Variability Of Personality: The Study Of Ordinary Consciousness Concepts

Abstract

A changing reality puts a person before the need for change. The authors assume that implicit concepts of human variability on the possibility and necessity of changes largely define people’s readiness for change. In this paper we discuss the results of a study on the ordinary consciousness concepts about variability of personality. The research involved 62 people (27 men, 35 women, average age 34.8 years). The data was obtained using semi-structured interviews, aimed at identifying the attitudes towards the possibility of self-change and readiness for personal self-change and also clarifying biographical facts, and information about the current life situation. We obtained 145 descriptions of life changes, systematized by 15 categories and identified different types of individual implicit concepts, accepting the possibility of changes in varying degrees, and found their relationships with the readiness for change. The results of the study showed that in people’s mind, the situation of change is perceived as a significant event contrasting something new to the old and associated with adoption of human independent decisions, resulting in personal changes, changes in the system of values and attitude to the world which are often accompanied by intense emotional experiences. The ordinary consciousness connects life changes and their necessity with dramatic events of life and underestimates the role of self-changes. The notion on the need for human variability existing in modern psychology is in conflict with the views of ordinary consciousness.

Keywords: Variability of personalityreadiness for personal self-changeordinary consciousness concepts

Introduction

One of the most popular subjects in current scientific literature relates to the changes in modern reality; the features of which are expressed by the popular metaphor of "liquid reality". The nature of the changes and their consequences for contemporary culture, social communities and human relations with the world are actively discussed in social sciences and humanities. Psychology focuses on the challenges of modern reality and their consequences for the individual. A specific question that arises from this discussion is how a person changes in a changing world.

Traditionally, psychology has always been focused on human development. However, the concepts of "development" and "change" are not identical. Any development necessarily involves changes (structural or functional) where development itself is a special form of change, but not every change means development. The main essential characteristic of change is that it is an alternative to stability.

The concept of change is used in current literature to describe the trends of development of modern reality and human existence. The author of "liquid modernity" metaphor Bauman (2000) writes about "non-direction of change", which most accurately reflects the concept of change. "Non-direction of change" means the presence of an individual in a constantly and unpredictably changing environment. The existence of individuals in the modern world is transformed into a process of changes in the context of life and themselves.

Thus, the concept of change used in modern science reflects the real phenomenology and processes in which an individual is involved. Psychology is beginning to pay more and more attention to this subject. However, the following important question is not the focus of attention – how ready is a person to change his life situation, everyday behavior, and his own personality?

One of the basic ideas in different psychological approaches and theories of personality is the changeability or invariability of personality. This parameter reflects the answer to the question to what extent the individual is able to change fundamentally throughout life (Hjelle & Zigler, 1992).

The differences between various approaches to the answer to this question are fundamental. Proponents of invariability (or weak changeability) of the personality protect the notion of the traits or structures of the personality that make up its core and determine human behavior throughout life. Proponents of personality changeability, in turn, work on the problem of what factors (forces) provoke changes in a person, whether these changes are of a stage character, whether these changes can be predicted, etc. It is obvious that the differences in these positions have serious consequences both for research in the field of personality psychology and for practical psychological work.

In 1994, The American Psychological Association published a collective monograph under the remarkable title "Can personality change?" (Heatherton & Weinberger, 1994). It is impossible to deny that a person changes throughout life, as well as the fact that some personal features remain unchanged. The differences in the presented approaches are determined by the ratio of the changing and unchanging features in the structure of a personality and what is given priority.

Traditional studies of this problem are carried out on the basis of developmental psychology: studying of human development at different age stages, tracing changes in the intellectual characteristics or personal traits, etc.

The individual's stability is determined by the stability of psychological mechanisms, the repeatability of the problems faced by the individual, and the consolidation of successful strategies for solving regular adaptive problems. In turn, variability in personality in a changing world can be explained by the fact that a person faces other adaptive problems, with the result that ineffective problem-solving strategies are replaced and new solutions are included in the set of strategies (Buss, 1994).

The answer to the question about the mechanisms and nature of change depends on what is meant by psychological change. For example, observed or recorded changes in human behavior - whether they can be qualified as changes in the individual or they remain the status of external changes.

MacAdams (1994), in accordance with his conception of a personality, which identifies three levels – dispositional features, personal goals and aspirations and life stories, notes that each of these levels is described by the wide range of personal constructs. The answer to the question whether the personality can change, depends on which of the three levels is considered. Thus, in his opinion, the moments of changes and turning points in life scenarios can be described with the help of life narratives.

A significant number of studies traditionally focused on factors related to personal changes - from the research of external, stress factors, dramatic events in human life to changes associated with the process of psychotherapy or psychological counseling.

The most important trend in modern psychology of personality is the growing interest in the subject of self-processes – self-development, self-regulation, and self-improvement.

This also applies to the problem of personal changes. Currently, there is an increase in research, where personal changes are not so much the result of certain events or changes in social roles, but occur due to the active role of an individual (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005; Hudson & Fraley, 2015; McCrae et al., 2002). Thus, the problem has moved from the field of clinical studies to the sphere of personality psychology, development and social psychology (Baranksi, Morse, & Dunlop, 2017).

To study the desire for self-change Hudson and Roberts (2014) based on the five-factor personal questionnaire "The Big Five Inventory" (BFI), developed the questionnaire "Change Goals Big Five" (C-BFI), which measures the desire of individuals to change their personality in five basic traits. In the CBFI version questions are modified to indicate the degree to which respondents would like to change a certain trait. Thus, the goals of self-changes are formulated as the goals of increasing, reducing or preserving certain personal traits (Hudson & Roberts, 2014).

Another area of research is an attempt to study the factors mediating individual differences in the processes of self-changes. In particular, the incremental theory of personality is considered. It is the implicit theory concerning the changeability of a personality by his/her own efforts during the course of life (Dweck, 1999). Dwek is the author of this concept and scale, reflecting the orientation of the individual on the immutability or changeability as an internal implicit theory. She and her colleagues proved that the belief in self-changeability of a person is associated with greater success in overcoming difficult situations in various spheres of life (Dweck, 1999; 2008). Use of this scale in conjunction with the BFI has shown that the commitment of an adult to theory of variability is associated with more pronounced real personality changes that were logged in the longitudinal research (Robins et al., 2005).

These studies show that a person's belief in the possibility of change and readiness for change are associated with his real experience of overcoming difficult situations. In our view, the characteristics of the wider context, in particular its relative stability or, on the contrary, significant social transformations, are of great importance for the formation of the relevant human attitudes. This is in part consistent with the results of studies showing that people tend to attribute changes in their lives to external contexts more than their own efforts (Baranksi, Morse, & Dunlop, 2017).

Problem Statement

To identify people's attitude to the possibility of self-change and readiness for self-change, to find out what causes a person's belief in the possibility of changes and readiness for changes, and what is associated in ordinary consciousness of life changes, self-changes and their necessity is the issue that concerns this study. In our study we assume that implicit concepts of human variability on the possibility and necessity of changes largely define people’s readiness for self-change.

Research Questions

Purpose of the Study

In accordance to the research questions the purpose of the study is to

• describe individual conceptions on the essence of life changes.

• study the representations of ordinary consciousness on variability.

• identify possible types of implicit concepts of variability.

• identify a possible link between implicit concepts and personal readiness for change.

Research Methods

The research design was mixed method as the study aimed to uncover people’s perceptions and conceptions of a certain phenomena. The choice of mixed-method approach is related to the fact that self-change concerns the personality and his/her life history, reflecting the values and beliefs system and their inter-correlation. Phenomenological and biographical methods allow for a better understanding of the diversity of the interaction of the individual and the environment, and to clarify the role of situational and personal factors of self-changes. Qualitative methods also take into account the cultural and historical context of life. Quantitative analyses employed descriptive and inferential statistics that provided us the tools for identifying the links between categories.

In this study, the qualitative data was obtained through interviews. Semi-structured interviews containing 25 questions were used. The interview aimed at clarifying biographical facts (parent family, experience of change of residence and other life changes), information about the current life situation and attitudes regarding the possibility of self-change and readiness for personal self-change. The average length of the interview was about an hour. The interviewers were the masters students of the faculty of psychology of St. Petersburg University in Russia.

The sample included 62 people (27 men, 35 women), average age 34.8 years (SD =10.9: min - 21, max - 72), whose native language was Russian (table 1 ). The participation was voluntary ("sampling if possible", opportunity sample), the data collection was done in different cities in Russia (St. Petersburg (54.8 %), Yekaterinburg (9.7 %), Kirovo-Chepetsk (8.0 %), Moscow (6.5 %), Simferopol (3.2 %), Sevastopol (1.6 %), Kazan (1.6 %), Tomsk (1.6 %), Asbestos (1.6 %)), individual participants were from foreign cities (London, Hamburg, Tel-Aviv (1.6%)).

As a result, narrative descriptions were obtained (which, according to McAdams (1994) are the most accurate tool for obtaining information about life changes), the content of which was further analyzed using thematic, descriptive and comparative data. Some of the data were quantified by correlation analysis: characteristics of the sample of participants; life situations of changes (in the past); categories of ideas about whether it is possible to start life with a clean slate; whether it is possible to change the character; ideas about the desired sphere of changes; ideas about ability to change something in oneself or one’s life.

Findings

Conclusion

The study raised questions about the nature of existence in the ordinary consciousness of people, their implicit ideas about the possibility of change and their relationship with attitudes towards self-change. The results of the study showed that in the minds of people, the situation of change is perceived as significant events leading to something new and associated with the adoption of human independent decisions, resulting in personal changes, changes in the system of values and attitude to the world; often accompanied by intense emotional experiences. Different types of implicit ideas about the possibility of changes in human life, differing in the degree of their ability/impossibility are revealed. The process of personal change is described as the human response to the circumstances. The connection between the ideas of the principal possibility of changes in life and a person and beliefs about the possibility of personal changes has been established. Implicit representations of people are considered a restrictive factor arising with age obligations, especially with family relationships.

Some limitations arising from this study relate to the limitation of the sample size and predominantly qualitative nature of the study, which did not allow strict mathematical data processing. The prospects of the study are associated with the expansion and clarification of ideas about the individual implicit concept of change, which is a significant factor mediating the personal activity of a person.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The research project № 18-013-00703

References

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