Transitions

11 essays tagged transitions.

• TraitsTransitions7 min

  How Your Big Five Profile Tends to Shift By Decade

  Personality is not as fixed as people think. The trait shifts from your 20s to your 40s follow a predictable pattern, and the research is unusually consistent

• Self-awarenessTransitions8 min

  Why Most People Get Worse at Self-Awareness After 30

  Self-awareness peaks earlier than people think. By 35, the honest critics have stopped showing up and the bias has compounded. Here is how the slope happens

• TraitsTransitions7 min

  How Your Personality Trait Scores Change Over Decades

  Personality is more stable than mood and less stable than height. Here is what 50 years of longitudinal research says about how your scores drift with age

• Self-awarenessTransitions7 min

  What Happens When You Don't Know Your Defaults

  The cost of not knowing your patterns is rarely dramatic. It shows up as the same conflict, the same career stall, the same money mistake — quietly, on repeat

• Big FiveRelationshipsTransitions8 min

  The Big Five and Relationships: What 50 Years of Research Shows

  Compatibility is not about matching every trait. Here is what the research actually says about which Big Five patterns predict happy relationships and which predict trouble.

• TraitsSelf-awarenessTransitions8 min

  Who's at Higher Risk of Burnout (by Personality)

  Burnout is partly situational and partly dispositional. A 2009 meta-analysis pinpoints which traits raise the risk and what to do if your profile is one of them

• TraitsTransitionsChanging yourself8 min

  When Conscientiousness Tips Into Perfectionism

  Very high Conscientiousness has a real cost — perfectionism, burnout, and a loud inner critic. Here is what the research shows, and where the line is

• TraitsScienceChanging yourself8 min

  Neuroticism and Mental Health: What the Research Says

  Neuroticism is one of the strongest personality predictors of anxiety and depression. The correlation is real. The story is more nuanced than the headlines

• RelationshipsTransitionsBig decisions8 min

  Big Five Patterns Couples Therapists Watch For

  Couples therapists know which trait gaps tend to produce which fights. Here are the four patterns research has tied to relationship conflict and what to do about them

• TraitsScienceTransitions9 min

  Personality Doesn't Stop Changing at 30 — Here's What Actually Shifts

  The old idea that personality is fixed by age 30 is not what the data shows. Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer's meta-analysis tracked what changes and when

• TraitsSelf-awarenessChanging yourself8 min

  Can You Lower Your Neuroticism? What Actually Works

  Neuroticism is moderately heritable but not fixed. CBT, exercise, and deliberate practice all move the needle. Here is what the research says and what it does not