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Personality trait development across the transition to retirement
Ted Schwaba1, Wiebke Bleidorn1
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|January 30, 2018
Summary
Retirement impacts personality, causing immediate increases in openness and agreeableness, followed by declines. Emotional stability, however, consistently increases around retirement transitions.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Gerontology
- Sociology
Background:
- Personality traits are often considered stable in adulthood.
- Major life events, such as retirement, can potentially influence personality development.
- Understanding personality changes in older adults is crucial for well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate personality trait trajectories in the years preceding and following retirement.
- To examine how the transition to retirement affects the Big Five personality dimensions.
- To identify potential moderators of personality change during retirement.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study design with 690 retirees and 532 matched nonretirees.
- Data collected over 7 years across 6 measurement waves.
- Propensity-score matching used for robust comparison between groups.
Main Results:
- Retirees showed immediate increases in openness and agreeableness post-retirement, followed by gradual declines.
- Emotional stability increased both before and after retirement.
- Conscientiousness and extraversion remained unchanged by the retirement transition.
Conclusions:
- The transition to retirement significantly alters specific personality traits, particularly openness and agreeableness.
- Personality development in older adulthood is dynamic and responsive to major life events.
- While individual differences in change exist, moderators remain unidentified.
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