Peer-reviewed article
Codevelopment of life goals and the Big Five personality traits across adulthood and old age.
Laura Buchinger, Theresa M Entringer, David Richter, Gert G Wagner, Denis Gerstorf et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed study examines how life goals and personality traits (the Big Five) develop together across adulthood and old age using data from over 55,000 adults in Germany tracked over 13 years. The research finds that broader life goals like self-fulfillment are more connected to personality changes across the lifespan, while specific goals like having children are more tied to trait changes in younger and middle-aged adults. The study identifies strongest connections between openness and personal growth goals, and between agreeableness and communal goals.
Key points
- Data from German Socio-Economic Panel study with 55,040 participants aged 18-103 years followed over 13 years
- Big Five traits and life goals measured four times during the study period
- Broader life goal domains more strongly connected to personality development than specific goals across the lifespan
- Strongest codevelopment found between Openness and agentic goals focused on personal growth, and between Agreeableness and communal goals
- Educational background and developmental stage moderated the relationship between Conscientiousness and economic/family-related goals
Limitations
This study focuses on adult personality and motivational development in a German population and does not examine children or young adolescents. The research is about general personality psychology rather than child well-being outcomes.
Abstract
Since the new millennium, research in the field of personality development has focused on the stability and change of basic personality traits. Motivational aspects of personality and their longitudinal association with basic traits have received comparably little attention. In this preregistered study, we applied bivariate latent growth curve model to investigated the codevelopment of nine life goals and the Big Five traits. We tested age, perceived control, gender, educational background, and regional socialization as potential moderators of codevelopment. Data came from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (N = 55,040, age range: 18-103 years) and span a study period of 13 years. During this period, the Big Five traits and life goals were assessed four times. Our findings suggest that development in broader life goal domains (e.g., self-fulfillment) is more strongly connected to personality development across the life span, whereas changes in specific goals (e.g., having children) are more closely tied to trait changes during young and middle adulthood. The strongest codevelopment was found between Openness and agentic goals with a focus on personal growth followed by codevelopment between Agreeableness and communal goals. Developmental stage and educational background moderated the codevelopment of Conscientiousness and economic achievement as well as family-related goals. Contrary to the previous research, we found that Neuroticism codeveloped with communal life goals (i.e., having a happy relationship/marriage). Our findings reinforce theoretical frameworks that highlight the role of changing opportunities, constraints, and developmental tasks across adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).