Personality at Midlife: Stability, Intrinsic Maturation, and Response to Life Events

TLDR

Although developmental theories and popular accounts suggest that midlife is a time of turmoil and change, longitudinal studies of personality traits have generally found stability of rank order and little or no change in mean levels. The study aimed to test whether retest correlations would be no higher than about .60 and whether Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness would decrease while Agreeableness and Conscientiousness would increase, and to examine the impact of recalled life events on subsequent personality scores. Data from 2,274 adults in their 40s were re‑assessed after 6 to 9 years to evaluate these hypotheses. Retest correlations exceeded .60 for all traits, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness decreased, Conscientiousness slightly decreased instead of increasing, and life events had minimal influence except for some job and marital status changes.

Abstract

Although developmental theories and popular accounts suggest that midlife is a time of turmoil and change, longitudinal studies of personality traits have generally found stability of rank order and little or no change in mean levels. Using data from 2,274 men and women in their 40s retested after 6 to 9 years, the present study examined two hypotheses: (a) that retest correlations should be no higher than about .60 and (b) that there should be small decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness, and small increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The study also explored the effects of recalled life events on subsequent personality scores. Results did not support the first hypothesis; uncorrected retest correlations uniformly exceeded .60. This was true for all personality traits, including facets of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness not previously included in longitudinal studies. The hypothesized decreases in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness were found, but Conscientiousness showed a small decrease instead of the predicted increase. Life events in general showed very little influence on the levels of personality traits, although some effects were seen for changes in job and marital status that warrant further research.