Open Peer Commentary and Author Response Regarding ‘Life Events and Personality Change: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’

Abstract

Bühler et al. (2023) conducted a meta-analysis of personality change in response to 10 life events. Results supported specific effects of life events on life satisfaction and personality. However, not considering the time lag between assessments when analyzing pre-and post-event personality differences, may lead to misleading conclusions, given evidence that life events impact psychological outcomes in a non-linear way. We present three avenues to address this limitation in future research.We congratulate Bühler et al. on publishing the first meta-analysis of personality differences before vs. after the occurrence of 10 life events. The authors included 44 studies in their analysis, comprising 89 samples. Many events had small effects on life satisfaction, but effects on Big Five personality were less numerous and seemingly somewhat inconsistent (e.g., increase in conscientiousness after a new relationship, but also after divorce). The authors conclude by calling for more sophisticated designs to better study the effects of life events, and we of course agree.The authors were very methodical in their approach, already pointed out limitations themselves, and circumvented them in other work. This includes the limitation on which we will focus here: Future studies should "more carefully time assessments […] given that personality could change slowly or suddenly in response to a life event and may follow linear or nonlinear patterns of change".At least when it comes to well-being outcomes (including self-esteem and life satisfaction), negative life events indeed mostly tend to temporarily depress these outcomes. This downturn often already happens before the event, and then rebounds after the event (e.g., Asselmann & Specht, 2023;Reitz et al., 2022). For other event-outcome constellations, similarly complex non-linear shapes are plausible. Put simply: The difference in the outcome between the pre- ReferencesAsselmann, E., & Specht, J. (2023). Dramatic effects but fast adaptation: Changes in life satisfaction and different facets of affective well-being around the death of a partner and death of a child. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 15(2), 451-465.