The Hidden Psychological Impact of Marriage

Marriage Makes Women Calmer, Men More Responsible

New research finds that marriage can bring about significant changes to personality two years. Researchers studied 169 heterosexual newlywed couples over an 18-month period, examining shifts across the “Big Five” personality traits: (Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.)

One of the big finding was that marriage had a positive effect on wives’ emotional stability. Wives that tied the knot became less anxious, depressed and angry after. For instance, husbands were observed to get more conscientious and turn into more dependable and responsible partners.

And both partners became less open to new experiences over time, probably as they got into married life’s routines, an interesting finding. But couples typically became less extroverted and less socially broad, as well.

The study found that at the beginning of marriage, female partners are more agreeable, but both spouses became less patient and less agreeable as time went on. This may be because when an initial honeymoon period ends, old habits resurface, says the psychologists.

Interestingly however, these personality changes were remarkably universal and not greatly influenced by factors such as age, length of relationship before marriage, cohabitation, initial marital satisfaction or parenthood status.

The benefits of commitment to marriage are underlined by the research. These personality shifts can be navigated by psychologists and maintained in a successful long term relationship, they say, with skills such as self control and forgiveness being essential.