Here's some good news, especially if you're moody. You can change. Research shows that people become more stable over a lifetime, experience fewer dark emotions and become more conscientious and less judgmental with age. Some of us change quite a bit, notes personality researcher Shannon Sauer-Zavala, a clinical psychologist at the University of Kentucky.
But aren't personalities fixed in childhood or at birth? Not really. "People can intentionally shape the traits they need to be successful in the lives they want. That’s contrary to the popular belief that your personality type places you in a box, dictating that you choose partners, activities and careers according to your traits," she writes.
That's an implicit suggestion of personality tests, a two billion dollar industry, But tests like the popular Enneagram predict little. It might be fun to call yourself an "ENFP" using the Myers-Briggs methodology, but the........