When it comes to the first year and a half of marriage, the seasons aren’t the only things changing: you and your partners’ brain chemistry is changing, too. Ever notice that your friend who got married last year has changed quite a bit" It’s nothing you can put your finger on, really. They seem a little bit more mature; perhaps they’re hosting dinner parties now instead of potlucks, or their car is always clean when it once looked like someone had been living in it. This is a common phenomenon, believe it or not. So much goes into marriage: financial planning, decisions about procreating, home buying or renting, sharing each other’s friends and family. It’s a lot.
Decisions Made in the First Year of Marriage Have Lasting Effects One recent study published in 2017 titled “Personality change among newlyweds: Patterns, predictors, and associations with marital satisfaction over time,” shows that our minds are changing during the first 18 months of marriage. And these changes appear to be pretty significant. We’re not just talking about a couple staying in more and watching Netflix. We’re talking about big shifts in how a person thinks and feels. It appears that the constant communication, negotiation, and navigation of both minute and big life choices (such as home buying and having a baby) creates lasting effects.
Consider the five main components of a personality: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousnes...