Will you be the same person 50 years from now?

The results of a new study, the first to test how personality might change over 50 years and relying on the same data source at both time points, finds that broad patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors – personality – do change, and this change appears to accumulate with time. But don’t compare yourself to others; those who are the most emotionally stable when young are probably going to continue being the most stable as they age.

“The rankings (of personality traits) remain fairly consistent. People who are more conscientious than others their age at 16 are likely to be more conscientious than others at 66,” said Rodica Damian, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Houston and lead author of a new study on the subject. “But, on average, everyone becomes more conscientious, more emotionally stable, and more agreeable.

Still, she said, researchers did find individual differences in change across time, with some people changing more than others and some changing in more maladaptive or harmful ways.

The work, “Sixteen Going on Sixty-Six: A Longitudinal Study of Personality Stability and Change across 50 Years,” was published Aug. 16 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Source: 16 going on 66: Will you be the same person 50 years from now?