Between adolescence and adulthood， you go through a host of changes—jobs， regrettable haircuts and relationships that come and go. But what about who you are at your core？ As you grow older， does your personality change？

Personality is the pattern of thoughts， feelings and behaviors unique to a person. People tend to think of personality as fixed. But according to psychologists， thats not how it works. “Personality is a developmental phenomenon. Its not just a static thing that youre stuck with and cant get over，” said Brent Roberts， a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Thats not to say that youre a different person each day you wake up. In the short term， change can be nearly imperceptible， Roberts told Live Science. Longitudinal studies， in which researchers survey the personalities of participants regularly over many years， suggest that our personality is actually stable on shorter time scales.

In one study， published in 2000 in the journal Psychological Bulletin， researchers analyzed the results of 152 longitudinal studies on personality， which followed participants ranging in age from childhood to their early 70s. Each of these studies measured trends in the Big Five personality traits. This cluster of traits， which include extroversion， agreeableness， conscientiousness， openness to experience， and neuroticism， are a mainstay of personality research. The researchers found that individuals levels of each personality trait tended to stay consistent within each decade of life.

從青少年到成年，你经历了许多改变——换工作、失败的发型和恋情变动。但是你本质上是一个什么样的人呢？随着年龄增长，你的个性会改变吗？

个性是一个人特有的思维、感觉和行为模式。人们往往认为个性是固定不变的。但是心理学家表示并非如此。伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-尚佩恩分校的心理学家布伦特·罗伯茨说：“个性是一个发展的现象。它不是一个一成不变、摆脱不了的静态事物。”

这不是说你每天早上醒来都是一个不同的人。罗伯茨在接受生命科学网站采访时说，短期来看，改变几乎是察觉不到的。在延续多年的纵向研究中，研究人员对参与者的个性进行了定期调查。结果显示，实际上我们的个性在较短时间范围内是稳定的。

在一项2000年发表在《心理学公报》期刊上的研究中，研究人员分析了152项对个性的纵向研究，这些研究跟踪调查了从幼年到70岁出头各个年龄段的参与者。每项研究都测评了大五人格的倾向。大五人格特质包括外向性、随和性、责任心、经验开放性和情绪稳定性。这些人格特质是个性研究的重要基础。研究人员发现，个体的大五人格水平在每十年内通常是稳定的。

That pattern of consistency begins around age 3， and perhaps even earlier， said Brent Donnellan， professor and chair of psychology at Michigan State University. When psychologists study children， they dont measure personality traits in the same way they do for adults. Instead， they look at temperament—the intensity of a persons reactions to the world. We come into the world with unique temperaments， and research suggests that our temperaments as children—for example， whether were easy-going or prone to temper tantrums， eager or more reluctant to approach strangers—correspond to adult personality traits.

Earlier temperament seems to affect later life experience. For example， one 1995 study published in the journal Child Development followed children from the age of 3 until the age of 18. The researchers found that children who were shyer and more withdrawn tended to grow into unhappier teenagers.

But those decades add up. Throughout all those years， our personality is still changing， but slowly， Roberts said. “Its something thats subtle，” he added. You dont notice it on that five- to 10-year time scale， but in the long term， it becomes pronounced. In 1960， psychologists surveyed over 440，000 high school students. The students answered questions about everything from how they reacted to emotional situations to how efficiently they got work done. Fifty years later， researchers tracked down 1，952 of these former students and gave them the same survey. The results， published in 2018 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology， found that in their 60s， participants scored much higher than they had as teenagers on questions measuring calmness， self-confidence， leadership and social sensitivity.

密歇根州立大学的心理学系主任布伦特·唐纳伦教授称，这种稳定模式大约在3岁开始形成，甚至可能更早。心理学家对儿童进行研究时，他们不会像对待成人一样测评人格，而是会观察性情，也就是一个人对世界做出反应的强烈程度。我们天生就有各自的性情，研究表明，我们儿时的性情和成人后的个性特质有关，比如我们是否随和或容易发脾气，或愿不愿意接触陌生人。……