L3- Personality change Personality trait change in adulthood, Roberts ad Mroczek 2008 Article: Mean level change in personality traits across lifespan and individual differences in change. Results: 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 related to a person's stage of life. Personality changes in adulthood Research (cross-sectional and longitudinal) now shows that personality traits continue to change in adulthood and often into old age, and that these changes may be quite substantial and consequential. (e.g., Mroczek & Spiro, 2003; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006; Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003). Recent cross-sectional and longitudinal research has converged on the finding that personality- trait development can and does occur in all age periods of adulthood, including old age. Specifically, cross-sectional research has shown that middle-aged individuals tend to score higher than young adults on agreeableness and conscientiousness and lower on extraversion, neuroticism, and openness (Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter,2003) Moreover, within middle age 60-year-old participants scored higher on this measures than 40 year olds. -Careful with possible effects of historical events or changes in cultural climate Longitudinal studies, mostly of Western cultures, have found strikingly similar results. Changes in mean levels of personality traits were recently examined in a meta-analysis of 92 longitudinal studies covering the life course from age 10 to 101 (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006). As in the cross-sectional studies, significant mean-level change in all trait domains was found at some point in the life course, and statistically significant change was found in 75fi of personality traits in middle age (40-60) and old age (60+). Clearly, personality traits continue to develop in adulthood.
Conclusions from these studies Several important conclusions about personality development can be drawn from these studies. -First, most mean-level personality-trait change occurs between the ages of 20 and 40. This contradicts the widely held perspective that the most interesting years for studying personality development are either early or late in life. Rather, young adulthood appears to be the most important period. -Second, personality traits continue to change, even in old age. One of the precepts of a life- span orientation is that humans are open systems (e.g., Baltes & Nesselroade, 1973). That is, people retain the capacity to change at all ages. The changes in per sonality traits in middle and old age are by no means dramatic, but nonetheless they show that the life-span orientation applies to personality traits and that personality is not set like plaster at any point in the life course. Third, time has a positive effect -Third: Time has a positive effect on personality trait change. Studies that follow people