However, it is only recently that individual differences in developmental changes in personality and changes in problematic alcohol involvement have been empirically linked. Though personality traits are traditionally thought to be stable internal dispositions (McCrae et al., 2000; but see also Costa & McCrae, 2006), several studies suggest that specific personality traits exhibit systematic patterns of marked mean-level change, especially during emerging (roughly ages 18–25; see Arnett, 2000) and young adulthood (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005; McCrae et al., 1999; Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006).
