Personality Trait Change in Adulthood

ABSTRACT— Recent longitudinal and cross-sectional aging research has shown that personality traits continue to change in adulthood. In this article, we review the evidence for mean-level change in personality traits, as well as for individual differences in change across the life span. In terms of mean-level change, people show increased self-confidence, warmth, self-control, and emotional stability with age. These changes predominate in young adulthood (age 20–40). Moreover, mean-level change in personality traits occurs in middle and old age, showing that personality traits can change at any age. In terms of individual differences in personality change, people demonstrate unique patterns of development at all stages of the life course, and these patterns appear to be the result of specific life experiences that pertain to a person's stage of life.     

A random walk down university avenue: life paths, life events, and personality trait change at the transition to university life

This longitudinal study examined the relation between continuity and change in the Big Five personality traits and life events. Approximately 2,000 German students were tracked from high school to university or to vocational training or work, with 3 assessments over 4 years. Life events were reported retrospectively at the 2nd and 3rd assessment. Latent curve analyses were used to assess change in personality traits, revealing 3 main findings. First, mean-level changes in the Big Five factors over the 4 years were in line with the maturity principle, indicating increasing psychological maturity from adolescence to young adulthood. Second, personality development was characterized by substantive individual differences relating to the life path followed; participants on a more vocationally oriented path showed higher increases in conscientiousness and lower increases in agreeableness than their peers at university. Third, initial level and change in the Big Five factors (especially Neuroticism and Extraversion) were linked to the occurrence of aggregated as well as single positive and negative life events. The analyses suggest that individual differences in personality development are associated with life transitions and individual life experiences.     

Correlates of personality trait levels and their changes in very old age: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921

We tested the associations between individual differences in the Big Five personality traits and their changes over the ninth decade of life and levels of and changes in cognitive functioning, physical fitness, and everyday functioning. Besides mean-level changes in personality traits, there were significant individual differences in their rates of change between ages 81 and 87. The changes in the Big Five traits were not strongly intercorrelated, suggesting little common influence on personality change. Lower IQ at age 79 predicted lower Intellect and higher Extraversion, and more decline in Conscientiousness from ages 81 to 87. Also, decreases in physical fitness were associated with declines in Conscientiousness.     

Personality Change from Life Experiences: Moderation Effect of Attachment Security

This study focused on effects of life experiences on change in personality and moderation effects of attachment security on the life experience influences. With a sample of Japanese university students (N = 1,000; 679 female; M = 19.72; SD = 1.26; age range, 18–25 years), the Big Five personality traits were assessed twice. The assessment interval was 20 weeks. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses revealed that there were large between‐individual differences in change and stability of the Big Five personality traits, which were accounted for by the amount of daily positive and negative life experiences during the interval period. Moreover, multi‐group HLM analyses indicated that the life experience effects were moderated by participants' attachment security at Time 1. These findings suggest that the accumulation of small daily experiences may work for the personality development of university students and that environmental influences may vary by individual susceptibility to experiences, like attachment security.     

Is Character Fate,or Is There Hope to Change My Personality Yet?

Different perspectives on personality development propose a range of possible degrees to which traits are free to change, from hardly at all to very much. This essay reviews the empirical evidence on just how consistent and changeable personality traits are across the life course. To gain a thorough perspective on personality trait development, we review developmental studies that focus on three different types of change: rank‐order consistency, mean level change, and individual level change. Starting in late childhood, personality traits exhibit modest levels of rank‐order consistency that increase with age. In addition personality traits show mean level changes, especially in young adulthood, that are consistent with the idea of increasing maturity. Finally, despite these general trends in personality continuity and change, there is evidence that individuals may change in ways that contradict general trends and that these individual differences in change are related to life experiences.     

Relationships matter in personality development: evidence from an 8-year longitudinal study across young adulthood

Personality-relationship transactions were investigated in a general population sample of young German adults with three assessments over 8 years. Four general findings were obtained. First, personality development was characterized by substantive individual differences in change. Second, bivariate latent growth models indicated that individual differences in personality change were substantially associated with change in peer and family relationships. Third, forming a partner relationship for the first time moderated the maturation of personality. This finding was replicated over two subsequent time intervals with independent subgroups. Fourth, higher neuroticism and higher sociability predicted which of the singles began a partner relationship during the next 8 years. The results confirm that individual differences in personality development predict and result from life transitions and relationship experiences.     

The growing evidence for personality change in adulthood: Findings from research with personality inventories

Theories of adult development all agree that adulthood is a time of important changes in goals, resources, and coping. Yet, impressed with the rank-order stability of individual differences in personality, many researchers interested in personality traits and personality assessment doubt that personality changes in meaningful and systematic ways during adulthood. This article reviews large studies of mean-level change in personality characteristics measured with broad-band personality inventories, and includes both cross-sectional and cross-cohort longitudinal research. The results show considerable generalizability across samples, cohorts, and studies. In particular, people score higher with age on characteristics such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and norm-adherence, and they score lower with age on social vitality. These findings provide evidence that personality does change during adulthood and that these changes are non-negligible in size, systematic, not necessarily linear, and theoretically important.     

The Roles of Personality Traits and Vocational Interests in Explaining What People Want Out of Life

Life goals reflect people’s aspirations of what they want to become and what kind of life they want to live. In two student samples from the United States (N = 385) and Iceland (N = 1338), we used hierarchical regression and relative weights analyses to first replicate Roberts and Robins (2000) finding that Big Five personality traits predict major life goals, and then to test whether vocational interests have incremental validity in explaining major life goals over and above personality traits. Overall, vocational interests explained larger amounts of variance in major life goals than personality traits, and added incremental validity above and beyond personality traits. Expectations about specific linkages were largely confirmed across the two samples, providing implications for theory and practice.     

Traits and trade-offs are insufficient for evolutionary personality psychology

Comments on the article by D. Nettle, who has clearly shown that evolutionary psychologists need to focus more attention on individual differences, not just species-typical universals. Such differences are not mere "noise," and evolutionary theory will gain by understanding how they are produced and maintained. However, by focusing on personality traits and the five-factor personality model, Nettle left unaddressed many of the most important aspects of human personality. An evolutionary psychology of personality must ultimately explain not just trait differences but also differences in personal goals, values, motives, identities, and life narratives--essential elements of human individuality and functionality. K. M. Sheldon et al suggest four reasons why traits and the five-factor personality model do not provide an optimal approach for explaining the evolution of personality: (a) As constructs, traits provide little purchase for explaining the causes of behavior; (b) trait concepts do not acknowledge or explain people's variations around their own baselines, variations that are likely crucial for adaptation; (c) traits do not explain or even describe true human uniqueness, i.e. the ways in which a person is different from everybody else; and (d) traits do not explain personality from the inside, by considering what people are trying to do in their lives. In raising these issues Sheldon et al are suggesting that the important question for evolutionary personality study is not why people fall at different points on a continuum regarding traits x, y, and z, but rather why each person is inevitably unique while still sharing the same evolved psychology.     

Personality change goals and plans as predictors of longitudinal trait change in young adults: A replication with an Iranian sample

Goals and plans for changing one’s personality traits have been found to be commonly held, particularly in young adults. Evidence for whether such goals and plans can predict actual trait change is mixed. The current study replicated and extended the methodology of a previous study to investigate whether trait change goals and plans predict change over a year in a sample of Iranian students. It was found that goals and plans before and after the 12-month period predicted longitudinal change in Openness to Experience, but no association was found for other traits. To explore whether this relationship between goals and change in Openness to Experience is replicable, further research with samples of differing ages and cultures is needed.     

Concurrent and prospective relationships between social engagement and personality traits in older adulthood

The current research examined the longitudinal relationship between social engagement and personality traits in older adults. Specifically, the present research examined how engagement in family and community roles related to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability in a sample of 100 Illinois residents age 60-86 years assessed twice over a period of 2.5 years. Social engagement and personality traits were related in three ways. First, concurrent relationships during Wave 1 suggested that agreeable older adults are more socially engaged. Next, Wave 1 standing on both personality traits and social engagement predicted respective change over time. In addition, changes in engagement and personality traits covaried over time. The specific patterns presented in this study suggest that although some relationships were consistent with research findings in young adulthood and midlife, role investment in old age may have a distinctly different meaning than role investment earlier in the life span. These patterns suggest that personality traits can both inform our understanding of engagement during older adulthood and that personality traits may be meaningful outcomes of the aging experience in their own right. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Military training and personality trait development: does the military make the man, or does the man make the military?

Military experience is an important turning point in a person's life and, consequently, is associated with important life outcomes. Using a large longitudinal sample of German males, we examined whether personality traits played a role during this period. Results indicated that personality traits prospectively predicted the decision to enter the military. People lower in agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience during high school were more likely to enter the military after graduation. In addition, military training was associated with changes in personality. Compared with a control group, military recruits had lower levels of agreeableness after training. These levels persisted 5 years after training, even after participants entered college or the labor market. This study is one of the first to identify life experiences associated with changes in personality traits. Moreover, our results suggest that military experiences may have a long-lasting influence on individual-level characteristics.     

It's not just who you're with,it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships

The present study examined the influence of stable personality traits on romantic relationships using longitudinal data on a large, representative sample of young adults. Relationship experiences (quality, conflict, and abuse) showed relatively small mean-level changes over time and significant levels of rank-order stability, even across different relationship partners. Antecedent personality traits (assessed at age 18) predicted relationship experiences at age 26 and change in relationship experiences from age 21 to 26. Conversely, relationship experiences also predicted change in personality. Importantly, these findings generally held across relationship partners, suggesting that some people tend to be generally happy (or unhappy) across relationships, and this is due, in part, to stable individual differences in personality. Discussion focuses on the broader implications of the findings, in particular the need for relationship researchers to consider the importance of personality for why relationships thrive or fail and the need for personality researchers to consider the impact of relationship experiences on intraindividual personality development.     

Personality prior to disability determines adaptation: agreeable individuals recover lost life satisfaction faster and more completely

Personality traits prior to the onset of illness or disability may influence how well an individual psychologically adjusts after the illness or disability has occurred. Previous research has shown that after the onset of a disability, people initially experience sharp drops in life satisfaction, and the ability to regain lost life satisfaction is at best partial. However, such research has not investigated the role of individual differences in adaptation to disability. We suggest that predisability personality determines the speed and extent of adaptation. We analyzed measures of personality traits in a sample of 11,680 individuals, 307 of whom became disabled over a 4-year period. We show that although becoming disabled has a severe impact on life satisfaction, this effect is significantly moderated by predisability personality. After 4 years of disability, moderately agreeable individuals had levels of life satisfaction 0.32 standard deviations higher than those of moderately disagreeable individuals. Agreeable individuals adapt more quickly and fully to disability; disagreeable individuals may need additional support to adapt.     

Personality Development in Emerging and Young Adulthood: A Study of Age Differences

Early adulthood is a time of substantial personality change characterized by large inter‐individual diversity. To investigate the role of age in this diversity, the present study examined whether emerging adults differ from an older group of young adults in their Big Five personality development. By means of multi‐group latent change modelling, two groups of 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds (n = 3555) and 26‐ to 29‐year‐olds (n = 2621) were tracked over the course of four years and compared regarding four aspects of personality change: mean‐level change, rank‐order change, inter‐individual differences in change, and profile change. In addition, age‐differential socialization effects associated with six first‐time life events were investigated. Analyses revealed substantial age differences in all four aspects of change. As expected, emerging adults showed greater change and diversity in change than young adults. However, the six life events had no age‐differential impact on change in single traits and Big Five profiles. Overall, the results indicate that age differences should be considered even in specific life stages to advance the understanding of personality development. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Do People Know How Their Personality Has Changed? Correlates of Perceived and Actual Personality Change in Young Adulthood

Abstract How much do we think our personality changes over time? How well do our perceptions of change correspond with actual personality change? Two hundred and ninety students completed measures of the Big Five personality traits when they first entered college. Four years later, they completed the same measures and rated the degree to which they believed they had changed on each dimension. Participants tended to view themselves as having changed substantially, and perceptions of change showed some correspondence with actual personality change. Perceived and actual change showed theoretically meaningful correlations with a host of variables related to different aspects of college achievement and adjustment.     

Change and Stability in Religiousness and Spirituality in Emerging Adulthood

The author investigated the change and stability of different aspects of religiousness and spirituality, as well as whether personality traits may help explain why individuals increase or decrease in religiousness and spirituality during emerging adulthood. Self-report measures of childhood and current religiousness were completed by 224 college-aged participants. A subset of participants also completed a measure of personality and measures of religious and spiritual belief trajectories by rating the importance of each belief at successive age brackets across their lifespan. Analyses of mean-level, rank-order, and individual-level stability and change in religiousness indicated that while average religiousness scores decreased, there was still moderate to high rank-order stability in scores. Additionally, service attendance was less stable and decreased more than importance of religion in daily life. Examination of the trajectories of religiousness and spirituality over time showed similar differences: religiousness decreased, on average, whereas spirituality increased slightly, but significantly, across successive age brackets. Personality traits did not significantly predict change in religiousness over time, although openness predicted change in spirituality. Conclusions include the idea that religiousness in emerging adulthood is comprised on different components that change at different rates.     

Divorce and personality development across middle adulthood

This study tested whether divorce helps explain individual differences in personality development in the years that follow a divorce. The sample consisted of 526 middle‐aged adults aged 42–46 years at the beginning. Personality traits were measured using the NEO‐Five‐Factor Inventory at three measurement occasions over 12 years. First, personality development was characterized by individual differences in change. Second, those individuals who experienced a divorce showed a decrease in extraversion and positive affect over time although nondivorced individuals did not change on these traits. Third, divorce was associated with a decrease in dependability. Fourth, divorce was associated with a decrease in orderliness for individuals who were remarried. The results of this study indicated that divorce had little influence on personality development.     

Some Predictors of Primary Control of Development in Three Transitional Periods of Life

In the context of some personal control (mastery) theories (e.g., J. Heckhausen & R. Schultz, 1995; Gutmann, 1964), primary, secondary, and tertiary personal control of development among subjects in three transitional periods of life were investigated (D. J. Levinson, C. N. Darrow, E. B. Klein, M. H. Levinson, & B. McKee, 1978). Results confirmed the expectation that primary control decrease whereas secondary control increase with age. Tertiary control was the same in all transitional periods. There were some differences in contribution of predictors of primary control in the early, middle, and late period of transition. From the group of variables relating to personality traits, optimism proved a good predictor of primary control in the young and middle aged, whereas in old people who have the lowest primary control, none of the personality traits proved predictive. The importance of goals related to knowledge and competence (GKC) was a significant predictor in all three (age) groups.     

Course of Antisocial Behavior during Emerging Adulthood: Developmental Differences in Personality

Despite similar normative changes in antisocial behavior (AB) and traits of disinhibition and negative emotionality during "emerging adulthood," few studies have tested if there are developmental differences in personality over this period for distinct courses of AB. In a college cohort assessed at ages 18 and 25, we examined if mean-level changes on traits from the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire varied by course of AB. Compared to persisters, those who desisted in AB from 18 to 25 exhibited a larger decrease on novelty seeking and larger increase on reward dependence. A significant mean-level decline was observed for harm avoidance, but was unrelated to AB course. Findings support theories of the co-development of personality and AB during emerging adulthood.