The maturation of personality psychology: Adult personality development and psychological well-being

Abstract

Personality psychology has made striking advances in the past two decades, demonstrating the importance of individual differences in a wide variety of life domains. Longitudinal studies of adult development contributed to these advances by revealing the stability of personality traits even in the face of changing life circumstances. More recently, cross-culturally replicated patterns of adult age differences have suggested that traits are endogenous dispositions with intrinsic paths of development. The importance of personality traits was underscored by research linking dimensions of personality to psychological well-being and mental health, and the rapidly maturing science of personality psychology holds promise for understanding many other social and psychological phenomena.