Personality and emotions

Over this age range variations of temperament evolve into five basic personality types. They include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Openness refers to how inclined a person is to conform to the social norms, how concrete they are in their thinking and how resistant or open to change they are. Individuals with highly open traits may be described as artistic, curious and original. They often develop wide interests.

Conscientiousness includes characteristics such as being organised, disciplined and not taking risks.

Extraversion is characterised by enthusiasm, excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

Agreeableness includes characteristics such as generosity, trust, kindness, sympathy, altruism, affection, and other prosocial behaviours.

Neuroticism tends to be characterised by emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability and sadness.

Although children and adults only share five common traits, personality is complex. There are many possible combinations and social factors also play a role.