Recent research has found that a vast majority of people want to change their personality traits—and they may be able to find some degree of success in doing so. However, desires for self-change have been theoretically and empirically linked to reduced well-being. The present study utilized a longitudinal design to better understand the associations between people’s desires and attempts to change their personality traits and their psychological well-being. Results indicated that possessing change goals did not necessarily predict growing deficits in well-being over time. In contrast, people who were able to change their personality traits in ways that aligned with their desires tended to experience increases in well-being over time. These findings are consistent with theory that dissatisfaction can precipitate change goals, and successful change can ameliorate dissatisfaction.
BairdB. M.LucasR. E.DonnellanM. B. (2010). Life satisfaction across the lifespan: Findings from two nationally representative panel studies. Social Indicators Research, 99, 183-203.
2.
BaranksiE. N.MorseP. J.DunlopW. L. (2016). Lay conceptions of volitional personality change: From strategies pursued to stories told. Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/jopy.12240
3.
BaumeisterR. F. (1994). The crystallization of discontent in the process of major life change. In HeathertonT. F.WeinbergerJ. L. (Eds.), Can personality change? (pp. 281-297). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
4.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
5.
DienerE.EmmonsR. A.LarsenR. J.GriffinS. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
6.
GalambosN. L.FangS.KrahnH. J.JohnsonM. D.LachmanM. E. (2015). Up, not down: The age curve in happiness from early adulthood to midlife in two longitudinal studies. Developmental Psychology, 51, 1664-1671.
7.
HardinE. E.LarsenJ. T. (2014). Distinct sources of self-discrepancies: Effects of being who you want to be and wanting to be who you are on well-being. Emotion, 14, 214-226.
8.
HigginsE. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94, 319-340.
9.
HigginsE. T.ShahJ.FriedmanR. (1997). Emotional responses to goal attainment: Strength of regulatory focus as moderator. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 515-525.
10.
HudsonN. W.FraleyR. C. (2015). Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose to change their personality traits?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 490-507.
11.
HudsonN. W.RobertsB. W. (2014). Goals to change personality traits: Concurrent links between personality traits, daily behavior, and goals to change oneself. Journal of Research in Personality, 53, 68-83.
12.
HudsonN. W.RobertsB. W. (2016). Social investment in work reliably predicts change in conscientiousness and agreeableness: A direct replication and extension of Hudson, Roberts, and Lodi-Smith (2012). Journal of Research in Personality, 60, 12-23.
13.
HudsonN. W.RobertsB. W.Lodi-SmithJ. (2012). Personality trait development and social investment in work. Journal of Research in Personality, 46, 334-344.
14.
JohnO. P.SrivastavaS. (1999). The Big-Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In PervinL. A.JohnO. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102-138). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
15.
KiecoltK. J. (1994). Stress and the decision to change oneself: A theoretical model. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 49-63.
16.
KingL. A.HicksJ. A. (2007). Whatever happened to “what might have been?” Regrets, happiness, and maturity. American Psychologist, 62, 625-636.
17.
KuhlJ.HelleP. (1986). Motivational and volitional determinants of depression: The degenerated-intention hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 247-251.
18.
LehnartJ.NeyerF. J.EcclesJ. (2010). Long-term effects of social investment: The case of partnering in young adulthood. Journal of Personality, 78, 639-670.
19.
Lodi-SmithJ.RobertsB. W. (2007). Social investment and personality: A meta-analysis of the relationship of personality traits to investment in work, family, religion, and volunteerism. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 68-86.
20.
LucasR. E.DonnellanM. B. (2011). Personality development across the life span: Longitudinal analyses with a national sample from Germany. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 847-861.
21.
MagidsonJ. F.RobertsB. W.Collado-RodriguezA.LejuezC. W. (2014). Theory-driven intervention for changing personality: Expectancy value theory, behavioral activation, and conscientiousness. Developmental Psychology, 50, 1442-1450.
22.
PolivyJ.HeathertonT. F.HermanC. P. (1988). Self-esteem, restraint, and eating behavior. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 354-356.
23.
PolivyJ.HermanC. P. (2002). If at first you don’t succeed: False hopes of self-change. American Psychologist, 57, 677-689.
24.
QuinlanS. L.JaccardJ.BlantonH. (2006). A decision theoretic and prototype conceptualization of possible selves: Implications for the prediction of risk behavior. Journal of Personality, 74, 599-630.
25.
RealoA.DobewallH. (2011). Does life satisfaction change with age? A comparison of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 297-308.
26.
RichardF. D.BondC. F.Stokes-ZootaJ. J. (2003). One hundred years of social psychology quantitatively described. Review of General Psychology, 7, 331-363.
27.
RobertsB. W.JacksonJ. J. (2008). Sociogenomic personality psychology. Journal of Personality, 76, 1523-1544.
28.
RobertsB. W.MroczekD. (2008). Personality trait change in adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 31-35.
29.
RobertsB. W.O DonnellM.RobinsR. W. (2004). Goal and personality trait development in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 541-550.
30.
RobertsB. W.WaltonK. E.ViechtbauerW. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 1-25.
31.
RobinsonO. C.NoftleE. E.GuoJ.AsadiS.ZhangX. (2015). Goals and plans for Big Five personality trait change in young adults. Journal of Research in Personality, 59, 31-43.
32.
SotoC. J.JohnO. P.GoslingS. D.PotterJ. (2011). Age differences in personality traits from 10 to 65: Big Five domains and facets in a large cross-sectional sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 330-348.
33.
StevensonJ.CleggS. (2011). Possible selves: Students orientating themselves towards the future through extracurricular activity. British Educational Research Journal, 37, 231-246.
34.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A.TellegenA. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
