Summary and reflections from the book There are many of us — The psychological foundations of personality

Book in Finnish: Meitä on moneksi — Persoonallisuuden psykologiset perusteet. Riitta-Leena Metsäpelto & Taru Feldt (toim.)

Part 1 — The concept of personality in psychology

Written by Riitta-Leena Metsäpelto and Taru Feldt.

This section discusses the history of personality. Key concepts:

• Idiographic orientation: a trend that looks at the relationship between personality traits and personality traits.

• Experimental psychology: a small number of people, cause-effect relationships.

• Differential personality psychology: a large number of people, statistical connection between phenomena, psychometrics and factor analysis.

• Reductionism: looking at personality in terms of brain mechanisms.

• Personality refers to a characteristic and permanent set of thoughts (cognition), emotions (emotions) and behavior.

• Identity is varying degrees of commitment to religion, politics and work.

From the point of view of trait theory , personality changes in adulthood in such a way that it improves our chances in relationships and society. As adults, people are more socially secure, conscientious, and emotionally balanced.

Personality science is a compiling science, taking advantage of several areas of psychology. Related areas include developmental psychology, social psychology, learning and thinking research, clinical psychology, and evolutionary psychology.

Today, the focus is on positive psychology. Common to personality psychology is the attempt to distinguish between the biological basis of a person, personality characteristics and cultural factors, as well as to describe the connections between them and the attempt to group personality characteristics into different levels. Framed by McAdams’ theory of personality.

The McAdams model has three levels:

1. Dispositional traits of the individual.

2. Characteristics adaptations.

3. Integrative life narratives.

According to McAdams, personality = psychological individuality. The story-shaped identity level is reached between the ages of 18 and 25, i.e. in formative adulthood.

Personality psychology is used, for example, in the fields of work and organisational psychology and in career guidance.

Part 2 — The influence of genetic and environmental factors on personality

Written by Elina Vierikko.

Dominance means that an allele changes the effect of another allele in the same gene site. Epistasis means that alleles in different places interact.

Quantitative genetics is behavioral genetics an area by which it is possible to determine which part phenotypic The variation is explained by genetic and environmental factors.

Heritability is a basic concept. It is an estimate of the contribution of genetic variation to total variation and is expressed as a percentage. A value of 100 would mean that the trait was completely genetic and the environment would not matter. Heritability does not describe the individual level, but the population level. It is not a biological constant, but completely dependent on the sample. An example is adopted children vs. biological parents — cases.

Inheritance plays a moderately high role in almost all personality traits. In behavioral genetics, however, the biggest findings are related to environmental factors. The key finding is that environmental factors do not shape people to be similar to each other, but to be different. In the past, the results have been misinterpreted to mean that family and the environment in which they grew up do not matter. So environmental factors play a role, but they don’t align siblings.

Many things that measure the impact of the environment measure genetic variation. GE correlation (Gene-Environment) refers to experiences that have been measured by a variable related to environmental factors and that correlate with genetic predispositions. The correlation between genome and environment can be passive, active or reactive:

• Passive GE refers to the environment in which parents grow up and the way they act as parents. Passive GE can be studied by comparing an adopted child and a biological child.

• Active GE refers to the individual’s self-seeking a growth environment, such as the company of talented musicians, that strengthens musicality.

• In passive GE, the letter G refers to parents, in active G refers to the child’s genes.

• Reactive or evocative GE refers to the environment’s response to an individual’s hereditary characteristics. In other words, E describes how the environment reacts to a child’s genotype, such as musical talent.

• Genetically identical twins have different genes active (epigenesis), that is, environmental factors program genes on and off.

Part 3 — Temperament, the biological backbone of personality

Written by Liisa Keltinkangas-Järvinen.

Temperament is a key contributor to stress and it also affects school performance. Temperament refers to differences between people in their tendencies and styles to react to both the environment and their own internal states. Temperament can be considered an explanation of individuality. Temperament differences appear already in infancy and are relatively permanent.

All cognitive development affects the manifestation of temperament. Temperament is not related to competence, performance or survival.

In one culture, one temperament trait can be a disadvantage, in another an advantage. A similarly persistent temperament that transcends different stages of development is homotypic temperament constancy. Heterotypic temperament is when the appearance changes. Activity is homotypical, emotionality is heterotypical.

The manifestations of temperament may change greatly with upbringing, but the order between people often does not change. In 1927, Ivan Pavlov proved that differences in temperament can be explained by differences in the autonomic nervous system.

The emotionality of infants is linked to stress sensitivity, with all its physiological symptoms. Temperament always refers only to a style of action, not to higher-level decision-making or judgment.

It used to be thought that a child was born as a blank slate, a tabula rasa. This was the so-called. the period of environmentalism, in which the child was considered to develop completely under the influence of the environment.

In the 1950s, Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess named 9 characteristics of children’s temperament:

1. Activity level – the amount of physical energy or movement.

2. Rhythmicity (regularity) – the predictability of biological functions such as appetite, sleep, and bowel habits.

3. Approach or withdrawal – the initial response to new people, situations, or environments (positive approach vs. cautious or negative withdrawal).

4. Adaptability – how easily the child adjusts to changes or new situations. (This is what “sopeutumisnopeus” means: speed/ease of adaptation.)

5. Threshold of responsiveness (sensitivity) – how easily the child is affected by stimuli (such as sounds, lights, textures).

6. Mood (quality of mood) – the general tendency toward a happy vs. unhappy mood.

7. Intensity of reaction – the energy level of emotional responses, whether positive or negative.

8. Distractibility – how easily external stimuli interfere with ongoing behavior.

9. Attention span and persistence – how long the child can maintain an activity despite obstacles.

Each of these temperament traits could be divided into three types,

1. Easy (generally positive mood, regular routines, adapts easily)

2. Difficult (or challenging — often intense reactions, irregular routines, slow to adapt)

3. Slow-to-warm-up (initially cautious and withdrawn, but gradually becomes more comfortable with repeated exposure)

“Goodness of fit” means that a person’s temperament and the expectations or demands of their environment are in harmony. Conversely, “poorness of fit” occurs when temperament traits are not well aligned with the environment. There is no fault in either the person or the environment—they simply do not match well. The theory of Thomas and Chess is also known as the interactive theory of temperament, because it emphasizes the interaction between individual traits and environmental factors.

Arnold Buss and Robert Plomin extended temperament research to adults. They introduced the temperament meter EAS (emotionality — activity — sociability). In addition to this, they introduced behavioral genetic temperament theory. Other theories include Douglas Darryberry’s theory of temperament development, Hill Goldmisth’s emotion-oriented temperament theory, Robert Cloninger’s and Jeffrey Alan Gray’s neuropsychological theories. Jerome Kagan introduced the theory of inhibited and non-inhibited temperament.

Since Pavlov’s time, it has been recognized that humans have both weak and strong nervous systems—that is, differences in the functioning of the autonomic nervous system—which underlie variations in stress sensitivity.

Cloninger’s and Gray’s models start from stimuli and trace pathways that lead to behavior. According to them, temperament is a tendency—or a bias—to react strongly to certain stimuli and to orient actions toward obtaining or avoiding them. This bias is thought to result from differences in the levels and activity of neurotransmitters in the brain.

For example, a strong drive for novel experiences combined with low internal control can lead to risk-taking, addiction, alcoholism, and criminal behavior. This phenomenon has been explained by low dopamine activity.

Temperament is also linked to a person’s social problem-solving strategies and threshold for frustration. People often judge each other based on temperament. This so-called transfer effect related to temperament can distort such judgments. Temperament traits are easily (and often incorrectly) associated with intelligence, judgment, and maturity or immaturity.

Temperament can explain up to 40 percent of variation in school grades, even though it does not correlate with intelligence, cognitive abilities, or motivation. To succeed at school, one often needs to have a certain type of temperament—this is especially true for girls. Among boys, poor academic performance has been linked to negative mood, shyness, low adaptability, and high reactivity. In other words, boys pay a higher price for having a temperament that does not align with school expectations.

Temperament shows itself most strongly under exceptional stress or extreme demands. In such situations, learned and consciously regulated behaviors are pushed aside, allowing natural temperament to emerge. Temperament influences both the emotions that arise in challenging situations and the body’s physiological arousal. Thus, innate temperament is a risk factor for stress-related illnesses, cardiovascular disease, and adult-onset diabetes.

All temperament traits are considered within the range of normal. However, a difficult temperament does predict a higher likelihood of behavioral problems in school-aged children. This effect is not direct; behavioral problems arise through the interaction of parenting style and the child’s temperament.

Depression is strongly correlated with several temperament traits, with the strongest link found between depression and harm avoidance. Harm avoidance is also associated with schizophrenia. Likewise, extreme behavioral inhibition in childhood is thought to be linked to schizophrenia later in life. However, these findings are largely based on retrospective studies and should be interpreted with caution. Temperament traits and mental disorders often share similar neural underpinnings, such as commonalities in the brain’s serotonin system.

Part 4 — Personality traits as descriptors of people’s similarity and difference

Written by Riitta-Leena Metsäpelto and Johanna Rantanen.

The less the situation restricts behavior, the more traits are manifested in behavior. The majority of people are in the middle of the traits. Momentary emotions, values, attitudes, worldview and intelligence are not personality traits.

According to Raymond Cattel, the main goal of personality psychology is to understand the predictability of human behavior. Summarized 16 basic traits and this is the 16PF personality test used in Finland.

The five major personality traits are:

1. Neuroticism (emotional instability, tendency toward anxiety, depression, moodiness)

2. Extraversion (sociability, assertiveness, energy, positive emotions)

3. Openness to Experience (imagination, creativity, curiosity, preference for novelty and variety)

4. Agreeableness (being compassionate, cooperative, trusting, helpful — “conciliatory” is not the usual term)

5. Conscientiousness (self-discipline, carefulness, organization, dependability)

Personality traits are measured using self-assessment questionnaires such as 16PF, EPG and 240 proposition NEO and 60 proposition NEO-PI-R.

Neuroticism refers to differences in emotional balance, psychoticism refers to a tendency to aggression, coldness and self-centeredness. Each trait is constructed from six narrower traits.

Openness does not mean extraversion. Openness is characterized by deep emotional awareness and intellectual need to expand one’s own experiences, which manifests itself in the rich imagination and aesthetic, unconventional and curious nature of open people. Openness to negative and positive emotions has a twofold effect, reinforcing both emotions without being a clear predisposing to emotional reactions, as neuroticism and extraversion are. A neurotic person can be an extrovert or an introvert.

The correlation between self-assessment and other assessments is high. This is probably due to the common language. Non-linguistic assessment methods include, for example, NPQ, which measures personality with 136 line drawings. The traits are universal, although originally they were defined in the United States. In Finland, NEO-PI and NESTA personality test.

Heredity accounts for about 50% of all five traits, and here factors apparently related to serotonin, etc., may explain the phenomenon. Neuroticism is linked to the brain’ s behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and extraversion to the behavioral approach system (BAS). The theory has been confirmed by Alzheimer’s disease.

The environment with its social relationships strengthens the personality of the individual. In children, traits are observed that show similarities with adulthood, such as extraversion. The relative stability of personality is strongest after the age of 50. Personality traits are not permanent in the absolute sense.

The excitement-seeking aspect of extraversion tends to decrease with age. In Finland, between the ages of 33 and 42, people generally show better psychosocial well-being and emotional balance. During this period, neuroticism decreases, while extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness increase. However, individuals tend to maintain their relative positions compared to others — in other words, the rank order stays roughly the same. Many factors contribute to these changes, such as the accumulation of life experiences.

The personality alpha factor (linked to successful socialization) and the beta factor (linked to successful self-actualization) are both associated with individual well-being.

People high in neuroticism typically report lower happiness and life satisfaction, along with a weaker sense of control over their lives. In contrast, extraversion and conscientiousness are strongly associated with greater life satisfaction, happiness, and a stronger sense of personal control. Openness is related to moderate levels of life satisfaction and sense of control, but it is less clearly linked to happiness.

Academic success is predicted by extraversion, agreeableness, and openness, while conscientiousness in childhood is a particularly strong predictor of school performance. In adulthood, conscientiousness becomes the most important non-cognitive predictor of success. The positive influence of extraversion and agreeableness tends to be limited to certain types of professions.

Finally, good health and longevity have been linked to higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Part 5 — Coping strategies and personality characteristics that guide their use

Written by Taru Feldt and Anne Mäkikangas.

This section discusses, among other things, coping methods such as Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkmann’s theory of stress and coping.

The key is whether the person feels capable of solving the problem. It’s typical to think: “what doesn’t kill strengthens.”

Meaningful coping mechanisms:

• Experiencing positive sensations even during stress

• Finding benefits and positive aspects in difficult life situations

• Reminding oneself of advantages and positive elements

• Adjusting goals

• Reorganizing priorities

• Assigning positive meanings to everyday things

The problems in the study include: retrospectiveness in assessments, questionnaires, etc. Key findings include a sense of coherence (life control), optimism, self-efficacy and control orientation.

• The feeling of coherence is associated with salutogenic a theory that focuses on human health and its predecessor resource factors rather than diseases. It is a holistic and permanent, albeit dynamic, sense of certainty that the internal and external environment is predictable and that things are likely to go as well as reasonably expected.

• The feeling of intelligibility is a cognitive, or cognitive, area.

• The feeling of controllability is an instrumental element. The sense of meaningfulness describes the motivational aspect of coherence.

• A sense of meaningfulness is the driving force behind human activity. The health-promoting effect is based on the effective and flexible use of coping mechanisms.

Coherence is related to health behaviors such as smoking, but not to metabolic syndrome or hypertension, etc. Coherence is related to health behaviors such as smoking, but not to metabolic syndrome, hypertension, or similar conditions.

Reflection: Could the stigmatization of individual traits or behaviors—caused by media and education—reduce coherence?

In optimism, people think that mostly positive things are happening in their lives and things usually work out for the best. Pessimists anticipate the worst. Genetics and environmental factors influence whether a person becomes more optimistic or pessimistic.

Central to expectation theory is the individual’s confidence in achieving goals. The tendency to be optimistic is characterised by hopefulness and confidence in achieving goals. The individual sticks to his goals and strives to achieve them. Pessimists doubt and do not consider it likely that their goals will be achieved. The usefulness of optimism is not only effort and perseverance, but also realism, acceptance of things and flexible adjustment of goals.

According to studies, the positive emotional states experienced by optimistic people are associated with better health. Among the components of the sense of coherence, the aspect that describes intelligibility is not included in the concept of optimism.

Reflection: how do telomeres relate to optimism and pessimism?

Part 6 — Action and interpretations in facing challenges and solving problems

Written by Jari-Erik Nurmi

Human coping with different situations has been studied for over half a century, and a widely used concept is that of coping strategies, such as Lazarus and Folkman’s division into problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.

Inge Seiffge-Krenke, on the other hand, ended up in a three-way division:

1. Active methods, which include problem solving and seeking social support

2. Withdrawal, which includes active withdrawal and the use of chemical agents

3. Internal strategies, such as self-reflection and cognitive processing

Behavioral and cognitive strategies can be described as processes in which feedback from previously experienced situations shapes people’s perceptions—both of the situation itself and of themselves.

People with more emotional temperaments are more likely to use withdrawal behaviors than less emotional individuals, as they are more prone to anxiety in difficult situations.

In social contexts, success is often linked to a planning-oriented or impulsive approach, while a withdrawal approach tends to be problematic.

Past experiences also shape people’s ways of acting and interpreting situations. For example, the feedback children receive on their learning outcomes can influence their future approaches.

An avoidant approach at the beginning of school predicts slower skill development in both reading and mathematics, whereas a task-focused approach accelerates skill acquisition. Children who are pessimistic and prone to withdrawal are more likely to experience loneliness later on.

An active approach in social situations predicts students’ popularity, while an avoidant social approach predicts unpopularity.

Measuring how people act and interpret situations is challenging, but there are questionnaires designed for this purpose, such as the SAQ (Stratety and Attribution Questionnaire).

For children, interviews are primarily used. Evaluations by external observers can also be helpful. One projective test is the CAST (Cartoon attribution strategy test) on Projective test, which consists of four sets of images—two depicting success situations and two depicting failure situations. The participant is asked to describe what the person in each picture might be thinking.

Part 7 — Personal goals at the beginning of life

Written by Katariina Salmela-Aro.

The first floors of the personality house are permanent structures such as personality traits and temperament. On the second floor of the house are personal goals and projects, as well as ways of thinking and acting. In the attic of the house is located identity and life story.

According to William Sheldon, the basement and surroundings must be an addition to the previous floors of the House of Personality. In the basement are motives and basic needs, such as the need for cohesion, competence and autonomy.

The motivation model for the course of life consists of SSSS, i.e. 4 x S, Orientation, Orientation (selection), Regulation and Adaptation.

Age-related developmental tasks channel young people’s goals. Goals according to development tasks are linked to well-being, while self-orientation is associated with malaise.

Today, the transition to adulthood is a place of 30 years, which has thus been postponed compared to earlier times. The transition includes self-exploration, the experience of being between different stages of life, and major life changes.

There are two key development tasks in the transition: work and love. Key transitions include transitions from adolescence to adulthood, working life and parenthood. Normally, when an individual fails in their transition goals, they change their goals and try hard again. Then, if they still do not succeed, the targets are abandoned. Rethinking goals is important for an individual’s well-being and adaptation to life.

Gender differences in developmental tasks :

• Women are more oriented towards the family.

• Women react more to changes in relationships and family.

• Women are expected to be interested in social matters and relationships, while men are expected to be independent and interested in things rather than people.

A strong orientation toward work (sometimes called a “workaholic” attitude) is not necessarily linked to positive well-being; in fact, it can pose a threat to well-being. People who balance their focus equally between work and relationships tend to report higher life satisfaction than those who focus exclusively on either work or family.

During adolescence, three key areas influence motivation: home, school, and friends. These are often referred to as the “three Ks” (in Finnish, “kolme K:ta”).

Selection means that young people with similar characteristics tend to gravitate toward each other.

The emotional state of one important person can affect another—for example, if one spouse becomes depressed, the other may also experience depression; similarly, satisfaction in a relationship often reflects in both partners.

Part 8 — Emotional Regulation in the Personality Game

Written by Marja Kakkonen and Marja-Liisa Kinnunen.

The components of emotions are found in the systems of physiological reactions, behaviors related to emotions, such as emotional expression, and personal experience. Emotional regulation focuses on these three. Due to successful emotional regulation, a person no longer feel that their emotions are stressful or their emotion-related behaviour disturbing, but is able to act on them flexibly and responsibly.

Overregulation of emotions typically involves inhibition and difficulties in deep understanding, verbal description and structuring of emotions. Due to the underregulation of emotions, a person is excessively agitated and overloaded by their emotions, and it is typically difficult for them to transform their emotions and deal with, for example, aggression.

Self-regulation is a more adaptive and mature form of control than self-control. Research on emotional regulation extends to the study of stress and coping methods as well as the psychoanalytic research tradition. Harmful to physical and mental well-being seems to be the suppression of emotions and the passive dwelling on negative emotions and the events leading to them.

In emotional regulation, serotonergic brain pathways and the 5HTTLPR gene are assumed to play a role. Thus, there is a strong hereditary component in the regulation of emotions.

Reflection: what role would gut bacteria and microbiomes and/or endocrine disruptors and/or environmental chemicalisation play?

Among temperament traits, positive and negative emotionality are particularly important. Positive emotionality is linked to the brain’s behavioral approach system, which governs how individuals respond to rewarding or pleasurable stimuli. Differences in this system explain why some people are more sensitive and prone to experiencing positive emotions than others. Conversely, negative emotionality is associated with the brain’s behavioral avoidance system, which activates responses to threats or unpleasant stimuli.

Emotional intelligence is a set of hierarchically organized cognitive abilities necessary to perceive and understand emotional information:

• The ability to recognize and express one’s own feelings.

• The ability to recognize another person’s emotions genuinely, honestly, and accurately.

• The ability to use emotions to help you think, for example when solving a problem, perceiving more than one point of view, and performing tasks that require creativity.

• Ability to analyze and understand emotional information and emotional laws.

• The ability to regulate one’s own and other people’s emotions.

Failed emotional regulation is reflected in emotional ambivalentness, which includes both a tendency to dwell on negative emotions and express emotions preventively. Emotionally ambivalent people may express feelings they didn’t really want to express or regret expressing afterwards. Emotional ambivalentness has been found to be associated with low self-esteem, high neuroticism and alexithymia, among other things.

The regulation of emotions cannot be separated from personality because they are so strongly interconnected.

Part 9 — Aggressiveness as a persistent personality trait

Written by Katja Kokko.

Aggression is defined as behavior that aims to cause harm to another person and ignores the other person’s feelings. Aggression can be direct or indirect, that is, whether the attacker and the target have direct contact or not. The goal of relationship aggression is to cause harm to the other person through relational harm. Social aggression is an umbrella term under which interpersonal aggression falls.

Aggression can be differentiated according to motive, whether the action is incited or a reaction to a threatening situation. An example is offensive and defensive aggressiveness. Aggressive aggression can develop if the child perceives that it leads to the desired result, for example, gaining a position of power over parents or other children. This has subsequently been shown to be a risk factor for unfavorable behavior, such as crime. Hostile aggressive behavior is characterized by a strong excitation of the autonomic nervous system and a strong response to the perceived threat. Gender explains only about 5% of the variation in aggressive behavior.

Reflection: what is the role of testosterone in the manifestation of aggression?

In the literature, aggression often refers to antisocial behavior, which is a broader concept. Aggressiveness has a biological basis. The tendency to react aggressively is associated with temperament, home upbringing, accuracy of social perception, coping skills, and the maturity of cognitive abilities.

Neuroticism is linked to personality traits characterized by negative emotionality and is typically associated only with provoked situations, whereas low agreeableness is related to aggression in unprovoked situations. In particular, offensive aggression tends to have negative consequences later in life.

Continuity in interaction style means that an individual’s behavioral tendencies provoke and sustain reactions in other individuals. Cumulative continuity means that people choose environments that sustain tendencies. The permanence of a particular characteristic refers to relative, absolute, structural or ipsative (referring to the person himself) constancy:

• Relative: measures the permanence between individuals.

• Absolute: measures quantity such as aggressiveness scores from one year to the next.

• Structural: the correlative relationships between variables remain the same over time.

• Ipsative: measures individual-level persistence, i.e. the persistence of individual characteristics, relationships and personality structure over the course of development.

It is impossible to study the absolute constancy of aggression in the life cycle. One cannot judge childhood and adulthood by the same questions.

Correlations show that school-age aggressiveness in both girls and boys was significantly associated with the aggressiveness assessed at age 36 and 42, respectively.Continuity in interaction style means that an individual’s behavioral tendencies provoke and sustain reactions in others. Cumulative continuity refers to the tendency of people to select environments that reinforce their behavioral tendencies. The permanence of a particular characteristic can be described in terms of relative, absolute, structural, or ipsative constancy:

• Relative: measures consistency of a trait between different individuals.

• Absolute: measures changes in the quantity of a trait, such as aggressiveness scores from one year to the next.

• Structural: refers to the stability of the relationships between variables over time.

• Ipsative: measures individual-level persistence, i.e., the stability of individual characteristics, relationships, and personality structure throughout development.

It is impossible to study the absolute constancy of aggression across the lifespan because childhood and adulthood cannot be assessed using the same questions.

Correlational studies show that aggressiveness in school-age girls and boys is significantly associated with aggressiveness assessed at ages 36 and 42, respectively.

Prosociality means considerate and constructive social behavior. Even a little prosociality directs the development of aggressive children in a positive direction.

Part 10 — Identity as a Uniting Structure of Personality

Written by Päivi Fadjukoff.

Building one’s identity means forming an idea of one’s own individuality, one’s own values and the goals one strives for in life. Identity is a uniting level of personality that connects a person to their community. Key determinants include biological and psychological characteristics, temperament, individual and unique psychological needs, interests and defense mechanisms, as well as the sociocultural environment in which the person operates. Identity is an independent intrapsychic construct in which a person seeks to find their own self and not just reflect other people’s qualities and values as in childhood:

• Unclarified identity represents the least developed level of identity.

• Adopted identity means a person has accepted and committed to the beliefs and norms of their family or another reference group without exploring or comparing alternatives. This adopted identity may either align with or oppose the prevailing culture.

• Exploratory identity (sometimes called moratorium) describes a person who has not yet settled on a firm identity and finds this uncertainty distressing. Such individuals actively seek to form their own viewpoints and are willing to question both others’ and their own beliefs. This stage is typical during adolescence.

• Achieved identity means a person has actively constructed their own identity through reflection, questioning, and evaluating different perspectives during a search process. This represents the most mature and stable identity status, associated with assertiveness and inner strength.

People who have successfully gone through an identity crisis are perceived by their immediate surroundings as more approachable, balanced and understanding than others. They are also able to give space to others and are able to openly and constructively face different views.

Identity becomes clearer and develops clearly from early adolescence, i.e. around the age of 12, until later adolescence between the ages of 19 and 21.

Identity is not a permanent structure, but it lives dynamically when people face new life situations and challenges. A mature and developed identity structure is flexible and open to change.

Endless reflection on one’s identity and one’s own choices is not good for development. If there are no signs of adulthood and independent responsibility around the age of 24, the young person may already be passive and need support for their identity process and search for adult life.

The maturation of identity continues from early adulthood until middle age and old age. As we age, a person contemplates renunciation and death.

Identity is always built through interaction with the environment, but is based on more permanent and inner layers of personality, temperament and characteristic ways of acting.

Unclear identity is associated with neuroticism, unpredictability, seclusion, avoidance of close relationships, unwillingness to act, and lack of a sense of personal meaning.

Environments that offer multiple choices and alternative views, such as study, support the reflection and achievement of identity as an institutional exploration stage. Academic performance and the parents’ high educational and occupational status provide benefits, as does a later than average entry into working life. The achievement of a mature identity in adulthood is anticipated by personality styles characterized by reflectivity, openness to new experiences, low levels of neuroticism, and intellectual interests and hobbies.

Withdrawing personality style and difficulties or delays in forming adult relationships with couples and families are linked to a lack of clarity of identity even in middle adulthood.

Replacing live contacts with the virtual world can lead to a weak and distorted identity. In addition to meaningful relationships and experiences of belonging to a group, identity development is supported by the opportunity to test one’s own abilities, set goals and strive for them, and experiences of success. Everyone should have the opportunity to do this at work and in recreational activities.

Reflection: what is the impact of digitalisation and social media on identity and personality development?People who have successfully navigated an identity crisis are often perceived by those around them as more approachable, balanced, and understanding than others. They are also able to give space to others and openly and constructively engage with differing viewpoints.

Identity begins to clarify and develop distinctly from early adolescence—around age 12—through late adolescence, between ages 19 and 21.

Identity is not a fixed structure; it remains dynamic as individuals face new life situations and challenges. A mature and well-developed identity is flexible and open to change.

Excessive rumination on one’s identity and choices can hinder development. If by around age 24 there are no signs of emerging adulthood or independent responsibility, the young person may become passive and require support in their identity formation and transition to adult life.

Identity maturation continues from early adulthood through middle age and into old age. As people age, they increasingly reflect on themes such as letting go and mortality.

Identity is always constructed through interaction with the environment but rests on more stable inner layers such as personality, temperament, and characteristic patterns of behavior.

An unclear identity is associated with neuroticism, unpredictability, social withdrawal, avoidance of close relationships, reluctance to take action, and a lack of personal meaning.

Environments that provide diverse choices and alternative perspectives—such as educational settings—support identity reflection and achievement as part of institutional exploration. Academic success and parents’ high educational and occupational status also confer advantages, as does entering the workforce later than average. Personality styles characterized by reflectivity, openness to experience, low neuroticism, and intellectual interests and hobbies are predictive of achieving a mature identity in adulthood.

A withdrawn personality style and difficulties or delays in forming adult relationships, including romantic partnerships and families, are linked to unclear identity even in middle adulthood.

Replacing face-to-face interactions with virtual ones can lead to a weak or distorted identity. Beyond meaningful relationships and group belonging, identity development is supported by opportunities to test one’s abilities, set goals, pursue them, and experience success. Everyone should have the chance to do this both at work and during leisure activities.

Reflection: What is the impact of digitalization and social media on identity and personality development?

Part 11 — Personality in Becoming Human

Written by Juha Perttula.

Underpinned by humanistic, phenomenological, narrative and existential psychology.

Humanistic psychology is a counterforce to the positivist philosophy of science. In it, psychology is seen through the psyche. Organism-structural theory. Epigenesis refers to the same thing. The idea of the organism in terms of personality is an innate motive to realize the possibilities that exist in man. The theory emphasizes motivation in personality. Humanistic psychology has a universal humanizing structure and a unique individualizing structure. The power of the motive varies from person to person, and its manifestation must be supported so that the person can live a life guided by their true personality. Biological authenticity and biological wisdom.

Humanistic personality theory is fundamental. Personality is seen as an essential human aspect emerging from biology—not merely as a social role or the sum of experiences and uniqueness. This theory addresses questions such as: Who am I? What do I want in life? What are my natural capacities? It also considers the relationship between the individual and the community.

Personality becomes inauthentic when communal demands overshadow the individual’s core self. A healthy community respects the core structure of each individual’s personality and is made up of unique individuals—not a collective “us” that suppresses individuality. If a person lives in a community whose practices do not align with the biological and meaningful core of their personality, they may suffer and potentially harm others.

The theory distinguishes between two “circles”: the first encompasses the entire world as experienced by the self, while the second includes the conscious, learned understanding of “who I am.” In an authentic personality, the organism (biological self) and the self (conscious identity) are unified rather than separate.

As life progresses and dependence on others decreases, it becomes easier for the organism’s authentic personality to emerge. Humanistic psychology promises a fulfilling life in a society that allows individuals to express their unique personalities.

The most unhappy outcome is when people are accepted only after they have been reshaped to fit the expectations of society or conform to others’ perceptions of themselves.

In phenomenological psychology, personality is rooted in the intentionality of conscious activity. This means that human consciousness is always directed toward something outside itself. The central concept is experience, which describes the relationship between the conscious subject and the object toward which their intentional action is directed.

Personality develops as objects acquire experiential meaning through conscious activity. Objects become meaningful when a person perceives them as something specific, even though the exact nature of many objects may remain unclear in everyday life. These meanings are authentic and true for the individual.

The smallest meaningful unit of personality structure is the experience of a life situation. From this perspective, life situations can be understood through their material, formal, bodily, and ideal dimensions. These dimensions describe the situational aspects of experience that shape personality.

The material life situation has a specific time, place, and physical form as perceived by human beings. The formal life situation includes the principles, habits, and social practices that govern interactions between people; this aspect of the theory is socio-cultural in nature. The bodily life situation refers to how a person understands their life through the experience of their own living body. This differs from the vital body, whose primary function is the biological maintenance of life.

A person comprehends their bodily life situation using the same logic applied to other life situations. The ideal life situation reflects a person’s ability to actively create and shape their own life circumstances.

Mental understanding is the immediate, pre-verbal grasp of one’s life situation—a quick, intuitive awareness of objects without reliance on language or concepts. As a spiritual being, a person also engages in spiritual understanding, which involves alternative ways of knowing, including thinking and theorizing. Spiritual understanding is active and critical; it distances itself from its objects and plays a key role in personality development by fostering contact with others and encouraging individualization.

In the process of individualization, the spiritual dimension resembles the psychic but goes further by enabling the person to realize their own understanding independently of social, cultural, or interpersonal influences. This capacity is significant for personality development and carries ethical importance.

This individualizing spiritual understanding involves both immersed understanding and constructive understanding. Constructive understanding, which can be equated with thinking, creates opportunities and challenges for personal growth. It can open horizons leading to a fulfilling life or, conversely, lead to impasses.

Thinking is not merely private or personal; rather, it is a genuine skill essential for comprehending the socio-cultural meanings that shape people’s ways of life, particularly those in which one is embedded.In narrative hermeneutics theory, personality exists as a collection of narratives. Personality is narrative, can be understood through narratives, and studied narratively.

Paradigmatic knowing refers to categorizing individual things into general classes, while narrative knowing connects events occurring at different times into a coherent story. Personality is expressed in narratives that provide consistent explanations of past and anticipated future events. All narratives are socially constructed, and everything a person recalls and remembers can be woven into their personality as part of these stories.

Narrative analysis involves examining events and human actions to uncover a plot that structures these materials coherently over time. It pays attention to the narrator, the evaluators, and the persons involved. Viewing personality as a narrative highlights that a person’s identity is shaped in relation to cultural meanings rather than private thoughts alone. Context reminds us that definitions of personality apply broadly to people sharing the same culture. The core of a narrative—the plot—is built around its perceptible form.

In existential psychology, the foundation is human presence, or “being here.” According to this theory, personality does not consist of discrete, separable structures. Rather, being here itself is the essence of personality. Understanding personality means understanding the experience of being present and how it manifests.

Dasein analysis starts from this concept of “being here” as the indivisible core of human existence. Existential thinkers reject fixed essences and resist viewing personality as something that is planned or developed according to a preset design. Instead, personality reveals itself through listening to being—a capacity to exist alongside the world and attend to the experience of presence in a given place.

From this perspective, personality is not defined by desires or active positioning in the world. It manifests as the ability to coexist with being and to be open to the power of presence. The existential view of personality is deeply holistic, emphasizing that personality formation is an ongoing, uncertain process. When a person is truly “here,” they do not have prior knowledge guiding them to make one choice over another.

Part 12 — Personality and Health

Written by Katri Räikkönen and Anu-Katriina Pesonen.

A type A personality is busy, impatient, aggressive, competitive, and leadership-oriented. In 1957, it was claimed that type A personality has twice the risk of coronary heart disease compared to type B. According to 1981 studies, type A personality is as significant a risk factor for coronary artery disease as somatic risk factors. However, this claim was refuted in subsequent investigations. The connections between personality and health are not so straightforward.

Conscientiousness is a key trait for the connection between personality and health. Conscientiousness means good impulse control, task- and goal-oriented action, planning, patience and adherence to norms and rules.

Conscientious people tend to have long-term marriages and greater success at work compared to those who are less conscientious. They also tend to:

• Use less tobacco, alcohol, and other intoxicants.

• Engage in less risky sexual behavior.

• Exhibit safer driving and road behavior.

• Show lower levels of self-harm and violence.

• Maintain healthier nutrition.

The most significant aspects of conscientiousness are self-control, responsibility, and a tendency toward conventional and normative behavior (traditionalism).

Less favorable health behaviors across different dimensions of conscientiousness are predicted by an individual’s tendency toward high productivity and persistence.

Neuroticism refers to individual differences such as a tendency to experience negative emotions and difficulties in stress regulation. For example, studies show that boys who experienced more negative emotions tended to have shorter lifespans compared to those who experienced fewer negative emotions. Neuroticism has also been linked to mortality from heart disease, although the evidence is not yet conclusive.

Reflection: How might measurable determinants of stress relate to neuroticism? And how does this connect with telomere length?

Positive emotions also play a role in longevity. This has been studied by analyzing biographies of nuns, for instance, where positive and negative moods were found to be associated with changes in blood pressure.

In studies with children, the personality trait describing cheerfulness has surprisingly been linked to shorter life expectancy. In contrast, conscientiousness during childhood shows a positive effect on longevity, as does openness—particularly openness to emotions, behaviors, beauty, new ideas, and thoughts.

Emotional well-being predicts a lower risk of coronary heart disease. An optimistic outlook has been associated with faster recovery after procedures like bypass surgery and protects postmenopausal women from carotid artery hardening. Conversely, intense negative emotional experiences in women have been linked to metabolic syndrome and central obesity.

The same phenomena are observed in children. In the Finnish LASERI study, hyperactivity in girls aged 6 to 9 predicts the risk of hardening of the carotid artery 21 years later. Likewise, an adolescent pessimistic attitude is associated with high blood pressure, especially if there are strong negative emotions in everyday life.

Low birth weight, short birth height and thinness at birth predict an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and adult-onset diabetes. These support the Barker hypothesis. Low birth weight also predicts temperament and personality traits that predispose to negative emotional experiences. However, smallness can also lead to conscientiousness, but such individuals may be more closed to new experiences.

Prenatal environmental factors may be relevant for the association between psychological and somatic factors. In the Helsinki cohort, birth weight shaped the connection between depression and SV diseases and adult-onset diabetes.

Part 13 — Embellishing personality in survey responses

Written by Laura Honkaniemi.

Personality inventory is one of the most typical methods for mapping personality. It is a self-assessment method that consists of statements whose accuracy the respondent assesses in his/her own case. Personality inventories include NEO Personality Inventory Revised (NEO PI-R), Personality Research Form (PRF) and PK5 developed in Finland. These can be used, for example, in recruitment, career guidance and student admissions at educational institutions.

Personality has been found to be a relatively reliable predictor of performance, and the results of a well-constructed inventory are quite permanent from time to time. Inventories are inexpensive and easy to use even for a large group.

A clear weakness of inventories is their potential susceptibility to desirable responses, i.e. embellishment of responses. Embellishment has been studied since 1950, but its laws are still unknown. People are known to gloss over when answering surveys, and they otherwise present themselves to their advantage in the way they want.

A tendency can be defined, for example, as the inclination to give answers that make the respondent look good. A person’s tendency to provide socially desirable answers is influenced by three factors:

1. The person’s actual personality or traits.

2. The person’s self-awareness; they may not know exactly what they are really like or may have difficulty comparing themselves to others.

3. Factors related to the person’s honesty or openness—how willingly they admit different aspects of themselves.

Embellishment can be a stable characteristic of the respondent or a temporary response influenced by the situation. It may be a fully conscious, situational behavior; a consistent strategy used across situations; an unconscious, personality-based pattern; or an insignificant, occasional phenomenon.

Reflection: Where does fear fit in? Doesn’t fear, such as fear of losing one’s job by answering honestly, influence embellishment?

Embellishment always requires two components: skill and motivation. Skill involves factors like sufficient intelligence, understanding the survey’s purpose, and knowing how to embellish convincingly and appropriately. Motivation is influenced by the nature of the inventory, including how transparent the questions are and whether responses are forced-choice or scaled.

Conscious impression management is the deliberate alteration of responses to present oneself in the best possible light. This is the most studied form of embellishment. Respondents are aware they are managing impressions, and this tendency increases when their names are associated with their answers. This style is relatively stable yet context-dependent.

Unconscious self-deception involves genuinely believing in one’s own excellence. It resembles optimism, self-confidence, positive self-assessment of mental health, and belief in competence. It divides into two types: emphasizing virtues and denying weaknesses. This form of embellishment arises from personality traits.

Embellishment can also be categorized by moral and egoistic biases, both of which can be conscious or unconscious:

• Moral bias involves exaggerating social virtues—appearing as especially pleasant, friendly, and morally upright while hiding flaws (the “saint” image).

• Egoistic bias involves exaggerating success, competence, and status—appearing as a “superhero” or “bragger.”

The content of embellishment matters more than whether it is conscious or unconscious. Individuals scoring high in unconscious embellishment often employ powerful, aggressive, and sometimes hostile strategies driven by a need for power and admiration—i.e., “superheroism.”

Researchers have tried to detect and reduce embellishment using validity scales embedded in inventories and techniques like pairing questions with equally favorable alternatives. However, such methods may lower the overall content score, reflecting differences in how respondents weight questionnaire items.

Other attempts include designing sections that obscure which traits are being measured, preventing respondents from knowing desirable answers. Warnings about embellishment reduce extreme responses when sections are transparent.

Mechanical corrections of scores to adjust for embellishment are common in occupational psychology but generally not recommended.

Embellishment is linked to personality traits, especially high conscientiousness and low neuroticism. Its relationship to job success is unclear: greater embellishment correlates with lower willingness to resign and higher supervisor ratings, but not with actual job performance. Embellishment does not affect the ability of personality traits to predict behavior, and there is no conclusive evidence that it undermines the validity of personality inventory results.

Section 14 — Strengthening personality resources

Written by Jukka Vuori.

Measures to increase self-efficacy have been shown to positively impact behavior and mental health. According to social learning theory, people actively interact with their environment to maximize positive feedback. Individuals strive to develop and maintain personality traits (such as control and self-esteem) and social conditions (such as a good position at work or close relationships) that enhance the likelihood of receiving positive feedback.

Personality resources and behaviors are often categorized into three areas: informational, managerial, and motivational. A key personality resource is the sense of coherence, which consists of three closely connected components:

• Intelligibility: the cognitive aspect of understanding and making sense of experiences.

• Controllability: the feeling of having the skills and resources to manage situations effectively.

• Meaningfulness: the motivation and willingness to engage in activities.

A person’s readiness to initiate action is influenced by three factors:

• A positive attitude toward the activity, which shapes beliefs and judgments about the action and its consequences (cognitive component).

• A sense of mastery over performing the action (managerial component).

• A perceived positive social norm, including others’ expectations and personal motivation to meet these expectations (motivational component).

For example, perceived job search ability reflects a person’s confidence in their skills related to job searching, such as finding job leads or securing interviews. Enhancing this perceived ability increases the likelihood of actively applying for jobs. However, boosting a sense of control must be accompanied by cognitive readiness and motivation to significantly increase activity.

Reflection: Currently, unemployed individuals are often blamed for their situation, and support measures tend to focus on improving employment statistics rather than enhancing individuals’ actual job-seeking abilities. A more effective approach might be to reverse the job search process—employers would select candidates based on centralized registers, requiring all job seekers to participate equally in such systems.

Frequent setbacks and unexpected obstacles can erode confidence and lead to discouragement. However, adversity can be anticipated and prepared for.

Preparing for adversity resembles learned resourcefulness in stress management. Readiness to act under uncertain conditions is a vital resource, especially when outcomes are unpredictable. As people gain experience managing stressful situations, they develop more stable defense mechanisms that include positive expectations and skills to successfully navigate challenges.

In interventions , it is important to base the measures on researched information, such as impact theories. For example, the threat of deterioration and subsequent deterioration of the financial situation associated with job loss has been shown to be associated with long-term mental health and other health indicators. In prolonged stressful situations , people at increased risk of depression are at risk of mental health problems if their unemployment is prolonged. When you find employment quickly, your mental well-being recovers relatively quickly. It is therefore important to promote the re-employment of those who have lost their jobs.

Reflection: Democritus (460–371 BC) said, “He is the happy one who does not mourn what he lacks, but rejoices in what he has.” This idea, when refined, can encourage the unemployed to live in the moment and appreciate their achievements. Of course, such a perspective challenges the norms of a society focused on maximizing productivity.

Stress experienced in working life is often best addressed by combining both individual and environmental interventions.

Developing effective interventions involves applying the latest scientific knowledge to practical settings. However, introducing new interventions in the workplace largely depends on assimilating this new knowledge, which can slow down their adoption and integration into everyday practice.

Measuring and evaluating an intervention’s effectiveness is crucial. This process verifies the underlying impact theory and clarifies assumptions regarding the target population.

When it comes to job searching, three key personality resources are essential in managing stressful situations:

• Information: Knowing effective job search strategies, such as how to find suitable vacancies or perform well in interviews.

• Functional skills: The ability to effectively use the information in practice.

• Motivation: The drive to initiate and sustain job search activities. Motivation increases when individuals:

Part 15 — The importance of personality when balancing work and family demands

Written by Saija Mauno and Ulla Kinnunen.

Personality traits can explain why it is so difficult for others to reconcile work and family. The conflict model means that the demands of work and family life are perceived as contradictory and interfering with each other.

The mechanisms are divided into factors related to time, stress or behaviour.

Behaviours can involve roles, such as sales-mindedness and assertiveness at work, and nurturing behaviour at home. Negative grafting means problem-orientation and emphasizes contradictions. Role reinforcement is about the opposite, how work could have a positive impact on family life and vice versa.

Certain personality traits can make individuals more sensitive to conflicts between work and family, which in turn may negatively impact their well-being. Moreover, these conflicts can sometimes trigger changes in personality traits, further influencing health and well-being. Conversely, certain personality characteristics may protect individuals from declines in well-being despite strong work-family conflicts.

Negative affectivity refers to a relatively stable tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety and to view one’s environment pessimistically. Type A behavior is characterized by persistent impatience and irritability (e.g., frustration in queues), high activity levels (juggling many tasks simultaneously), ambition, competitiveness, and difficulty relaxing.

Negative affectivity increases the likelihood of experiencing conflict and stress. Similarly, irritability—a hallmark of Type A behavior—heightens perceptions of work-family conflict and is a significant risk factor for various diseases.

Regarding the Big Five personality traits, only weak associations have been found between neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness with work-family conflicts.

Lower agreeableness tends to predict work-to-family conflict, while lower conscientiousness is linked to family-to-work conflict. Higher levels of extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and lower neuroticism predict a positive spillover or reinforcement between work and family life.

In occupational psychology, the theory of core interpretations of personality is used, which includes four key personality characteristics:

• Healthy self-esteem (a positive sense of self-worth)

• Strong self-efficacy (the belief that one can effectively influence and control events)

• Strong internal locus of control (the belief that outcomes depend primarily on one’s own actions rather than external factors)

• Low neuroticism (emotional stability and balance)

Negative affectivity and neuroticism predispose to conflicts between work and family. Internal control orientation has been found to be a personality resource that protects against conflicts between work and family.

Low neuroticism, strong conscientiousness, and amiability have been considered characteristic traits of a mature personality, protecting against conflict.

Part 16 — Personality and Family Relationships

Written by Riitta-Leena Metsäpelto and Ulla Kinnunen.

The saying “a bushel chooses” suggests that couples tend to resemble each other already during the courtship phase. However, this is not entirely confirmed when examining personality patterns. Couples tend to prioritize personality traits in their future partner that are similar to their own. For example, those who see themselves as open or agreeable often seek partners with the same qualities. They generally hope their partner will be more conscientious, extraverted, and agreeable than themselves. Emotionally balanced individuals tend to choose partners similar to themselves. Overall, partner selection seems to align more with “birds of a feather flock together” rather than “opposites attract.”

Neuroticism is strongly related to relationship quality. Negative emotions such as anxiety, worry, and depression—experienced by one or both partners—can poison the relationship. Neuroticism reduces spouses’ ability to enjoy their relationship. In contrast, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness contribute positively to relationship satisfaction.

Similarity in personality traits between partners predicts better relationship quality, especially in agreeableness and openness. However, research is mixed on whether partners become more alike over time.

A moderate amount of neuroticism may actually help maintain relationship quality, but the effects of similarity can vary. High neuroticism in both partners increases the risk of divorce, though other traits in the male partner (such as extraversion and low agreeableness) influence whether anxiety leads to divorce or results in passively enduring an unhappy marriage.

Personality factors alone do not determine relationship quality. Three main factors influence satisfaction and the risk of relationship breakdown:

1. The strengths and vulnerabilities that spouses bring to the relationship through their personality traits.

2. Stressful life events experienced together, such as parenting challenges or unemployment.

3. The daily adaptation processes, including how spouses manage disagreements, difficulties, and life transitions.

According to Jay Belsky, a parent’s psychological well-being and personality are the most important factors influencing upbringing. Parenthood requires maturity, especially in situations where the child behaves disobediently and against the wishes of the parent. In these situations, the parent’s strong control of negative emotions and the ability to tolerate the child’s anger and resistance are required.

Good self-esteem and the ability to take the other person’s point of view into account are linked to authoritative upbringing, which is characterized by a parent’s warm attitude towards their child, responding to the child’s needs, a guiding and conversational approach to upbringing, and performance expectations that take into account the child’s age level. This is called child-centred upbringing. In addition, parents’ ability to perceive and internalize the rules of social interaction, the ability to think multifacetedly, the tendency to tolerate the complexity of things, and the desire for objectivity help.

IIn families with seriously ill parents, children are considered a developmentally at-risk group due to both genetic predispositions and increased environmental stress triggered by the parent’s illness.

Among the Big Five personality traits, emotional instability (neuroticism) is linked to parenting style. Parents who frequently experience negative emotions tend to be less engaged in parenting or may exhibit negative, intrusive, or overcontrolling behaviors. In contrast, extraversion is generally associated with more positive parenting.

Professionals working with families—such as social workers, family therapists, and counselors—can particularly benefit from understanding these dynamics.

Part 17 — Creativity and wisdom as part of personality

Written by Isto Ruoppila.

Creativity refers to the ability to innovate, i.e. to invent something new and functional or valued, and to change the environment rather than passively adapt to it.

Wisdom refers to the ability to find solutions to life’s complex and explainable problems for which there is no single right solution, and to justify the solutions made. What distinguishes wise solutions from creative ones is that they are wise and workable not only for those who concern them, but also for other people and local communities. Creativity and wisdom are concepts in personality psychology that can be described as abilities-like qualities.

Creative thinking produces extraordinary outcomes— the ability to create something new, of high quality, whether material or intangible, and practically applicable. Creative activity involves developing ideas, objects, or tools that are novel within the creator’s social community. Such outputs influence the world, often making it a better place, although they can also be used destructively.

Finnish innovativeness ranks very high by international standards.

Creative outputs emerge from a complex interaction between the individual and their environment. People sharing the same cultural context typically recognize a creative output as such. Different sociocultural environments support creativity to varying degrees by providing material resources, stimuli, or inspiration.

An individual’s creativity depends on multiple factors, including cognitive abilities and styles, personality traits, motivation, accumulated knowledge, and the support and resources available in their physical and sociocultural environment.

The first stage of creative thinking is identifying or perceiving a problem, followed by defining the problem clearly, exploring possible solutions, and evaluating their potential consequences. Based on this evaluation, solutions are either accepted or rejected. Memory plays an important role throughout, even if these stages are not always consciously recognized.

Creativity is present in many people and is often described as an “aha” moment—an insight or sudden realization. This experience is closely related to the phenomenon of flow. Flow is a state of complete immersion in an activity, where a person is fully focused and engaged, losing awareness of time and external distractions. The activity itself is so rewarding that the person wishes to continue despite any costs, purely for the joy of doing it. In Finnish, flow is often translated as “kokemuksen virta” or “virtaus.”

Flow is typically associated with focused, convergent thinking, but creativity also involves divergent thinking—the ability to generate many different ideas or possibilities by exploring various alternatives.

The peak years of creativity occur either in early middle age or middle age, but can also persist in middle age. Creativity is also linked to expertise in the field.

In different fields of science and art, the differences in the peak periods of creativity are explained by flexible and fast learning and, on the other hand, by the accumulation of crystallized intelligence, i.e. an extensive repository of knowledge.

Reflection: The video RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms from 2010 takes an interesting look at how children can think divergently, but the school system with its tests reduces divergent intelligence a lot.

Age can positively influence problem definition, strategy selection, and the ability to recall and compare relevant information. For example, parents may combine data more effectively than younger individuals.

However, a high level of creativity also requires a broad knowledge base, regardless of the field, and the general development of thinking skills typically supports the creative process.

On the downside, aging may bring challenges such as reduced cognitive flexibility, slower differentiated thinking, and difficulties in maintaining selective attention. Consequently, producing creative output often takes older individuals more time than younger ones. Creativity can also be limited by increased self-criticism and a tendency to avoid risks.

Young people’s creativity tends to be analytical—discriminating and objective—while older adults often take a more synthetic approach, gathering and combining diverse ideas. Youth challenge and renew traditions, whereas older individuals tend to blend different traditions and emphasize subjective experience.

Creative thinking is supported by exercising cognitive functions, social encouragement, and self-confidence from one’s immediate environment.

Personality traits favorable to creativity include a willingness to overcome difficulties, readiness to take risks, tolerance for ambiguity, strong self-belief, and intrinsic motivation—being interested in the task for its own sake rather than for external rewards.

Creativity is linked to intelligence, though the connection is modest. Different types of intelligence relate differently to various forms of creativity: linguistic intelligence is more closely associated with artistic creativity, while mathematical intelligence aligns more with scientific creativity.

Among the Big Five personality traits, openness to experience is most strongly linked to creative output. Openness is characterized by artistry, curiosity, risk-taking, perseverance, and a strong drive to find functional solutions. Its influence on creativity is most pronounced when time pressure is moderate and social support is ample.

Creative individuals typically score higher in openness, hypomanic tendencies, intellectual curiosity, and perseverance.

Common characteristics of creative people include imagination, complexity, innovation, energy, self-confidence, broad hobbies, identifying as artists or researchers, and a strong desire for knowledge.

Scientific creativity often involves intrinsic motivation, risk-taking, and divergent thinking. Extraversion is associated with creativity generally, while neuroticism relates more to artistic than scientific creativity. Personality traits account for approximately 25–30% of the differences in creativity among individuals, which is significantly more than what intelligence measures explain (Batey & Furnham, 2006; Ivcevic & Mayer, 2006).

Wisdom addresses significant and challenging questions of life and human conditions. It represents profound, broad-based, and balanced knowledge applied appropriately to specific situations. Wisdom benefits oneself and others, combining intellect and character.

Though wisdom is difficult to attain, it is often easily recognized in others. People usually identify others as wise rather than naming themselves as such. Wisdom is frequently directed toward the welfare of others.

Key hallmarks of wisdom include:

• Understanding the prerequisites, meaning, and limits of knowledge.

• Resisting one’s own perspective to understand others’ viewpoints.

• Grounding solutions in justice.

• Appreciating ambiguity and obstacles.

• Seeking to understand the nature and significance of knowledge.

• Demonstrating depth of understanding through consideration of context such as time and place.

In Robert Sternberg’s Wisdom Balance Theory, wisdom, intelligence, and creativity together form an integrated whole. Wisdom is viewed as the practical aspect of intelligence combined with creativity. In this framework, intelligence represents the thesis, creativity the antithesis, and wisdom the synthesis. The core concept underlying this is tacit knowledge—the implicit understanding gained through experience. Wisdom is considered a rare and valuable talent.

The theory emphasizes a strong moral component, highlighting the achievement of the common good as a central goal.

Wisdom is thought to encompass:

• An accumulation of factual knowledge.

• A wealth of procedural knowledge.

• Understanding and acknowledging the contextual nature of life’s course.

• Acceptance of the relativity of values.

• Acceptance of uncertainty in solutions.

Research shows no significant difference in wisdom between men and women.

Wisdom is particularly important when solving everyday problems. However, empirical information about how wisdom manifests throughout life remains limited. For example, the psychological well-being and resilience of disabled war veterans may be interpreted as manifestations of life wisdom, as they have faced numerous profound life changes affecting multiple areas of their existence.

As wisdom is often associated with advanced age—and with populations aging globally—the number of elderly wise individuals is expected to increase.

Reflection: Could this be one reason why older people often occupy parliamentary and decision-making roles? Does voting behavior reflect an appreciation of wisdom, or is it more driven by emotional decision-making? How might wisdom be measured or identified reliably?

Postformal Thinking in Neo-Piagetian Theory

Postformal thinking refers to the capacity to formulate truth criteria that take into account diverse values and viewpoints. It involves recognizing the genuine complexity and diversity of social systems and communities, along with the relativity inherent in them. This type of thinking is described as dialectical or relativistic, requiring tolerance for multiple truths and the integration of cognitive and emotional processes.

Reflection: Does this concept relate to the combination of divergent thinking and multifinality (the idea that one cause can lead to multiple outcomes)?

Wisdom is linked to intelligence, whereas creativity has a weaker connection to intelligence. Creativity tends to be domain-specific—often limited to a profession or hobby and sometimes narrow in scope—whereas wisdom encompasses many areas of life. Both wisdom and creativity develop through study, learning, and diverse life experiences.

In creativity tests, creative individuals often outperform wise individuals. The distinction between the creative and the wise aligns with everyday understanding: wisdom is relatively rare, while the number of creative people varies depending on the criteria used to define creativity.

Part 18 — From child to adult, but how and how? Development and social perspective on personality

Written by Lea Pulkkinen.

Temperament, Personality, and Development in Children

In the past, children were often seen as “tabula rasa” — blank slates shaped entirely by their environment. Today, we recognize clear temperament differences among children:

• Initiative: Characterizes children who are active, readily approach new people and situations, and express positive emotions.

• Predominance of Negative Emotions: Describes children who have difficulty calming down after distressing events and who often show sadness, irritability, or fearfulness.

• Easy-to-Calm: Babies who soothe easily when held, maintain attention, and remain content in calm settings. In preschoolers, this corresponds to control aspiration, involving behavioral regulation.

These temperament patterns relate closely to the five-factor model of personality:

• Initiative forms the basis for extraversion, reflecting energy, sociability, and expressiveness.

• Predominance of negative emotions is linked to neuroticism, characterized by anxiety, mood swings, fearfulness, and poor stress tolerance.

• The quest for control underlies conscientiousness and positivity:

• Openness to new experiences is marked by eagerness to learn, curiosity, imagination, originality, and rapid assimilation of information.

Children with high extraversion combined with high neuroticism—i.e., reactive children with poor self-control—are at risk of externalizing problem behaviors, including aggression and rule-breaking, which may lead to antisocial tendencies. This pattern is more typical among boys.

Aggression can trigger a cycle of difficulties: school maladaptation during adolescence, reluctance to study, limited professional options, and heavy alcohol use—all of which raise the risk of long-term unemployment in adulthood.

Conversely, withdrawn and neurotic children who are anxious or prone to depression face higher risks of internalizing problems, such as depression and other mental health challenges. This pattern is more typical among girls.

The combination of extraversion and strong self-control provides a strong foundation for leadership and career development, especially in extroverted social contexts. Women’s career progress often depends on early adolescence development of active, socially constructive behaviors.

Meanwhile, the combination of strong self-control and withdrawal/adaptability predicts positive, restrained adult behavior, associated with good social adjustment, career success, and lower rates of alcoholism and depression.

Alcohol Use and Early Influences

Young people’s alcohol use is linked to parental substance use and a lack of child-centered upbringing. Early drinking predicts adult problem drinking and is tied to self-control issues manifesting as early as middle school. Notably, starting alcohol consumption before age 13 raises the risk of problem drinking in middle age by fourfold compared to starting at age 18.

Virtues and Temperance

Temperance rests on four classical virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation—found across many religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Additionally, Christianity adds virtues like faith, hope, and love.

Each virtue encompasses character strengths. Moderation guards against extremes, with strengths such as forgiveness (counteracting anger), modesty (counteracting arrogance), prudence (counteracting impulsivity and risk-taking), and self-control (counteracting emotional and behavioral impulses).

Genetics, Environment, and Behavior

Personality traits are partially explained by genetics, which can be amplified or suppressed by environmental factors. For instance, about half of the variation in self-control is heritable.

Public discourse often overly focuses on parental financial status as the root of children’s behavioral problems, neglecting other important environmental influences such as:

• Exposure to toxins (e.g., lead, PCP, mercury).

• Prenatal exposures like maternal smoking and alcohol consumption.

• Noise pollution (traffic, loud music).

• Overcrowding in homes and daycare centers.

• Chaotic family life.

• Lack of supportive social environment.

• Large school size and poor school climate.

One-sided economic emphasis in child welfare policies ignores these important factors that influence well-being.

School Environment and Child Development

Research supports the benefits of small schools: better academic performance, more positive attitudes toward school, fewer behavioral problems, stronger school commitment, and higher parental engagement. These factors have long-lasting impacts on children’s futures.

In Nordic countries like Finland, parental socio-economic status explains fewer differences in child outcomes than in countries like the U.S. Extreme poverty, however, does transmit parental suffering to children. Financial stress can impair parenting quality, which is linked to poorer emotional, behavioral, learning, and physical outcomes in children.

Long-Term Effects of Childhood Self-Control

Children’s early efforts at self-control predict adult social and psychological functioning. Good self-regulation supports positive social relationships, societal adaptation, and effective task management. Many adult behavioral traits can be traced back to childhood patterns.

Individual behavioral tendencies also influence societal issues, such as moderation in addressing climate change and other collective challenges.

In summary, this was roughly the content of the book. The book is written in Finnish and is worth reading.

Disclaimer: This text is translated from Finnish to English. In Finnish, these texts have not garnered much interest over the years. However, translated into English, they seem to attract attention, even though they contain some amusing translation errors.

Book in Finnish: Meitä on moneksi — Persoonallisuuden psykologiset perusteet. Riitta-Leena Metsäpelto & Taru Feldt (toim.) PS-Kustannus, JYVÄSKYLÄ.