taken to work, change as often as needed to adapt to the requirements
of the world. We consider a few of the more important types of Charac -
teristic Adaptations below.
Attitudes and Values
Social psychologists devote much of their time to studying the complex
and mysterious processes by which attitudes are changed, but we knowwithout doubt that they do change. New developments—such as nu -
clear power and genetic engineering—call for new opinions, and at least
some people change their minds on old issues as they continue to thinkabout them.
Adolescents and young adults are probably more willing than older
adults to adopt new value and attitudes or revise old ones (although it isnot clear that there is much difference between 30- and 80-year-olds inthis regard). There are two major reasons for this. One is that as a per-son ages, genuinely new ideas become increasingly infrequent, and, asR. W . White (1952) remarks, “accumulated experience . . . more andmore outweighs the impact of new events” (p. 333). Another is that,once settled into a life structure, we have much more to lose by chang-ing basic values. The executive rising on the corporate ladder has littleincentive to embrace socialism; the lawyer who has invested years inlearning her profession is understandably reluctant to question it. Ourvalues, like our personality traits, help to shape our life structure andare themselves perpetuated by it.
But people do change their minds, just as they sometimes change
religions, political parties, and occupations. In fact, the enduring per -
sonality disposition of Openness to Experience is in part characterized
by the ability to keep an open mind, to consider new opinions, and—atleast occasionally—to change attitudes and values (McCrae, 1996). Wewould expect open people to revise their ideas and values repeatedly ,whereas closed people would cling tenaciously to the opinions of theirparents and other respected authorities.
Note, however, that change is not necessarily growth. Openness to
Experience does not guarantee that new opinions and attitudes will al -
ways be better, wiser, more differentiated, or more in keeping with con -
temporary reality . Some open people are simply flighty , moving from
one world view to another with an amazing regularity . When he or shecombines Openness with critical capacity , however, the open person210 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD