Personality development across the life span: Longitudinal analyses with a national sample from Germany.

TLDR

The study examined how the Big Five personality traits differ in rank‑order stability and mean‑level change across the life span. Using a national German sample of 20,434 participants, the authors collected two waves of a brief personality measure four years apart and applied structural equation modeling to test measurement invariance across time and age groups. Differential stability was strongest overall, increasing in young adulthood, peaking later in life, then declining in the oldest old, while mean‑level changes showed Extraversion and Openness decreasing, Agreeableness increasing, Conscientiousness rising in young adults then falling in older adults, and Neuroticism remaining largely flat with minor age‑related shifts.

Abstract

Longitudinal data from a national sample of Germans (N = 20,434) were used to evaluate stability and change in the Big Five personality traits. Participants completed a brief measure of personality twice, 4 years apart. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to establish measurement invariance over time and across age groups. Substantive questions about differential (or rank-order) and mean-level stability and change were then evaluated. Results showed that differential stability was relatively strong among all age groups but that it increased among young adults, peaked in later life, and then declined among the oldest old. Patterns of mean-level change showed that Extraversion and Openness declined over the life span, whereas Agreeableness increased. Mean levels of Conscientiousness increased among young adults and then decreased among older adults. Trajectories for Neuroticism were relatively flat, with slight increases during middle age and a slight decline in late life.