Week 12: Post 1

When I came across the “Personality in Emerging Adulthood” section of Chapter 19, my interest was immediately sparked. The graph of “Young Adults’ Self-Ratings of Well-Being” was the first thing to catch my eye. In 2005, men and women ages 18 – 24 were asked to rank how much they agreed with statements such as “I feel I am a person of worth” on a scale of 1 – 5 with one being the lowest and five being the highest. Although men agreed with the statements slightly more often than women did (something that didn’t surprise me), each gender had an increase in agreement as their age increased. Twenge et al attributes the increase of happiness and self-esteem to the fact that young adults nowadays are more likely to make their own decisions (Berger 2011). Other longitudinal studies conducted by Asendorpf et al found that some people who were either very shy or very aggressive as children changed their ways by the time they reached emerging adulthood. Their self-esteem was just as good as others of their cohort, and they were no more anxious or depressed than those without the extreme shyness or aggression (Berger 2011). I find it quite interesting that personalities are ever evolving. I think that is why oftentimes people are not as close with their friends from high school after they attend college. During college, we become a part of so many new and different experiences. Unfortunately, it sometimes causes us to change and grow apart from those we were close to during high school.

References

Berger, K. S. (2011) The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers.