ABSTRACT
The development of personality through the life span is, in fact, the most interesting and instructive of aspects, but it could not be appreciated until basic cross-sectional analyses of personality in being had been completed. Nevertheless certain trends normal to the individual life course in our society can be separated out. Since the effects of the physical condition of the organism on personality have been demonstrated to be far from insignificant, it is necessary to glance first at the facts regarding physique and age. The personality stress that goes on in the average person is more strikingly revealed by what happens to the more extreme personalities. Evidence of some degree of personality disorganization is seen in the young adolescents, increased moodiness and irritability, in an unwonted instability, and in increased day dreaming, perhaps in the search for new ego ideals demanded by the changing self-regarding sentiment.
