The persistent power of childhood personality traits…
Saturday, February 3, 2024.
There’s a famous scene in the Godfather Part II, that shows Sonny Corleone as a little boy in a sailor suit trying to box with a cowering adult…
A child’s aggressive, or humble nature just might be more revelatory how they will tend to express the future adult version of themselves
Many human personality traits can be traced in a direct, behavioral through-line from childhood to maturity, according to recent research.
For example, if your child has unusually high verbal fluency, it’s indicative of measurably higher intelligence many decades later.
Other highlights from the study include…
Kids who are talkative, tend to present as verbally fluent and garrulous as adults.
Kids who are humble and shy, will tend to be self-effacing as adults.
Impulsive kids develop into impulsive adults.
How the study was conducted
The conclusions come from research on 2,400 children in Hawaii whose personalities were rated.
144 of these study subjects were tracked down and interviewed about 40 years later.
Dr. Christopher S. Nave, the study’s first author, explained the results:
“We remain recognizably the same person.
This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts.”
The four personality traits the researchers examined in the children were some of the biggies…verbal fluency, adaptability… impulsivity… and humility…
The research indicated that adults shared many traits with the children they had been forty years prior.
Humans who were rated as adaptable as kidos, tended to become upbeat and intellectually curious adults.
However, those not socially fluid and adaptable as kids, tended to remain awkward and say negative things about themselves as adults.
Those who self-minimized as children, also tended to express humility and insecurity as adults.
Verbal fluency as children translated into socially adept and dominant behaviour as adults.
Those who were not verbally fluent as children tended to give up when faced with problems as adults and seek advice from other humans.
Finally, impulsive young folks tended to grow up into adults who spoke loudly, and had a wide range of interests.
Children rated as regulated and non-impulsive, grew up to become the sort of adults who were mostly timid or fearful, and frequently expressing feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.
Dr. Nave said:
“We think that personality resides within us.
It’s a part of us, a part of our biology.
Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well.”
Who we truly are can be obscured, but never reliably hidden.
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Nave, C. S., Sherman, R. A., Funder, D. C., Hampson, S. E., & Goldberg, L. R. (2010). On the Contextual Independence of Personality: Teachers’ Assessments Predict Directly Observed Behavior After Four Decades. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(4), 327-334. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610370717
