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Personality plasticity after age 30.

Antonio Terracciano1, Paul T Costa, Robert R McCrae

  • 1National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. terraccianoa@grc.nia.nih.gov

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|July 25, 2006
PubMed
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Personality trait consistency increases until age 30, then remains stable. This study found rank-order personality consistency is largely unrelated to age after 30, supporting predominant personality stability.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Personality Science
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Personality trait rank-order consistency increases throughout childhood and adolescence, reaching a plateau around age 30.
  • Existing literature presents conflicting predictions regarding personality stability after age 30, suggesting plateaus, continued increases, or curvilinear peaks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate predictions of personality stability after age 30 using longitudinal data.
  • To examine the relationship between age and rank-order personality consistency at both group and individual levels.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal data from the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory were analyzed for periods up to 42 years.
  • Rank-order consistency was assessed across varying time intervals to determine age-related changes.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Ipsative stability was evaluated using the California Adult Q-Set.

    • Main Results:

    • Personality consistency declined toward a nonzero asymptote with increasing time intervals.
    • The rank-order consistencies of major dimensions and most facets of the Five-Factor Model were not significantly related to age after 30.
    • While some scales showed increased stability post-30, overall personality stability was largely age-independent.

    Conclusions:

    • Predominant personality stability after age 30 is supported by these findings.
    • Rank-order personality consistency does not significantly change with age beyond 30.
    • Longitudinal data indicate a stable personality structure in adulthood.