From the ages of 20 to 65, people report increases in positive traits, such as conscientiousness, and decreases in negative traits, such as neuroticism. Most people tend to become more agreeable, more responsible, more emotionally stable—in other words, their personalities improve.Do they also become less self-critical? That might be a factor if you're asking people about themselves. But I believe this research. I think when you are younger, you have to fight for your place in the world and you're keenly aware of the competition. You want the edge, so you're edgy. You need that vigor, and it's built into the young body, just like sexual desire. Over the long evolutionary stretch of time, it has been what younger people need. Looking back, what I'd say to young people is: Don't take what your elders call a "negative" personality negatively. It's a real physical energy to be used in positive ways for your own benefit, so that when the maturity that old people call a "positive" personality sets in, you'll have made a good life for yourself, and with your newly arrived ease and complacency you can enjoy the great pleasures of growing old.
April 22, 2014
Do people get nicer or crankier as they age?
Nicer! Science says. Some of us, anyway, according to this Wall Street Journal article, "Personality Research Says Change in Major Traits Occurs Naturally/Many people become more agreeable, dependable and emotionally stable, and also more introverted."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
18 comments:
At age 75-years I try to be a "Grumpy Old Fart"; But, lack the energy to do so.
Do people get nicer or crankier as they age?
Both? I get mellower and happier in my crankiness as I age. My crankiness is undergoing patination.
I don't know, but GET OFF MY LAWN!
It's a real physical energy to be used in positive ways for your own benefit, so that when the maturity that old people call a "positive" personality sets in, you'll have made a good life for yourself, and with your newly arrived ease and complacency you can enjoy the great pleasures of growing old.
That has been the paradigm in America through the Boomer generation.
But what if forced scarcity dries up opportunity and that "edge" in youth never pays off?
Will that change the eventual life-cycle of personality traits?
Now is the time for young people to use that energy and snap out of this infatuation with the state.
I'm cranky. I have an arthritic knee after too many years of abuse with weight training and martial arts. I limp a lot and my knee hurts.
I dunno.
Maybe we can ask Shouting Thomas!!
Don't take what you're elders call a "negative" personality negatively. It's a real physical energy to be used in positive ways for your own benefit
This is the perfect example of a liberal personality vs a conservative personality. Althouse says don't care about experience or tradition use the new thing to advance yourself.
To me that sounds like typical short sighted, self centered, new age, baby boom bullshit. Dont throw away past experience so quick. Do we want a society of every person aggressively pursuing their own goals without restriction? Young men have the most vitality and strength to acquire what they want. Is that the future Althouse incisions? If course not but who cares about unintended consequences when you can sound all thoughtful and edgy.
Don't take what you're elders call a "negative" personality negatively.
Well, girls need to realise though that the sort of males they want would love them better if they are very cool with the love they feel for the males. And not cool in any foolish "I can smoke a cigarette and get that cool" way, either. No, the way girls can get the right sort of cool is by taking enough time to feel quite comfortable with such sexual desires as they have before getting in a way to act on them. And they oughtn't blame the male cool-loving tendency on the males, since the reason desirable males have evolved to want girls to be cool is because girls desire them most if by nature they want this. Girls don't want their lovers to in practice want them to be cool, because girls naturally are in a hurry when they are in love, but they want lovers who by nature want them to be in a cool state. 'Tis true, though, that males don't tend (naturally or otherwise) to want girls to be naturally cool more than girls naturally are. It's that the sort of males girls want want girls to be more cool than girls naturally want to be, and so these males try to make that happen by loving them better when they are cool (by loving coolness in them).
Unless you have a hit record or you're a dead ringer for Brad Pitt, all that libidinal energy is more likely to be a source of frustration than of gratification......They say old age is not for sissies, but, so far, it's been a rather pleasant experience. I suspect that part of what makes it so enjoyable is the sure and certain knowledge that it cannot last.
I know many people who were terrible parents, but terrific Grandparents. My Mom being one such person. Maybe its just the Paxil though.
"Unless you have a hit record or you're a dead ringer for Brad Pitt, all that libidinal energy is more likely to be a source of frustration than of gratification."
You're supposed to channel it into achievement. Sublimate. Get somewhere. Impress a great lady. Build a great family with her. Then you have a lifetime of joy and pleasure.
Or… listen to the message of pop music and movies and try to have lots of sex with actual women as soon as possible. How will that work out in the long run?
When I was twenty, I cared what people thought of me.
When I was forty, I decided I wouldn't care what people thought of me any longer.
Now I am sixty, I realize nobody has ever been thinking of me in the first place.
I've swung both ways. I'm 51 now and I'm much more patient and understanding of others. I don't get mad at people driving like idiots (bicyclists are another matter) and I find myself laughing at the stupid things people do rather than cussing at them.
OTOH, I find I have far less patience, respect, and regard for those in power. While I used to assume that people in government were basically good and trying to do best by the country, now I just assume all or corrupt liars to one degree or another.
"All the cards are on the table, with no ace left in the hole."
Whether you get nicer or crankier as you age depends on how you deal with that fact.
Nicer? Perhaps. We certainly grow weaker and become settled.
As I grow older I find I get a lot of enjoyment out of annoying people younger than me.
Shorter scientific study - As people get older they mature.
Water is also wet.
I believe most people are doing the best they can.
Unless people go out of their way to make trouble for me, I let go of stuff. This is easier if I avoid the post office.
My large family includes a broad range of nutty people, but nobody is malicious. There have been some unfortunate marriages that strained things, but these matters work themselves out if you take the long view.
I don't suffer fools gladly, but I don't get involved with too many people. This helps.
Post a Comment