Do changes in personality predict life outcomes?

Abstract

Personality traits predict a range of important life outcomes. At the same time, a considerable amount of research has established the tendency of the Big Five traits to change across time. However, whether changes in personality traits predict a wide range of life outcomes has yet to be rigorously tested, and has implications for the type of processes linking traits with future outcomes. The current study integrates seven longitudinal datasets (N = 81,980) to comprehensively examine the nature of the unique relationship that changes in the Big Five traits have with numerous outcomes across a broad range of ages. Results indicated that changes in personality traits are prospectively related to numerous outcomes, above and beyond associations due to static trait levels. Although the magnitude of effects for changes in traits was typically smaller than that of static levels, personality trait change does matter – at least in the long-term. Our study suggests personality trait change has a valuable role in one’s development and life outcomes and that both cumulative and distal processes matter for trait-outcome associations.

A Systematic Review of Volitional Personality Change Research

“…The results of the present review have important practical implications 10,19 . The findings summarized in this review suggest that VPC could be a strategy for health promotion as VPC interventions can induce lasting personality changes in desired directions.…”

“…Importantly, not only the levels of personality traits but also changes in personality traits have been linked to healthrelated outcomes. For example, Wright and Jackson (2023) found that both levels of neuroticism as well as increases in neuroticism predicted a worse health status several years later. Similarly, increases in neuroticism and decreases in conscientiousness have been found to predict physical health problems and mortality [20][21][22] .…”

A Systematic Review and Taxonomy of Neuroticism Interventions for the General Public

“…Recent research has shown that neuroticism can be changed through intervention (Hudson & Fraley, 2015;Martin-Allan et al, 2019;Stieger et al, 2021), that these changes can have important consequences (Mroczek & Spiro, 2007;Olaru et al, 2023;Wright & Jackson, 2023), and that and many people worldwide wish to be less neurotic (Baranski et al, 2021). To begin addressing these barriers, this study had three primary aims.…”

Individual differences in the forms of personality trait trajectories

“…Graham et al, 2020). At the same time, there exist individual differences in these trends (Mroczek & Spiro, 2003;Schwaba & Bleidorn, 2018;Wright & Jackson, 2023b), such that some people, relative to the average trends, vary in the direction and magnitude of their changes across time. However, what remains unknown is how well separate individuals adhere to the form of these chosen trajectories, as typical individual difference trends assume people adhere to the same form.…”

“…Even GAMs, which should flexibly fit most people, had changes for 68% of people with cubic forms underestimated by 48% to overestimated by 68% of an SD. Considering the amount of research that uses levels and changes in traits to predict outcomes (e.g., Beck & Jackson, 2022a;Wright & Jackson, 2023b), this is not negligible. These Linear Linear -Quad 0.00 0.00 .999 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 .995 to 1.00 Linear -Cubic -0.03 0.02 .000 to .806 -0.01 0.01 .001 to .218 -0.01 0.01 .041 to .996 -0.02 0.01 .000 to .000 Linear -GAM 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 0.00 0.00 1.00 to 1.00 Quad.…”