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Negative Events

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Acute stressors; Negative life events; Social role losses

Definition

Negative events refer to any occurrence in a person’s life that had changed their life for the worse – either objectively or in their subjective perception. Negative events frequently encompass experiences that would be considered major life events, including financial hardship, job loss, divorce, and bereavement, and are often considered to be prototypical examples of acute stressors. Many negative events also encompass a person losing a valued social role from their sense of identity, such as when someone going through a divorce loses the social role of “spouse.”

Introduction

Throughout their lives, people experience a wide variety of impactful life events. From graduating high school, to changing jobs, to getting married, to having children, or getting divorced, we all go through transitions that fundamentally alter who we are. Although some transitions, such as getting married or starting a career, are...

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Correspondence to Erica B. Slotter .

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Slotter, E.B. (2017). Negative Events. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_828-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_828-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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