Personality Development
The study of personality development aims at describing and explaining individual differences in social and emotional behavior. When such differences are temporally stable they can be regarded as an aspect of personality. If differences are temporally unstable, however, they are regarded as "states".
Currently, the most important model to describe personality differences is he Five Factor Model of Personality, which distinguishes between extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience.
After years of research, it is currently assumed that personality is
characterized by both stability and change during the entire life span
(see the meta-analytic studies by Roberts et al., 2000, 2006). These
developmental patterns are shaped by reciprocal transactions between
genetic and environmental influences.