Overview

Personality and emotional development shape how individuals understand themselves and relate to others. These aspects of development begin in infancy and evolve through adulthood, influenced by temperament, relationships, culture, and life experience.

Key Themes and Concepts

• Temperament: Early-appearing patterns of behavior and reactivity. Often categorized as easy, difficult, or slow-to-warm-up. Influences emotional responses and later personality.
• Freud’s Psychosexual Theory: Personality forms through stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) driven by unconscious conflicts and early experiences.
• Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory: Lifespan theory of eight stages, each marked by a conflict (e.g., trust vs. mistrust, identity vs. role confusion). Success at each stage leads to healthy personality outcomes.
• Emotional Expression and Regulation: Infants express basic emotions; by age 2, they begin regulating responses. Emotional regulation continues developing into adulthood.
• Emotional Intelligence: Involves recognizing, understanding, and managing one’s own emotions and those of others. Linked to social competence and well-being.
• Stability and Change: Personality traits tend to be stable over time, but life events, relationships, and developmental tasks can lead to meaningful change.
• Attribution Styles: How individuals explain successes and failures (e.g., internal vs. external) affects motivation, emotion, and mental health.

Quick Tip

Know the differences between Freud’s and Erikson’s theories, and understand temperament, emotional development, and the stability of traits. CLEP questions may use stage-based or emotional scenarios.