research report on own personal development

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Personality development in the context of individual traits and parenting dynamics

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Our conceptualization of adult personality and childhood temperament can be closely aligned in that they both reflect endogenous, likely constitutional dispositions. Empirical studies of temperament have focused on measuring systematic differences in emotional reactions, motor responses, and physiological states that we believe may contribute to the underlying biological components of personality. Although this work has provided some insight into the early origins of personality, we still lack a cohesive developmental account of how personality profiles emerge from infancy into adulthood. We believe the moderating impact of context could shed some light on this complex trajectory. We begin this article reviewing how researchers conceptualize personality today, particularly traits that emerge from the Five Factor Theory (FFT) of personality. From the temperament literature, we review variation in temperamental reactivity and regulation as potential underlying forces of personality development. Finally, we integrate parenting as a developmental context, reviewing empirical findings that highlight its important role in moderating continuity and change from temperament to personality traits.

At the core of personality psychology is a focus on variability in human behaviors and attitudes that are stable across context and can arise from within the individual. The belief that people are ultimately individuals who bring unique perspective and contributions to their own development began to flourish in the Western world in the 19th century. This new focus on the individual propelled initiatives within philosophy and psychology to focus on dimensions that differentiate us from one another ( Barenbaum & Winter, 2008 ). Over time, this acknowledgement of individual differences permeated other areas of psychology – raising the notion that variation in individual traits can be systematic and predictive, and not simply random noise to be filtered out. Since personality can influence a host of constructs of interest – motivation, achievement, social behavior, decision-making – attempts to examine individual differences in this domain are evident across the field.

Early on, much of the emerging personality research was mired in a debate centered on quantifying what portion of personality was trait-based in contrast to experience-shaped. However, the current review will not fully wade into this debate—which ironically often pointed to broad theories of development, while not necessarily taking on a developmental approach ( Barenbaum & Winter, 2008 ). Rather, we will focus on how transactions between endogenous and contextual factors shape the personality development. Particularly, we want to highlight early emerging forces, such as temperament, that shape the emergence of personality traits within the context of the parenting environment. In doing so, we review how researchers conceptualize personality today, how temperamental reactivity and regulation may be underlying forces of personality development, and the role of the parenting context in moderating continuity and change from temperament to personality traits. Our understanding of these complex, bi-directional, interactions are outlined and illustrated in a simplified conceptual model (Section 3) that guides our interpretation of the currently available literature.

1. Current conceptualization of personality

The Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality has guided research and theory building for almost three decades ( John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008 ). FFM, also known as the Big Five model, contends that the construct of personality includes Basic Tendencies or traits that are biologically-based, as well as Characteristic Adaptations that result from dynamic interactions between Basic Tendencies and experience. The combination of Basic Tendencies and Characteristic Adaptations , give rise to our observed personality phenotypes and directly impact the individual’s self-concept and objective biography (for a review, see McCrae & Costa, 2008 ). The theory postulates that there are five basic tendencies of personality: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness , and Conscientiousness . Briefly explained, Neuroticism reflects emotional instability, and a tendency to display behaviors related to negative emotionality, such as anxiety, tension, and sadness. Extraversion refers to a high desire to approach and engage with the social and material world, and it includes traits of sociability, positive emotionality, and assertiveness. Agreeableness reflects a prosocial orientation and amiability that includes behaviors of altruism and trust, whereas the Openness factor includes dimensions of originality, perceptiveness, and intellect with which individuals experience life. Finally, Conscientiousness refers to a tendency to control impulses in compliance with social order, including task-oriented behaviors such as planning, organizing, as well as following norms or rules ( John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008 ).

In some ways, this conceptualization of personality has been closely aligned with our typical conceptualization of childhood temperament. For example, personality traits have been defined as “endogenous dispositions that follow intrinsic paths of development essentially independent of environmental influences” ( McCrae et al., 2000 , p. 173). The term “endogenous” suggests that these traits are biologically-based and early occurring, much like temperament. In fact, McCrae and colleagues (2000) argued that based on behavioral genetic and heritability studies of personality, we can conclude that personality traits have a large genetic component and that childhood shared environment (e.g., adoptive parents and siblings) has little to no effect on adult personality. Furthermore, they also present cross-cultural analyses of the maturation of personality traits from age 14 to age 50, supporting general declines in Neuroticism and Extraversion , and increases in Conscientiousness with age across five countries. Although these results lend support to the biological and universal aspects of personality traits, we should be careful in making strong inferences. Personality traits are usually assessed at an age when they may have reached a high degree of stability. Thus, these studies may 1) miss potential ways in which context can interact with early expressions of these traits (i.e., temperament) to shape continuity, and 2) miss individual variation or change that cannot be captured at group-level analyses ( Halverson & Deal, 2001 ).

Temperament research typically focuses on the early developmental period, measuring individual differences in behavior and physiology that are expressed in infancy and may lay the foundation for later personality. Indeed, temperament-linked differences are evident as early as four months of age ( Fox, Henderson, Rubin, Calkins & Schmidt, 2001 ; Kagan, 2012 ). By measuring systematic differences in emotional reactions, motor responses, and physiological states (e.g., heart rate variability), we can identify a number of temperament dimensions or temperamental styles that we believe may contribute to the underlying biological components of personality ( Rothbart & Bates, 2012 ). For example, an infant who displays increased limb movement when presented with a toy is rated as highly reactive ( Kagan, 2012 ). If this reactivity is accompanied by smiles and pleasant vocalization, then the infant id also rated as high in positive affect. This pattern of high positive reactivity is linked to the personality trait of Extraversion ( Caspi & Shiner, 2006 ; Slobodskaya & Kozlova, 2016 ), suggesting that this tendency for high approach and engagement of novelty is manifested early in infancy. However, links between temperament and personality traits are rarely strong, suggesting that these biological traits may not follow a path completely independent of environmental influences ( Shiner & Caspi, 2012 ). For example, studies suggest that temperament is influenced by prenatal experiences ( Huizink, 2012 ), and that after birth, early context may continue to influence change and continuity of infant temperament ( van Ijzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012 ). Furthermore, recent findings from epigenetic research has provided the mechanisms by which experience can robustly influence temperamental traits, such as reactivity and regulation ( Roth, 2012 ).

While previous work in infant temperament has provided some insight into the early origins of personality traits, we still lack a rich or cohesive developmental account of how different adult personality profiles emerge (or evolve) from infancy to adulthood. Despite attempts to link temperament dimensions to adult personality profiles, bridging the gap between early individual differences and adult personality traits has proved to be an intricate endeavor. We believe the moderating impact of context could shed some light on the complex trajectory from infant temperament to adult personality. First, however, we more carefully review our current understanding of temperament and the link to personality.

2. Temperament-linked individual differences and personality

Rothbart and Derryberry (1981) defined temperament as individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation that are constitutional or biologically based. Reactivity, or the arousability of emotion, motor, and physiological systems, is evident in behavioral responses to novel stimuli such as increased vocalization, motoric movement, and affective expression. Furthermore, temperamental reactivity can be positive or negative, depending on the affective valence accompanying the infant’s response. Individual differences at these two emotional extremes are characterized as exuberant and fearful temperaments, respectively. Exuberant infants explore novel spaces and toys and are more likely to respond to a stranger or new social interaction with positive affect ( Fox et al., 2001 ). When in the same situation, fearful infants are more likely to cry, kick, or cling to their mothers, and may also show extreme hypervigilance and negative affect compared to non-fearful children ( Kagan, 2012 ). Temperamental regulation functions to modulate reactivity, such that the behavioral expression of high reactivity may be constrained if effective regulation is also present, or exacerbated if regulation abilities are low.

2.1. Temperamental reactivity

Negative reactivity is associated with a low threshold of arousal in limbic structures, particularly the amygdala and the broader threat response system ( Kagan, Reznick, & Snidman, 1987 ). Greater arousal results in heightened sensitivity to context, such that infants with lower thresholds are more sensitive to novel stimuli and thus more likely to show negative responses characterized by fear, even when presented with ostensibly “neutral” stimuli ( White, Lamm, Helfinstein, & Fox, 2012 ). Such negative reactivity is evident in the later emerging temperament profile of Behavioral Inhibition (BI). BI toddlers show longer latencies to interact or approach, respond with negative affect, and remain in close proximity to their mother when presented with a novel toy or in the presence of a stranger, reflecting a highly vigilant response. Furthermore, these behavioral expressions have been associated with physiological differences also originating in the limbic system, such as higher and more stable heart rate and higher cortisol levels ( Kagan et al., 1987 ). Although we cannot extensively describe physiological differences between negative and positive reactivity infants in the current review, a robust collection of studies have identified temperament-linked differences in electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha power, sympathetic tone and baseline rate in the cardiovascular system, cortisol reactivity, the Event Related Negativity (ERN) waveform, and neural response to both threat and reward (for an in-depth description of methodology and group comparisons see Fox, Henderson, Pérez-Edgar, & White, 2008 ; Kagan & Snidman, 2004 ; McDermott et al., 2009 ; Schwartz et al., 2012 ).

Positive reactivity in infants on the other hand, may be the result of a high threshold of arousal, which likely affords infants the ease and comfort to navigate new social situations because they do not perceive such situations as threatening. Typically, Western personality preferences have led us to embrace the exuberant child, while simultaneously believing that fearfulness is a cause for concern ( Pérez-Edgar & Hastings, 2018 ). Although negative reactivity has more generally been associated with negative outcomes, such as anxiety ( Chronis-Tuscano et al., 2009 ; McDermott et al., 2009 ), positive reactivity can also lead to maladaptive outcomes if unregulated (see below). For example, Morales, Pérez-Edgar, and Buss (2016) found that exuberant toddlers who scored low in regulation tasks showed increased attention bias to reward, and their exuberance predicted externalizing behaviors. Externalizing behaviors, in turn, have been associated with traits of low Agreeableness and low Conscientiousness , and can manifest behaviorally in aggression and antisocial behavior ( Miller, Lynam, & Jones, 2008 ).

Early temperamental traits can lead to lasting physiological and cognitive profiles particularly when embedded within a context that reinforces and magnifies their expression ( Rothbart & Bates, 2012 ). In contrast, some environments may actively (even if unconsciously) work to mitigate early traits that do not conform to desired behavioral and emotional patterns ( Belsky, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn2007 ). The progression from temperament reactivity to later child outcomes – including emergent personality – through environmental mechanisms that shape continuity may explain why a small percentage of BI infants develop acute social difficulties and clinical anxiety as early as adolescence ( Kagan, 2012 ), while most grow to be healthy, if a bit shy.

2.2.Temperamental regulation

Self-regulation is the modulation (upward or downward) of reactivity through the processes of attention, inhibition, approach and avoidance, functioning as a mechanism for reactive control ( Rothbart, Posner, & Kieras, 2006 ). For instance, an infant with high reactive control may be more likely to disengage from an unpleasant or negative stimulus in the environment (a scary toy) and focus attention elsewhere. Early in infancy, reactive control plays a crucial role in the expression of temperament because it directly modulates behavioral manifestations of reactivity. For example, the infant who is more likely to disengage attention from a negative stimulus will display less vocalization and motoric movement in response.

Temperamental regulation can also incorporate effortful control ( Rothbart, Ellis, Rueda, & Posner, 2003 ). Describing control as “effortful” reflects top-down processes that, unlike automatic reactive processes, are recruited voluntarily. For example, BI children with higher effortful control may more easily recruit strategies to regulate negative feelings in social situations, which can facilitate their social interactions. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is one of the main brain structures involved in effortful control, and along with the Executive Attention Network (EAN) have been extensively studied for their role on regulation abilities (for a review, see Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2005 ; Henderson & Wilson, 2017 ). In summary, individual differences are evident in the way infants react to their environment and regulate environmental input. Thus, the behavioral manifestation of temperament is a product of the interplay between the infant’s motoric and emotional reactivity and the infant’s regulation capacity.

2.3.The contextual role of temperament

The interplay between temperamental reactivity and regulation becomes more nuanced as regulation becomes more effortful or voluntary. Recent evidence suggests that not all regulatory processes affect temperamental reactivity in the same fashion. White and colleagues (2011) examined a large sample of infants from 4-months to preschool age. They found that BI children with poor attention shifting were more likely to follow a developmental path to anxiety compared to BI children who were better at shifting their attention. This evidence, on its own, suggests that more robust regulation may buffer risk trajectories from fearful temperament to Neuroticism and psychopathology. However, White et al. (2011) found a different moderation pattern for inhibitory control, an associated, but distinct, component of self-regulation. Inhibitory control is the ability to stop an automatic or dominant impulse and to activate a subdominant response for the purpose of goal completion. Unlike attention shifting, high, and not poor, inhibitory control was associated with development of anxiety problems in BI children, a finding that has since been replicated (see Henderson & Wilson, 2017 ).

A nuanced understanding of regulation provides some explanation for the variability in developmental trajectories from temperamental reactivity to personality, which will depend in part on which regulatory processes are called upon by individual children. For example, training inhibitory control processes in exuberant children may buffer risk for externalizing problems, and, in the absence of externalizing tendencies, children may develop into more Agreeable and Conscientious adults. However, using the same strategy in behaviorally inhibited children could exacerbate negative reactivity and the risk for internalizing behaviors, which has been associated with adult Neuroticism ( Muris, Meesters, & Blijlevens, 2007 ). Together, these findings emphasize the differential effects of specific self-regulation components, and more importantly, point to the important role of temperament in tethering development to a given adult personality profile over others, and to influencing whether regulation comes to buffer or potentiate risk for psychopathology.

3. Developmental links from temperament to personality

There is now increasing evidence for links between temperament dimensions and the Big Five. The Five Factor Theory of personality helped distinguished between basic tendencies of personality ( Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness , and Openness to Experience ) and later emerging components that are largely driven by life events and personal experience (e.g., Characteristic Adaptations and Self-Concept ). The Big Five, which reflect endogenous characteristics driven by biological systems much like temperament, has proven to be a more suitable construct to assess developmental links between temperament and adult personality ( Shiner & Caspi, 2012 ).

The effort to link temperament to personality has mostly focused on how temperament dimensions of Positive Emotionality , Negative Emotionality , and Effortful Control assessed early in childhood predict differences in personality traits later. Positive Emotionality , given a context that reinforces its stability throughout childhood, likely develops into the broader trait of Extraversion , which includes positive emotions, the motivation to engage in social relationships, and the desire to seek rewarding cues in the environment ( Olino, Klein, Durbin, Hayden, & Buckley, 2005 ; Caspi & Shiner, 2006 ).

Negative Emotionality , in contrast is often linked with manifestations of Neuroticism . For example, De Pauw, Mervielde, and Van Leeuwen (2009) assessed 443 preschoolers on their temperament and personality traits concurrently, and found a large overlap between both constructs, and each positively correlated with internalizing behaviors. Furthermore, Slobodskaya and Kozlova (2016) examined longitudinal links between temperament dimensions assessed within infancy and toddlerhood, and personality traits in childhood. They found that high Negative Emotionality along with low Effortful Control in infancy predicted childhood Neuroticism . In fact, results from their path analysis indicated that Effortful Control in infancy predicts all three of the personality traits assessed in childhood: Extraversion , Conscientiousness , and Neuroticism . Although these results are preliminary given the limited sample size and large variation of time intervals between assessments, they support the contextual role of temperamental regulation in the development of later personality. As previously discussed, Effortful Control is characterized by regulatory abilities that facilitate soothability in infancy, and the ability to inhibit dominant impulses and voluntarily shift attention when necessary to achieve a goal. This dimension has been linked to Conscientiousness , Extraversion , and generally adaptive traits in adult personality ( Halverson et al., 2003 ).

The extant literature supports moderate links between individual differences in infant temperament and later personality traits, while also suggesting that temperament does not predict personality in a deterministic way. What then is the developmental trajectory from infant temperament to childhood and adult personality? We believe the dynamic interaction between temperament-linked individual differences in infancy and early contextual factors leads to emergence of personality traits in childhood, as depicted in the left portion of Figure 1 . As these traits continue to actively and evocatively interact with the environment from infancy throughout childhood and adolescence, they increasingly become more context- and person-specific, resulting in the distinct personality profiles observed in adulthood ( Shiner & Caspi, 2012 ).

Mechanisms of change from temperament to personality Development

For example, “goodness of fit” refers to the extent that a child’s temperament is compatible with the context of development. This term was proposed by Chess and Thomas (1991) to describe the relational or dynamic aspect of temperament. The term “fit” implies a synchrony or transaction between temperament and context, and fit is considered “good” when the environment can meet the demands of a child’s temperament and provides opportunities for growth and sets expectations for regulation that are in accordance with that temperament. Dissonance between temperament and contextual demands would be considered a poor fit, and could potentially lead to maladaptive outcomes. The dynamic interaction between temperament and context may buffer or exacerbate the evolution of temperament traits into personality traits ( Shiner & Caspi, 2012 ).

For instance, a recent study by van der Voort and colleagues (2014) reported the longitudinal buffering effects of maternal sensitivity on children’s inhibited temperament. They followed a sample of 160 adopted infants into the adolescent years, assessing patterns of anxious and depressed behaviors. Although inhibited temperament was a strong predictor of socially reticent behaviors in middle childhood and internalizing problems in adolescence, maternal sensitivity measured at both infancy and middle childhood interacted with inhibited temperament to predict less internalizing problems in adolescence. Sensitivity may allow parents to more readily perceive fearful and vigilant cues in their inhibited infant, and provide more support in those instances in which the infant needs reassurance of safety. Conversely, if parenting behaviors do not fit the infant’s temperamental demands, inhibited and fearful tendencies could be further reinforced throughout childhood.

A good example comes from a series of studies from Kiel and Buss (2010 ; 2011 ; 2012 ; 2013) . Initially, they found that the relation between fearful temperament and protective parenting was stronger when mothers were more accurate in predicting or anticipating their children’s fearful responses ( Kiel & Buss, 2010 ). Presumably, this accurate anticipation increased the likelihood that mothers of fearful children would respond with protection in novel situations, which then perpetuated temperamental fearfulness. In a follow-up study, they maternal accuracy in anticipating fearful responses and protective parenting in toddlerhood was linked to social withdrawal at kindergarten entry ( Kiel & Buss, 2011 ). More recently, they have also shown that it is protective parenting in low-threat , but not high-threat situations that relates to fearful temperament ( Kiel & Buss, 2012 ). This pattern implies that ‘overprotective’ parenting behaviors, even if superficially ‘sensitive’, may potentiate risk from fearful temperament to later internalizing behaviors, anxiety, and high levels of Neuroticism .

In summary, we presume that temperament dimensions and the Big Five personality traits share underlying biological systems that drive their commonalities. When these basic, biological tendencies of adult personality are examined in isolation from the influence of life experience, moderate to strong links with temperament begin to emerge ( McCrae et al., 2000 ; Rothbart, 2011 ; Zentner & Bates, 2008 ). Such links suggest that temperament and personality traits may in essence be the same construct, differentiated only by the developmental point at which they are expressed ( Slobodskaya & Kozlova, 2016 ). Supporting this notion, Shiner and Caspi (2012) argue that personality traits are different from temperament dimensions in that the former include components that are only expressed when individuals develop more advanced cognitive abilities and self-awareness. They explain links between temperament and personality traits in terms of an outward expansion of children’s temperament. Specifically, as children develop and continue to be influenced by experience, life events, and social interactions, the expression of temperament expands beyond individual differences in basic reactivity and emotion, to more nuanced differences in intricate systems such as motivation, goal setting, beliefs, and views of self and others. We build on their cognitive-focused model, and argue that parenting practices form part of those experiences, life events, and social interactions that drive the expansion of temperament. Our developmental model in Figure 1 is in line with Shiner and Caspi’s (2012) view, depicting personality traits as biologically rooted in temperament, and interacting with early context and life experience to shape adult personality.

As previously stated, despite moderate links between temperament and personality traits there remains considerable unexplained variance in adult functional profiles after accounting for temperament and personality traits. At the very least we see moderate environmental influences on personality development even beyond the context of early childhood. We depict extended role of the environment in the center portion of Figure 1 , in agreement with McCrae et al.’s (2000) argument that the environment likely conditions the way in which personality evolves through adulthood.

Taking an even broader perspective, we believe the transactions between the individual and the environment depicted in our model are also dynamically embedded within the larger cultural context of family systems, socio-cultural expectations, and intergenerational processes that may exert important influence on child characteristics and contextual expectations ( Poole, Tang, & Schmidt, in press ). In essence, we suggest that context actively shapes the emergence and expression of personality through dynamic transactions between temperament and environmental factors. These transactions may happen via moderating effects of temperament, as well as bidirectional effects in which temperament elicits or evokes the environmental inputs children encounter, and consequently these environmental inputs gradually shape the expression of temperament (Oppenheimer, Hankin, Jenness, Young, & Smolen, 2013), creating a loop of experience-expectant and experience-dependent transactions. We explore this transactional relationship between child temperament and context using parenting as one example of early environmental influences on personality development.

4. The Parenting Context

Parents have direct genetic influences on children’s temperament and personality ( Scott et al., 2016 ). In addition, passive gene-environment correlations mean that parenting practices, as well as the choices parents make in shaping their child’s environment, are influenced by shared genetic characteristics. In this way, parents have both direct and indirect genetic effects on their child’s developmental outcomes. Thus, as we discuss the contextual influences of parenting on child temperament and personality, it is important to keep in mind that any behavioral influence parents have on their children is also likely to carry a genetic component.

Parents create most of the immediate setting in which infants develop, namely the home and the interpersonal environment, including the face-to-face relationships that take place there. These affordances make parents active agents in children’s social and emotional context, specifically through early parenting style and practices ( Belsky et al., 2007 ). For example, when parents respond to their infant’s cry with soothing and support, they are providing the means for infant emotion regulation. Similarly, in the presence of a stranger or novel situation, a parents’ facial cues (e.g., smile) signal to the infant whether the social context is safe or dangerous. Variations in parenting behavior directly impact the formation of the attachment relationship, and attachment relationships, in turn, influence children’s socioemotional competence and personality over time ( Lewis-Morrarty et al., 2015 ; Stevenson-Hinde, Chicot, Shouldice, & Hinde, 2013 ).

Additionally, parents also shape the infant’s social context beyond the immediate family setting, such as the peer environment. For example, before children gain autonomy, their parents choose what play activities children can engage in (e.g., story time at the library), and the playmates children can interact with. Parents continue to influence their children as they pass though important developmental transitions, such as school entrance, puberty and adolescence. These are periods when children undergo identity exploration and active reorganization of their social world (e.g., romantic relationships), which have relevant theoretical implications for the development of personality ( Reitz, Zimmermann, Hutteman, Specht, & Neyer, 2014 ; Syed, & Seiffge-Krenke, 2013 ).

4.1. Theoretical models of parenting influence

Theorists have proposed several mechanisms through which parenting can shape child outcomes, specifically the development of personality. Bowlby was one of the first to discuss the development of “internal working models” based on the parent-child attachment relationship ( Bowlby, 1980 ). The central tenet of working models is that children internalize representations about “the self” from the dynamic and transactional interactions between them and their caregiver ( Bretherton, 1990 ). Furthermore, children adopt working models of behavior based on the quality of these interactions that they then carry onto other contexts (e.g., school). In essence, parenting quality can influence children’s concept of who they are and how others view them. Additionally, parenting quality can also influence children’s manifestation of personality traits. For example, children who experience harsh punishment and controlling parenting may perceive themselves as unworthy or unlovable, and model intrusive and controlling behaviors that could then lead to low agreeableness or high neuroticism.

Environmental elicitation is a second mechanism theorized to explain relations between the parenting context and personality development. Here, a child’s individual characteristics can elicit specific parenting behaviors ( Shiner & Caspi, 2003 ). For example, a “difficult temperament”, which is a term used to describe infants who are easily irritable, cry often, and are hard to sooth, may elicit frustration in the parent and lead to harsh, controlling parenting or even rejection. The environmental elicitation model can be traced back to an organismic view of development, where changes arise from within the organism (e.g., the child) as the organism actively acts on the world and evokes responses from the environment ( Overton, 2015 ).

A caveat to the environmental elicitation model is that research now suggests a more dynamic approach may be at play, where the elicited environmental responses may be as dependent on environmental characteristics as they are on child characteristics ( Lerner, Rothbaum, Boulos, & Castellino, 2002 ). This is reflected in the bidirectional effects between child and context in Figure 1 . Children’s individual characteristics in tandem with parental individual characteristics can influence the type and quality of parenting response. For example, some studies suggest that parents with higher education levels are more likely to show warmth and support in response to a difficult child, whereas parents with low educational attainment are more likely to respond with harsh control and reciprocal negative affect ( Paulussen-Hoogeboom, Stams, Hermanns, & Peetsma, 2007 ). This approach to environment elicitation can be traced back to Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological framework of development, in which developmental change is theorized to occur through dynamic transactions between organism and immediate environment, and where the individual characteristics of the organism and the characteristics of the environment are equally important in these interactions (for an overview, see Rosa & Tudge, 2013 ).

The working model of behavior and the environmental elicitation model are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and there is empirical evidence suggesting that they may in fact work simultaneously within the framework of parenting and personality development. For example, Van den Akker and colleagues (2014) examined personality development from age 6 to age 20 along with maternal over-reactivity and warmth. The sample included 596 children and their mothers, who reported on their children’s personality traits at five different time points throughout the study, as well as their parenting practices. Van Den Akker and colleagues found that high maternal over-reactivity predicted decreases in Conscientiousness at later time points, and high maternal warmth predicted decreases in emotional stability, which would be reflected in high Neuroticism . This finding echoes the earlier work of Buss and Keil (2011 ; 2012) .

Additionally, the authors also reported that increases in benevolence, which is a characteristic of Agreeableness , predicted later increases in maternal warmth and decreases in over-reactivity. Similarly, high Extraversion in childhood predicted increases in maternal over-reactivity and warmth. Although these results merit replication and further investigation of why specific traits are more reinforced or discouraged by different parenting practices, they nonetheless provide valuable evidence for bidirectional effects between temperament and early context. Additionally, they provide convincing evidence that environmental elicitation and working models of behavior are two mechanisms simultaneously at play, producing dynamic transactions between personality traits and parenting.

4.2. Parenting practices and personality development

The literature has largely focused on specific types of parenting behaviors associated with positive or negative child socioemotional outcomes. Although the aim of this paper is to review the parenting context in interaction with intrinsic child factors, it is worth summarizing briefly the findings that initially emerged when examining the main and direct effects of parenting on child outcomes. Two major dimensions have been used to describe parenting quality: parental warmth or sensitivity and parental control. Parental warmth is a global construct that usually reflects positive parenting behaviors. These behaviors may include measures of sensitivity, support, positive affect, and responsiveness among others ( Behrens, Parker, & Kulkofsky, 2014 ). Warm and responsive parenting has been consistently associated with higher levels of social and emotional competence. For example, Raby, Roisman, Fraley, and Simpson (2015) reported on the socioemotional development of 243 individuals followed from infancy to adulthood. Behavioral expressions of maternal sensitivity were also measured at different time points throughout infancy, as early as three months of age. They found that early maternal sensitivity significantly predicted social competence across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Furthermore, these effects remained significant after accounting for potential child-context developmental transactions, such as children independently choosing more aspects of their environment as they grow in autonomy. These results not only highlight the important role of parenting on child outcomes but also the general, enduring impact of early context on children’s social development.

Positive parenting practices have also been associated with more specific aspects of social development, such as prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior encompasses tendencies for sharing, helping, and cooperating for the purpose of benefiting someone other than the self ( Eisenberg, Eggum-Wilkens, & Spinrad, 2015 ), and has been implicated in adolescent and adult Agreeableness ( Habashi, Graziano, & Hoover, 2016 ; Luengo et al., 2014 ). Daniel, Madigan, and Jenkins (2016) assessed parenting warmth in both mothers and fathers in relation to toddlers’ prosocial behavior in a sample of 239 families. They found that both maternal and paternal warmth at 18 months predicted increases in prosocial behavior at 36 and 54 months, which is in line with the enduring effects of sensitivity reported by Raby et al. (2015) . Beyond predicting changes in prosocial behavior, Domitrovich and Bierman (2001) reported that supportive parenting also predicted social competence through associations with low levels of child aggression, and buffered children from the negative effects of peer dislike. Although partially limited by the cross-sectional design, these results and findings previously discussed suggest that warm supportive parenting has lasting positive effects on children’s later ability to navigate their social world. These effects, in turn, impact the form and expression of adult personality.

Multiple forms of parental control have been studied, including measures of parental harsh intrusiveness, dominance, and pressure, in contrast to gentle guidance and scaffolding behaviors that encourage child autonomy ( Grolnick & Pomerantz, 2009 ). Harsh control and intrusive parenting predict poor socioemotional competence ( Parker & Benson, 2004 ; van Aken, Junger, Verhoeven, & Dekovic, 2007 ). In a longitudinal study, Taylor, Eisenberg, Spinrad, and Widaman (2013) assessed children’s effortful control and intrusive parenting at 18, 30, and 42 months. Intrusive parenting was behaviorally coded from a series of mother-child interactions, including a teaching task, a free-play task, and a clean-up task. Taylor and colleagues found that parents’ intrusiveness was negatively related to later assessments of child effortful control, which encompasses regulatory skills such as attention shifting and emotion regulation that are relevant for social interactions. Furthermore, effortful control mediated the association between intrusive parenting and poor ego resiliency, which is a personality characteristic that reflects adaptability and flexibility to changes in the environment, and it is associated with social competence ( Hofer, Eisenberg, & Reiser, 2010 ).

Further highlighting the negative effects of harsh control, Wiggins and colleagues (2015) reported on the developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in relation to harsh parenting from a large sample of children assessed at ages 3, 5, and 9 years. They found that a trajectory of increasing harsh parenting uniquely predicted a severe trajectory of externalizing symptoms, and was negatively associated with internalizing symptoms. These results suggest that harsh, controlling parenting may lead children to model these behaviors with their peers, causing social conflict and rejection, which may further reinforce the negative behaviors.

Despite significant contributions made in establishing direct links between parenting quality and child outcomes, a great deal of evidence suggests that parenting dimensions do not affect children in the same way ( Slagt et al., 2016 ). In some cases, parenting may only relate to social development through variables that moderate or mediate its effects, such as gender, genetic variability, or personality ( Lianos, 2015 ; Rabinowitz & Drabick, 2017 ).

In fact, Lianos (2015) assessed preadolescents’ personality traits in relation to the parenting style they received, and found that the association between parenting quality and social competence varied by children’s personality. Specifically, high parental rejection was significantly associated with lower social competence only for preadolescents low in Neuroticism , whereas individuals high in Neuroticism were as socially competent as children who did not experience parental rejection. Similarly, high parental overprotection seemed more detrimental for preadolescents low in Agreeableness and Extraversion , as they were significantly less socially competent than children who scored high on these traits, or children who did not experience overprotective parenting. These transactions between emerging personality traits and environmental factors are theoretically depicted in our developmental model ( Figure 1 ), and may also represent an enduring pattern of transactions carried over from infancy. Lianos’ findings also highlight the importance of examining the role of parenting context as a moderator of developmental links between children’s individual characteristics and later outcomes, including the final piece in our model: Personality Profiles . We next review the intersection of individual differences and parenting context in predicting personality development, describing the theoretical models employed so far, synthesizing the current findings, and suggesting areas that warrant further research.

4.3. Temperament reactivity and parenting

Positive reactivity, which is typically reflected by extreme high approach and excitement in the face of novelty, has been largely understudied in relation to parenting behaviors. There is some cross-sectional evidence to suggest that positive reactivity is associated with parental warmth ( Latzman, Elkovitch, & Clark, 2009 ), but such associations cannot clearly distinguish bidirectional effects and could be explained by gene-environment correlations or heritability of parents’ temperament. Longitudinal studies could elucidate the direction of these associations. However, few studies have reported longitudinal assessments between positive reactivity and parenting, especially in infancy.

Lengua and Kovacs (2005) assessed temperament and parenting using both children’s and parents’ report of these variables at two time points. They found that initial positive reactivity predicted higher levels of maternal acceptance, which supports the elicitation model. The authors suggested that the positive characteristics of these children, such as laughter and approach, may be perceived by parents as rewarding and elicit acceptance and warmth. Interestingly, the authors did not find support for the working model of behavior, as initial parental acceptance did not predict changes in positive reactivity.

Even fewer studies have considered the parenting context as a moderator of links between positive reactivity and later socioemotional adjustment, including personality development. Positive reactivity may have a protective effect against negative parenting behaviors, such as maternal rejection, physical punishment, and harsh control ( Lengua, Wolshick, Sandler, & West 2000 ; Lahey et al., 2008 ). For instance, children who are high in approach and positive emotionality may elicit more engagement and positive reactions from adults. In the face of negative parenting, children’s positive reactivity may facilitate deep and positive connections with other adults, who may then serve as an attachment figure that provides some emotional and social guidance for the child ( Werner, 1993 ). This particular area of study could benefit from longitudinal studies assessing positive reactivity and parenting over longer periods, and perhaps earlier in development. Multiple time point data could more directly examine the working model of behavior and the environmental elicitation model simultaneously, assessing whether changes in positive reactivity are only evident after longer time intervals. Additionally, the lack of parenting effects on positive reactivity may be the result of exploring this association later in childhood, as evident bidirectional effects may be more pronounced earlier in development when parents have greater control over the child’s daily experiences.

Negative reactivity has received far more attention than positive reactivity in this literature, perhaps because of its intuitive links to maladaptive outcomes. As previously explained, the global dimension of “difficult temperament” includes characteristics of irritability, high fear, and soothing difficulty, and it has been associated with lower maternal support and responsiveness, and higher parental disapproval and hostility ( Boivin et al., 2005 ; Gauvain, 1995 ). However, a meta-analysis of this relation ( Paulussen-Hoogeboom et al., 2007 ) suggests that results are mixed, and in some cases, may depend on other child characteristics (e.g., gender), and demographic variables (e.g., mother education).

In the case of fearfulness, some findings indicate a positive association with parental warmth and acceptance ( Lengua & Kovacs, 2005 ), whereas others have found longitudinal links to less negative parenting. Lengua (2006) assessed children’s temperamental fear and irritability as well as maternal rejection and discipline practices at three different time points over the course of three years. The sample included 190 children between the ages of 8 and 12, and their mothers. Latent growth modeling revealed that although initial levels of fear were concurrently related to higher levels of maternal rejection and inconsistent discipline, they predicted decreases in these negative parenting dimensions at later time points. Interestingly, initial irritability was also concurrently associated with higher maternal rejection, but it did not uniquely predict changes in rejection. In fact, irritability was associated with higher inconsistent discipline and it also predicted later increases in this dimension.

This interesting pattern of results point to the differential effects of specific temperamental characteristics on parenting, and to the potential for change in temperament given elicited changes in parenting toward higher warmth and less over-reactive control. For example, an infant who is extremely fearful to novelty and high in negative affect may be at risk for early internalizing problems given temperamental stability. However, if such fearful temperament elicits higher maternal warmth and support, coupled with more scaffolding and gentle control, changes in parenting could elicit decreases in fearfulness and negative emotionality, and might decrease the risk of developing adult personality traits of high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness . This is the central developmental pattern we depict in the first and second stages of Figure 1 , with bidirectional effects between child intrinsic characteristics and contextual factors.

This transaction pattern is in line with Differential Susceptibility Theory (DST; Ellis, Boyce, Belsky, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2011 ). DST postulates that some individual characteristics of an organism (e.g., temperament) may render it more sensitive to contextual influences (e.g., parenting) such that when faced with a negative context, the organism will show a worse outcome. However when embedded in a positive environment, the organism will benefit the most and perform the best. Children who possessed characteristics that increase sensitivity to context then develop “for better or for worse”, because they either thrive in privileged environments or struggle in adverse circumstances. Our theoretical model can encompass DST because we purposefully leave strength and valence of effects unspecified, acknowledging that the strength and direction of contextual influence may be conditioned by child characteristics. The extant literature supports a pattern in which children high in negative reactivity show high socioemotional competence in the context of maternal warmth and autonomy-supporting parenting ( Bradley & Corwyn, 2008 ). However, the other side of the coin has also been reported. Children high in negative reactivity whose parents report harsh control and low warmth show further continuity of negative reactivity and behavioral problems (Engle & McElwain, 2011; Feng, Shaw, & Moilanen, 2011 ), lower social adjustment ( Stright, Gallagher, & Kelley, 2008 ), and higher neurophysiological risk for anxiety ( Brooker & Buss, 2014 ). These overall patterns suggest that children high in reactivity may present with typically positive personality traits, such as Agreeableness or Conscientiousness , or more negative traits, such as Neuroticism , based on their developmental context. However, as noted above, there are limits to both sensitivity and the power of the environment. As such, it is very unlikely that a child sensitive to the environment due to negative reactivity will, even under the best of circumstances, show high levels of Extraversion .

4.4. Temperament regulation and parenting

Studies of temperament regulation usually include behavioral measures of effortful control, which is manifested on attention sustaining, perseverance, and low frustration in the face of difficulty ( Rueda, 2012 ). A large number of studies suggest that maternal warmth and supportive parenting are associated with higher levels of effortful control (for a meta-analysis, see Karreman, Van Tuijl, van Aken, & Deković, 2006 ). A study by Chang and colleagues (2015) investigated relations between effortful control and proactive parenting from age two to five. Initial levels of proactive parenting, characterized by practices of scaffolding and structured play, predicted increases in effortful control at age five. This result remained significant even after accounting for language skills, which is a significant predictor of effortful control.

There is also some empirical support for the eliciting effects of effortful control on parenting. Higher levels of self-regulation have been associated with more maternal support and less rejection ( Kennedy, Rubin, Hastings, & Maisel, 2004 ; Lengua, 2006 ). However, the studies are scarce and some of the results have been moderated by child’s gender or have systematically varied by parent (e.g., father vs. mother; Lifford, Harold, & Thapar, 2009 ). Future studies should further examine the circumstances in which effortful control predicts changes in parenting, especially because a more recent study did not find support for such elicitation effects ( Taylor et al., 2013 ). Overall, both elicitation and shaping effects between parenting and temperament regulation are important to personality development, because early effortful control has been associated with later personality traits of high Conscientiousness and Agreeableness ( Rueda, 2012 ).

Besides exploring bidirectional effects, the literature has narrowed in on the interaction between self-regulation and parenting to predict child outcomes. A consistent pattern of results has emerged in the past 15 years: parenting practices appear especially important for the socioemotional development of children with low effortful control (for a meta-analysis, see Slagt et al., 2016 ). Other studies have replicated this pattern and provided support for unique environmental effects of the parenting context. For instance, Reuben et al. (2004) examined parenting, effortful control, and externalizing behaviors using a longitudinal adoption design in 225 families, including adoptive and birth parents. Adoptive maternal warmth predicted decreases in externalizing behaviors only for children with low effortful control. This study in particular highlights the importance of the parenting context and points to its contextual influence on children’s development independent from any shared genetic variance.

5. Conclusions

Personality has for decades been theorized to originate from temperament. However, we rarely see direct links between temperament and personality, suggesting that biologically determined profiles of temperament are not the only forces at work in shaping developmental trajectories. Instead, the current body of evidence suggests that adult personality develops along pathways influenced by environmental factors, such as the parenting context, that shape the continuity and manifestation of early-appearing biological differences.

Infant temperament probably begins to interact with parenting practices early in development, and these transactions can reinforce or discourage continuity of temperament and personality development. Infants’ behavioral and emotional reactivity elicits an array of parenting responses in order to meet the infant’s needs. Additionally, more recent findings also suggest that the elicited parenting behaviors and practices are dependent on the parent’s individual characteristics, and they can in turn shape the child’s temperamental characteristics. Empirical evidence that parenting can explain changes in temperament and that temperament can elicit changes in parenting is compatible with the “goodness of fit” transactional model proposed by Thomas and Chess (1991) . This model can also account for the moderating effects of infants’ temperament on the association between parenting behaviors and child outcomes. Both the theoretical model and the extant evidence highlight that a match between parenting and temperament, rather than a universal construct of “good parenting”, seems to be relevant in predicting personality development.

A growing literature suggests that parenting interacts with temperament to affect socioemotional development, especially pointing to the possibility that some temperament dimensions may be more vulnerable than others to the detrimental effects of a negative parenting context ( Slagt et al., 2016 ). Although the patterns are not always consistent across developmental periods, specific temperament dimensions, or parenting practices ( Rabinowitz & Drabick, 2017 ), the evidence is nonetheless indisputable that context, in the form of parenting, can moderate the relationship between temperament-linked individual differences and child outcomes. Additionally, the extant findings suggest that the intersection of temperament and parenting should be investigated as a dynamic, transactional relation. If it is to be fully understood, investigators should employ more longitudinal studies where both child temperament and parenting behaviors are observed at multiple time points, and their transactions considered to predict personality development ( Slagt et al., 2016 ). Finally, the complexity of temperament-parenting transactions also implies the possibility of simultaneous child and parent individual characteristics playing a functional role in the personality traits that children later express. Bronfenbrenner emphasized the importance of such simultaneously occurring characteristics:

Proximal processes that affect development vary systematically as a joint function of the characteristics of the developing person and the environment (both immediate and more remote) in which the processes are taking place ( Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1993 , p. 317).

To the extent that we consider personality to be a developmental process, Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory informs our current understanding of how personality develops in context. By his account, individual characteristics of the child and the context will inevitably affect the nature of their transaction, and therefore should be carefully considered in our designs. For example, child gender has occasionally been found to moderate the influence of effortful control on later parenting practices ( Lifford, Harold, & Thapar, 2008 ). This moderation calls for a comprehensive, holistic account of the child in our designs and measurement models, rather than including isolated individual characteristics that may only represent one portion of the child’s experienced “truth”. Similarly, caregiver role, parent psychopathology, education level, and household size are all characteristics of the parenting context that could influence “proximal processes” or parent-child transactions, and thus should be reflected in our studies. In conclusion, when examining personality development, transactions between child and parent over time are crucial, and these complex, dynamic relations can only inform the trajectory to adult personality when multiple individual characteristics of both entities (i.e., organism and context) are carefully considered.

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• A-Z Publications

Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

Volume 10, 2023, review article, open access, developing self-awareness: learning processes for self- and interpersonal growth.

• Manuel London 1 , Valerie I. Sessa 2 , and Loren A. Shelley 2
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 College of Business, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, USA; email: [email protected] 2 Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, USA
• Vol. 10:261-288 (Volume publication date January 2023) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-044531
• First published as a Review in Advance on November 18, 2022
• Copyright © 2023 by the author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See credit lines of images or other third-party material in this article for license information

Self-awareness—how we see ourselves and the effects we have on our environment—influences our behavior and the type of person we want to become. This article examines recent research and areas of practice that address the meaning of self-awareness and how it develops over time. We build on extant comprehensive reviews of the literature to define self-awareness and its accuracy, measurement, and effects, including the dark side of being overly introspective. We offer a framework to integrate theory-based processes. We present the results of a literature search of educational interventions aimed at increasing mindfulness through reflection, feedback, and coaching. We conclude with calls for research and implications for practice in areas of measurement, tracking changes, interventions, and self in relation to others in areas of societal impact, self-presentation on digital media, and promoting self-awareness in relation to organization and team membership.

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Measuring Personal Growth and Development in Context: Evidence of Validity in Educational and Work Settings

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• Published: 13 September 2019
• Volume 21 , pages 2141–2167, ( 2020 )

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• Brittney K. Anderson 1   na1 ,
• John P. Meyer 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Chelsea Vaters 1 &
• Jose A. Espinoza 1  

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Consistent with the trend toward viewing psychological well-being as more than the absence of illness, we developed an instrument—the personal growth and development scale (PGDS)—that can be used to assess positive change in well-being attributable to context-specific experiences. As part of the validation process, we examined relations between the PGDS and measures of need satisfaction and autonomous motivation in students (N = 241) and employees (N = 468). In the student sample, we also examined relations with engagement and burnout. The findings supported our hypothesis that need satisfaction, autonomous motivation and engagement would relate positively with the PGDS, and that burnout would relate negatively. In a second student sample (N = 377), we collected longitudinal data to investigate how global psychological well-being relates to personal growth and development over the course of an academic term. We found that initial levels of global well-being predicted positive changes in growth and development and replicated earlier findings regarding relations between the PGDS, need satisfaction and autonomous motivation. Future applications of the PGDS for research and practice are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435-2014-0956) awarded to J. P. Meyer. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Brittney K. Anderson and John P. Meyer have contributed equally to this article and both should be considered first authors.

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Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5C2, Canada

Brittney K. Anderson, John P. Meyer, Chelsea Vaters & Jose A. Espinoza

Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

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Anderson, B.K., Meyer, J.P., Vaters, C. et al. Measuring Personal Growth and Development in Context: Evidence of Validity in Educational and Work Settings. J Happiness Stud 21 , 2141–2167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00176-w

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Personality development in emerging adulthood—how the perception of life events and mindset affect personality trait change.

• 1 Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
• 2 Division HR Diagnostics AG, Stuttgart, Germany

Personality changes throughout the life course and change is often caused by environmental influences, such as critical life events. In the present study, we investigate personality trait development in emerging adulthood as a result of experiencing two major life events: graduating from school and moving away from home. Thereby, we examined the occurrence of the two life events per se and the subjective perception of the critical life event in terms of valence. In addition, we postulate a moderation effect of the construct of mindset, which emphasizes that beliefs over the malleability of global attributes can be seen as predictors of resilience to challenges. This suggests that mindset acts as a buffer for these two distinct events. In a large longitudinal sample of 1,243 people entering adulthood, we applied latent structural equation modeling to assess mean-level changes in the Big Five, the influence of life events per se , the subjective perception of life events, and a moderating role of mindset. In line with maturity processes, results showed significant mean-level changes in all Big Five traits. While no changes in the Big Five dimensions were noted when the mere occurrence of an event is assessed, results indicated a greater increase in extraversion and diminished increase in emotional stability when we accounted for the individual's (positive/negative) perception of the critical life event. In case of extraversion, this also holds true for the moderator mindset. Our findings contribute valuable insights into the relevance of subjective appraisals to life events and the importance of underlying processes to these events.

Introduction

People change as they age. Individuals experience not only physical but also psychological changes across the entire lifespan. However, the exact course of internal and external changes depends on various criteria. In recent years, researchers have expended considerable effort in studying how personality develops across the lifespan; this has, in turn, incited a controversy about the stability and variability of specific personality traits. Personality traits are considered to be relatively stable individual differences in affect, behavior, and/or cognition ( Johnson, 1997 ). Whereas, the Big Five traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness appear to be rather stable and continuously increase across adulthood, levels of openness to experience appear to change in an inverted U-shape function, which increases between the ages of 18 and 22 and decreases between 60 and 70 ( McCrae and Costa, 1999 ; Roberts and DelVecchio, 2000 ; Specht et al., 2011 ). Furthermore, some studies have shown that trait change can be associated with particular life stages. For example, the findings of Roberts and Mroczek (2008) suggest that young adults tend to exhibit increases in traits that are indicative of greater social maturity. More specifically, in emerging adulthood, the average individual experiences an increase in emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness ( Arnett, 2000 ; Roberts et al., 2006 ; Bleidorn, 2015 ), and self-esteem ( Orth et al., 2018 ), while openness to experience seems to decrease in advancing age ( Roberts et al., 2006 ). Taken together, this comprises evidence that personality develops throughout the lifespan and consequently, several theories have been introduced to explain when and why personality change occurs (e.g., Cattell, 1971 ; Baltes, 1987 ; Caspi and Moffitt, 1993 ; McCrae and Costa, 1999 ; Roberts and Mroczek, 2008 ).

Critical Life Events

Theory and research support the idea that personality can change as a result of intrinsic factors such as genetics and extrinsic factors such as the environment around us ( Bleidorn and Schwaba, 2017 ; Wagner et al., 2020 ). More specifically, there is ample evidence that personality is linked to certain external influences such as critical life events (e.g., Lüdtke et al., 2011 ; Bleidorn et al., 2018 ). These can be defined as “transitions that mark the beginning or the end of a specific status” ( Luhmann et al., 2012 ; p. 594) and include leaving the parental home or major changes in one's status such as employment or duty. These transitions often require adaptation processes involving new behavioral, cognitive, or emotional responses ( Hopson and Adams, 1976 ; Luhmann et al., 2012 , 2014 ). Profound adaptations are assumed to have lasting effects, as “life events can modify, interrupt or redirect life trajectories by altering individuals' feelings, thoughts and behaviors” ( Bleidorn et al., 2018 , p. 83). Building upon this assumption, many studies have sought to determine how certain Big Five traits change because of critical life events. For instance, increases in emotional stability were found to result from transitioning into one's first romantic relationship ( Lehnart et al., 2010 ). Emotional stability might also increase in anticipation of gain-based events such as childbirth or paid employment, which, in turn, lead to increases in conscientiousness and openness to experience ( Denissen et al., 2018 ).

In the present study, we focus on two critical life events that are highly relevant for emerging adults: moving away from home and graduating from school. Both events represent a personal development milestone for the transition into adulthood and are typically associated with great educational or occupational challenges ( Arnett, 2000 ; Pusch et al., 2018 ). Few studies have highlighted these two events and how they influence life trajectories in emerging adulthood. Lüdtke et al. (2011 ) focused on the broader superordinate section of work-related life events and personality change and found that the transition from high school to college, university, or vocational training is associated with substantial normative increases in emotional stability, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. With regard to graduation from school, Bleidorn (2012) found significant mean-level changes in certain Big Five traits over an observation period of 1 year. Specifically, senior students experienced increases in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness after graduation. In a later review by Bleidorn et al. (2018) , the authors found that graduation constitutes an almost universal life event in Western societies and that related change in adult personality is likely to be observable, because young adulthood is a period in which personality traits have been shown to be most open to change ( Roberts and DelVecchio, 2000 ; Lucas and Donnellan, 2011 ).

There are fewer investigations into the personality effects of moving away from home. Pusch et al. (2018) compared age differences in emerging vs. young adults and found that, among other life events, leaving the parental home did not reveal significant age effects with respect to personality change. However, they found significant age-invariant effects for individuals who left their parental home recently, indicating positive changes in agreeableness. Jonkmann et al. (2014) investigated living arrangements after college with regard to personality differences and found that, for example, the choice of living arrangement (living with roommates vs. living alone) predicted the development of conscientiousness and—to a lesser extent—openness and agreeableness. Similarly, according to a study by Niehoff et al. (2017) , living and studying abroad after college led to increases in extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. Interestingly, Specht et al. (2011) found a significant sex effect on leaving the parental home and argued that only women become more emotionally stable when moving. Taken together, this evidence suggests that moving away from home is a major life event that has not yet been deeply investigated but represents a distinct developmental task that has the potential to shape individuals' personalities.

The Perception of Life Events

While these studies provide valuable information about the impact of critical life events, one important issue has been hitherto neglected. Many past studies have focused on life events per se , but comparatively little effort has been made to examine the subjective appraisal of such events and its effect on the processes underlying personality change ( Roberts, 2009 ). Moreover, methodological approaches to life events are sometimes misleading, because the valence of experienced events is rated by either researchers or other people who cannot sufficiently reflect inter- and intra-individual experiences of events ( Headey and Wearing, 1989 ; Kendler et al., 2003 ; Luhmann et al., 2020 ). However, there is ample evidence that people perceive the same event or situation very differently. For example, according to a comprehensive review of person-situation transactions by Rauthmann et al. (2015) , situations can be characterized by their physical (e.g., location, activity, persons) and/or psychological (e.g., task-related, threatening, pleasant) properties. Rauthmann et al. (2015) further state that “situations only have consequences for people's thinking, feeling, desiring, and acting through the psychological processing they receive” (p. 372). Thus, people's individual experiences of psychological situations may deviate from how these situations are experienced by most other people (reality principle). This assumption aligns with the TESSERA framework conceived by Wrzus and Roberts (2017) . According to the authors, events and single situations can trigger expectancies about how to act and adjust in similar situations. These expectancies then determine which state occurs after the corresponding trigger by choosing a response from a variety of possible states ( Wrzus and Roberts, 2017 ). Conjointly, two people can perceive the same situation or event very differently, leading to diverse reactions and psychological meanings.

A first step toward this important distinction was proposed by Luhmann et al. (2020) , who aimed to systematically examined the effects of life events on psychological outcomes. To do so, the authors proposed a dimensional taxonomy which that considers nine perceived characteristics of major life events. I this way, the study uniquely emphasizes the difference between assessing the mere occurrence of a critical life event and taking into account subjective appraisal. However, significantly more research is needed to fully explore how this causes lasting personality trait change.

In conclusion, two aspects of person-situation transactions should be highlighted. First, one situation can be interpreted very differently by two individuals. Expectations and individual goals—as well as variable expressions of personality traits—influence the extent to which a situation is perceived as meaningful and, therefore, determine how people approach it ( Bleidorn, 2012 ; Denissen et al., 2013 , 2018 ). Second, this is also true for life events. Two people can reasonably experience the same major life event as completely differently. Therefore, we focus the present study on the valence of two distinct life events and use this characteristic as our central parameter. In particular, in emerging adulthood, individuals might perceive the behavioral expectations and demands associated with a life event as more pressing than others ( Pusch et al., 2018 ). What remains less clear is how situational perceptions affect personality change after a major life event, but with respect to the current string of literature, it seems reductive to only ask if, but not how, critical life events are experienced.

The Moderating Role of Mindset

In the previous section, we examined how diverse critical life events can be perceived. Here, we extend our theoretical approach by focusing on the underlying processes that might account for the different perception and spotlight causes of individual personality trait changes. One construct that is highly relevant to the aforementioned regulatory mechanisms is the individual belief system mindset. According to Dweck (1999) , an individual's mindset refers to the implicit belief about the malleability of personal attributes. Dweck (1999) distinguishes between growth and fixed mindsets. The growth mindset emphasizes the belief that attributes like intelligence and personality are changeable. Conversely, the fixed mindset refers to the belief that such attributes are immutable. According to Dweck (2012) , the individual mindset is not static and can be changed throughout one's life. Actively changing one's mindset toward a growth mindset was found to decrease chronic adolescent aggression, enhance people's willpower, and redirect critical academic outcomes ( Dweck, 2012 ; Yeager et al., 2019 ). Moreover, Blackwell et al. (2007) found that the belief that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) predicted an upward trajectory in grades over 2 years of junior high school, while the belief that intelligence is fixed (entity theory) predicted a flat trajectory. Yet, according to a meta-analysis from Sisk et al. (2018) , mindset interventions for academic achievement predominately benefitted students with low socioeconomic status or who are at-risk academically. Mindset has also been linked to business-related outcomes (e.g., Kray and Haselhuhn, 2007 ; Heslin and Vandewalle, 2008 ). That is, individuals with a growth mindset tend to use “higher-order” cognitive strategies and adapt to stress more easily ( Heslin and Vandewalle, 2008 ). Likewise, mindset has been linked to health outcomes and even mental illness, with the assumption that a growth mindset buffers against psychological distress and depression (e.g., Biddle et al., 2003 ; Burnette and Finkel, 2012 ; Schroder et al., 2017 ). Therefore, a growth mindset can be considered a predictor of psychological resilience ( Saeed et al., 2018 ).

With regard to changes in personality traits, the findings have been mixed. Hudson et al. (2020) investigated college students' beliefs by adapting a personality measure into a mindset measure and administering it within a longitudinal study. They found that the mere belief that personality is malleable (or not) did not affect trait changes. However, in her Unified Theory of Motivation, Personality, and Development, Dweck (2017) suggests that basic needs, mental representations (e.g., beliefs and emotions), and action tendencies (referred to as BEATs) contribute to personality development. Dweck further argues that mental representations shape motivation by informing goal selection and subsequently form personality traits by creating recurring experiences ( Dweck, 2017 ). Thus, there might be more information about indicators such as the integration of mindset, motivation, and environmental influences necessary to understand how personality traits change according to belief systems.

In summary, there is evidence that a belief in the malleability of global attributes allows individuals to adapt to life circumstances in a goal-directed way and that individuals' mindsets determine responses to challenges ( Dweck and Leggett, 1988 ). Building upon the existing literature around environmental influences on personality traits and the diverse effects of mindset, we argue that after experiencing a critical life event, individuals with a growth mindset will adapt to a new situation more easily and accordingly exhibit greater change in relating personality traits. In contrast, individuals with a fixed mindset might react in a more rigid way to unknown circumstances and thus don't experience the need adapt, resulting in no personality trait change.

The Present Study

This study aims to contribute to the literature around external and internal influences on personality development in emerging adulthood by analyzing changes in the Big Five, the influences of the occurrence of life events per se vs. their subjective perception, and the possible moderating effects of mindset in a longitudinal study with a large sample. Most prior studies have focused on personality development in adulthood (e.g., Roberts and Jackson, 2008 ; Lucas and Donnellan, 2011 ; Wrzus and Roberts, 2017 ; Damian et al., 2018 ; Denissen et al., 2018 ), but emerging adulthood is marked by tremendous changes; thus, we focus our analyses on this period. According to Arnett (2000 , 2007) , emerging adulthood is considered a distinct stage between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood. This is seen as a critical life period because it is characterized by more transformation, exploration, and personality formation than any other life stage in adulthood ( Arnett, 2000 ; Ziegler et al., 2015 ; Bleidorn and Schwaba, 2017 ). With regard to beliefs systems, Yeager et al. (2019) argue that beliefs that affect how, for example, students make sense of ongoing challenges are most important and salient during high-stakes developmental turning points such as pubertal maturation. For this reason, it is particularly compelling to investigate environmental influences such as major life events that shape the trajectory of personality trait change in emerging adulthood.

To do so, we examined whether two major critical life events (graduating from school and moving away from home) affect personality development. We chose these two major life events because they are uniquely related to emerging adulthood and because existing research has found mixed results regarding their influence on personality trait change (e.g., Lüdtke et al., 2011 ; Specht et al., 2011 ; Pusch et al., 2018 ). Based on prior findings, we constructed three hypotheses. First, we expect that an increase in personality trait change will occur in individuals who graduate from school/move away from home but not in those who did not experience such events. Second, subjective perceptions of the two critical life events will influence personality trait changes in the Big Five. Third, we look at the underlying processes that influence personality and argue, that mindset will moderate the impact of the two stated life events/perception of life events on personality trait change.

Sample and Procedure

For this study, we created the German Personality Panel (GEPP) by collecting data from a large German sample in cooperation with a non-profit online survey provided by berufsprofiling.de . This organization assists emerging adults by providing job opportunities and post-graduation academic pathways. After completing the questionnaire, participants received feedback and vocational guidance. In 2016 and 2017, a total of 11,816 individuals between 13 and 30 years old ( M = 17.72 years; SD = 3.22, 50.71% female) took this survey. We used this first round of data-gathering as our longitudinal measurement occasion T1. If participants consented to be contacted again, we reached out via email in October 2018 to request their participation in a second survey. A total of 1,679 individuals between 14 and 26 years old ( M = 17.39, SD = 2.37, 64.82% female) agreed to participate and filled in a second online survey (second measurement occasion of GEPP, T2). The test battery at T2 took approximately 30–40 min, and we provided personalized feedback on personality development, as well as a monetary compensation, to all participants.

Because we were interested in emerging adults who were about to graduate from school?and thus found themselves in a critical time period?we excluded all participants older than 21 at T2. On the other hand, we included 14-year-old participants because they could have entered school in Germany at the age of five and thus graduated from secondary school and/or moved away from home by this age. At T2, 12% had not yet finished school, 32% held a secondary school certificate, and 57% held a university entrance diploma.

To further improve data quality, we obtained an indicator for careless responding by asking about self-reported diligence (“Did you work conscientiously on the test?”). Participants were informed that their answer had no impact on their compensation. At T2, 41 (3%) participants answered “No.” After excluding participants meeting this criterion, a sample of n = 1,243, aged 14–21 years ( M = 16.92, SD = 1.75, 67.23% women), remained for subsequent data analyses. All data and further materials are available via osf ( https://osf.io/xc6d4/?view_only=5b913c97553d48a290b75a3f725aca3d ).

Sample Attrition

Numerous email accounts were invalid at the second measurement point—for example, because students' personalized school email accounts were deleted following their graduation or because certain institutions used only a single email account to offer vocational counseling to college students ( N = 3,495). Those who did not participate at the second measurement point (dropouts) were slightly younger than those who participated (continuers) [ M (ageD) = 17.39; M (ageC) = 17.76; p ≤ 0.000, d = −0.12] and more women filled in the second questionnaire (dropouts = 50.9% women, continuers = 64.8% women; p ≤ 0.000, d = 0.31). Only modest selectivity effects (measured by Cohen's d ) in terms of mean differences in personality traits between dropouts and continuers were found at T1; thus, there was negligible systematic attrition ( Specht et al., 2011 ; Pusch et al., 2018 ). Continuers had slightly higher scores in agreeableness ( d = 0.17), conscientiousness ( d = 0.19), and openness ( d = 0.16) than dropouts, but they almost identical in terms of extraversion ( d = −0.08) and emotional stability ( d = 0.01).

Personality

Personality traits were assessed on both measurement occasions using a short version of the Big Five personality inventory for the vocational context (TAKE5; S&F Personalpsychologie Managementberatung GmbH, 2005 ). The TAKE5 has been shown to be a highly reliable and valid personality measure ( Mussel, 2012 ). In the short version of the test, each of the Big Five subscales (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability) consists of three items and was measured on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ). Example items for conscientiousness include (translated from German): “Nothing can stop me from completing an important task,” “People around me know me as a perfectionist,” and “My work is always carried out the highest quality standards.” Items were selected to cover the different aspects of each domain therefore internal consistencies provide no valuable indicator. Test-retest reliabilities for the TAKE5 between T1 and T2 were 0.69 for extraversion, 0.52 for openness to experience, 0.57 for conscientiousness, 0.58 for agreeableness, and 0.50 for emotional stability. Small to moderate reliability levels can be explained by the heterogeneity of the items and our attempt to capture rather broad personality constructs. Similar results have been reported for other brief personality scales ( Donnellan et al., 2006 ; Rammstedt et al., 2016 ). All descriptive statistics and correlations can be found in Table 1 , and bivariate correlations of all items can be found at osf ( https://osf.io/xc6d4/?view_only=5b913c97553d48a290b75a3f725aca3d ).

Table 1 . Correlations and descriptive statistics among variables.

Life Events

In the present study, we focus on two major life events that are highly characteristic of the critical period between the late teens and young adulthood ( Arnett, 2000 ; Lüdtke et al., 2011 ; Bleidorn, 2012 ): moving away from home and graduating from school. At T2, after completing the personality questionnaire, participants rated their subjective perception of each of the two life events on a dimensional 7-point Likert scale (1 = very negatively , 7 = very positively ). Of the initial sample, 68.38% of the participants had graduated from school, 47.66% had moved away from home, and 46.96% had experienced both life events. Participants who had graduated from school were older ( M = 17.32 years, SD = 1.84, female = 68.80%) compared to those who had not yet finished school ( M = 15.30 years, SD = 1.09, female = 68.21%). Those who had moved away from home were approximately 1 year older ( M = 17.53, SD = 1.89, female = 69.30%) compared to those did not yet moved away ( M = 16.29, SD =1.69, female = 66.91%). To avoid potential confounding effects, we only asked about events that had happened within the past year (after the first measurement occasion). This allowed us to account for experiences that took place before T1.

In the second step, in order to obtain a fuller picture, participants also had the option of rating an additional significant life event from a list of 18 potential life events from various domains—such as love and health—based on the Munich Life Event List (MEL; Maier-Diewald et al., 1983 ). However, the number of individuals who experienced these other life events was too small to allow for further analyses.

Participants' mindset was measured with a questionnaire based on Dweck's Mindset Instrument (DMI). The 16-item DMI was developed and created by Dweck (1999) and is used examine how students view their own personality and intelligence. In the current study, only items concerning beliefs about the malleability of personality were used. The mindset inventory items were “Personality traits are something a person cannot change,” “You have a certain personality and you really can't do much to change it,” and “You can learn new things, but you can't really change your basic personality.” At T2, participants were presented a 7-point response scale, ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ) ( M = 3.60, SD = 1.45). Items were reversed such that higher levels indicated a growth mindset. This short inventory was found to be highly reliable ( M = 3.60, SD = 1.45, ω = 0.81, 95% CI [0.70, 0.84]).

Statistical Analyses

Analyses were carried out in four steps. First, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to test for measurement invariance across time points T1 and T2. Second, we constructed latent difference score models for all Big Five scales to test for mean differences in personality traits. Third, we investigated the impact of the life events moving away from home and graduating from school, as well as the perception of these two events on changes in the Big Five. Fourth, we added mindset as a moderator to the model. All statistical analyses were carried out in R and R Studio 1.2.1335 ( R Core Team, 2018 ).

Measurement invariance

To ensure that the same construct was being measured across time, we first tested for measurement invariance. For weak measurement invariance, we fixed the factor loadings for each indicator to be equal across measurement occasions and compared this model to the configural model, where no restrictions were applied. The same procedure was followed to assess strong measurement invariance, with the weak invariant model compared to a model with constrained intercepts to equality across time (e.g., the same intercept for Item 2 at T1 and Item 2 at T2) ( Newsom, 2015 ). To evaluate the model fit, comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) were inspected. Good fit was considered to be indicated when CFI and TLI values were 0.90 or higher, RMSEA below 0.08, and SRMR values below 0.05 ( Hu and Bentler, 1999 ; Marsh et al., 2005 ). The configural model showed good fit for all of the Big Five traits (All χ 2 [4 24], df = 5, CFI > [0.98 1.00], TLI > [0.94 1.00], RMSEA < [0.0 0.06], SRMR < [0.0 0.02]). Model fit for partial strong measurement invariance revealed similar fit (all χ 2 [9 50], df = 8, CFI > [0.96 1.00], TLI > [0.92 1.00], RMSEA < [0.01 0.07], SRMR < [0.01 0.03]) when freely estimating the intercept of the first manifest OCEAN item ( Cheung and Rensvold, 2002 ; Little et al., 2007 ). All further analyses are based on this model and full results for fit indices are presented in Table S1 .

Latent Change Score Models

To test for changes in personality over time, we applied latent structural equation modeling analysis with the R package lavaan (version 0.5-23.1097; Rosseel, 2012 ). Required sample size for the specified latent change score model was estimated by the R-toolbox semTools ( MacCallum et al., 2006 ; Jorgensen et al., 2018 ) for RMSEA = 0.05, df = 16, α = 0.05, and a statistical power of 90% to N = 672 individuals. Therefore, we consider our sample size to be sufficiently large.

As we were first interested in the rate of change, we built a multiple-indicator univariate latent change score model for each of the Big Five domains ( Figure 1 ). Each latent construct of interest (OCEAN) consisted of three observed measures (X1, X2, and X3) at two waves. Equality constraints were imposed on factor loadings and intercepts ( Newsom, 2015 ). Moreover, the autoregressive path was set equal to 1. The means, intercepts, and covariances at the first occasion and for the difference score factor were freely estimated, and all measurement residuals were allowed to correlate among the sets of repeated measurements ( McArdle et al., 2002 ). We accounted for missing data by applying robust maximum likelihood estimation. Finally, after specifying this basic model, the variables of interest—the occurrence of the life event, perception of the life event, and the moderator mindset—were added to the model.

Figure 1 . Schematic model of the multiple-indicator univariate latent change score model. The latent construct of interest (each personality trait) was measured at two time points (T1 and T2), using three indicators each time (X1, X2, X3). The lower part of the model constitutes the assessment of measurement invariance. “Δ latent change” captures change from the Big Five trait from T1 to T2. Latent regressions from “Δ latent change” on Mod→ Δ reflect the influence of the covariate perception of life event or the moderator mindset on the development of the Big Five. Straight arrows depict loadings and regression coefficients, curved arrows co-variances.

Standardized mean differences were calculated as an average of all intra-individual increases and decreases in a given personality trait over time. As illustrated in Figure 2 , all latent mean scores for the Big Five increased from T1 to T2. Conscientiousness and openness to experience exhibited the largest mean-level changes from T1 to T2, whereas agreeableness ( d = 0.02) and emotional stability ( d = 0.07) remained nearly the same. To test for changes in personality, we employed a multiple-indicator univariate latent change score model. Separate models for each of the Big Five all fit the data well (all CFI > 0.95, TLI > 0.93, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.04). Inspecting the intercepts of the change factors revealed that all Big Five scores changed between T1 and T2, with less increase among individuals with high compared to low levels at T1. The latent means for each personality dimension at each time point, along with their fit indices, are reported in Table 2 .

Figure 2 . Mean-level changes in Big Five dimensions over measurement occasions T1 and T2.

Table 2 . Big Five mean-level change from T1 to T2 with fit indices, n = 1,243.

Life Events and Perception of Life Events

To assess personality trait change resulting from experiencing a life event, we included a standardized dichotomized variable “experiencing the life event vs. not” into the model. Again, the model fit the data well for both critical life events (all CFI > 0.94, TLI > 0.92, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.04). However, comparing participants who had experienced one of the critical life events (moving away from home or graduating from school) to those who had not revealed that neither life event had a significant impact on changes in personality traits between T1 and T2 ( p >0.05).

To assess personality trait change resulting from perception of a life event, we included the standardized variable “perception of the life event” for each of the two events into the model and regressed the latent change score on the covariate. This time, results regarding the subjective perception of the life event graduating from school indicated a significant impact on personality change for emotional stability (χ 2 [16] = 94.07, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMR = 0.05, λ = 0.05, p [λ] < 0.05). Specifically, participants who had experienced graduating from school more negatively exhibited a diminished increase in emotional stability than compared to individuals who had experienced graduating from school more positively. We also found evidence that subjective perceptions are relevant for extraversion. A greater positive change in extraversion was observed when participants experienced graduating from school more positively than compared to negatively (χ 2 [16] = 23.90, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.02, SRMR = 0.03, λ = 0.10, p [λ] = 0.05). Subjective perceptions moving away from home had no impact on trait changes in any of the Big Five traits. Descriptive statistics for the life events along with model fit indices can be found in Table S2 .

To test for a moderating role of mindset, an interaction term between mindset and each of the two critical life events was constructed. First, we built an interaction term between mindset and the dichotomous variable “experienced the life event” and regressed the latent change factor on the interaction term. Separate models for each of the Big Five all fit the data well (all CFI > 0.94, TLI > 0.92, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.05). As shown in Table S3 , no effects for the Big Five traits were significant for the distinction between experienced the life event vs. did not experience the life event ( p > 0.05). Second, for each of the two life events an interaction term between mindset and perception of the life event was built analogously. For extraversion, we found a significant influence of the moderator when assessing the perception of graduating from school (χ 2 [16] = 25.62, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.03, SRMR = 0.03, λ = −0.09, p [λ] = 0.05). Hence, a fixed mindset indicates less change in extraversion when experiencing the critical life event graduation from school. More specifically, regarding manifest means of extraversion, participants with a growth mindset experienced almost the same amount of increase in extraversion over time, regardless of their perception (positive or negative) of the critical life event. On the other hand, participants with a fixed mindset only show an increase in extraversion when they experienced the life event more positively (see Figure 3 ). No effects for the interaction between mindset and the critical life event moving away from home were significant.

Figure 3 . Change in trait extraversion for people with a fixed vs. growth mindset with regard to the perception of life event graduation from school .

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of external sources such as life events and internal dispositions like the mindset on personality trait change. We assert that exploring whether the subjective experience of life events is associated with personality trait development constitutes an important future directions in various domains of personality research. Therefore, we took a closer look at the underlying processes, particularly as they relate to individual differences in situational perceptions and belief systems. We investigated how two critical life events (moving away from home and graduating from school) influence personality trait change, the role of subjective perceptions of these events, and how internal belief systems like mindset moderate the impact of life events on trait change.

Mean-Level Change

Since our sample was selected to be between 14 and 21 years of age, most of our participants were classified as emerging adults Arnett, 2000 , 2007 . A large body of research has consistently demonstrated that emerging adulthood is characterized by trait changes related to maturity processes (for an overview, see Roberts et al., 2006 ). Thus, emerging adults tend to experience increases in conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness, and (to a lesser degree) agreeableness. This pattern is often called the “maturity principle” of personality development, and it has been found to hold true cross-culturally ( Roberts and Jackson, 2008 ; Bleidorn, 2015 ). Although the effects were small, we found evidence for mean-level changes in line with the maturity principle and functional personality trait development. Extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability significantly increased over the 1-year period. The largest changes were found for openness and conscientiousness. These changes are most likely to be explained by attempts to satisfy mature expectations and engage in role-congruent behavior. While increases in openness might be due to identity exploration, higher scores on conscientiousness could reflect investment in age-related roles. Individuals might, for instance, take increased responsibility for social or career-related tasks that require more mature functioning ( Arnett, 2000 , 2007 ).

First, we analyzed whether the occurrence of a life event per se had an influence on personality trait change. In our study, neither of the critical life events?moving away from home or graduating from school?affected Big Five trait change over the two measurement occasions. One possible explanation is that the two chosen life events were not prominent enough to evoke far-reaching changes in personality traits ( Magnus et al., 1993 ; Löckenhoff et al., 2009 ). In line with a study by Löckenhoff et al. (2009 ), more stressful, adverse events might have triggered more pronounced and predictable effects on personality traits. Moreover, the period between the late teens and early adulthood is characterized by a large number of stressful events and daily hassles ( Arnett, 2000 , 2007 ). In a comprehensive review of emerging adulthood by Bleidorn and Schwaba (2017) , graduates also experienced changes in other personality traits, such as openness and emotional stability, which suggests that many developmental tasks and major life transitions contribute to changes in Big Five trait domains. Furthermore, according to Luhmann et al. (2014) and Yeager et al. (2019) , life events may not only independently influence the development of personality characteristics, they might also interact with one another. Researchers must address the interpretation of other challenges that adolescents experience. This notion is also supported in a study by Wagner et al. (2020) , who introduced a model that integrates factors that are both personal (e.g., genetic expressions) and environmental (e.g., culture and society). The authors assert that the interactions and transactions of multiple sources are responsible for shaping individuals' personalities, and, in order to understand how they interact and develop over time, more integrated research is needed. Future studies should focus on a wider range of important life events and environmental influences during emerging adulthood and account for possible accumulating effects.

Second, and perhaps most remarkably, our findings revealed a different picture after we analyzed how the two critical life events were perceived. When participants experienced graduating from school negatively, a greater decrease in emotional stability was observed. Conversely, when the event was evaluated positively, a greater positive change in extraversion was reported. There are clear theoretical links between these two traits and the perception of life events in terms of emotional valence. While low emotional stability encompasses a disposition to experience negative emotions such as fear, shame, embarrassment, or sadness (especially in stressful situations), extraverted individuals are characterized by attributes such as cheerfulness, happiness, and serenity ( Goldberg, 1990 ; Depue and Collins, 1999 ). In line with the notion of a bottom-up process of personality development ( Roberts et al., 2005 ), experiencing a major life event as either positive or negative might lead to a prolonged experience of these emotions and, thus, ultimately to altered levels of the corresponding personality traits. These findings are in line with previous research on subjective well-being (SWB). In fact, variance in SWB can be explained by emotional stability and extraversion, indicating a robust negative relationship between low emotional stability and SWB and a positive relationship between extraversion and SWB ( Costa and McCrae, 1980 ; Headey and Wearing, 1989 ). Moreover, Magnus et al. (1993) found selection effects for these traits, suggesting that high scorers in extraversion experience more subjectively positive events, and low scorers in emotional stability experience many (subjectively) negative events (see also Headey and Wearing, 1989 ).

In the present study, we found evidence of a moderating influence of mindset on the impact of the life event graduating from school for the trait extraversion. Our results indicate that people with a growth mindset show greater change in extraversion, almost regardless of whether they experienced the life event more negatively or more positively. On the other hand, the present results indicate that people with a fixed mindset show an increase in extraversion after experiencing a life event more positively, but almost no change in extraversion when experiencing graduating from school negatively.

Interestingly, we only found effects for extraversion. As previously mentioned, trait extraversion stands for behavioral attributes such as how outgoing and social a person is, and this is related to differences in perceived positive affect ( Goldberg, 1990 ; Magnus et al., 1993 ; Roberts et al., 2005 ). The characteristics of extraversion can be linked to the assumption that people with a growth mindset show greater resilience ( Schroder et al., 2017 ; Yeager et al., 2019 ), especially in the face of academic and social challenges ( Yeager and Dweck, 2012 ). Thus, people who believe that their internal attributes are malleable confront challenges such as graduation by adapting and learning from them; our findings suggest that this results in an increase in extraversion. By contrast, people who believe that they cannot change their personality characteristics might attribute a negatively experienced graduation to external circumstances out of their control. Thus, they do not rise from a negative life event and experience no impetus to become more extraverted.

The above notwithstanding, more research is needed, as we found no evidence for the other Big Five personality traits. Further, the relationship between mindset and personality is complex to disentangle. We examined only two major life events in this first attempt. More attention is needed with respect to other life events and their interplay with internal belief systems and implicit theories to explore possible far-reaching effects on behavior.

In summary, the present study makes an important contribution to the literature on personality development in emerging adulthood with a special focus on external and internal influences and the assessment of critical life events. Our findings support the notion of a dimensional approach to life events, as introduced by Luhmann et al. (2020) , in contrast to a typological approach. With regard to research on situational perception, it seems reductive to examine the occurrence of certain life events rather than their subjective perceptions. As previously mentioned, many studies emphasize that (1) events and single situations can trigger expectancies about how to act and adjust in similar situations (TESSERA framework, Wrzus and Roberts, 2017 ); (2) psychological situations and person-situation transactions deviate from one another ( Rauthmann et al., 2015 ); and (3) regulatory mechanisms influence the variability in individual personality trait change ( Denissen et al., 2013 ).

Again, further research is needed to explore the underlying processes behind critical life events and their impact on personality trait changes. In doing so, great care should be taken in selecting life events with a strong social and emotional component with respect to individual perceptions. Finally, there is also a need for more research into the selection of life events being assessed with regard to their interplay.

Limitations and Future Directions

Our research demonstrates the importance of examining the underlying processes behind personality changes that arise from external influences such as life events. One of the strengths of this study was our large sample, which comprised N = 1,679 German emerging adults and allowed us to use powerful statistical methods. One limitation was that we gathered data across a 1-year time interval with only two measurement occasions. As noted by Luhmann et al. (2014) , the inclusion of more than two measurement points makes it easier to distinguish between sudden short- or long-term shifts and more gradual linear changes. With this in mind, it is possible that critical life events correlate with temporary disruptions of personality maturation; tracing the impact of a single life event on personality trait change might not be as straightforward as is often assumed. Moreover, two measurement occasions can only reveal the immediate effect of life events on personality traits and may, therefore, neglect long-term effects that become salient after more time has passed. Future studies should also incorporate more characteristics of life events. We concentrated our study on the valence of critical life events, but other features—such as impact, challenge, and predictability—could reveal a more comprehensive picture ( Luhmann et al., 2020 ).

Another limitation of the present study is that all our data relied on self-report personality measures. Even though almost all research on personality change is based on self-report measures, the influence of (for example) self-concepts cannot be neglected. Self-reported data might thus depart from other types of data in terms of differential stability, for example ( Wagner et al., 2020 ). Hence, changes in the Big Five domains might reflect subjective rather than observable changes in personality. At the same time, we believe that our approach of assessing personality traits and the perception of life events gives valuable insights into personality development, since we focused on how individuals consciously understand their experiences. Nevertheless, it would be informative to compare both approaches (observer and self-reported data) to examine how they complement one another (see also: Bleidorn et al., 2020 ).

Yet another important issue that must be mentioned are our attrition effects. As previously stated, the data for the first measurement occasion was gathered through a non-profit self-assessment test intended to help students explore post-graduation occupational opportunities. Hence, our sample might be prone to selection effects and confounding preexisting differences: only emerging adults who were concerned about their future might have taken the test in the first place. The self-selection to voluntarily participate in a research study might also explain the higher percentage of female participants. Moreover, some of the Big Five traits from T2 dropouts were correlated with T1 personality traits. Therefore, our results should be interpreted with caution; participants with low conscientiousness, for example, might have been more likely to drop out or have been excluded from our study due to the diligence check, and thus conscientiousness could have risen over the study period because the sample composition shifted between T1 and T2. Nevertheless, the noted differential attrition effects were rather small and reflect only modest selectivity (see also Lüdtke et al., 2011 ; Specht et al., 2011 ).

Finally, we did not examine cultural differences. With our German sample, we only investigated patterns in a modern Western industrialized country. Hence, we did not control for different cultural and demographic backgrounds, and our results might thus not be applicable to a broader range of individuals.

The present research improves our understanding of personality trait development during the critical period of emerging adulthood and demonstrates the importance of examining the underlying processes behind personality changes that arise from external influences such as life events. We showed how two critical life events can shape and adjust life trajectories, which is a necessary step toward gaining a comprehensive picture of the underlying processes of personality trait change across the life course. In addition to changes in the operationalization of life event research, larger and more diverse samples over more measurement occasions are needed to further explore how individual perceptions and internal belief systems influence our personality during and after experiencing critical life events.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: All data, further materials, and items are available via OSF at: https://osf.io/xc6d4/ .

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the ethic commission of Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

JHDV and PM designed the study and formulated the hypotheses. MS and AF provided the testing platform and set up the test battery. JHDV, MS, and AF were responsible for recruiting the sample and administrating the panel. JHDV and PM conducted the data analysis. JHDV designed the figures and drafted the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

This work was funded by a research grant to Professor Patrick Mussel by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany (Mu3045/6-1).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671421/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: personality development, life events, big five, mindset, emerging adulthood

Citation: De Vries JH, Spengler M, Frintrup A and Mussel P (2021) Personality Development in Emerging Adulthood—How the Perception of Life Events and Mindset Affect Personality Trait Change. Front. Psychol. 12:671421. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671421

Received: 23 February 2021; Accepted: 11 May 2021; Published: 10 June 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 De Vries, Spengler, Frintrup and Mussel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jantje Hinrika De Vries, jantje.de.vries@fu-berlin.de

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How to Create a Personal Development Plan: 3 Examples

For successful change, it is vital that the client remains engaged, recognizing and identifying with the goals captured inside and outside sessions. A personal development plan (PDP) creates a focus for development while offering a guide for life and future success (Starr, 2021).

This article introduces and explores the value of personal development plans, offering tools, worksheets, and approaches to boost self-reflection and self-improvement.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains

What is personal development 7 theories, coaching in personal development and growth, how to create a personal development plan, 3 examples of personal development plans, defining goals and objectives: 10 tips and tools, fostering personal development skills, 3 inspiring books to read on the topic, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message, frequently asked questions.

Personal development is a fundamental concept in psychology and encompasses the lifelong process of self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth. Crucial to coaching and counseling, it aims to enhance various aspects of clients’ lives, including their emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

Several psychological models underpin and support transformation. Together, they help us understand personal development in our clients and the mechanisms and approaches available to make positive life changes (Cox, 2018; Passmore, 2021).

The following psychological theories and frameworks underpin and influence the approach a mental health professional adopts.

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

As a proponent of the humanistic or person-centered approach to helping people, Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that individuals have a hierarchy of needs. Simply put, they begin with basic physiological and safety needs and progress through psychological and self-fulfillment needs.

Personal development is often found in or recognized by the pursuit of higher-level needs, such as self-esteem and self-actualization (Cox, 2018).

2. Erikson’s psychosocial development

Erik Erikson (1963) mapped out a series of eight psychosocial development stages that individuals go through across their lifespan.

Each one involves challenges and crises that once successfully navigated, contribute to personal growth and identity development.

3. Piaget’s cognitive development

The biologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1959) focused on cognitive development in children and how they construct their understanding of the world.

We can draw on insights from Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, including intellectual growth and adaptability, to inform our own and others’ personal development (Illeris, 2018).

4. Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Albert Bandura’s (1977) theory highlights the role of social learning and self-efficacy in personal development. It emphasizes that individuals can learn and grow through observation, imitation, and belief in their ability to effect change.

5. Self-determination theory

Ryan and Deci’s (2018) motivational self-determination theory recognizes the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in personal development.

Their approach suggests that individuals are more likely to experience growth and wellbeing when such basic psychological needs are met.

6. Positive psychology

Positive psychology, developed by Martin Seligman (2011) and others, focuses on strengths, wellbeing, and the pursuit of happiness.

Seligman’s PERMA model offers a framework for personal development that emphasizes identifying and using our strengths while cultivating positive emotions and experiences (Lomas et al., 2014).

7. Cognitive-Behavioral Theory (CBT)

Developed by Aaron Beck (Beck & Haigh, 2014) and Albert Ellis (2000), CBT explores the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

As such, the theory provides practical techniques for personal development, helping individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors (Beck, 2011).

Theories like the seven mentioned above offer valuable insights into many of the psychological processes underlying personal development. They provide a sound foundation for coaches and counselors to support their clients and help them better understand themselves, their motivations, and the paths they can take to foster positive change in their lives (Cox, 2018).

The client–coach relationship is significant to successful growth and goal achievement.

Typically, the coach will focus on the following (Cox, 2018):

• Actualizing tendency This supports a “universal human motivation resulting in growth, development and autonomy of the individual” (Cox, 2018, p. 53).
• Building a relationship facilitating change Trust clients to find their own way while displaying empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard . The coach’s “outward responses consistently match their inner feelings towards a client,” and they display a warm acceptance that they are being how they need to be (Passmore, 2021, p. 162).
• Adopting a positive psychological stance Recognize that the client has the potential and wish to become fully functioning (Cox, 2018).

Effective coaching for personal growth involves adopting and committing to a series of beliefs that remind the coach that the “coachee is responsible for the results they create” (Starr, 2021, p. 18) and help them recognize when they may be avoiding this idea.

The following principles are, therefore, helpful for coaching personal development and growth (Starr, 2021).

• Stay committed to supporting the client. While initially strong, you may experience factors that reduce your sense of support for the individual’s challenges.
• Coach nonjudgmentally. Our job is not to adopt a stance based on personal beliefs or judgment of others, but to help our clients form connections between behavior and results.
• Maintain integrity, openness, and trust. The client must feel safe in your company and freely able to express themselves.
• Responsibility does not equal blame. Clients who take on blame rather than responsibility will likely feel worse about something without acknowledging their influence on the situation.
• The client can achieve better results. The client is always capable of doing and achieving more, especially in relation to their goals.
• Focus on clients’ thoughts and experiences. Collaborative coaching is about supporting the growth and development of the client, getting them to where they want to go.
• Clients can arrive at perfect solutions. “As a coach, you win when someone else does” (Starr, 2021, p. 34). The solution needs to be the client’s, not yours.
• Coach as an equal partnership. Explore the way forward together collaboratively rather than from a parental or advisory perspective.

Creating a supportive and nonjudgmental environment helps clients explore their thoughts, feelings, and goals, creating an environment for personal development and flourishing (Passmore, 2021).

Download 3 Free Goals Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques for lasting behavior change.

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By filling out your name and email address below.

• Email Address *
• Your Expertise * Your expertise Therapy Coaching Education Counseling Business Healthcare Other
• Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

A personal development plan is a powerful document “to create mutual clarity of the aims and focus of a coaching assignment” (Starr, 2021, p. 291). While it is valuable during coaching, it can also capture a client’s way forward once sessions have ended.

Crucially, it should have the following characteristics (Starr, 2021):

• Short and succinct
• Providing a quick reference or point of discussion
• Current and fresh, regularly revised and updated

Key elements of a personal development plan include the following (Starr, 2021):

• Area of development This is the general skill or competence to be worked on.
• Development objectives or goals What does the client want to do? Examples might include reducing stress levels, improving diet, or managing work–life balance .
• Behaviors to develop These comprise what the client will probably do more of when meeting their objectives, for example, practicing better coping mechanisms, eating more healthily, and better managing their day.
• Actions to create progress What must the client do to action their objectives? For example, arrange a date to meet with their manager, sign up for a fitness class, or meet with a nutritionist.
• Date to complete or review the objective Capture the dates for completing actions, meeting objectives, and checking progress.

Check out Lindsey Cooper’s excellent video for helpful guidance on action planning within personal development.

We can write and complete personal development plans in many ways. Ultimately, they should meet the needs of the client and leave them with a sense of connection to and ownership of their journey ahead (Starr, 2021).

• Personal Development Plan – Areas of Development In this PDP , we draw on guidance from Starr (2021) to capture development opportunities and the behaviors and actions needed to achieve them.
• Personal Development Plan – Opportunities for Development This template combines short- and long-term goal setting with a self-assessment of strengths, weaknesses, and development opportunities.
• Personal Development Plan – Ideal Self In this PDP template , we focus on our vision of how our ideal self looks and setting goals to get there.

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“The setting of a goal becomes the catalyst that drives the remainder of the coaching conversation.”

Passmore, 2021, p. 80

Defining goals and objectives is crucial to many coaching conversations and is usually seen as essential for personal development.

Check out this video on how you can design your life with your personal goals in mind.

The following coaching templates are helpful, containing a series of questions to complete Whitmore’s (2009) GROW model :

• G stands for Goal : Where do you want to be?
• R stands for Reality : Where are you right now with this goal?
• O stands for Options : What are some options for reaching your goal?
• W stands for Way forward : What is your first step forward?

Goal setting creates both direction and motivation for clients to work toward achieving something and meeting their objectives (Passmore, 2021).

The SMART goal-setting framework is another popular tool inside coaching and elsewhere.

S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable/ or Agreed upon R = Realistic T = Timely – allowing enough time for achievement

The SMART+ Goals Worksheet contains a series of prompts and spaces for answers to define goals and capture the steps toward achieving them.

We can summarize the five principles of goal setting (Passmore, 2021) as follows:

• Goals must be clear and not open to interpretation.
• Goals should be stretching yet achievable.
• Clients must buy in to the goal from the outset.
• Feedback is essential to keep the client on track.
• Goals should be relatively straightforward. We can break down complex ones into manageable subgoals.

The following insightful articles are also helpful for setting and working toward goals.

• What Is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well
• The Science & Psychology of Goal-Setting 101

1. People skills

Improving how we work with others benefits confidence, and with other’s support, we are more likely to achieve our objectives and goals. The following people skills can all be improved upon:

• Developing rapport
• Assertiveness and negotiation
• Giving and receiving constructive criticism

2. Managing tasks and problem-solving

Inevitably, we encounter challenges on our path to development and growth. Managing our activities and time and solving issues as they surface are paramount.

Here are a few guidelines to help you manage:

• Organize time and tasks effectively.
• Learn fundamental problem-solving strategies.
• Select and apply problem-solving strategies to tackle more complex tasks and challenges.
• Develop planning skills, including identifying priorities, setting achievable targets, and finding practical solutions.
• Acquire skills relevant to project management.
• Familiarize yourself with concepts such as performance indicators and benchmarking.
• Conduct self-audits to assess and enhance your personal competitiveness.

3. Cultivate confidence in your creative abilities

Confidence energizes our performance. Knowing we can perform creatively encourages us to develop novel solutions and be motivated to transform.

Consider the following:

• Understand the fundamentals of how the mind works to enhance your thinking skills.
• Explore a variety of activities to sharpen your creative thinking.
• Embrace the belief that creativity is not limited to artists and performers but is crucial for problem-solving and task completion.
• Learn to ignite the spark of creativity that helps generate innovative ideas when needed.
• Apply creative thinking techniques to enhance your problem-solving and task completion abilities.
• Recognize the role of creative thinking in finding the right ideas at the right time.

To aid you in building your confidence, we have a whole category of articles focused on Optimism and Mindset . Be sure to browse it for confidence-building inspiration.

With new techniques and technology, our understanding of the human brain continues to evolve. Identifying the vital elements involved in learning and connecting with others offers deep insights into how we function and develop as social beings. We handpicked a small but unique selection of books we believe you will enjoy.

1. The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching – Julie Starr

This insightful book explores and explains the coaching journey from start to finish.

Starr’s book offers a range of free resources and gives clear guidance to support new and existing coaches in providing practical help to their clients.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level – Gay Hendricks

Delving into the “zone of genius” and the “zone of excellence,” Hendricks examines personal growth and our path to personal success.

This valuable book explores how we eliminate the barriers to reaching our goals that arise from false beliefs and fears.

3. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are – Brené Brown

Brown, a leading expert on shame, vulnerability, and authenticity, examines how we can engage with the world from a place of worthiness.

Use this book to learn how to build courage and compassion and realize the behaviors, skills, and mindset that lead to personal development.

We have many resources available for fostering personal development and supporting client transformation and growth.

Our free resources include:

• Goal Planning and Achievement Tracker This is a valuable worksheet for capturing and reflecting on weekly goals while tracking emotions that surface.
• Adopt a Growth Mindset Successful change is often accompanied by replacing a fixed mindset with a growth one .
• FIRST Framework Questions Understanding a client’s developmental stage can help offer the most appropriate support for a career change.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit© , but they are described briefly below:

• Backward Goal Planning

Setting goals can build confidence and the skills for ongoing personal development.

Backward goal planning helps focus on the end goal, prevent procrastination, and decrease stress by ensuring we have enough time to complete each task.

Try out the following four simple steps:

• Step one – Identify and visualize your end goal.
• Step two – Reflect on and capture the steps required to reach the goal.
• Step three – Focus on each step one by one.
• Step four – Take action and record progress.
• Boosting Motivation by Celebrating Micro Successes

Celebrating the small successes on our journey toward our goals is motivating and confidence building.

Practice the following:

• Step one – Reflect momentarily on the goal you are working toward.
• Step two – Consider each action being taken to reach that goal.
• Step three – Record the completion of each action as a success.
• Step four – Choose how to celebrate each success.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, check out this collection of 17 validated motivation & goal achievement tools for practitioners. Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

These 17 Motivation & Goal Achievement Exercises [PDF] contain all you need to help others set meaningful goals, increase self-drive, and experience greater accomplishment and life satisfaction.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Personal development has a rich and long history. It is underpinned by various psychological theories and remains a vital aspect of creating fulfilling lives inside and outside coaching and counseling.

For many of us, self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth are vital aspects of who we are. Coaching can provide a vehicle to help clients along their journey, supporting their sense of autonomy and confidence and highlighting their potential (Cox, 2018).

Working with clients, therefore, requires an open, honest, and supportive relationship. The coach or counselor must believe the client can achieve better results and view them nonjudgmentally as equal partners.

Personal development plans become essential to that relationship and the overall coaching process. They capture areas for development, skills and behaviors required, and goals and objectives to work toward.

Use this article to recognize theoretical elements from psychology that underpin the process and use the skills, guidance, and worksheets to support personal development in clients, helping them remove obstacles along the way.

Ultimately, personal development is a lifelong process that boosts wellbeing and flourishing and creates a richer, more engaging environment for the individual and those around them.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

Personal development is vital, as it enables individuals to enhance various aspects of their lives, including emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness.

It promotes self-awareness, self-improvement, and personal growth, helping individuals reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives (Passmore, 2021; Starr, 2021).

Personal development is the journey we take to improve ourselves through conscious habits and activities and focusing on the goals that are important to us.

Personal development goals are specific objectives individuals set to improve themselves and their lives. Goals can encompass various areas, such as emotional intelligence, skill development, health, and career advancement, providing direction and motivation for personal growth (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

A personal development plan typically comprises defining the area of development, setting development objectives, identifying behaviors to develop, planning actions for progress, and establishing completion dates. These five stages help individuals clarify their goals and track their progress (Starr, 2021).

• Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory . Prentice-Hall.
• Beck, A. T., & Haigh, E. P. (2014). Advances in cognitive therapy and therapy: The generic cognitive model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology , 10 , 1–24.
• Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond . Guilford Press.
• Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills for success: Personal development and employability . Bloomsbury Academic.
• Cox, E. (2018). The complete handbook of coaching . SAGE.
• Ellis, A. (2000). Can rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) be effectively used with people who have devout beliefs in God and religion? Professional Psychology-Research and Practice , 31 (1), 29–33.
• Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth: Change and challenge . Basic Books.
• Illeris, K. (2018). An overview of the history of learning theory. European Journal of Education , 53 (1), 86–101.
• Lomas, T., Hefferon, K., & Ivtzan, I. (2014). Applied positive psychology: Integrated positive practice . SAGE.
• Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personalit y (2nd ed.). Harper & Row.
• Passmore, J. (Ed.). (2021). The coaches’ handbook: The complete practitioner guide for professional coaches . Routledge.
• Piaget, J. (1959): The Psychology of intelligence . Routledge.
• Rose, C. (2018). The personal development group: The students’ guide . Routledge.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . Guilford Press.
• Seligman, M. E. (2011). Authentic happiness using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment . Nicholas Brealey.
• Starr, J. (2021). The coaching manual: The definitive guide to the process, principles and skills of personal coaching . Harlow: Pearson Education.
• Whitmore, J. (2009). Coaching for performance . Nicholas Brealey.

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Personal Development: 9 Skills, Tips, and Examples

Why personal development is so important and how to improve yourself..

Posted June 7, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

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I am obsessed with personal development because it's helped me completely change my life. Only 10 years ago, I had no connections, no money, and worked a minimum wage retail job. Now, I have a Ph.D. from Berkeley, am the author of a book on how to generate happiness in the technology age , and have created a variety of well-being-boosting programs . And it's all because I worked on developing myself. So how do you make personal development work for you?

Personal development can include any skill that you build to improve yourself—your emotions, thoughts, or behaviors. It doesn't really matter which skills you want to improve; the key to personal development is taking the right steps—steps that help ensure that you reach whatever goal you are pursuing.

Learn more from the video below:

What are the most important personal development skills? It really depends on what you're trying to achieve. But here are 9 that I have found to be important to successful personal development.

1. Start by figuring out which personal development skills you need to build. The first step in any personal development strategy is to figure out how to best use your time. It makes little sense to learn how to code if you don't plan to be a coder or to bench press 400 pounds if you don't plan to be a weight lifter. These can be hobbies, but personal development is more about building skills to reach your personal goals . So it's good to take some time to self-reflect. (If well-being is a goal of yours, take this well-being quiz to see which skills you need to build.)

2. Develop entrepreneurial thinking. Everyone can benefit from learning how to think like an entrepreneur, regardless of whether or not you are one. Why? Because entrepreneurs are innovative, good at planning for all possible outcomes, and skilled at getting others to buy into their vision or dream. And perhaps more importantly for personal development, they tend to be adaptable to all sorts of situations.

By developing entrepreneurial thinking, you better adapt to whatever your circumstances are so you can more easily achieve your goals, whether those goals are to start a business that makes a positive impact in the world , to set yourself up for an early retirement , or climb Mount Everest.

3. Develop a growth mindset . If we have a “fixed mindset,” we may shy away from challenges that could help us grow. But this can be problematic because our fear of making mistakes can lead us to avoid challenges and new experiences—experiences which would help us grow, improve ourselves in important ways, and create the life we desire.

If we have a “ growth mindset ” we seek out challenges because we value learning and growth more than we value feeling smart or knowing what we’re doing. That's why those with a growth mindset often build new skills more easily: They believe they can and so they really work at it.

4. Develop your self-soothing mechanism. High levels of stress are not only bad for our health and well-being, they can prevent us from effectively pursuing and achieving our self-development goals. By learning effective, long-lasting relaxation techniques , your body and mind will be more equipped to handle the inevitable challenges that arise when you're trying to develop yourself.

5. Develop resilience . Resilience is that super-important skill that helps you bounce back quickly after being knocked down. This is one of the most important skills for success because none of us will achieve anything if we don't keep trying when we fail. We can build resilience by improving skills like emotion-regulation , mindfulness , and positivity.

6. Develop your value compass. It's not always easy to live by our core values . But when we go through life without following our personal values, we can easily get lost. We may suddenly "wake up" and realize that we are not who we want to be or where we want to be. This is why it's so important to stay in alignment with our personal values.

What are your values? Perhaps: kindness, curiosity, creativity , hard work, or personal relationships. Define your personal values so you know which actions are in alignment with those values.

7. Create a personal development plan. A good personal development plan takes all these factors into consideration—the WHAT, the HOW, the WHY, and the WHEN. And it focuses on long-term goals . So ask yourself:

• What skills will you build?
• How will you build them?
• Why will you build them?
• And when will you build them?

It can be helpful to create a 10-year plan to map out how you'll reach these goals.

8. Record your progress towards personal development. Keeping track of our progress as we move toward our personal development goals is key to making sure we're on the right track. Then we can pause and take a different direction if we've gone off course. By maintaining self-awareness and frequently checking in with ourselves, we can identify things that we need to devote more attention to. As a result, we can make better progress toward our personal development.

9. Keep developing yourself in new ways. The science is clear: The more ways we develop ourselves, the broader our skillset, and the more success we tend to have. So try learning some new emotional skills or do some activities to build new skills. You just might learn something that changes your life.

Facebook /LinkedIn images: GaudiLab/Shutterstock

Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. , is a consultant, writer, and expert on well-being technology.

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How to Set and Measure Personal Development Goals

There are many paths to personal growth. Friedrich Nietzsche is quoted as saying, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger," and this can absolutely be true. But challenges that nearly destroy us aren't the only path to greater personal development.

Setting goals for your own personal development can be an effective (and less stressful) way to grow emotionally and intellectually. Goal-setting can help you to succeed as a person in the ways that are important to you and can help you to streamline your life, minimize stress, and really become the person you were meant to be in far less time. It can also help you to stay mentally sharp as any lifetime learner can tell you.

Goals Worth Going After

Personal growth means different things to different people, but the following goals can be widely helpful in creating a life filled with  healthy habits ,  greater happiness , and  meaning in life . 

Learn What Is Most Important to You

We all have values that are a vital part of who we are. To some people, artistic expression is an indispensable part of who they are, and they fare much better if they are creating, at least some of the time, in their lives. To some, helping others is something they must do, and the meaning it brings to them and others is what makes life valuable. Others need to be solving problems to feel alive. 

The reason it matters to realize this is that many people fill their time with things that are important but aren't aligned with their values, with what they value most in life. If you analyze what is important to you, you can set goals to ensure that you make this a greater part of your life.

Pinpoint Where You're Limiting Yourself

Many people self-sabotage in one way or another without realizing it. Perhaps you don't believe that you're capable of achieving things that you really want to achieve, and you limit yourself by not trying. Perhaps you're not allowing yourself to devote enough time to your goals because you're getting bogged down by other things in your schedule that are less important but that you feel "must" be done.

One way to identify this subtle self-sabotage is to focus on living each day as though it were pivotal to your success in life. Is everything you're doing important, and contributing to your success? If you view things through this lens, it's easier to identify energy drains and time wasters, as well as those things that hold you back.

Take Care of Your Health

When your health is compromised, it's more challenging to focus on your goals in life. This is obviously true when facing serious health conditions, but it's also true of less serious types of health compromises. 

For example, most of us feel far more stressed and are not at our best when we haven't had adequate sleep for a few nights in a row or have eaten unhealthy food for a few days. Focusing on taking care of your health can make a huge impact on the rest of your life.

Press Play for Advice On How to Avoid Burnout While Doing What You Love

Hosted by Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast , featuring World Champion Surfer Kelly Slater, shares strategies for pursuing your passion without burning out. Click below to listen now.

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Use Your Time Wisely

Time management is an important goal in itself. When you manage your time wisely, you have more energy and a far greater ability to pursue other things in life that are important to you. Time management enables you to maximize time spent in activities that feed you, motivate you, and help you develop yourself as a person.

Develop One Habit a Month

You may not be able to transform yourself in a few weeks, but focusing heavily on creating new habits on a regular basis can be transformative over the course of several months or years. The trick is to get into the habit of forming habits. Focus the bulk of your energy on making something new a standard part of your life , and then move on once you've become comfortable with it. This is the time to create a new habit.

Surround Yourself With Role Models

Have just one friend who is farther along on the path you hope to travel. Life coaches refer to these people as "expert friends" and they can be life-changing as they'll have tips and inspiration you can pick up just by watching them be themselves. With these friends, watching becomes doing. This is also supported by social learning theory , which explains how it makes things easier when you have a friend to help you along the way.

Develop a Supportive Group

Using the momentum of a group can really help you to reach your goals. This is because peer pressure can be a strong influencer, so using it to your advantage is wise. Having people who can cheer you on when you win and help you to feel better when you lose can make all the difference with your success.

Unfortunately, not all friends are able to support you in this way. Some people naturally feel envious when their friends succeed too much. So if you notice a friend being less than supportive when you reach a goal (and you have been supportive of them), you may want to simply avoid sharing your successes with this friend and move on to friends who are genuinely thrilled with your success and able to support you when you aren't as successful as you'd like to be.

Remember to be this kind of friend as well. Another idea is to find a group already focused on the goals you're trying to attain. You'll have built-in support, enthusiasm, and practical tips.

Learn Something New Each Month (or Year)

Self-development takes real focus. Learning a new language, for example, or developing a new skill can take time, and focusing the bulk of your energy toward immersing yourself in the pursuit of a goal is a great way to reach it. This is ideal when you want to really go deep in your knowledge and ability. 

Follow Your Passion

You don't have to pursue your hobbies as a career in order to fully explore them. It's wonderful if you can make money doing what you love, but it doesn't have to be a profession to be worth your time. Activities like this allow you to experience a sense of flow, which can increase your happiness level and decrease stress as well. This means that you'll experience benefits far beyond the mere acquisition of a new pastime.

How to Maintain Goals

Identifying goals to go after is an important first step. However, it's also important to know how to pursue your goals. There are a few tricks to maintaining goals or adopting healthy habits.

• Set the right goals
• Take small, concrete steps
• Reward yourself along the way
• Consider slip-ups to be part of the process

Maintaining goals can be a little more involved than that, but this is the basic process. The vast majority of people who try to set personal growth goals tend to abandon them because they set their goals too high (or the wrong goals for their lifestyle), try to make too big of a change in too short of a time, don’t congratulate themselves for making progress on their goals, and give up if they have a slip. True success comes from breaking your goals down into smaller steps, rewarding your progress and, perhaps most importantly, trying again if you find yourself slipping up.

Setting personal goals that can really improve your life and then sticking with them can help you to live the life you always hoped to have.

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Are you reaching your full potential? A guide to personal development

Jump to section

What is personal development?

5 areas of personal development, the benefits of personal development, 6 steps to developing a personal development plan, how personalized development can help.

I’m no stranger to feeling stuck. There are days I wake up and just go through the daily motions. I make coffee then sit down at my computer for a day of work. I’ll usually work out, walk the dogs, make dinner. Then, read, watch a show, go to bed. The next day? Wake up and do it all over again. 

Especially at the height of the pandemic, it started to feel like vicious monotony. Our lives seemingly stalled in bumper-to-bumper traffic. It feels like dreams, goals, and ambitions are buried in thick molasses or honey at the back of our brains. And even as we navigate this new normal , that “stuck” feeling might be stuck with us. 

The good news? You’re not alone — and personal development is here to help. 

I embarked on an intentional personal development journey well before I knew what it meant. I knew I wanted to see personal growth — and had reached a point in my life where I needed real change .

At BetterUp, personal development comes to life in what we call an Inner Work® practice . Inner Work® is deep work, a practice that isn’t always visible to the outside eye. But with the right personal development toolkit, you can build a lifelong practice of Inner Work® . 

My own personal growth journey has seen its series of ups and downs, failures and successes. Any personal development journey is a lifelong commitment, not a sprint or achievable task. It will weather bumps and roadblocks but it can also thrive in other areas of your life. 

If you’re looking for ways to up your personal development game, we’re here to help. 

It’s certainly not as easy as it sounds. Every person is unique. So, it only makes sense that personal development will look different for everyone. But what does it actually mean? 

Personal development is looking inward and focusing on ways to better yourself. Personal development increases your self-awareness, your self-esteem, increases your skills, and fulfills your aspirations.  

At BetterUp, we’re big believers in the practice of Inner Work®. In many ways, personal development is a form of Inner Work® . It is the act of looking inward to achieve a purpose or result, especially in the pursuit of clarity, purpose, and passion in life. 

Personal development is much larger than just career development or self-development. It encompasses all aspects of your life where you’d like to see personal growth — and it doesn’t discriminate on where it shows up for you. 

When it comes to personal development, it’s hard to not reference Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, your basic needs need to be fulfilled in order to reach your fullest potential. In other words. To reach self-actualization means we’re reaching the highest levels of self-awareness , self-confidence , personal growth, and self-realization. 

Much like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we see five different areas of personal development. Different personal development goals can fall into different categories. 

Mental 

Exercising your brain and staying mentally fit is critical to personal development. At BetterUp, this comes to life in a few ways: coaching, learning opportunities , and career growth. For example, right now, I’m taking a creative writing course to help keep my mental creative muscles going strong. (And BetterUp foots the bill as part of our learning stipend.) 

Mental development can be anything from workshops, training sessions , or even just rest. Rest is just as (if not more) important than mental exercise. And as your mental fitness improves , so does your resiliency, innovation, and self-awareness. 

Social 

Social connections and relationships are also a must-have for any personal development. After all, self-improvement is not a solitary pursuit. Humans are social creatures — we need that connection to learn and grow. And from social connections, we gain important skills. Like communication skills , problem-solving, relationship-building, and the ability to receive (and give) feedback. We also learn from those around us and their experiences. 

Spiritual 

Personal growth and development — whether you’re religious or not — can come through in spirituality. It’s important to recognize that religion and spirituality are not synonymous. In fact, far from it. 

Spirituality means you’re investing in a deeper understanding of your own self in the world around you. It helps you get to know yourself and uncover your values. And in the context of Inner Work®, the spiritual personal development tool can bring greater awareness to self and change. 

Emotional 

Emotional personal development often goes hand-in-hand with emotional intelligence . At its simplest, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand feelings. Beyond feelings, it’s understanding how those feelings shape our thoughts and actions. 

Any number of experiences lends itself to emotional personal development. And those experiences can help you in your pursuit of self-improvement. Take your own Inner Work® journey so far. What experiences have shaped you into who you are today? When you reflect on your journey, what have you learned? 

If you’re looking back at your journey and identifying the growth, it’s likely you’ve fostered a sense of emotional development along the way. This requires emotional intelligence to understand what role your feelings and thoughts played. 

Physical 

A healthy body nourishes a healthy mind. There’s an intrinsic link between your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. 

This aspect of personal development is focused on physical health — like nutrition, sleep, exercise, and movement. When your physical self is nourished, it’s likely your mind is also reaping those benefits. Consider ways you can build this area of personal development and take note of how your body and your mind feel. 

There are plenty of benefits to personal development. Personal growth isn’t easy but the benefits will make the journey worthwhile. 

My friend at Google has worked with a BetterUp coach for the last year. In her own personal development journey, she's shared why working with a coach has transformed her personal growth journey. 

"My experience with BetterUp has transcended the professional workplace. My coach knows me on a personal level, which allows for her to help me set boundaries, manage expectations, and receive feedback. Ultimately, it's helped me reach my biggest goal of having a work-life balance."   A Google employee, BetterUp Member 

• Increased self-awareness and self-esteem. Personal growth requires looking inward at your own thoughts, feelings, habits, and reactions. It requires attentiveness — and awareness — to who you are as a person in a present state. But it also challenges you to look to the future to where you want to go. By investing in yourself, you’re increasing your self-awareness and by default, self-esteem . 
• Increased mental fitness. Becoming mentally fit requires work. And many aspects of personal development aid in building strong mental fitness. With increased mental fitness, you’ll see a ripple effect of positive benefits. We’ve gathered data around the impact of mental fitness . People with strong mental fitness are more productive, are less likely to experience mental illness, and are more creative and innovative. 
• Greater resilience. With personal development, you gain greater resilience . This is another positive symptom of strong mental fitness, too. Investing in your personal growth means investing in your ability to bounce back after rough patches. 
• More knowledge and learned skills. Oftentimes, personal development comes with more knowledge and learned skills. This can come to life in different ways. For example, you may take courses in digital marketing that help you gain the skills you need to further your career development. Or, you may sign up for art or pottery classes, which help you gain skills in entirely different areas of your life. 
• Improved personal and professional relationships. Another personal development benefit is improved personal and professional relationships . This is an area that flourishes when you invest in your personal growth, especially in emotional and social aspects. 

11 personal development skills to work on

If you’re not sure where to start, consider working with a coach . Personalized coaching can help serve as your guide while you’re building your roadmap to self-actualization. 

Your coach will work one-on-one with you to help identify key skills to work on catered to your own experience. You can start by taking the Whole Person Assessment  to help assess where your strengths and areas of opportunity lie. 

We’ve identified some common areas of self-improvement and personal development you may consider investing in: 

• Communication and interpersonal skills 
• Problem-solving 
• Cognitive agility and adaptability 
• Self-compassion, self-care , and self-reflection 
• Conflict and conflict resolution  
• Navigating change and uncertainty 
• Future-mindedness  
• Organizational skills 
• Growth mindset 
• Teamwork and collaboration  
• Self-awareness 

Like any other goal, it’s important to put together a plan. By assembling your personal development plan with some structure, you’re more likely to achieve your goals. 

1. Identify areas where you’d like to improve 

This first step will likely require some Inner Work®. Take a minute to reflect on where you are right now. What are your strengths? In what areas do you want to focus? What growth and development do you want to see in yourself? 

If you’ve taken the Whole Person Assessment, this can help as a useful tool. Once you’ve reflected on your personal goals , identify the areas where you’d like to improve . 

2. Work with a coach or mentor to assemble a plan 

Even if it's your own personal development plan, you don’t have to do it alone. Lean on support systems — like life coaches or mentors — to help frame a plan. With the right structure in place (and feedback along the way), you’ll be better equipped to put the plan into action. 

3. Structure your personal development goals  

Stick to a routine — and build consistency. Start to examine your day-to-day and try to find ways to either build habits or stack new habits onto existing ones. 

In this last year, I wanted to build strength training into my fitness routine. The kicker? I never use weights. I decided to put a yoga mat with weights next to my running shoes. Every time I go for a run, I have to think about those weights sitting next to my shoes. It helps to remind myself to do a quick 5-minute exercise with some dumbbells.  

4. Find an accountability buddy 

Sometimes, having someone holding you accountable makes all the difference. If you and a friend are both setting intentions and goals, consider ways you can support one another. 

Every new hire at BetterUp gets a stack of great books during the onboarding process. My teammate reached out today to see if we could create an accountability plan . We’re each holding each other to 100 pages of reading a week. 

5. Be honest and aware of your progress 

Your personal development plan requires integrity. Be honest with yourself about your growth and progress. This also requires a level of self-awareness. You can also gather feedback from friends, family, and colleagues to help gather insight on how you’re progressing in your goals, too. 

6. Factor personal development into your mental fitness plan 

How does personal development factor into your mental fitness plan? Consider ways you can work with your coach on building aspects of personal development into your overall mental fitness. 

Personal development is just that: it’s personal. 

Every human is different. If our society cracked the nut on personal development, every self-help book would help everyone. Or every learning process would benefit every student. 

But we know from our life experiences that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution to anything when it comes to human nature. 

It’s important to lean on personalized support like coaching to help craft a catered plan that works for you. You won’t have the same needs, strengths, opportunities, and skills as your neighbor. So why would your personal development plan be the same? 

Push yourself outside of your comfort zone. By doing so, you'll be on the path to reaching your full potential .

While self-actualization and Inner Work® is a lifelong process, your personal development goals shouldn't be daunting. Start small — like building a new skill or even investing in work-life balance . By doing so, you'll set yourself up for success in all areas of your life.

If you're ready to make a change to improve the quality of your life, consider how personal and professional development coaching can help. With help from BetterUp, you can awaken your full potential .

Understand Yourself Better:

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

Why you need a self-care plan (and 5 ways to get started)

Own your personal development: self-improvement goals that motivate, why self-management is key to success and how to improve yours, be your own hero: 6 tips to increase willpower, what is emotional intelligence and why is it important, 4 ways to improve emotional intelligence within your team, what sports psychology can teach us about mental fitness, wondering what you're good at here are 10 ways to figure it out, cracking the code on how to take care of your mental health, what do you do if you hate your job try these 9 tactics, how self-efficacy can boost your personal success, shift your core beliefs to unlock your full potential, how to develop a personal development plan (pdp) to reach your goals, reaching your full potential isn't out of reach: 10 tips to get moving, 20 books for personal growth in 2024, reinventing yourself: 10 ways to realize your full potential, using mindset coaching for lasting personal growth, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Forward Steps Personal Development Blog

Forward steps personal development blog with self improvement tips plus positive, motivation tools, for adding wings to our unique life journeys.

105 Personal Development Topics To Explore

Personal development topics are, in and of themselves, a great resource to get you thinking about areas of your own life that you might next delve into for improving and expanding yourself and enhancing your experience of life.

I’ve collated the following list of 105 personal development topics for you to use in a variety of ways. Some of those ways might include:

2. It’s great tool for selecting a topic each few days, then copy/paste your chosen topic into a web browser and deep dive into whatever comes up in the online search. You never know what next “find” could trigger a breakthrough thought.

3. If you have your own personal development site, these might provide some fresh ideas for subjects that you’d next like to post for your audience. I know it’ll be a handy list for myself, which is another reason I posted it!

4. If you are a freelance author, this topics list is a great resource for subjects to write about.

5. Are you someone who has contacted me to request publication of a guest article , then this is the list to reference if you want to contribute an article that has greatest chance of acceptance.

6. Do you see the search box at very top-right of this Forward Steps blog? Try copy/pasting one of these 105 titles into it, every now and again, just to see what comes up for you to check out.

OK so here, below, is that list for you and I might return and add to it over time. Definitely return to see if I have expanded on it, plus to try some of the exercises suggested above.

Your 105 Personal Development Topics List

Emotional Intelligence Skills for Happier Living Managing Your Emotions Navigating Life’s Big Decision Interrupting Your Unconscious Biases Being Adaptive in an Ever Changing World Living With Change Coping During Uncertain Times Simplify Your Life Keeping the Spark Alive in Your Relationships

Click to download your free 105 Personal Development Topics PDF

The Qualities Of High Achievers Overcome Procrastination Become A Better Listener Ways To Think Outside The Box How You Can Improve Your Focus Staying Calm When You Encounter Obstacles Question your Own Thinking How To Overcome Regrets Make Your Own Definition Of Success There Is No Perfect Time To ____ ? Growing personal awareness leads to transformation in how a person lives. -Kilroy J. Oldster Share on X How To Learn Something New Every Day Steps To Keeping Your Energy High Shape The Way You Think Tips To Help Keep Your Sanity And Joy No Need To Settle For Only One Path Activities To Boost Your Brain Power Motivation Killers And How To Beat Them Connect The Mind To The Heart Embrace The Life You Never Planned On Words And Ideas Can Change The World

Quit Walking On Eggshells! Taking Care Of Your Mental Health Taking Care Of Your Physical Health Taking Care Of Your Spiritual Health Taking Care Of Your Social Health Life Is A Chain Of Miracles The Past Won’t Ever Change Your Past Is Not Your Future Change Just One Thing Each Day To Change, You Must Take Action

Common Relationship Mistakes Break The Habit Of Self-Doubt Stop Negative Behaviors And Strengthen Your Mind Figure Out What You Really Want How To Connect With Your True Self

Click to download your free PDF of this topics list

Remember also, to review the freshly updated list of Forward Steps personal development articles that have already been posted for you at this Forward Steps blog.

As well, the 546 Goals List free ebook download is equally helpful and potentially serves as a personal development topics list too.

Those two links, plus this list post, are great for sharing with like-minded friends at social platforms.

Bonus Personal Development Topics To Explore

You might also like working your way through some of the topics in the 4 images below, which are actually personal development video titles from a sales page at (ad) Justin Popovic’s Tools For Motivation

I don’t use his resources often enough, the content is terrific. You can see a case study of a time that I did, (ad) at this link here .

Simply click on the 4 images below, to open up a larger version, for easier reading…

Topics should never be used “as they are”, simply to give you ideas and only for personal use. Please do not share the 3 images, below. Instead, share this full post or any of the quote images above. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Thea Westra at Forward Steps (forwardstepsblog.com)

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How to Reflect on Personal Development: A Practical Guide

No matter what we do, it is important to take the time to reflect on our progress and development.

Reflection is a powerful tool that can help us to assess our progress, identify our strengths and weaknesses, learn from our mistakes, and celebrate our successes.

This practical guide will provide you with the steps necessary to reflect on your personal development and to make sure that you are continuing to grow and improve.

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Introduction

Reflection is an essential part of personal and professional development. It is a process of examining and evaluating our experiences, actions, and beliefs in order to gain insight and understanding.

Reflection allows us to identify our strengths and weaknesses, and to recognize areas for improvement. It also helps us to gain a greater understanding of ourselves and our capabilities.

Defining Personal Reflection

Personal reflection is the process of taking a step back from our lives and examining our experiences, beliefs, and actions. It is a way of understanding our strengths and weaknesses, and of recognizing areas for improvement.

Reflection can help us to gain insight into our own behavior and to develop an understanding of ourselves and our capabilities.

Reflection can be done in a variety of ways, including journaling, meditation, and self-assessment. It can also take the form of conversations with friends and family, or with a mentor or coach.

Understanding Personal Development

Personal development is the process of improving ourselves and our skills in order to achieve our goals.

It involves setting goals, assessing progress, and recognizing our strengths and weaknesses.

It also entails learning from our mistakes and rewarding ourselves for our achievements.

To achieve personal development, it is important to have a clear understanding of what we want to achieve and how we plan to achieve it. It is also important to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, and to use this knowledge to guide our development.

Setting Goals

The first step in personal development is to set goals. Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Setting goals will help to keep us motivated and on track, and will provide us with a clear sense of direction.

Assessing Progress

Once goals have been set, it is important to assess progress. This can be done by measuring progress against the goals that have been set.

It is also important to recognize successes and to celebrate small victories. This will help to keep us motivated and on track.

Identifying Strengths

The next step in personal development is to identify our strengths. This can be done by reflecting on our experiences and assessing our capabilities.

It is important to recognize our strengths and to use them to our advantage.

Recognizing Weaknesses

Identifying our weaknesses is also an important part of personal development. This can be done by looking at our mistakes and identifying areas for improvement.

It is important to be honest with ourselves and to recognize our weaknesses in order to make progress.

Learning from Mistakes

Once we have identified our strengths and weaknesses, it is important to learn from our mistakes. This can be done by reflecting on our experiences and understanding what we could have done differently.

It is important to recognize our mistakes and to use them as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Rewarding Achievements

Rewarding ourselves for our achievements is an important part of personal development. This can be done by celebrating our successes and rewarding ourselves for our hard work.

It is important to recognize our progress and to reward ourselves for our efforts.

Celebrating Success

Celebrating our successes is another important part of personal development. This can be done by taking the time to reflect on our progress and to recognize our achievements.

It is important to celebrate our successes and to recognize our progress.

Practicing Self Care

Practicing self-care is an essential part of personal development. This can be done by taking the time to rest and recharge, and by engaging in activities that bring us joy.

It is important to take care of ourselves and to make time for self-care.

Conclusion Reflection is an important part of personal development. It is a process of examining and evaluating our experiences, beliefs, and actions in order to gain insight and understanding.

Taking the time to reflect on our progress and development can help us to identify our strengths and weaknesses, to learn from our mistakes, and to celebrate our successes.

By following this practical guide, you will be able to reflect on your personal development and to ensure that you are continuing to grow and improve.

What is personal reflection? Personal reflection is the process of taking a step back from our lives and examining our experiences, beliefs, and actions.

It is a way of understanding our strengths and weaknesses, and of recognizing areas for improvement.

What is personal development? Personal development is the process of improving ourselves and our skills in order to achieve our goals.

How can I practice self-care? Practicing self-care is an essential part of personal development.

This can be done by taking the time to rest and recharge, and by engaging in activities that bring us joy.

With a deep passion for personal development, Ben has dedicated his career to inspiring and guiding others on their journey towards self-improvement.

His love for learning and sharing knowledge about personal growth strategies, mindfulness, and goal-setting principles has led him to create My Virtual Life Coach.

Contact Ben at [email protected] for assistance.

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More From Forbes

Cultivating effective leadership through personal development.

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It's easy for leaders to get caught in the relentless cycle of task-oriented thinking, especially when deadlines loom and decisions carry significant weight. However, amidst the demands of overseeing teams, projects and strategies, the ideas of self-reflection and personal development often get overlooked. The role of a manager is not just about steering the ship, but also about continuously honing one's skills and self-awareness.

Below, 20 Forbes Human Resources Council members share ways to practice self-reflection and personal growth to foster effective leadership and long-term success.

1. Define Your Personal Values

Recently I have taken on a project to proactively define my personal values to help me find even greater fulfillment and guide how I choose to spend my time on personal and professional projects. My network was phenomenal in recommending books and exercises to guide me through this journey. I have also heard from a lot of my connections that they're inspired to do the same exercise themselves. - Sanja Licina , QuestionPro

2. Ask Self-Reflection Questions

We can improve and move forward when we reflect and plan ahead. Sit down in a non-work environment with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and answer the following questions about your last half year to year. What is your biggest achievement? Biggest failure? Biggest motivation? Biggest demotivation? What's your growth aspiration for the future? What value are you providing in your current role? - Ilona Bernotaite , Kilo Health

3. Reflect Daily On Yesterday

Managers make critical decisions every day that impact people, clients, revenue, compliance and more. These decisions are at times spur of the moment and add a level of risk and stress. I have found that making time every morning without a phone is a good way to reflect on yesterday and improve a bit every day. It is essential to form personal development as a daily habit, rather than an event. - Akhilesh Nair , Talent Group Partners

4. Be Aware Of Your Behavior

According to my research, statistics show that while many managers have high internal awareness, only 10 to 15% of employees do. Self-reflection and intentional personal development increase our awareness about how our behaviors affect or motivate others and allow us to do the work to improve communication connection with our teams, identify soft skills needed, and in turn, become better, well-rounded leaders. - Tiersa Smith-Hall , Impactful Imprints, Training & Consulting

5. Plan Time To Learn Quarterly

Managers experience a variety of personalities, work styles and tough situations. Sometimes we're proud of how we show up, other times we wish we'd done better. Planning time quarterly to learn and reflect is key. I've done this alone, with a peer or manager and even created space during business reviews. Getting out of the day-to-day helps us gain perspective and practice new approaches. - Mikaela Kiner , Reverb

Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?

6. Uncover Your Strengths And Weaknesses

Taking time for self-reflection is crucial for managers' personal growth. It helps us uncover strengths, weaknesses and areas to improve. By seeking feedback, staying open to learning and giving ourselves space to think, we become better leaders. Investing in our own development not only benefits us but also inspires and empowers our teams—leading to greater success. - Kshitij Jain , Joveo

7. Create Small Leadership Circles

Leaders are not robots, and it is mandatory to recognize and embrace being human. The onus of responsibility is often in the hands of leaders. Hence leaders must embrace a pathway of consistent learning and create space for pausing, reflecting, evaluating, unlearning and relearning. Create small intimate leadership circles where leaders can share, be vulnerable and embrace learning. - Chandran Fernando , Matrix360 Inc.

8. Embrace Mistakes And Lead By Example

No one is perfect, including leaders. Being a living example of this teaches your team that vulnerability is good and that this is a safe place to learn and grow. If your team sees you make mistakes, work through them and grow from them, they will follow suit. This is an authentic pillar of leading by example. - Jenna Hinrichsen , Advanced RPO

9. Maintain Professional Relationships And Associations

Professional relationships are made and enhanced by attending industry events, participating in online communities and joining professional associations. Relationships also evolve through having informal interactions, sharing ideas and resources and collaborating on projects. Leaders are measured by results—it is our ability to reflect on, and deepen, our relationships that make results achievable. - MJ Vigil , DispatchHealth

10. Listen And Learn About Your Surroundings

To be effective, leaders must first listen and learn, and only then can they lead. Personal development and self-reflection are critical moments to listen and learn about yourself, your team, and the world around you. Without that context, your leadership will fall flat and never reach its full potential. - Christopher Courneen , M S International, Inc. (MSI)

11. Grow And Shape Your Brand

How you show up as a leader impacts your personal brand or reputation, among other things. It’s essential to check in with yourself and examine how you want to show up and what legacy you want to leave, and then determine whether your daily actions and people’s experiences with you are aligned with your intent. Your brand is what people say it is, so it’s important to reflect and then course correct. - Nicole Fernandes , Blu Ivy Group

12. Nurture Your Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is a central theme. Through self-awareness, managers can adapt, grow and make informed decisions. Journaling, seeking feedback and reading are effective methods for nurturing self-awareness. These practices have helped me refine my approach, enhance team dynamics and achieve desired outcomes, making self-awareness a cornerstone of effective managerial growth. - Joseph Soares , IBPROM Corp.

13. Hold Yourself Accountable

As a manager, you are there to provide guidance to your employees but also to make sure that you are evolving and learning. The more you are working on your own development the better you will be at helping your employees. I reflect often on what I am doing and how I am doing it. Could I do better? If so, then I will make changes. I hold myself and my team accountable for the same things. - Heather Smith , Flimp Communications

14. Prioritize Your Own Growth

As in any relationship, taking care of oneself is requisite to taking care of others. Leaders who prioritize their own growth and focus on personal mental, physical, social and emotional well-being perpetuate a people-first culture and advance the employee experience. These leaders place themselves in a healthy mind- and head space modeling behaviors that their colleagues and teams seek to follow. - Laci Loew , XpertHR (a division of LexisNexis Risk Solutions)

15. Avoid Falling Into The Action Trap

We believe many employees and leaders fall into the action trap. This idea is that you focus on actions in order to get results. That may seem logical but great leaders focus on mindsets and beliefs that lead to employees taking proactive action. Otherwise, you can enter into the dangerous world of micromanagement. Time for self-reflection and personal development gets you out of the action trap. - Jessica Kriegel , Culture Partners

16. Embrace Quiet, Distraction-Free Time

Most of us get caught up with heavy workloads and full schedules and fail to realize that taking time away to plan and reflect will result in better decisions and more focused communications with the team. Personally, I’ve learned to embrace quiet, distraction-free time where I can let my mind calm and clear. - Lisa Shuster , iHire

17. Develop Better Social- And Self-Awareness

It allows us to understand our subconscious better, which allows us to understand our underlying motives and have more social- and self-awareness. As leaders, these are qualities that are essential. Personal development is important for high-quality leadership. Be open-minded to new ways of learning such as listening to keynotes and podcasts, reading articles and case studies, watching webinars and taking courses. - Kimika Banfield , Arootah

18. Listen To The Experiences Of Others

If we exist in our thought processes long enough, it’s easy to believe that others think the same way we do. My greatest form of self-reflection and personal development has come from listening to the experiences of others through one-on-ones, calls and focus groups. It’s evolved my platform and product, and it’s made me a more considerate manager and leader. - Ursula Mead , InHerSight

19. Change Internally For External Growth

True leaders are life-long learners. To recharge and skill build, time away to grow is essential, especially in today’s workplace with new demands and changing work norms. For me, meditation, reading consistently and con-Ed have been critical. I attended a coaching certification that was a game changer. I change internally and that changes the external work environment for the better. - Jess Elmquist , Phenom

20. Practice Mindfulness With Meditation Or Yoga

Even as a seasoned manager, reflecting on one’s own strengths and weaknesses provides space for continued personal development and enhancement of key skills like adaptability, emotional intelligence and leadership. Taking the time to be self-aware, through mindfulness practices like meditation or yoga, has helped me significantly in determining what areas I can improve on within my career. - Laura Spawn , Virtual Vocations, Inc.

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A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of Guanfacine Extended Release for aggression and self-injurious behavior associated with Prader-Willi Syndrome

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Introduction: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a rare genetic disorder, affects development and behavior, frequently resulting in self-injury, aggression, hyperphagia, oppositional behavior, impulsivity and over-activity causing significant morbidity. Currently, limited therapeutic options are available to manage these neuropsychiatric manifestations. The aim of this clinical trial was to assess the efficacy of guanfacine-extended release (GXR) in reducing aggression and self-injury in individuals with PWS. Trial Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted under IRB approval. Methods: Subjects with a diagnosis of PWS, 6-35 years of age, with moderate to severe aggressive and/or self-injurious behavior as determined by the Clinical Global Impression (CGI)-Severity scale, were included in an 8-week double-blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-flexible dose clinical trial of GXR, that was followed by an 8-week open-label extension phase. Validated behavioral instruments and physician assessments measured the efficacy of GXR treatment, its safety and tolerability. Results: GXR was effective in reducing aggression/agitation and hyperactivity/noncompliance as measured by the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) scales (p=0.03). Overall aberrant behavior scores significantly reduced in the GXR arm. Aggression as measured by the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS) also showed a significant reduction. Skin-picking lesions as measured by the Self Injury Trauma (SIT) scale decreased in response to GXR. No serious adverse events were experienced by any of the study participants. Fatigue /sedation was the only adverse event significantly associated with GXR. The GXR group demonstrated significant overall clinical improvement as measured by the CGI-Improvement (CGI-I) scale. (p<0.01). Conclusion: Findings of this pragmatic trial strongly support the use of GXR for treatment of aggression, skin picking, and hyperactivity in children, adolescents, and adults with PWS. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier - NCT05657860

Competing Interest Statement

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: DS has served as a consultant to Soleno Therapeutics, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, and Consynance Therapeutics. MS and TJ have no other competing interests to report.

Clinical Trial

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05657860

Funding Statement

Author declarations.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Maimonides Medical Center (# 2020-11-03-MMC). Written, IRB-approved informed consent was obtained from each participant's parent or legal guardian, and assent was obtained from each participant, as applicable.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files and will be available upon its publication.

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Regional differences in cell characteristics in electric eel electric organs indicate electrocyte development with ventral to dorsal migration.

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Electric eels (Electrophorus) are renowned for their ability to generate electric discharge, which is used for prey capture and defense. Their electric organs (EOs) are located along the lateral-ventral region of the tail and contain electrocytes, which are multinucleated syncytium cells. Two major hypotheses for the electrocyte origin are proposed: (1) muscle fibers or their precursors, and (2) mesodermal cells not via muscle lineage. In this study, we demonstrate the likely molecular mechanisms and processes involved in this differentiation, supporting the second hypothesis. We report the regional differences in cell morphology within the main EO (mEO) of Electrophorus. The cell morphology and distribution from the ventral terminal to the dorsal region of the mEO suggest the segregation of progenitors from the ventral cluster and their gradual transformation into mature multinucleated electrocytes via the layering and proliferation stages along the dorsal axis. Myosin-positive muscle cells were not included in the mEO differentiation process. Immunohistochemistry revealed strong expression of sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na+/K+-ATPase), a key component in generating electric discharge in the mEO, across most mEO regions, except in the ventral cluster cells. Based on these observations, we propose that electrocyte progenitors develop from ventral cluster cells in the mEO and differentiate into mature multinucleated cells as they migrate dorsally. This is the first report to approach the developmental process of Electrophorus electrocytes from cell morphology and genetic profiles. Our findings represent a breakthrough in understanding the differentiation of electrocytes during the growth stages of Electrophorus.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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