What is personality development theory about?
Personality development theory proposes that personality is not static and changes by moving through sequential stages over time, based on socio-historical and age related factors (Hoyer and Roodin 2003). The approach has been criticised because of its emphasis on crisis, Westernised perspective (Hoyer and Roodin 2003), assumption that individuals move forward through the model (Tennant & Pogson 1995), over simplifying life experience (Boud Cohen and Walker 1993) and that the goal is to reach an endpoint. Despite such criticisms, many of which are more recent and suggest a gradual shift in thinking around the issue, the stage approach is still commonly recognised in adult development texts (Hansen Lemme 1990, Arnett 2000, Hoyer and Roodin 2003). There are numerous approaches to analysing and testing personality, and the stage approach to personality development is the most relevant for the purposes of this comparison because it focuses on age, which connects it with generation analysis
