Pages

Friday 27 January 2023

Personality and psychosocial maturity

A career development student, noting a number of test requirements for participants to be aged over 18 years, asked me when our clients become mature enough for testing. It is a really good question.

Firstly, what is personality? It is "the set of unseen characteristics and processes [which] underlie a relatively stable pattern of behaviour in response to ideas, objects, and people in the environment" (Daft, 2008, p. 98). So when our development seems to slow down and get more predictable. But how do we know when our personality is actually 'mature'? Well, we tend to use psychosocial maturity as a proxy for maturity, showing as three "capacities", or "general demands made by all societies on individuals. They are (1) the capacity to function effectively on one's own, or individual adequacy; (2) the capacity to interact adequately with others, or interpersonal adequacy; and (3) the capacity to contribute to social cohesion, or social adequacy (Greenberger et al., 1975, p. 128). So once we can be independent, conduct good interpersonal communication, and fit in, we are probably roughly mature. Roughly.

The field of psychology seemed to once 'assume' that our personality was relatively stable - so therefore mature - when we were aged around 25 years. But do our personalities roughly mature at 25? Well, maybe. 

The development and use of fMRI machines has finally allowed us a glimpse under the hood - so to speak - and we are now realising just how much we do not know about the brain. Some still put maturation as high as 30. For example, instead of being set like concrete our "personality is [...] like 'soft' plaster, [and] does change, albeit only marginally, beyond 30 and across the entire life cycle" (Boyce et al., 2013, p. 289). However, others put this earlier, as "young people may not reach levels of adult maturity until the age of 21 and are developing skills in this domain predominantly between the ages of 16 and 19" (Bryan-Hancock & Casey, 2010, p. 59). What is also quite interesting is that our levels of responsibility and "reasonably foreseeable"-ness changes: research has found that participants "in the 25-year-old group were significantly more inclined to take responsibility for their actions and view behaviours in the long term" (Bryan-Hancock & Casey, 2010, p. 66). I think we can give people tests, but must allow for this being an 'at the present time' test, rather like measuring height against a wall: that it is likely to change the next time we measure it. 

We still need to allow for some level of plasticity, of malleability, in the personalities of our younger career clients. This then will translate into what assessment instruments we may suggest our clients undertake, and how we interpret the results of any tests that are used. So, if we are working with young adults in secondary school or at university, we need to use not only our judgement of their maturity, but fully understand the test guidelines. 

We must ensure that we are professional in our recommendations, that we do not deliver any test which we are not specifically trained for, because we need to be open with our clients about our level of expertise. The CDANZ COE states that members will "Represent services, qualifications, and experience accurately and fully, and only undertake those practices for which they are qualified and in circumstances where they have appropriate experience" (2016).

The answer about being mature? It as you can see, it depends.


Sam

References:

Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., & Powdthavee, N. (2013). Is personality fixed? Personality changes as much as “variable” economic factors and more strongly predicts changes to life satisfaction. Social Indicators Research, 111(1), 287-305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0006-z

Bryan-Hancock, C., & Casey, S. (2010). Psychological Maturity of At-Risk Juveniles, Young Adults and Adults: Implications for the Justice System. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 17(1), 57-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218710903268006

CDANZ (2016). Code of Ethics. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://cdanz.org.nz/ModularPage?Action=View&ModularPage_id=26

Daft, R. L. (2008). The Leadership Experience (4th ed.). Thomson South-Western.

Greenberger, E., Josselson, R., Knerr, C., & Knerr, B. (1975). The measurement and structure of psychosocial maturity. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 4(2), 127-143. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537437

2 comments :

  1. An organization with a clearly communicated purpose should enable a variety of personalities to coalesce around a mission allowing for a healthy mix of personalities to find there way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes: great point. There should be a healthy mix. But what is interesting is that much of the testing - sorting hats! - tends to give us sameness, not difference.

      Delete

Thanks for your feedback. The elves will post it shortly.