Individual values and well-being: The moderating role of personality traits

This study examined the role of values, traits and their interactions for the experience of eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. First wave studies on value and well-being relationships yielded inconsistent results suggesting that these relationships are moderated by other factors, possibly by personality traits. We asked a representative sample of adult Poles (N = 1161) to report on their personality traits (according to five-factor theory), values (conceptualised by Schwartz) and well-being (hedonic and eudaimonic). Results showed, that higher Extraversion, Emotional stability, Intellect, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were related to higher well-being, confirming and expanding claims from personality theory of subjective well-being: stable predispositions are related not only to subjective, but also to eudaimonic well-being. Values expressing Openness to change, Self-transcendence and Conservation were also positively correlated with well-being, while the role of Self-enhancement was unclear. This confirmed that growth needs expressed in Openness to change and Self-transcendence values promote well-being, but also that values expressing deficiency needs can be positively related to well-being, possibly in specific circumstances. Finally, the two levels of personality (traits and values) proved to have a joint relationship to well-being: higher Conscientiousness and Agreeableness enhanced positive relationships of Openness to change and Self-transcendence with some aspects of well-being.     

Lay Understanding of Happiness and the Experience of Well-Being: Are Some Conceptions of Happiness More Beneficial than Others?

The aim of the study was to understand aspects of life that men and women associate with happiness and to explore the connections between these associations and well-being (measured as positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction) in different periods of life. Participants were 785 people who were asked to list associations that came to mind on hearing the word ‘happiness’. The moderating roles of gender and period of life (adolescence/adulthood, transition/no transition) were analysed. Participants associated happiness mostly with health and relationships. Other categories included knowledge, work, material goods and freedom. Those who associated happiness with work had higher levels of positive affect. Associating happiness with relationships predicted greater life satisfaction, whereas associating it with material goods predicted lower satisfaction. Gender moderated the relationship between associations and positive affect: associating happiness with material goods decreased positive affect among men but no such effect was observed among women; associating happiness with relationships was beneficial for women but unbeneficial for men. Additionally, associations with material goods predicted lower positive affect, especially in times of transition. Associating happiness with knowledge decreased positive affect in adolescents and increased it in adults. Some ways of understanding happiness improved life satisfaction but none were related to negative affect. The relationship between concepts of happiness and positive affect is complex; some concepts are unbeneficial only for some people and during certain periods of life.     

Values and psychological well-being among adolescents – are some values ‘healthier’ than others?

We analyzed links between psychological well-being (PWB: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, relationships, purpose, self-acceptance) and values among 147 adolescents. Values corresponded with PWB: Openness to change correlated positively with Autonomy and negatively with Purpose in Life; Self-enhancement negatively with Environmental Mastery, Personal Growth and Positive Relationships; Self-transcendence positively with Personal Growth and Positive Relationships; Conservation negatively with Autonomy, but positively with Purpose in Life. We identified four value clusters: ‘Young wolves’ (strong openness and self-enhancement) experienced stronger autonomy but a lower positive relationships; ‘Post-materialists’ (openness and self-transcendence), experienced stronger autonomy and positive relationships; ‘spiritual traditionalists’ (conservation and self-transcendence), had higher sense of personal growth and positive relationships; and the ‘undecided’ (no dominating value set) experienced lower autonomy and personal-growth.     

Happy Temperament? Four Types of Stimulation Control Linked to Four Types of Subjective Well-Being

In this person-oriented study 722 adolescents and adults filled out formal characteristics of behaviour—temperament inventory, satisfaction with life scale and positive and negative affect schedule. Using k-means clustering we assigned them to four subjective well-being (SWB) types: (1) achievers—high satisfaction, positive affective balance; (2) aspirers—low satisfaction, positive affective balance; (3) resigners—high satisfaction, negative affective balance; (4) frustrated—low satisfaction, negative affective balance; and to four temperament types denoting patterns of stimulation control (1) sanguine: high stimulation processing capacity (SPC) and high stimulation supply (StS); (2) melancholic: low SPC, low StS; (3) phlegmatic: high SPC, low StS; (4) choleric: low SPC, high StS. We compared stimulation control dimensions between SWB types and compared counts of SWB types across four profiles of temperament. SPC and StS were highest among achievers and lowest among the Frustrated, with aspirers and resigners in between. We found a clear correspondence between well-being structures and temperament types (a) the most common temperament among achievers was the sanguine, suggesting that this is the ‘happy temperament’, (b) among the Frustrated it was the melancholic (the ‘unhappy temperament’), (c) among resigners it was the choleric, suggesting that this ‘overstimulated temperament’ results in high satisfaction at the cost of lower affective balance, (d) among aspirers it was the Phlegmatic, suggesting that ‘understimulated temperament’, results in a good affective balance but lower satisfaction. Configurations of temperament dimensions within individuals affect the whole structure of SWB and can explain incongruence between cognitive and affective components of SWB.     

Correction to: How Healthy and Unhealthy Values Predict Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being: Dissecting Value-Related Beliefs and Behaviours

Journal of Happiness Studies -