Researchers, theorists, and practitioners have expressed a renewed interest in the longitudinal dynamics of personality characteristics in adulthood, including organic life span trajectories and their amenability to volitional change. However, this research has apparently not yet expanded to include the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism,…

Military service is a life course pathway that defines the transition to adulthood for approximately three to five percent of young adult men and one percent of women. Though few young adults pursue this pathway, the military provides a unique look at the benefits and costs of selecting a highly regimented, segregated, and potentially dangerous…

Sensation seeking is associated with an increased propensity for delinquency, and emerging research on personality change suggests that mean levels of sensation seeking increase substantially from childhood to adolescence. The current study tested whether individual differences in the rate of change of sensation seeking predicted within-person…

Personality is the strongest and most consistent cross-sectional predictor of high subjective well-being. Less predictive economic factors, such as higher income or improved job status, are often the focus of applied subjective well-being research due to a perception that they can change whereas personality cannot. As such there has been limited…

We examined change and stability of the 3 personality types identified by Block and Block (1980) and studied their links with adjustment and relationships. We used data from a 5-wave study of 923 early-to-middle and 390 middle-to-late adolescents, thereby covering the ages of 12-20 years. In Study 1, systematic evidence for personality change was…

Activity level was measured by two independent methods, a mechanical recording device and teacher descriptions, in a sample of 129 children (65 boys and 64 girls), participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. (Author/MP)

Examined longitudinally changes in inhibition from toddler age to age 4 and age 7 years. Found that temperament change in children who tested as inhibited or uninhibited as toddlers was more common than remaining extremely inhibited or uninhibited, but that change was largely limited to intermediate groups. Subgroups distinguished by responses on…

The present study used meta-analytic techniques (number of samples = 92) to determine the patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course. Results showed that people increase in measures of social dominance (a facet of extraversion), conscientiousness, and emotional stability, especially in young adulthood (age 20 to…

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae on the current authors' original article, the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure…

A study by Burstein in 1980 at the University of Texas Health Science Center found evidence that significant hedonistic personality changes occur between the freshman and the junior year of medical school. A study to answer questions of the generalizability of Burstein's study is described. (MLW)

Although it is commonly considered that personality characteristics are stable over long periods of time, some recent theorists have questioned this view. In order to examine a number of personality, social, and family oriented characteristics, 44 women were interviewed three times (at young adulthood, middle age and young old age) over a 40 year…

Assessment of the relationship between ontogenetic (individual) and generational (historical) change in adolescent personality development was the focus of this study. The total sample included 1000 male and female adolescents (ages 13-18) randomly drawn from 32 public school systems in West Virginia following a design using longitudinal sequences…

The invariance of factor structures in the Guilford Zimmerman Temperament Survey is clearly evident. Basic personality structure appears little affected by social and historical change. Results favor the stability model for objectively measured personality traits in adult males. (JAC)

A total of 127 pairs of twins completed a measure of personality at 20 and 30 years of age. Analyses revealed that variance in negative emotionality was the result of diminishing genetic influence; personality stability was the result of genetic factors; and personality change was the result of environmental factors. (BC)

This study investigated the long-term stability of the nine temperament subcategories which underlie the Thomas and Chess temperament clusters. A homogeneous sample of 55 children and parents was recruited (26 remained at the final data collection interval) and parents provided questionnaire responses on their child's temperament at 2, 4, 6, 18,…