A recent study suggests being unemployed could actually change one's basic personality traits.

Unemployment can change a person's core personalities, making some less conscientious, agreeable and open. This, in turn, can make it more difficult to find another job, according to a recently published study by the American Psychological Association.

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"The results challenge the idea that our personalities are 'fixed' and show that the effects of external factors such as unemployment can have large impacts on our basic personality. This indicates that unemployment has wider psychological implications than previously thought," said Christopher Boyce, PhD, of the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom.

For the study, researchers examined five different personality traits - conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion and openness - in a sample of 6,769 German adults.

Of the group, which took a standard personality test at two points over a four-year period, 210 were unemployed for anywhere from one to four years during the experiment, while another 251 were unemployed for less than a year before getting jobs.

The findings showed men tended to experience increased agreeableness during the first two years of unemployment. These levels, however, fell below those who were employed in the following years.

Women's agreeableness levels generally fell for every year of unemployment.

"In early unemployment stages, there may be incentives for individuals to behave agreeably in an effort to secure another job or placate those around them. But in later years when the situation becomes endemic, such incentives may weaken," the researchers added.

The research also revealed the longer men spent without jobs, the less conscientious they became. In comparison, women became more conscientious in the early and late stages of unemployment, but experienced a slump in the middle of the study period.

Boyce said the research suggests the unemployed may be unfairly stigmatized as a result of unavoidable personality changes, which potentially creates a more difficult landscape for them to land new jobs.

The study appeared in a recent edition of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Tagsunemployment, jobless, working force, personality traits, Psychological effect, psychology