The development of self-definition and relatedness from adolescence through adulthood

Self-definition and relatedness are fundamental personality developmental tasks that engage individuals across the entire lifespan (Blatt, 1974, Blatt & Luyten, 2009; Luyten & Blatt, 2013). Healthy psychological maturation requires the development of a sense of self that is differentiated, integrated, and positive, and the ability to form close interpersonal relationships that are mature, intimate, mutually satisfying, and reciprocal. A failure or delay in the development of self-definition contributes to the development of a personality trait labelled self-criticism, whereas a failure or delay in the development of relatedness contributes to the development of a personality style labelled dependency. This thesis expands contributes to our knowledge of personality development across the lifespan. In articles 1 and 2, 200 young adults completed measures of recalled parenting and peer relationships as well as a measure of their current levels of self-criticism and dependency. In article 1, I provide the first evidence that highly self-critical young adults recall higher levels of peer victimization in adolescence, over and above their recalled parenting experiences. In article 2, I extend this to dependency by showing that highly dependent young adults recall poorer quality attachments to their peers during adolescence, again over and above their experiences with their parents. In order to longitudinally confirm the effects of a variety of experiences (e.g., parents, peers, romantic partners, siblings, and academic achievement) on dependency and self-criticism in adolescence, I then examine the effects of these experiences on change in dependency and self-criticism, and the role these two personality factors play in the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms. In article 3, 276 early adolescents completed a measure of self-criticism and dependency as well as measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline and again two years later. Every three months during the study interval, they completed measures of common negative life events and hassles. Results showed that events coded as self-definitional uniquely predicted increases in self-criticism, which in turn predicted increases in depressive symptoms. In contrast, events coded as relatedness-oriented uniquely predicted increases in dependency, which in turn uniquely predicted the development of anxiety symptoms.Finally, in study 4, I provide the first test of lifespan developmental hypotheses of self-definition and relatedness. One Canadian sample and one multicultural sample ranging in age from 18 to 59 completed measures of self-criticism, dependency, neuroticism, agreeableness, and depressive symptoms. Results showed that, adjusting for depressive symptoms as well as neuroticism and agreeableness, older age was linearly associated with improvements in both self-definition and relatedness from age 18 to 59. This pattern of age-related differences was seen in both Western and Eastern cultural samples, suggesting that effects are due to change over time, rather than cohort effects. I then discuss the contributions of these studies to our understanding of personality development across the lifespan. In particular, results suggest that that a variety of developmental experiences, including peers, parents, romantic partners, and academic accomplishments, affect personality development. Furthermore, personality development may affected by experiences that are congruent with specific personality factors. Finally, results suggest that personality is not set by a certain age, but rather continues to evolve across adulthood. I also propose potential explanations for the variety of effects shown. I address the limitations to these studies, and conclude by outlining avenues for future research, as well as the implications of these findings for clinical interventions.

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