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Journal of personality
02, 2024;92 (1): 162-179.

The associations between life events and person-centered personality consistency.

Amanda J Wright, Joshua J Jackson
Author Information
  1. Amanda J Wright: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis, USA. ORCID
  2. Joshua J Jackson: Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis, USA. ORCID
PMID: 36537588 DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12802

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Few environments reliably influence mean-level and rank-order changes in personality-perhaps because personality development needs to be examined through an individualized, person-centered lens.
METHODS: The current study used Bayesian multilevel linear models to examine the association between 16 life events and changes in person-centered, Big Five personality consistency across 4 to 10 waves of data using four datasets (N = 24,491).
RESULTS: Selection effects were found for events such as marriage, (un)employment, retirement, and volunteering, whereas between-person effects for slopes were found for events such as beginning formal education, employment, and retirement. Within-person changes were often small and emerged inconsistently across datasets but, when present, were brief and negative in direction, suggesting life events can serve as a short-term disruption to the personality system. However, there were many individual differences around event-related trajectories.
CONCLUSION: Our results highlight that the effects of life events depend on how personality and its changes are quantified-with these findings underscoring the utility of a person-centered approach as it can capture the full range of these idiosyncrasies. Overall, these findings suggest that life events are associated with a range of idiosyncratic effects and can serve as a short-term, destabilizing shock to one's personality system.

Keywords

environmental factors ipsative consistency life events person-centered personality development profile correlations

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MeSH Term

Humans
Bayes Theorem
Personality
Personality Development
Personality Disorders
Individuality
Journal Article
Article has an altmetric score of 14

Word Cloud

Created with Highcharts 10.0.0eventspersonalitylifeperson-centeredchangeseffectsconsistencycandevelopmentacrossdatasetsfoundemploymentretirementserveshort-termsystemfindingsrangeOBJECTIVE:environmentsreliablyinfluencemean-levelrank-orderpersonality-perhapsneedsexaminedindividualizedlensMETHODS:currentstudyusedBayesianmultilevellinearmodelsexamineassociation16BigFive410wavesdatausingfourN = 24491RESULTS:Selectionmarriageunvolunteeringwhereasbetween-personslopesbeginningformaleducationWithin-personoftensmallemergedinconsistentlypresentbriefnegativedirectionsuggestingdisruptionHowevermanyindividualdifferencesaroundevent-relatedtrajectoriesCONCLUSION:resultshighlightdependquantified-withunderscoringutilityapproachcapturefullidiosyncrasiesOverallsuggestassociatedidiosyncraticdestabilizingshockone'sassociationsenvironmentalfactorsipsativeprofilecorrelations

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