own words on the ways in which they felt they had changed in the past
10 years. Subject after subject returned the questionnaire with words tothe effect of “no changes worth mentioning.” A few subjects did findsome change to comment on; the great majority did not.
Gold, Andres, and Schwartzman (1987) recently came to the same
conclusion in their study of self-perceived change. They administeredthe Eysenck Personality Inventory to 362 elderly men and women. Onemonth later they readministered the questionnaire to half the sample asa control group; the other half—the experimental group—were asked todiscuss their life and circumstances at age 40 and then to complete thequestionnaire to describe their personality at age 40. The responses ofthe experimental group suggested that they perceived themselves ashaving been slightly more extraverted at age 40 than currently , but indi -
vidual differences were highly stable. Recalled Neuroticism correlated
.79 with current Neuroticism in the experimental group; the 1-monthreliability observed for the control group was .82. The correspondingvalues for Extraversion were .75 and .79, respectively . By the logic ofcorrecting for attenuation, we could argue that these subjects perceivedabout 95% stability between ages 40 and 75.
Most people, then, do not see much change in their own disposi-
tions in adulthood, but it is possible that the minority who do perceivedifferences are correct: Perhaps they really have mellowed or maturedwith age. To test this possibility we conducted a small study of self-perceived change in conjunction with our 6-year longitudinal study ofself-reports and spouse ratings on the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae,1989b). At the end of our packet of questionnaires we asked subjects to:
Think back over the last 6 years to the way you were in 1980. Consider
your basic feelings, attitudes, and ways of relating to people—your wholepersonality . Overall, do you think you have (a) changed a good deal inyour personality? (b) changed a little in your personality? or (c) stayedpretty much the same since 1980?
We found that a bare majority (51%) believed they had “stayed pretty
much the same” and another third (35%) thought they had “changed alittle.” But a substantial minority , 14%, felt that they had “changed agood deal” in personality . These individuals would probably take excep -
tion to our conclusions about stability .
Are these perceptions veridical, or are they distorted by tricks of126 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD