PERSONALITY-CHANGE PRODUCED BY EXPEDITION STRESS - A CONTROLLED-STUDY

Previous uncontrolled research has shown that participation by young people in an international expedition organized by the British Schools Exploring Society was associated with positive change in a variety of self-report personality dimensions. The present study was a controlled investigation of the hypothesis that such positive personality change would be confined to expeditioners, and not be found in controls (i.e. friends of the same age and sex supplied by the expeditioners). This study also found positive personality change in the expeditioners, while the controls showed (non-significant) personality deterioration over the comparable time period. Marginally significantly positive changes were seen most clearly in 'ascendancy' and 'sociability'. Evidence from self-report measures that expedition stress is associated with positive personality change is sufficiently promising to justify an observational study of whether changes in social behaviour are produced.