Measuring Personality Development in the Aftermath of Critical Life Events: A Preliminary Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study

This article aims to conceptualize, operationalize, and empirically validate the concept of actual personality development in the aftermath of a Critical Life Event. Two qualitative tools have been elaborated: the Structured Critical Life Events Interview and the Coding System for Personality Development. They were empirically verified in a preliminary longitudinal mixed methods study (N = 40 participants, n = 1440 narratives) with three measurements in one year referring to the Transition Cycle (Hopson & Adams, 1976). For assessing reliability the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and Cronbach’s α were assessed. The convergent validity of the tools was determined by correlating the results with (1) linguistic structure of participants’ verbalizations and (2) the questionnaires measuring similar behaviours and features. The research showed good psychometric properties of the tools. Moreover, they better identified personality growth and the specific dynamics of personality changes (positive and negative) than the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996).