perception or memory? One way to examine this question is by com -
paring stability coefficients within the three perceived change groups. If
perceptions of change are accurate, we should see the highest coeffi -
cients in the “stayed pretty much the same” group and the lowest coeffi -
cients in the “changed a good deal” group. We had both self-reports and
spouse ratings to test this hypothesis. But Table 15 provides no supportfor the hypothesis: None of the five personality factors is consistentlyless stable among individuals who believed they had “changed a gooddeal.”
In addition to the global change item we also asked subjects, “Spe -
cifically , compared to how you were 6 years ago, how lively , cheerful,
and sociable are you now?” This question sought to assess each subject’sperceived change in Extraversion. Similar items asked about the otherfour dimensions, and subjects could respond with “more,” “less,” or“same.” We found that subjects who believe they were more extravertedor neurotic actually did score slightly higher on these two scales in1986, but spouse ratings did not confirm the changes; perhaps therewas a small but real change in self-concept, although not in true person-ality . There was no evidence from either self-reports or spouse ratings tosubstantiate self-perceived changes in O, A, or C. We later replicatedthis study in a much larger sample, with essentially the same resultsQualifications and Rival Hypotheses 127
TABLE 15. Stability Coefficients within Perceived Change
Groups
Perceived change
NEO-PI scale “A good deal” “A little” “The same”
Self-reports
Neuroticism .77 .79 .86Extraversion .66 .80 .86Openness .86 .83 .82Agreeableness .70 .56 .62Conscientiousness .80 .71 .81
Spouse ratings
Neuroticism .86 .79 .84Extraversion .79 .79 .72Openness .90 .88 .71
Note. N ’s = 36–182 for self-reports, 13–71 for spouse ratings. All correla -
tions are significant at p<.01. Adapted from Costa and McCrae (1989b).