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klokkasju · 07-30-2008, 08:14 AM

Hi everybody,

I recently met a person, who stated that one can not change his character after the age of 20. When I heard this sentence, I was shocked. And don't know why (and after several hours of thinking, I still don't know why) I always assumed that people can change everything about their character regardless how old they are (it may take some effort of course). So this person's thesis caught me off guard and up til now I can't put my mind off this.

I did some basic internet research and first of all found that character may be the wrong term (at least in my mother tongue, which is not English). The attributes I am concerned with are, for instance, being introvert/extrovert, risk appetite, curiosity. They are (in English) referred to as personality traits or just traits. And due to the so called five factor model there are five basic traits which are sufficient to describe a persons personality. And again I was shocked to read, that most researchers believe that the value of this traits doesn't change after the age of 30. As I said before, it was only a basic internet research, so I may have missed the few theories which believe in "unlimited" change of personality. But all the theories I found, stated in one way or another that the major "action" appears in the first 20 or maybe 30 years.

I can't help myself. This idea of "there will come an certain age after which I won't (be able to) change (myself)" scares me. Whatever I read from Steve, I had never the impression that he thinks we can't change. So I hope to find here some ideas about all this "personality change business" which help me figure out why I am so unsure about the "static theories". What do you think about personality changes? Do they occur in every age? Can we deliberately initiate them?

So far, thanks for listening/reading
klokkasju

PS: I am not sure if my usage of "character" and "personality" is totally right. I hope my questions are clear nevertheless.

07-30-2008, 08:14 AM	#1 (permalink)
klokkasju Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 19	Can personality change? Hi everybody, I recently met a person, who stated that one can not change his character after the age of 20. When I heard this sentence, I was shocked. And don't know why (and after several hours of thinking, I still don't know why) I always assumed that people can change everything about their character regardless how old they are (it may take some effort of course). So this person's thesis caught me off guard and up til now I can't put my mind off this. I did some basic internet research and first of all found that character may be the wrong term (at least in my mother tongue, which is not English). The attributes I am concerned with are, for instance, being introvert/extrovert, risk appetite, curiosity. They are (in English) referred to as personality traits or just traits. And due to the so called five factor model there are five basic traits which are sufficient to describe a persons personality. And again I was shocked to read, that most researchers believe that the value of this traits doesn't change after the age of 30. As I said before, it was only a basic internet research, so I may have missed the few theories which believe in "unlimited" change of personality. But all the theories I found, stated in one way or another that the major "action" appears in the first 20 or maybe 30 years. I can't help myself. This idea of "there will come an certain age after which I won't (be able to) change (myself)" scares me. Whatever I read from Steve, I had never the impression that he thinks we can't change. So I hope to find here some ideas about all this "personality change business" which help me figure out why I am so unsure about the "static theories". What do you think about personality changes? Do they occur in every age? Can we deliberately initiate them? So far, thanks for listening/reading klokkasju PS: I am not sure if my usage of "character" and "personality" is totally right. I hope my questions are clear nevertheless.