Personalidad Cambia? (Ingles)

TOPIC 3: CAN PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR PERSONALITY?
Currently, the development of personality, its’ stability and change over time is an important topic within the field of Personality Psychology. Whether or not personality can change has been a constant topic in the discipline. In 1890, William James came up with the conclusion that around an individual’s 30 years of age, personality becomes asstrong as a cast and no longer will change. Nevertheless, not all psychologists have agreed with this statement. Erikson believed that adults mature and change as they pass through different stages. Likewise, clinical psychologists assume that individuals are able to make significant changes that affect many aspects of their lives. Even some, as Mischel, proposed that personality could be somalleable that this one can change from situation to another. (Block, 1993)
Before pointing out the main factors and variables that are associated with personality changes in individuals, it’s important to state that personality is defined as the set of values, culture, life experiences, character and temperament of an individual; it refers to the characteristic patterns of thoughts, emotionsand behaviours, together with the psychological mechanisms behind those patterns (Funder, 2010). Evidently, there is a tendency to behave over time in a particular way and maintain each ones individual differences, though this doesn’t mean that a person behaves this way in all scenarios. For example, if we say a person is extroverted, it means that this person behaves this way most of the time, butnot necessarily in all occasions. However, this inconsistency is a sign of good psychological health (if not extreme and pathologic), as it indicates the existence of a flexible personality that is able to adapt to different situations. This one develops as a function of physical and physiological maturation (Funder, 2010).
The most significant changes occur in childhood and preadolescence,but its’ development is a long process that involves several facets throughout life and depends on several variables that are beyond our control. During childhood and adolescence is much easier to introduce changes in personality because it has not been fully configured. All sorts of influences have a greater power over it. Clearly it is easier to change and model a child’s personality, thoughthat doesn’t mean that personality can’t be changed in older ages.
While the study of personality theories emphasis in the similarities among people, the study of personality traits is about individual qualities; those things that make us unique and different from each other, also known as traits. These have been defined as the habitual patterns of behaviour, thoughts and emotions (Funder,2010). Generally, it is considered that the traits are the characteristics that the individual has. In relation with the development of these traits, Loehlin has shown that they are quite influenced by genetics and the environment’s stimuli that every individual experiences differently. (Loehlin, 1992)
Genetic traits are the characteristics that are pass on through our parents and ancestors.These account for approximately 50% of variance in personality. Scientists have long debated how much our personality is influenced by our genes and how much comes from the environment. Researchers have found that genes play an important role in our development; not just in our physical traits, but also in our personality. Studies done with identical twins that were separated at birth and lived withdifferent families showed how twins had similarities regarding to the jobs/degrees they have chosen, hobbies, temperament and even some have had psychotic events during the same period of time. It is said that the environment has a greater impact during childhood, due to children’s malleability, but as people mature, genes play an important role, specially referring to intellectual development...