Behavioural Science Centre.
Center for Research on Self and Identity, School of Psychology, University of Southampton.
J Appl Psychol. 2015 Jul;100(4):991-1011. doi: 10.1037/a0038647. Epub 2015 Feb 9.
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.
失业对幸福感有强烈的负面影响，但目前尚不清楚它是否也会改变基本的人格特质。人格的变化是通过自然成熟过程还是通过环境/环境因素产生的，这仍然是一个争论的问题。失业是一种相对意外且普遍发生的生活事件，它可能揭示了环境对人格变化的重要性。我们使用潜在变化模型，在一个由 6769 名德国成年人组成的样本中研究了失业对人格五因素模型的影响，这些成年人在 4 年的时间里完成了两次人格测试。所有参与者在第一次测试时都有工作，一部分人在研究过程中失业。到第二次测试时，参与者要么继续就业，要么失业 1 至 4 年，要么经历了一些失业但重新就业。与那些继续就业的人相比，失业的男性和女性在宜人性、责任心和开放性的平均水平上经历了显著的变化模式，而重新就业的人变化有限。研究结果表明，失业对心理的影响比之前认为的更为广泛。此外，这些结果与人格变化是环境和环境因素作用的观点一致。
