Personality Maturation during the Transition to Working Life: Associations with Commitment as A Possible Indicator of Social Investment

Abstract

The social investment theory (SIT) proposes that personality maturation is triggered by transitions into age‐graded roles and psychological commitment to these roles. The present study examines the predictions of SIT by focusing on the transition from student life to working life. We analysed three‐wave longitudinal data and compared participants who made the transition into working life (N = 226), participants who combined education with work (N = 387), and participants who did not make the transition at all (N = 287). In contrast to the predictions of SIT, we found no differences in personality maturation between individuals who made the transition into working life and those who did this only partly or not at all. Psychological commitment to work did not explain individual differences in personality maturation for those who made the transition (partly) into working life after controlling for multiple testing. Therefore, the present study did not support the predictions of SIT. © 2019 The Authors European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

Personality trait change at work: Associations with organizational socialization and identification

“…Investing in their new work role is then expected to elicit and accentuate the expression of personality traits that led youths to enter the police academy in the first place (Roberts & Jackson, 2008). The above reasoning corroborates what has been called the “ corresponsive principle ” of personality development (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005; Roberts & Nickel, 2006), suggesting that people select and create different environments in correspondence with their personality (selection, manipulation), react differently to the same environment (reactive), or evoke different reactions from the same environment (but see den Boer, Klimstra, Branje, Meeus, & Denissen, 2019).…”

Unraveling the complex relationship between work transitions and self-esteem and life satisfaction.

“…Similarly, it might be that when unemployment is voluntary as opposed to being laid off, people adjust better (Kassenboehmer & Haisken-DeNew, 2009). Following social investment theory, the importance of work for the individual, especially the centrality of the role to the individuals’ identity, is considered to be a promising moderator (Lodi-Smith & Roberts, 2007; though see Den Boer et al, 2019). Narratives that capture the centrality of work in people’s identity might illuminate key change mechanisms.…”

Editorial: A Brief Wish List for Personality Research

“…brain volume and brain network connectivity, Genç et al, ; and resting frontal EEG asymmetry, Kuper, Käckenmester, & Wacker, ) processes and personality development (e.g. during the transition to working life, den Boer, Klimstra, Branje, Meeus, & Denissen, ; and in relation to the development of peer sociometric status, Ilmarinen, Vainikainen, Verkasalo, & Lönnqvist, ). The breadth of our field as reflected in EJP was also apparent with regard to types of contributions (theoretical and confirmatory as well as exploratory empirical work, meta‐analyses, statistical tutorials, and reflections on the field), applied designs (correlational and experimental, short‐term and long‐term longitudinal, and genetically informed) and measures (self‐reported and other‐reported, behavioural, perceptual, and neurocognitive measures), as well as the age groups that were considered (childhood and early, middle, and late adulthood).…”