The hierarchy of consistency: A review and model of longitudinal findings on adult individual differences in intelligence, personality and self-opinion

Abstract When viewed in the aggregate, studies of the longitudinal consistency of intelligence, personality traits and self-opinion (self-esteem, life satisfaction etc.) show a hierarchy of consistency. Uncorrected retest coefficients over periods of 6 months to 50 yr are analyzed as the product of period-free reliability ( R ) and the true stability of the construct ( s n , where s is the coefficient of annual stability and n the number of years of the retest interval). The annual stabilities of intelligence, personality traits and self-opinions are estimated as 0.99, 0.98 and 0.94, respectively. While intelligence and personality may be regarded as relatively stable characteristics over the length of the adult lifespan, self-opinion has little stability over periods of more than 10 yr. The hierarchy of consistency should be taken into account in causal models of human development. Although self-opinion is not a longitudinally-stable characteristics, it may still be predicted over long periods of time by higher-order constructs such as personality traits and intelligence.

[1]  R. Cattell,et al.  Handbook for the sixteen personality factor questionnaire (16 PF) , 1970 .

[2]  G. Psathas,et al.  Test-Retest Reliability of the Epps , 1966 .

[3]  Schaie Kw,et al.  A cross-sequential study of age changes in cognitive behavior. , 1968 .

[4]  N. Bradburn,et al.  Reports on happiness : a pilot study of behavior related to mental health , 1965 .

[5]  E. Palmore,et al.  Change in life satisfaction: a longitudinal study of persons aged 46-70. , 1977, Journal of gerontology.

[6]  Philip E. Converse,et al.  Plus ça change…: The New CPS Election Study Panel , 1979, American Political Science Review.

[7]  E. L. Kelly.  Consistency of the adult personality. , 1955 .

[8]  D. R. Heise.  Separating reliability and stability in test-retest correlation. , 1969 .

[9]  John Nisbet,et al.  IV.—Intelligence and Age: Retesting with Twenty‐four Years' Interval , 1957 .

[10]  P. Mussen,et al.  Early adult antecedents of life satisfaction at age 70. , 1982, Journal of gerontology.

[11]  W. Owens.  Age and mental abilities: a second adult follow-up. , 1966, Journal of educational psychology.

[12]  W. Schofield.  A Study of Medical Students with the Mmpi: Ii. Group and Individual Changes After Two Years , 1953 .

[13]  L. Terman,et al.  The revision of the Stanford-Binet scale : an analysis of the standardization data , 1942 .

[14]  D. Wechsler.  Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. , 1955 .

[15]  L. Stewart.  Change in personality test scores during college. , 1964 .

[16]  M. Crook.  Retest correlations in neuroticism. , 1941 .

[17]  James Shields,et al.  Etiology of Psychosis. (Book Reviews: Schizophrenia and Genetics. A Twin Study Vantage Point) , 1972 .

[18]  The gifted child grows up , 1948 .

[19]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[20]  R. Nichols.  Personality Change and the College1 , 1967 .

[21]  R. Niemi,et al.  Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents , 1981 .

[22]  G. Vaillant.  Natural history of male psychological health. II. Some antecedents of healthy adult adjustment. , 1974, Archives of general psychiatry.

[23]  Jack Block,et al.  Lives Through Time , 1983 .

[24]  T M Itil,et al.  Electroencephalograms in children of alcoholic fathers. , 1982, Psychophysiology.

[25]  G. R. Leon,et al.  Personality stability and change over a 30-year period--middle age to old age. , 1979, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[26]  L. K. George.  The impact of personality and social status factors upon levels of activity and psychological well-being. , 1978, Journal of gerontology.

[27]  M. Crook.  A Retest with the Thurstone Personality Schedule After Six and One-Half Years , 1943 .

[28]  B. Muthén,et al.  Assessing Reliability and Stability in Panel Models , 1977 .

[29]  R. Bradley,et al.  IQ Change and Occupational Level: A Longitudinal Study with Third Harvard Growth Study Participants. , 1979 .

[30]  P. Meehl.  Psychodiagnosis: Selected Papers , 1973 .

[31]  Means, standard deviations and stability coefficients on the EPI for further education and college of education students , 1983 .

[32]  J. Darley.  Changes in Measured Attitudes and Adjustments , 1938 .

[33]  Bruce Quarrington,et al.  Edwards Personal Preference Schedule , 1956 .

[34]  P. Mussen,et al.  Continuity and Change in Women's Characteristics over Four Decades , 1980 .

[35]  P. Costa,et al.  Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: happy and unhappy people. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  Patrick M. O'Malley,et al.  Self-esteem: Change and stability between ages 13 and 23. , 1983 .

[37]  Benjamin S. Bloom,et al.  Stability and change in human characteristics , 1966 .

[38]  J. H. Wilson.  COMPARISON OF CERTAIN INTELLIGENCE SCALES , 1924 .

[39]  B. Bolton.  Longitudinal stability of the primary and secondary dimensions of the 16PF-E , 1979 .

[40]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Measures of social psychological attitudes , 1976 .

[41]  David Butler,et al.  Political change in Britain , 1974 .

[42]  M. P. Honzik,et al.  Personality Development and Intellectual Functioning from 21 Months to 40 Years. , 1970 .

[43]  R. Plomin,et al.  Genetic and Environmental Etiology of Social Behavior in Infancy. , 1979 .

[44]  P. O'Malley,et al.  Self-esteem in young men: a longitudinal analysis of the impact of educational and occupational attainment. , 1977, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  L. Cantoni.  A Study in Emotional Adjustment: the Correlation of Student and Adult Forms of the Bell Adjustment Inventory over a Period of Thirteen Years , 1955 .

[46]  David Arenberg,et al.  Enduring dispositions in adult males , 1980 .

[47]  N. Bayley,et al.  The maintenance of intellectual ability in gifted adults. , 1955, Journal of gerontology.

[48]  C. Holahan.  Lifetime achievement patterns, retirement and life satisfaction of gifted aged women. , 1981, Journal of gerontology.

[49]  John O. Kangas,et al.  Intelligence at middle age: A thirty-eight year follow-up. , 1971 .

[50]  Owens Wa.  Age and mental abilities: a longitudinal study. , 1953 .

[51]  A. H. Norris,et al.  Personal adjustment to aging: longitudinal prediction from neuroticism and extraversion. , 1981, Journal of gerontology.

[52]  P. Farnsworth.  A Genetic Study of the Bernreuter Personality Inventory , 1938 .

[53]  Paul T. Costa,et al.  Age Differences in Personality Structure Revisited: Studies in Validity, Stability, and Change , 1978, International journal of aging & human development.

[54]  D. W. Fulker,et al.  The Genetic and Environmental Architecture of Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism , 1981 .

[55]  Leo Srole,et al.  Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study , 1956 .

[56]  R. Sears.  Sources of life satisfactions of the Terman gifted men. , 1977, The American psychologist.

[57]  H MCCLOSKY,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF ANOMY. , 1965, American sociological review.

[58]  H. Eysenck,et al.  Psychoticism as a dimension of personality , 1976 .

[59]  W. S. Zimmerman,et al.  The Guilford-Zimmerman temperament survey handbook : twenty-five years of research and application , 1976 .

[60]  G. Vaillant.  Natural history of male psychological health. III. Empirical dimensions of mental health. , 1975, Archives of general psychiatry.