Personality and social change: Individual differences, life path, and importance attributed to the Women's Movement

This article identifies antecedent characteristics of individuals who found the women's movement important and then shows how finding it important was associated with personality change. Eighty-six women provided personality and life data as college seniors in 1958 or 1960, prior to the onset of the women's movement, and in 1981, after the movement gained momentum. A combination of openness, ambition, and dissatisfaction, as assessed by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; H. Cough, 1957/1996) in college, and subsequent life path from ages 28 to 43 significantly predicted importance attributed to the women's movement (IWM). On CPI scales, IWM was associated with significant increases on scales including Dominance, Self-Acceptance, Empathy, Psychological Mindedness, and Achievement via Independence. Correlates of IWM with self-reported feelings at ages 33 and 43 and observer-based personality ratings at age 43 supplemented analyses of personality change. Findings support the utility of examining the impact of social change on personality.