There is evidence for differential stability in personality trait differences, even over decades. The authors used data from a sample of the Scottish Mental Survey, 1947 to study personality stability from childhood to older age. The 6-Day Sample (N = 1,208) were rated on six personality characteristics by their teachers at around age 14. In 2012, the authors traced as many of these participants as possible and invited them to take part in a follow-up study. Those who agreed (N = 174) completed a questionnaire booklet at age 77 years, which included rating themselves and asking someone who knew them well to rate them on the same 6 characteristics on which they were rated in adolescence. Each set of 6 ratings was reduced to the same single underlying factor, denoted dependability, a trait comparable to conscientiousness. Participants’ and others’ older-age personality characteristic ratings were moderately correlated with each other, and with other measures of personality and wellbeing, but correlations suggested no significant stability of any of the 6 characteristics or their underlying factor, dependability, over the 63-year interval. However, a more complex model, controlling rater effects, indicated significant 63-year stability of 1 personality characteristic, Stability of Moods, and near-significant stability of another, Conscientiousness. Results suggest that lifelong differential stability of personality is generally quite low, but that some aspects of personality in older age may relate to personality in childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

In the past 4 decades about 500 randomized trials have examined the effects of psychological treatments of adult depression. In this article the results of a series of meta-analyses of these trials are summarised. Several types of psychotherapy have been examined, including cognitive behaviour therapy, behavioural activation therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, problem-solving therapy, nondirective supportive therapy, and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. All therapies are effective and there are no significant differences between treatments. Psychotherapies are about equally effective as pharmacotherapy, and combined treatments are more effective than either of these alone. Therapies are also effective in specific target groups, such as older adults, college students, patients with general medical disorders, but may be somewhat less effective in chronic depression, and in patients with comorbid substance use disorders. Treatments are effective when delivered in individual, group, and guided self-help format. The effects of psychotherapies have been overestimated because of the low quality of many trials and due to publication bias. Future research should not be aimed at the development of new psychotherapies for depression, on specific treatment formats or on therapies in specific populations, because the evidence indicates that all types and formats with human involvement are effective in all specific target groups. Future research should instead focus on a further reduction of the disease burden of depression. Specifically, it should focus on the possibilities of preventing the onset of depressive disorders, treatments of chronic and treatment-resistant depression, relapse prevention, and scaling up treatments, for example by using more guided self-help interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)