Schnitker and Emmons (2007) found evidence for an inverse relationship between patience and negative affect and between patience and depression, but a positive relationship between patience and self-reports of certain negative health outcomes, including headaches, acne, and ulcers.
They found that trait stability increased from a correlation .31 in childhood to .54 during the college years, to .64 at age 30, and then it reached a plateau around .74 between the from age 50 until the age of 70. What we can infer from these results is that personality seems to stabilize with increasing age.
Without the help of a psychiatrist or psychologist, personality disorders aren't supposed to change much over time. Now a report in the June 29 issue of The Lancet suggests that most personality disorders -- those in the odd/eccentric and anxious/fearful clusters -- get worse as a person ages.ut now it looks as though some problem personalities mellow with age while others get worse. If you have a personality disorder, you probably don't know it. You know you have trouble forming stable relationships. Your work and personal life suffer.