Goal and personality trait development in emerging adulthood

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Major life goals evolve throughout emerging adulthood.
• Understanding changes in life goals and personality is crucial for developmental psychology.
• Previous research has not extensively studied the interplay between life goal changes and personality shifts during college.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine continuity and change in the importance of major life goals during college.
• To investigate the relationship between changes in life goals and changes in personality traits.
• To provide insights into how life goals transform during emerging adulthood.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study with 298 college students.
• Life goal importance rated 6 times over 4 years.
• Big Five personality traits assessed at the beginning and end of college.

Main Results:

• Life goals showed high rank-order stability, similar to personality traits.
• The mean importance of most life goals decreased over the college period.
• Individual differences in goal changes were linked to changes in personality traits.

Conclusions:

• While the rank order of life goals remains stable, their overall importance diminishes during college.
• Emerging adulthood is a period of significant individual variation in goal evolution and personality development.
• Changes in life goals and personality are interconnected during the college years.