190 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD
TABLE 16. FFT Postulates
1. Basic Tendencies
1a.Individuality . All adults can be characterized by their differential standing on
a series of personality traits that influence patterns of thoughts, feelings, andbehaviors.
1b.
Origin . Personality traits are endogenous basic tendencies.
1c.Development. Traits develop through childhood and reach mature form in
adulthood; thereafter they are stable in cognitively intact individuals.
1d.Structure . Traits are organized hierarchically from narrow and specific to
broad and general dispositions; Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Expe -
rience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness constitute the highest level of
the hierarchy.
2. Characteristic Adaptations
2a.Adaptation. Over time, individuals react to their environments by evolving
patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are consistent with their per -
sonality traits and earlier adaptations.
2b.Maladjustment . At any one time, adaptations may not be optimal with re -
spect to cultural values or personal goals.
2c.Plasticity. Characteristic adaptations change over time in response to biologi -
cal maturation, changes in the environment, or deliberate interventions.
3. Objective Biography
3a.Multiple determination . Action and experience at any given moment are
complex functions of all those characteristic adaptations that are evoked bythe environment.
3b.
Life course . Individuals have plans, schedules, and goals that allow action to
be organized over long time intervals in ways that are consistent with theirpersonality traits.
4. Self-Concept
4a.
Self-schema . Individuals maintain a cognitive-affective view of themselves
that is accessible to consciousness.
4b.Selective perception . Information is selectively represented in the self-con -
cept in ways that (i) are consistent with personality traits and (ii) give a sense
of coherence to the individual.
5. External Influences
5a.Interaction. The social and physical environment interacts with personality
dispositions to shape characteristic adaptations and with characteristic adapta -
tions to regulate the flow of behavior.
5b.Apperception. Individuals attend to and construe the environment in ways
that are consistent with their personality traits.
5c.Reciprocity. Individuals selectively influence the environment to which they
respond.
6. Dynamic Processes
6a.Universal dynamics . The ongoing functioning of the individual in creating
adaptations and expressing them in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors is regu -
lated in part by universal cognitive, affective, and volitional mechanisms.
6b.Differential dynamics . Some dynamic processes are differentially affected by
basic tendencies of the individual, including personality traits.
Note. Adapted from McCrae and Costa (1996).