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Life Events and Personality Trait Change
Author(s) -
Bleidorn Wiebke,
Hopwood Christopher J.,
Lucas Richard E.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12286
Subject(s) - trait , personality , psychology , big five personality traits , trait theory , feeling , personality changes , social psychology , cognition , developmental psychology , computer science , programming language , neuroscience
Objective Theory and research have emphasized the impact of life events on personality trait change. In this article, we review prospective research on personality trait change in response to nine major life events in the broader domains of love and work. Method We expected to find that life events lead to personality trait change to the extent that they have a lasting influence on individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Moreover, we predicted that love‐related life events such as marriage or parenthood would be more strongly related to changes in traits that emphasize affective content, whereas work‐related life events would be more likely to lead to change in traits that reflect behavioral or cognitive content. Results The current state of research provided some evidence that life events can lead to changes in personality traits and that different life events may be differently related to specific trait domains. Conclusions A more general conclusion emerging from this review is that the evidence for the nature, shape, and timing of personality trait change in response to life events is still preliminary. We discuss the implications of the results for theory and research and provide directions for future studies on life events and personality trait change.