Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

The present study used meta-analytic techniques (number of samples = 92) to determine the patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course. Results showed that people increase in measures of social dominance (a facet of extraversion), conscientiousness, and emotional stability, especially in young adulthood (age 20 to 40). In contrast, people increase on measures of social vitality (a 2nd facet of extraversion) and openness in adolescence but then decrease in both of these domains in old age. Agreeableness changed only in old age. Of the 6 trait categories, 4 demonstrated significant change in middle and old age. Gender and attrition had minimal effects on change, whereas longer studies and studies based on younger cohorts showed greater change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of normal and disordered personality across the life span.

Debate continues about whether personality, both normal and disordered, can change significantly or is mainly stable across the life span. One issue that receives little attention is the degree to which personality stability coefficients may be influenced by attenuation due to measurement error. The current meta-analysis examines the data from recent research on personality stability, reporting both uncorrected and corrected stability coefficients. Attenuation due to measurement error was found to cause a significant reduction in personality stability coefficients, raising the possibility that some studies may conflate personality change with measurement error. Overall, corrected stability coefficients suggested that the stability of personality across adulthood is high, with only modest change. By contrast, personality during childhood is significantly more changeable. Both normal personality and personality disorders were highly stable across the life span, and patients in therapy experienced no more personality change than did nonpatients. Cross-cultural comparisons suggested relatively similar levels of personality stability cross-culturally, although personality stability among people in South Pacific nations is slightly lower than among those in the United States, Canada, or European nations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in psychopathic traits as measured via normal-range personality: A longitudinal-biometric study.

The discriminant validity of the interpersonal-affective and social deviance traits of psychopathy has been well documented. However, few studies have explored whether these traits follow distinct or comparable developmental paths. The present study used the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, in press) to examine the development of the psychopathic traits of Fearless Dominance (i.e., interpersonal-affective) and Impulsive Antisociality (i.e., social deviance) from late adolescence to early adulthood in a longitudinal- epidemiological sample of male and female twins. Results from mean- and individual-level analyses revealed stability in Fearless Dominance from late adolescence to early adulthood, whereas Impulsive Antisociality declined over this developmental period. In addition, biometric findings indicated greater genetic contributions to stability in these traits and greater nonshared environmental contributions to their change over time. Collectively, these findings suggest distinct developmental trends for psychopathic traits from late adolescence to early adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narrating personality change.

The present research investigated the longitudinal relations between personality traits and narratives. Specifically, the authors examined how individual differences in 170 college students' narratives of personality change (a) were predicted by personality traits at the beginning of college, (b) related to actual changes and perceived changes in personality traits during college, and (c) related to changes in emotional health during college. Individual differences in narratives of personality trait change told in the 4th year of college fell into 2 dimensions: affective processing, characterized by positive emotions, and exploratory processing, characterized by meaning making and causal processing. Conscientious, open, and extraverted freshmen told exploratory stories of change as seniors. Emotionally healthy freshmen told stories of change that were high in positive affect. Both positive affective and exploratory stories corresponded to change in emotional stability and conscientiousness during college above and beyond the effects of perceived changes in these traits. In addition, both positive affective and exploratory narratives corresponded to increases in emotional health during college independent of the effects of changes in personality traits. These findings improve our understanding of how individuals conceptualize their changing identity over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality traits change in adulthood: Reply to Costa and McCrae (2006).

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae (see record 2006-00818-002) on the current authors' original article (see record 2006-00818-001), the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure of personality traits are needed and explain why the Revised NEO Personality Inventory is not the correct model for that purpose. The authors provide direct evidence refuting the hypothesis that personality traits change only because of biologically based intrinsic maturation. The authors present arguments supporting the contention that meta-analyses should be preferred to single longitudinal studies when drawing inferences about general patterns of personality development. Finally, the authors point out why the differences between their position and Costa and McCrae's are important. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature and nurture of the interplay between personality traits and major life goals.

Modern personality theories differ in their assumptions about the structure and etiology of the interplay between personality traits and motivational constructs. The present study examined the genetic and environmental sources of the interplay between the Big Five and major life goals concurrently and across time in order to provide a more decisive evaluation of the conflicting assumptions stated in the five-factor theory as opposed to socioanalytic conceptions. Traits and goals were assessed twice across a 5-year period in a sample of 217 identical and 112 fraternal twin pairs from the Bielefeld Longitudinal Study of Adult Twins. About 30% of the variance in agency and communion life goals was genetic; the remaining variance was due to nonshared environmental effects, whereas shared environmental effects were negligible. Both heritable and environmental variance in goals could partly be accounted for by genetic and nonshared environmental effects on personality traits. Across time, we revealed reciprocal genetic and environmental effects between traits and life goals. In sum, our findings yield partial support for both of the 2 competing personality theories, suggesting a readjusted picture of the interplay between traits and goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Five-factor model personality traits and the retirement transition: Longitudinal and cross-sectional associations.

The authors examined associations between 5-factor personality traits and retirement in a diverse community sample. Longitudinal analyses (n = 367) compared personality trajectories of participants who remained employed and participants who retired. Personality at baseline did not predict future retirement, but compared to participants who remained employed, retirees increased in Agreeableness and decreased in Activity, a facet of Extraversion. In cross-sectional analyses among retirees (n = 144), those low in Neuroticism and high in Extraversion reported higher retirement satisfaction, and those high in Extraversion reported higher postretirement activity levels. Findings suggest that the trait perspective contributes to the understanding of the retirement process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Développement des traits de personnalité au cours de la vie: Continuité ou changement?

The trait approach to personality has now attained an important scientific status and traits are now generally considered as fundamental measurement units of human personality. However, some conceptual and methodological problems have to be resolved, notably the weakness of the developmental postulates of this approach. Understanding the development of traits across the life course is important for both theoretical formulation and guiding preventive and clinical interventions. Despite some recent promising theoretical formulations, a review of the most commonly known trait theories reveals that this approach is still not sufficiently embodied in a comprehensive developmental perspective taking into account the entire life course. This article highlights that different forms of continuity can be studied and that each requires a specific developmental postulate. The potential usefulness of studying these different forms of continuity in improving the trait approach is discussed, some methodological issues are raised, and six developmental postulates are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in five personality domains across the life span.

The present study addresses the issue of age differences in 5 personality domains across the life span in a cross-sectional study. In contrast to most previous studies, the present study follows a methodologically more rigorous approach to warrant that age-related differences in personality structure and mean level can be meaningfully compared. It uses data on 50 items of the Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) available from a study in a large and representative Dutch sample (N = 2,494; age range: 16 to 91 years) conducted in 1996 for the purpose of establishing norms for the FFPI. After having established strict measurement invariance, tests were made for factor covariances to be equal across age groups, revealing structural continuity of personality. Additionally, factor variances were shown to be equal across age groups. A number of age differences in the mean level of the five personality domains emerged. Specifically, older adults were, on average, more agreeable and, especially, more conscientious than middle-aged and younger adults. Findings from our study suggest that both continuity and change may mark personality over the course of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change?

Different theories make different predictions about how mean levels of personality traits change in adulthood. The biological view of the Five-factor theory proposes the plaster hypothesis: All personality traits stop changing by age 30. In contrast, contextualist perspectives propose that changes should be more varied and should persist throughout adulthood. This study compared these perspectives in a large (N=132,515) sample of adults aged 21-60 who completed a Big Five personality measure on the Internet. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness increased throughout early and middle adulthood at varying rates; Neuroticism declined among women but did not change among men. The variety in patterns of change suggests that the Big Five traits are complex phenomena subject to a variety of developmental influences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interrelationships among measures of field dependence, ability, and personality traits.

This study was devised to test the validity of findings of previous research with regard to the personality correlates of performance on Witkin's (1954) measures of field dependence (FD). The results (with a sample of college Ss) suggest that the Embedded Figure Test (EFT) and the Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT) do not necessarily measure the same cognitive or personality factors. Previous findings were not, to a considerable extent, duplicated; some personality correlates were not found to be related to either EFT or RFT. FD people were characterized by a tendency to react with affective disruption and intellectual deficit to an external situation that lacks clear structure. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HA27E. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability and change of personality across the life course: The impact of age and major life events on mean-level and rank-order stability of the Big Five.

Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided 4 main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60 and decreasing afterward, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

College-educated women's personality development in adulthood: Perceptions and age differences.

Adulthood encompasses a large time span and includes a series of psychosocial challenges (E. H. Erikson, 1950). Five aspects of personality (identity certainty, confident power, concern with aging, generativity, and personal distress) were assessed in a cross-sectional study of college-educated women who at the time of data collection were young adults (age: M = 26 years), middle-aged adults (age: M = 46 years), or older adults (age: M = 66 years). Respondents rated each personality domain for how true it was of them at the time, and they then rated the other 2 ages either retrospectively or prospectively. Results are discussed with attention to the ways in which women's adult development may have been shaped by experiences particular to both gender and birth cohort, and to how these women fit with E. H. Erikson's theory of adult development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The association of neighborhood poverty with personality change in childhood.

The child sample of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n.d.) was analyzed to examine the relation of undesirable personality change in early childhood to neighborhood economic deprivation. Participants in the survey who had complete data at Time 1 (3-4 years of age) and Time 2 (5-6 years of age) and who remained in the same neighborhood during both time periods were included in the analyses. The results indicated that neighborhood economic disadvantage was associated with undesirable personality change even after controlling for family-level variables such as maternal education, family income, and cognitive and emotional support in the home environment for children. The association of personality change with neighborhood economic deprivation was not mediated by maternal depression, Head Start participation, cognitive and emotional support in the home, or maternal trust in the neighborhood. The authors discuss recommendations for future investigations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in big five behavior averages and variabilities across the adult life span: Moving beyond retrospective, global summary accounts of personality.

In 3 intensive cross-sectional studies, age differences in behavior averages and variabilities were examined. Three questions were posed: Does variability differ among age groups? Does the sizable variability in young adulthood persist throughout the life span? Do past conclusions about trait development, based on trait questionnaires, hold up when actual behavior is examined? Three groups participated: young adults (18–23 years), middle-aged adults (35–55 years), and older adults (65–81 years). In 2 experience-sampling studies, participants reported their current behavior multiple times per day for 1- or 2-week spans. In a 3rd study, participants interacted in standardized laboratory activities on 8 occasions. First, results revealed a sizable amount of intraindividual variability in behavior for all adult groups, with average within-person standard deviations ranging from about half a point to well over 1 point on 6-point scales. Second, older adults were most variable in Openness, whereas young adults were most variable in Agreeableness and Emotional Stability. Third, most specific patterns of maturation-related age differences in actual behavior were more greatly pronounced and differently patterned than those revealed by the trait questionnaire method. When participants interacted in standardized situations, personality differences between young adults and middle-aged adults were larger, and older adults exhibited a more positive personality profile than they exhibited in their everyday lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I'm better off than most other people: The role of social comparisons for coping with regret in young adulthood and old age.

This longitudinal study was designed to examine the importance of social comparisons for coping with regret among young and older adults. It was expected that making downward social comparisons would be associated with a greater reduction in regret intensity over time among older, compared with young, adults. A total of 104 participants took part in this 4-month longitudinal study. The findings suggest that across different comparison targets, making downward (relative to upward) social comparisons was consistently related to reduced regret intensity over time among older adults. Among young adults, making downward social comparisons with personally known others, as opposed to age peers, was associated with lower regret intensity. In addition, older adults increased their reliance on downward social comparisons over time. This age-differential shift toward downward social comparisons further explained age differences in changes of regret intensity over time. Finally, differences in opportunities to undo regrets explained some of the age differences in the use and adaptive value of downward social comparisons. The implications of the findings for understanding and examining pathways to successful development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stability of personality traits in individuals with borderline personality disorder.

Although stability and pervasive inflexibility are general criteria for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) personality disorders (PDs), borderline PD (BPD) is characterized by instability in several domains, including interpersonal behavior, affect, and identity. The authors hypothesized that such inconsistencies notable in BPD may relate to instability at the level of the basic personality traits that are associated with this disorder. Five types of personality trait stability across 4 assessments over 6 years were compared for BPD patients (N = 130 at first interval) and patients with other PDs (N = 302). Structural stability did not differ across groups. Differential stability tended to be lower for 5-factor model (FFM) traits in the BPD group, with the strongest and most consistent effects observed for Neuroticism and Conscientiousness. Growth curve models suggested that these 2 traits also showed greater mean-level change, with Neuroticism declining faster and Conscientiousness increasing faster, in the BPD group. The BPD group was further characterized by greater individual-level instability for Neuroticism and Conscientiousness in these models. Finally, the BPD group was less stable in terms of the ipsative configuration of FFM facet-level profiles than was the other PD group over time. Results point to the importance of personality trait instability in characterizing BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age changes in personality and their origins: Comment on Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006).

Comments on the original article "Patterns of Mean-Level Change in Personality Traits Across the Life Course: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies," by B. W. Roberts, K. W. Walton, and W. Viechtbauer (see record 2006-00818-001). Although Roberts et al depicted the present authors as proponents of the immutability of traits, in fact we have always acknowledged the possibility of change, and we are pleased that the results of their meta-analysis are consistent with our conclusions about modest change after age 30. We agree with B.W. Roberts et al that analyses should be conducted at the level of more specific traits, but prefer the 30 facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory to the Social Dominance-Social Vitality distinction. The origins of age changes might be found either in environmental influences common to all cultures or in biologically based intrinsic maturation; we offer some reasons for preferring the latter interpretation. Meta-analyses are useful but not definitive, and the resolution of the origin question lies in further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)