A Year Abroad: Shaping Student Personality or Just a Flurry of Feelings?
Spending a year studying abroad is often seen as a transformative experience, promising a complete personality overhaul. But a recent study published in the Journal of Research in Personality challenges this notion, suggesting that while a year abroad can shape student personality, it's not as dramatic as commonly believed. The research, led by psychologists Ian Moore, Akansha Singh, and Nadin Beckmann of Durham University, along with Damian P. Birney of The University of Sydney, reveals that the impact of living abroad is more nuanced and complex than previously thought.
The study recruited 180 undergraduate students from 12 universities in the United Kingdom, with 110 students moving abroad for an academic year and 70 remaining at home. The traveling students went to 32 different countries, with a majority staying in European nations. The researchers assessed the students' broad Big Five traits four times over the 14-month study period and measured narrow traits, specifically anxiety, curiosity, and resilience, 11 times to capture monthly development.
One of the key findings was that four of the Big Five traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism) remained relatively stable regardless of where the students lived. This contradicts popular ideas about the completely life-altering nature of travel. Instead, the new environment did appear to influence specific areas of psychological growth. As the year progressed, students living abroad became more agreeable and more curious than their peers at home, and they reported a steady decrease in overall anxiety.
The researchers used a technique called experience sampling to capture daily personality states. During three separate weeks scattered throughout the academic year, the students received phone prompts four times a day, asking them to rate how they were feeling, thinking, and behaving in that exact moment. This intense measurement schedule allowed the researchers to compare how much personality varies across different timeframes.
The analysis revealed a distinct pattern across the personality hierarchy. Broad traits were the most rigid, showing high between-person variability but very little within-person change. Narrow traits showed a more balanced ratio of flexibility. Daily states fluctuated the most, meaning that students varied more in their own day-to-day behaviors than they differed from the rest of the study participants.
The team then used statistical models to link these daily fluctuations to the students' long-term trait changes. They analyzed the average of each student's daily states and compared it to their broad personality scores at the end of the year. The data supported the bottom-up theory of personality development, showing that a student's average daily state consistently predicted their long-term growth.
However, the study also revealed that extreme daily behavioral fluctuations did not significantly influence long-term traits. Average daily behavior proved to be a much stronger indicator of future personality than unpredictable behavioral spikes. This suggests that the cumulative effect of daily actions is more important than sporadic changes.
One interesting finding was that students generally acted more open when they felt familiar with their physical location. Students who showed a very strong momentary spike in openness when they felt familiar with their surroundings also experienced the greatest long-term growth in broad trait openness over the year. This highlights the importance of context and familiarity in shaping personality.
The study also relied entirely on self-reported data, which can introduce bias. Measuring personality through self-reflection can be subjective, as individuals might not notice subtle changes in their own dispositions over an extended period. Future research will need to track students before they leave for their trips to establish a more accurate baseline of their daily behaviors.
In conclusion, while a year abroad can shape student personality, it's not a complete overhaul. The impact is more nuanced, with specific areas of psychological growth influenced by the new environment. The study highlights the importance of daily actions and context in shaping personality, suggesting that small, manageable behavioral changes can lead to lasting improvements in broader personalities. As the researchers note, this knowledge can be applied to design psychological interventions that focus on gradual, sustainable changes.
