A longitudinal study found that a population of young adults who were exposed to Hurricane Harvey showed mean-level stability in personality in the year following the tragedy, suggesting that adverse life events alone are not enough to spur changes in disposition. The study was published in the Journal of Personality.
Personality research has considered how disposition might be influenced by adverse life events, such as natural disasters, the onset of disease, or social role changes like divorce. As the study authors explain, “life events, such as experiencing a hurricane, can serve as triggering events for personality characteristic behaviors after a given situation. Long-term trait change may occur in part because individuals are shifting their daily behavioral and thought patterns, which, over time, leads to a change in disposition (Roberts & Jackson, 2008).”
The study authors stress that according to climate trends, hurricanes are becoming more frequent, more damaging, and will affect a growing number of people. Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane that tore through several areas along the Gulf Coast of the United States, from August 17 to September 2, 2017. Over 100 people were killed and colossal flooding caused monumental damage in Houston, Texas. The study authors set out to examine how this tragic event might have impacted the personality development of those who experienced it.
A longitudinal study questioned university students from Houston Texas at two different time points. Baseline data was collected from 646 students during the Fall of 2017. The questionnaire assessed students’ level of exposure to Hurricane Harvey as well as their previous exposure to flood events. Students also completed the Big-Five Inventory-2, which assessed the five personality dimensions of “extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, negative emotionality, and openness.” One year later, 383 of these students participated in the second wave of the study and were again scored on the Big Five personality traits.
Results showed individual differences in personality trait scores at baseline, as well as differences in participants’ “developmental patterns of change in the year following the hurricane.” However, the researchers reported “no discernable average pattern of change that most people showed after the hurricane.”
The authors suggest that these findings provide evidence for the stability of personality following a tragic life event. They also cite its accordance with the idea of post-traumatic growth, “whereby the experience of trauma alone is not enough in itself to facilitate growth and individual-level traits may moderate the change trajectories following trauma (Joseph & Linley, 2005; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004).”
Even more, results showed that “neither hurricane exposure, nor its interaction with previous exposure showed statistically significant associations with the rates of change in any personality trait.” The authors express that this finding is compelling since it goes against the stress inoculation hypothesis, which claims that having successfully endured a moderate level of hardship can protect against the “negative consequences of future adversity.” The authors suggest that this hypothesis simply might not apply to the development of personality after trauma.
The researchers conclude that “the story of positive personality change following adversity appears to be more complicated and nuanced than a mere mean-level trend.” They suggest that it would be of interest for future studies to hone in on individual differences that may predict who will show positive change, adverse change, or stability after exposure to stressful life events.
The study, “Hurricane Exposure and Personality Development”, was authored by Rodica Ioana Damian, Surizaday Serrano, and Patrick L. Hill.
