Personality Trait Development in Adulthood: Patterns and Implications

Abstract

(from the preface) In their chapter on personality trait development in adulthood, Roberts, Donnellan, and Hill review the evidence indicating that personality traits are both consistent over time and yet change systematically in adulthood. They review the evidence pointing to at least moderate-sized test-retest coefficients for personality traits across the life span, and they make a convincing case that on average, individuals become more confident, warm, responsible, and emotionally stable as they grow older. Roberts, Donnellan, and Hill also document the importance of individual differences in this general pattern of change over the life span. They posit intriguing mechanisms that may promote personality consistency, and a different set of mechanisms that may explain how personality changes occur. The implications of personality change processes are striking because they suggest, as Roberts and colleagues demonstrate, that relatively small changes in a trait may produce significant changes in people's lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved) (preface)