5 - Personality development in adulthood and old age

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview on changes in the Big Five personality traits in young adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age. It includes information on mean-level changes in personality trait levels, rank-order consistencies of individuals on personality traits as well as changes in personality type membership. Findings from meta-analyses, large and national representative panel studies, and other studies on that topic are combined to describe how personality develops across adulthood. Emotional stability tends to increase until old age when it remains stable. Social dominance, one facet of extraversion, tends to increase until middle adulthood and then remains stable but data for old age is lacking. Social vitality, a second facet of extraversion, and openness to experience tend to increase at the beginning of young adulthood and decrease during the remaining adulthood. Agreeableness tends to remain stable until old age when it increases. Conscientiousness increases until old age and decreases from then on. Rank-order consistency is particularly high in middle adulthood for all of the Big Five personality traits and comparably instable both in young adulthood and old age. Changes in type membership can be observed across all of adulthood until old age. Taken together, these findings suggest that young adulthood and old age are both equally susceptible to changes in personality and that personality is comparatively stable in middle adulthood.