Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America.
Department of Geriatrics, Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, Florida, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Aug 6;15(8):e0237056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237056. eCollection 2020.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus and the strategies to slow it have disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. Such disruption may be reflected in changes in psychological function. The present study used a pre-posttest design to test whether Five Factor Model personality traits changed with the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Participants (N = 2,137) were tested in early February 2020 and again during the President's 15 Days to Slow the Spread guidelines. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, Neuroticism decreased across these six weeks, particularly the facets of Anxiety and Depression, and Conscientiousness did not change. Interestingly, there was some evidence that the rapid changes in the social context had changed the meaning of an item. Specifically, an item about going to work despite being sick was a good indicator of conscientiousness before COVID-19, but the interpretation of it changed with the pandemic. In sum, the unexpected small decline in Neuroticism suggests that, during the acute phase of the coronavirus outbreak, feelings of anxiety and distress may be attributed more to the pandemic than to one's personality.
冠状病毒的迅速传播及其减缓传播的策略扰乱了我们生活的方方面面。这种干扰可能反映在心理功能的变化上。本研究采用前后测设计，测试了冠状病毒在美国爆发期间五因素人格特质是否发生了变化。参与者（N=2137）在 2020 年 2 月初和总统的“减缓传播 15 天”指南期间接受了测试。与预先注册的假设相反，在这六周内，神经质降低，特别是焦虑和抑郁的方面，尽责性没有改变。有趣的是，有一些证据表明，社会环境的快速变化改变了一个项目的含义。具体来说，一个关于不顾生病去上班的项目在 COVID-19 之前是尽责性的良好指标，但随着大流行，对它的解释发生了变化。总之，神经质的意外小幅度下降表明，在冠状病毒爆发的急性阶段，焦虑和痛苦的感觉可能更多地归因于大流行，而不是一个人的个性。
