personality

Introduction

Stable pattern of experience & behavior.

Does not change appreciably# with age after maturation.

Changes in personality are generally a result in:

• psychiatric illness, especially depression or dementia* in the elderly
• non-psychiatric disease

* new onset of carelessness, lack of discretion, apathy suggests frontal lobe dementia

# exceptions may be

• obsessional personality which may become more apparent as an individual becomes more dependent
• neuroticism which declines with age

Additional terms

• personality assessment
• personality change
• personality disorder