Beyond stability: Predicting inter‐individual differences in intra‐individual change

Abstract

Demonstration of a high longitudinal stability of inter‐individual diferences in behaviour has been one traditional goal of personality psychology. In recent years, impressively high longitudinal correlations have been reported for self‐and other‐ratings of behaviour in adulthood, indicating a high overall stability of personality differences in that period of development. However, even 5‐year correlations around 0.70 do not exclude major deviations of some of the subjects from this overall stability (i.e. differential stability in the sample). Furthermore, the younger a sample is, the lower will be the longitudinal stability observed, and the less suficient is the explanation of inter‐individual diferences by static traits. This article goes beyond the notion of stability at the sample level by asking from a developmental perspective (a) whether systematic inter‐individual differences in intra‐individual change exist, (b) how they can be assessed, and (c) whether these inter‐individual differences can be explained by characteristics of the person or of the environment.