Psychologists say something scary happens when you're unemployed for a while

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/psychologists-something-scary-happens-youre-184300337.html

Three people in my family (including me) had this experience. It's interesting that they studied personality changes, but didn't mention much about the attendant stress that needing to have a job to survive puts on a human.

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research suggests that long-term unemployment takes a significant toll on physical and mental well-being.

Now, a new study finds that unemployment can actually change certain aspects of your personality. Over time, you may become less friendly, less hard-working, and less open to new experiences.

The study, led by Christopher J. Boyce, Ph.D., at the University of Stirling in Scotland, drew data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, focusing specifically on the experiences of a subset of participants between 2005 and 2009. In 2005, all participants were employed. 6,308 remained employed; 251 were unemployed and then re-employed; and 210 were unemployed for one to four years.

Results showed that agreeableness, which is similar to friendliness, decreased among both men and women during long-term unemployment (one to four years). But during the first two years of unemployment, men experienced increases in agreeableness.

The researchers can't say for sure why that gender difference exists, but they suspect it's because men initially try to be agreeable to cope with the situation and placate those around them. Then they end up getting disheartened and agreeableness decreases.

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