Longitudinal consistency of adult personality: self-reported psychological characteristics across 45 years.

The longitudinal consistency of personality characteristics over a period of 45 years is examined. The data are drawn from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, a panel involving an original group of 300 men and 300 women. Measures of emotional disturbance (from the Bell and Bernreuter inventories) during the 1930s and the 1950s had significant correlations in the .25-.40 range with measures of psychiatric symptoms (from the Cornell Medical Index) taken in 1979-1981. Revised inventory scales with content related to neuroticism and social introversion-extraversion had moderate longitudinal consistency across several decades of adult life and demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. This study demonstrates the utility of personality measurements in predicting significant psychological outcomes over the full interval of the normal adult lifespan.