Keynote Address/Opening Ceremony

Can Personality Be Changed?

Carol S. Dweck
Stanford University

Abstract
Intellectual wars have been waged over the origin, nature, and malleability of personality. Are personality and character best seen in terms of deep-seated and immutable traits, or is meaningful change possible? If change is possible, what are the theoretical traditions that predict it and what is the research that supports it? I will present an array of research on targeted interventions that created important change in key aspects of personality. I will discuss the mechanisms through which change occurred, and I will describe a view of personality that encompasses these changes.