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.
Srivastava
Sanjay
S
Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, Berkeley, USA. sanjay@psych.stanford.edu
John
Oliver P
OP
Gosling
Samuel D
SD
Potter
Jeff
J
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013997:Time Factors