EXTROVERSION AND NEUROTICISM AS PREDICTORS OF OBJECTIVE LIFE EVENTS -A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS

Data from a 4-year longitudinal study of young adults were used to exa mine the causal pathways between personality and life events. To reduc e measurement artifacts, analyses were conducted using reports of more objective life events. It was found that extraversion predisposed par ticipants to experience more positive objective life events, whereas n euroticism predisposed people to experience more negative objective ev ents. In contrast, personality was somewhat stable, and life events we re found not to have a prospective influence on it. Objective positive and negative life events covaried, suggesting that people who experie nce more of 1 type of event are also likely to experience more events of the opposite valence as well. The findings indicate that life event s cannot be viewed as a source of influence independent of personality . Although factors that are independent of the person undoubtedly infl uence life events to some degree, the personality of the individual al so appears to do so.