Stability and Change in Lower-Order Personality Traits in a Representative Swiss Sample

Personality development has become one of the most-widely studied topics in personality science. However, existing research has mostly focused on the Big Five domains, typically measured across long intervals between assessments using data from non-representative samples. Here, we examined personality trait changes at the domain level and at the level of lower-order aspects in a representative Swiss sample (N = 4’495). Participants in this sample rated their personality traits, life satisfaction, and self-esteem five times over 2 years. Using local structural equation models, we found high rank-order stabilities across the adult lifespan, with similar 1-year stabilities for Big Five domains and aspects (domains: raverage = .88, aspects: raverage = .87). Mean-level changes of aspects belonging to the same Big Five domain differed in timing and direction, and cumulative mean-level changes in personality traits were comparable to changes in self-esteem and life satisfaction. Finally, we found medium to strong correlated changes among Big Five domains (r = .33) and among aspects belonging to the same Big Five domain (r = .42), but confidence intervals of these correlated changes were broad. Our results contribute to a fine-grained picture of personality development and help to advance theoretical perspectives on personality trait changes.