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Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change?

Srivastava, Sanjay, John, Oliver P., Gosling, Samuel D., Potter, Jeff·2003·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Abstract

Different theories make different predictions about how mean levels of personality traits change in adulthood. The biological view of the Five-factor theory proposes the plaster hypothesis: All personality traits stop changing by age 30. In contrast, contextualist perspectives propose that changes should be more varied and should persist throughout adulthood. This study compared these perspectives in a large (N = 132,515) sample of adults aged 21-60 who completed a Big Five personality measure on the Internet. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness increased throughout early and middle adulthood at varying rates; Neuroticism declined among women but did not change among men. The variety in patterns of change suggests that the Big Five traits are complex phenomena subject to a variety of developmental influences.

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Metadata

Authors
Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J.
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Published
2003-05
Volume
84
Issue
5
Pages
1041-1053
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
OpenAlex
W2096533706
Cited by
1,204
References
10
FWCI
35.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1041
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Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1041

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