Becoming set in our ways - Tucson Local Media: Voices  Becoming
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Research studies of personality development typically focus on
traits predictably confirming that openness increases during a
person's 20s, and then gradually declines until about age 60,
when one's mind becomes challenging to pry open.  Young people
in search of themselves often abandon everything — family,
friends, career and most material possessions while surviving
for extended periods in self-inflicted circumstances and places
they'd be challenged to locate on a map with the intent of
personal discovery. Researchers at the National Institutes of
Health theorize that personality traits change during young
adulthood because that's when people are assuming new roles and
most open to new experiences; those older are more settled and
set in their ways. Adolescents fantasize about becoming
adventurers rather than following the path of a parent or
grandparent who spent decades working