Cited by 162Personality Traits and PsychologyPersonality Disorders and PsychopathologyEgo Development and Educational Practices

Personality traits change in adulthood: Reply to Costa and McCrae (2006).

Roberts, Brent W., Walton, Kate E., Viechtbauer, Wolfgang·2006·Psychological Bulletin

Abstract

In a response to comments by P. T. Costa, Jr., and R. R. McCrae on the current authors' original article, the authors show that Costa and McCrae's writings on personality suggest a belief in immutability of personality traits. The authors agree with Costa and McCrae that new personality trait models that provide an accurate lower order structure of personality traits are needed and explain why the Revised NEO Personality Inventory is not the correct model for that purpose. The authors provide direct evidence refuting the hypothesis that personality traits change only because of biologically based intrinsic maturation. The authors present arguments supporting the contention that meta-analyses should be preferred to single longitudinal studies when drawing inferences about general patterns of personality development. Finally, the authors point out why the differences between their position and Costa and McCrae's are important.

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Crossref · 10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.29

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47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Authors
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W.
Affiliations
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
  • Maastricht University (NL)
Venue
Psychological Bulletin
Published
2006-01
Volume
132
Issue
1
Pages
29-32
ISSN
  • 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1455
OpenAlex
W2058196641
Cited by
162
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 17
FWCI
6.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
  • National Institute on Aging (R01 AG21178, R01AG021178)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Ego Development and Educational Practices
Keywords
personality trait change, personality development, NEO-PI-R, Big Five personality model
MeSH terms
Adult, Humans, Personality Development

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