大学生人格特质与主观幸福感的关系:儒家心理资产的中介作用

以308名大学生为被试,以《大五人格问卷》、《儒家心理资产问卷》、《生活满意度量表》和《积极消极情感量表》为工具,考察人格特质、儒家心理资产与主观幸福感的关系。结果表明:(1)五种人格特质与儒家心理资产的八个维度存在不同程度的相关;(2)儒家心理资产八个维度与主观幸福感的不同指标相关不同;(3)爱人、务民、崇德、学等儒家心理资产维度在人格特质与主观幸福感总分之间起部分中介作用。本研究是对《论语》管理智慧实证化的创新性尝试。

Personality Traits and Subjective Well-being in Chinese University Students: The Mediated Effect of Confucian Psychological Assets

McCrae and Costa (1999) distinguished between “basic tendencies” and “characteristic adaptations” in five-factor theory of personality. The five personality traits are basic tendencies, whereas habits, attitudes, interests, skills, beliefs, goals, expectations, relationships and plans are characteristic adaptation. Confucian Psychological Assets refer to those qualities that Confucianism values highly. According to adaptation characteristic, psychological assets fall into this category. A large body of literatures show that personality traits are closely connected with subjective well-being, including life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Work is needed that examines the relationship among personality traits, Confucian Psychological Assets, and subjective well-being. The purpose of the present study is to investigate: (1) the differential associations of personality traits and Confucian Psychological Assets in university students; (2) whether Confucian Psychological Assets are correlated with subjective well-being; (3) whether students’ Confucian Psychological Assets mediate the relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being. Participants were 308 students from university freshmen (mean age = 18.77 years, 209 females) recruited from Beijing. They were surveyed with questionnaires, including Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999), Confucian Psychological Assets questionnaire (Li, Zhang, & Wang, 2012), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). The present study conducted exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and Sobel tests. Because all data were gathered from the same source at the same time, the extent of method variance were examined in the study. During the procedure of Harman’s one factor test, results of an exploratory factor analysis offered some indication that common method variance was not a serious problem in this study. The main findings were as follows: (1) in terms of personality traits and Confucian Psychological assets, extraversion was significantly positively correlated with advocating virtue and loving people; agreeableness with the eight dimensions; conscientiousness with the six dimensions except service for people and great assiduity; neuroticism with learning, loving people, and laboring; and openness with empathy and service for people. (2) Except empathy, the other seven dimensions of Confucian Psychological Assets were significantly correlated with life satisfaction; all the eight dimensions with positive affect; empathy, service for people, loving people, and labor with negative affect; and the eight dimensions positively with a composite of subjective well-being. (3)The association between personality and subjective well-being was partly mediated by loving people, service for people, advocating virtue, and learning. Specifically, agreeableness was associated with subjective well-being through advocating virtue, learning, service for people, and loving people; conscientiousness through advocating virtue, learning, and loving people; and neuroticism and openness through loving people. In conclusion, among university students, Confucian Psychological Assets are not only connected with personality traits and subjective well-being, including life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect, but also mediate the effect of personality traits on subjective well-being. This study explored several questions about Confucian Psychological Assets through empirical methods, which is an innovative attempt to managerial wisdom of “the Analects of Confucius”. It has important implications for promoting the integration of Chinese traditional and western psychology, constructing psychology with Chinese characteristics, and internationalizing Chinese psychology.