Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (13)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Terracciano, A.
Right arrow Articles by McCrae, R. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Terracciano, A.
Right arrow Articles by McCrae, R. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Personality Plasticity After Age 30

Antonio Terracciano

Paul T. Costa, Jr.

Robert R. McCrae

National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services

Rank-order consistency of personality traits increases from childhood to age 30. After that, different summaries of the literature predict a plateau at age 30, or at age 50, or a curvilinear peak in consistency at age 50. These predictions were evaluated at group and individual levels using longitudinal data from the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory for periods of up to 42 years. Consistency declined toward a nonzero asymptote with increasing time interval. Although some scales showed increasing stability after age 30, the rank-order consistencies of the major dimensions and most facets of the Five-Factor Model were unrelated to age. Ipsative stability, assessed with the California Adult Q-Set, also was unrelated to age. These data strengthen claims of predominant personality stability after age 30.

Key Words: Five-Factor Model • personality development • long-term stability • individual differences • life span • older adults

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 8, 999-1009 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167206288599
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 BrainHome page
C. M. Kipps, J. R. Hodges, T. D. Fryer, and P. J. Nestor
Combined magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography brain imaging in behavioural variant frontotemporal degeneration: refining the clinical phenotype
Brain, May 4, 2009; (2009) awp077v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Psychosom. Med.Home page
A. Terracciano, C. E. Lockenhoff, A. B. Zonderman, L. Ferrucci, and P. T. Costa Jr
Personality Predictors of Longevity: Activity, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness
Psychosom Med, July 1, 2008; 70(6): 621 - 627.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]