transition to parenthood
The impact of life events on personality
Can people deliberately change their personality?
Follow Dr. Bleidorn’s work!
Follow Dr. Bleidorn’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3dgUSqW
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3JE3m6e
Twitter handle: @WiebkeBleidorn