Using Dynamic Panel Models to Study Age-related Differences and Time-related Changes in Personality

Abstract

Along with an increasing interest in the plasticity and role of personality across the adult lifespan comes the need for a diverse set of innovative statistical approaches to study it. With this paper, we set out to illustrate some of the possibilities and challenges in modelling age-related differences and time-related changes in personality psychology by means of dynamic panel models. To this end, we first distinguish between the study of age-related differences and time-related changes and demonstrate how the treatment of age and time as either discrete or continuous variables implies important modelling choices. Second, we present a selection of four example cases that address the topic of age moderation in diverse matters and with different objectives. Based on our cross-tabulation of age and time as discrete and continuous variables, the first two example cases represent fairly well-established models (cases A and B), whereas the remaining cases are used to illustrate current developments in the field (cases C and D). We close the paper with some final remarks on current limitation and future research directions. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology.