Time changes everything, even the way we interact with the world around us. Personality is not set in stone by age 30, but continues to change throughout one's lifetime. Five major personality traits—conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and extraversion—continue to evolve as people age.

Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., and Oliver John, Ph.D., psychology professors at the University in California at Berkeley, have found that nurture may have a greater impact on personality than once thought. Their study conflicts with the popular view that personality stops developing in midlife.

In their twenties, participants developed more discipline and organization—traits of conscientiousness. When they hit their thirties, they became more social, helpful and generous—all parts of agreeableness. Researchers, though, found a gradual decline in openness as the subjects aged.

They also note that gender is relevant in how personality changes over time. Women became less neurotic, yet always remained more neurotic than men. At the same time, women remained more extroverted and outgoing than men throughout life.

Over 130,000 randomly chosen American and Canadian participants, ages 21 through 60, were involved in the survey, which was done online.

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