The DOI matches its Crossref record; 139 of the 143 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Personality change following unemployment.
Abstract
Unemployment has a strongly negative influence on well-being, but it is unclear whether it also alters basic personality traits. Whether personality changes arise through natural maturation processes or contextual/environmental factors is still a matter of debate. Unemployment, a relatively unexpected and commonly occurring life event, may shed light on the relevance of context for personality change. We examined, using a latent change model, the influence of unemployment on the five-factor model of personality in a sample of 6,769 German adults, who completed personality measures at 2 time points 4 years apart. All participants were employed at the first time point, and a subset became unemployed over the course of the study. By the second time point, participants had either remained in employment, been unemployed from 1 to 4 years, or had experienced some unemployment but become reemployed. Compared with those who had remained in employment, unemployed men and women experienced significant patterns of change in their mean levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, whereas reemployed individuals experienced limited change. The results indicate that unemployment has wider psychological implications than previously thought. In addition, the results are consistent with the view that personality changes as a function of contextual and environmental factors.
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In the citing paper
“whereas men showed a non-linear pattern with increases during the first 2 years and subsequent decreases during later years.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“this study found that agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness changed during unemployment relative to employment, with the influence being contingent upon the number of years of unemployment, gender, and reemployment.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“Women, on the other hand, showed sharp decreases in openness in the second and third years of unemployment but rebounded in the fourth year.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“Both men and women experienced nonlinear changes in openness.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“Taking gender and number of years spent unemployed into account, the observed effect sizes were considerably larger than those reported in previous studies, suggesting effects that reach as high as a full standard deviation change in personality.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“Conscientiousness decreased linearly in men”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“women tended to show linear decreases in agreeableness across 4 years of unemployment”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“Also, these effects were specific to the relatively small group of individuals who remained unemployed; no differences were found between individuals who were reemployed and those who remained employed during the study period.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“whereas women showed a nonlinear pattern with increases in the early and late stages of unemployment but decreases in the medium term.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
In the citing paper
“While men's openness seemed to slightly increase during the first 2 years of unemployment, they start to decrease with longer time spent unemployed.”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Boyce et al. (2015)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., Daly, M., & Sedikides, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Stirling (GB)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2015
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 991-1011
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W2128222599
- Cited by
- 231
- References
- 143
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12
- FWCI
- 29.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Maynooth University ePrints and eTheses Archive (Maynooth University) (acceptedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (PTA-026-27-2665, ES/K00588X/1)
- University of Stirling
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Employment and Welfare Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- unemployment, personality change, Big Five personality traits, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, life events, reemployment, latent change models
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Germany, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personality, Unemployment, Young Adult
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