Five Dimensions Of Personality Development

In recent years, personality in a life span and the relationship between aging and personality traits have been increasingly studied. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, personality is defined as the various aspects of a person’s character that make everyone different from each other. McCare and Costa (1997) proposed an assessment of personality traits in diverse cultures which are extraversion, neuroticism (emotional instability), openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness (as cited in Schimmack Oishi, Furr & Funder, 2004). These five dimensions are known as five-factor model, often called the Big Five personality traits. In addition, proposed by Erikson in 1950, the Erikson’s theory stated that the stage of middle adulthood

According to Social Investment Theory, proposed by Roberts,Wood, and Smith in 2005, they found that adults’ responsibilities such as family and work, may contribute to the causes of personality change in middle adulthood (as cited in van Aken, et al., 2006). Furthermore, Erikson (1950) indicated that adults during the period of middle age are facing the developmental stage of reaching out to “generativity”, beneficial the next generation, or “stagnation”, which remain locked in their current situations (Ciccarelli & White, 2012, p.331). Koski and Steinberg (1990) reported that midlife concerns in the domains of marital relationships, work and also child fostering. Because as children of middle-aged adults grow older and gradually become adults themselves, opportunities for parental control decreased (as cited in van Aken, et al., 2006). Besides that, Roberts, Helson, and Klohnen (2002) concluded that adults who perceived more marital tensions (lake of commitment and shared valued) and became parents, husbands or wives increased in social responsibility (a facet of conscientiousness), whereas divorce or death of spouse was associated with neuroticism and lost of a job was also decreased in emotional stability and conscientiousness (as cited in van Aken, et al., 2006). Nevertheless, Teachman (2008) reported that middle-aged adults who have one or more prior divorces bring a qualitatively different background to a new marriage, which potentially includes children from a previous marriage, continued contact with a former spouse, will cause personality changed negatively such as paranoid, avoidant and dependent (as cited in Disney, Weinstein & Oltmanns, 2012). Moreover, Branje, Van Lieshout, and Van Aken (2004) found that relational support was also strongly correlated with agreeableness and openness to experience. Furthermore, Friedman and Rosenman (1974) indicated that the Type A