The Big Five Personality Traits and the Life Course: A 45-Year Longitudinal Study

One hundred sixty-three men who have been followed prospectively for over 45 years were rated on a set of 25 personality traits at the end of their college careers and took the NEO-PI at approximately ages 67–68. The college traits were transformed, via a rating procedure, to scales assessing each of the Big Five dimensions and related to the NEO-PI. Three traits—Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness—exhibited significant correlations across the 45-year interval. Furthermore, the trait profiles remained relatively stable over that interval. Both sets of personality traits were related to a wide variety of life course variables representing the domains of global adult adjustment, career functioning/success, creativity, social relations, mental health, substance abuse, childhood characteristics, familial history of pathology, maturity of defenses, and political attitudes. Conscientiousness in college was the best predictor of what happened to the men in the future, whereas Neuroticism in late midlife was the best correlate of life course functioning across a variety of domains.