NEW YORK: A new tranche of research has found that longer-term unemployment alters people’s personalities in different ways. This includes making people less agreeable and open, which, in turn hampers people who undergo such changes from securing work.
One of the big downsides of the recent global recession has been a rise in unemployment. As well as causing money worries and stress, a new study has found that the effect of not working can transform the basic personality of some individuals.
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Whether personalities are fixed or in a state of flux is one of the controversial aspects of psychology and sociology. Many management text books, including the scores of personality inventory questionnaires which line the business section of bookstores, would argue that personality is fixed and something, like human capital, to be used as a business commodity. Other strands of thought, like existentialism, indicate that personality is something that can alter through individual choice. Alternatively, some sociological theories argue that the external environment, particularly the economic base, can alter behaviors.
The balance towards personality being something that can alter over time or with circumstance is drawn out of a recent study conducted by the American Psychological Association. The work was performed by Dr. Christopher J. Boyce, of the University of Stirling in the U.K.
