confirmed by controlled longitudinal studies that demonstrate declines
in certain, though not all, cognitive abilities (Salthouse, 1989). By anal -
ogy , some investigators began to wonder about personality . Does it too
change with age? Is there a gradual decline in emotional or social func -
tioning? Do older people become increasingly susceptible to mental ill -
ness, as they do to physical illness?
Researchers who began as students of personality had a somewhat
different basis for their questions. We know (or think we know) thatthere are changes in personality in childhood and adolescence. Infantsbecome emotionally responsive to familiar faces only around 30 days; at8 months they are likely to develop separation anxiety when taken awayfrom their parents. Middle childhood is a period of compliance for mostchildren; adolescence is generally conceded to be a period of rebellionand turmoil (Arnett, 1999). Data show that self-esteem is usually low inthis period and rises as people reach young adulthood (Bachman,O’Malley , & Johnston, 1978). Recklessness and sensation seeking alsoseem to decline after adolescence (Zuckerman, 1979).
These observable changes led to theories of child personality devel-
opment, of which Freud’s is historically the most influential. Psycholo-gists trained in this tradition began to ask if the same kinds of develop-mental changes could be taking place in adulthood. If there were oral,anal, and phallic stages in childhood, might there not be later psycho-sexual stages for adults?
This investigation by analogy or extension is in the highest tradi-
tion of science. Physicists look for (and find) subatomic particles that insome respects parallel known particles. Cognitive psychology has bene -
fited from computer models. Often this procedure can serve to refocus
our perspective and allow us to “see” phenomena we have never no -
ticed before but that are obvious once our attention is called to them.
The discoveries of lifespan development may be equally convincingonce they are made (indeed, we think they are).
The fact that aging and personality constitute a field in search of a
phenomenon is itself an interesting phenomenon. What it seems tomean is that the changes in personality that occur in adulthood—if in -
deed there are any—are less dramatic than those of childhood. There
are some stereotypes of old and young people, but these are notably in -
consistent. Romantic idealism is thought to be characteristic of the
young, but what about Don Quixote? Age purportedly brings a mellow -
ing of the spirit—except to cranky old men.
We can agree that old people are less healthy than young ones andFacts and Theories of Adult Development 7