Personality development is the relatively enduring pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that distinguish individuals from one another.[1] The dominant view in the field of personality psychology today holds that personality emerges early and continues to change in meaningful ways throughout the lifespan.[2] Evidence from large-scale, long-term studies has supported this perspective.
Adult personality traits are believed to have a basis in infant temperament, meaning that individual differences in disposition and behavior appear early in life, possibly even before language or conscious self-representation develop.[3] The Five Factor Model of personality has been found to map onto dimensions of childhood temperament,[4] suggesting that individual differences in levels of the “big five” personality traits (neurotic-ism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) are present from young ages.[5]