Refining the Relationship Between Personality and ...

1 Refining the Relationship Between Personality and subjective Well-BeingPiers Steel, Joseph Schmidt, and Jonas ShultzUniversity of CalgaryUnderstanding subjective well-being (SWB) has historically been a core human endeavor and presentlyspans fields from management to mental health. Previous meta-analyses have indicated that personalitytraits are one of the best predictors. Still, these past results indicate only a moderate Relationship , weakerthan suggested by several lines of reasoning. This may be because ofcommensurability, whereresearchers have grouped together substantively disparate measures in their analyses.

2 In this article, theauthors review and address this problem directly, focusing on individual measures of Personality ( ,the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) andcategories of SWB ( , life satisfaction). In addition, the authors take a multivariate approach, assessinghow much variance Personality traits account for individually as well as together. Results indicate thatdifferent Personality and SWB scales can be substantively different and that the Relationship Between thetwo is typically much larger ( , 4 times) than previous meta-analyses have indicated.

3 Total SWBvariance accounted for by Personality can reach as high as 39% or 63% disattenuated. These results alsospeak to meta-analyses in general and the need to account for scale differences once a sufficient researchbase has been : Personality , subjective well-being, meta-analysis, commensurabilitySubjective well-being (SWB) is a fundamental human at least the sixth century , the Classic Greeks exploredthe issue under the rubric ofeudaemonia,that is human flourishingor living well. This followed with the Hellenistic Greeks and theRomans exploringataraxia, a form of happiness within one s owncontrol (Leahey, 2000).

4 Similarly, interest in SWB has continuedto the present day, also under a variety of terms and methodologies( , Diener, Eunkook, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Lyubomirsky,Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005). More recently, the study of SWB hasfocused on its Relationship to Personality , and sufficient researchhas been conducted to permit several meta-analyses (Ozer &Benet-Mart nez, 2006). In particular, DeNeve and Cooper s (1998)work, which summarizes the correlations of SWB with 137 traits,has been cited close to 200 times in fields ranging from economics(Frey & Stutzer, 2002) to gerontology (Isaacowitz & Smith, 2003).

5 They have shown that Personality is one of the foremost predictorsof SWB, which underscores the importance of using Personality tounderstand happiness. The focus of the current meta-analysis is tobuild on this innovative research base by reexamining the rolepersonality has with major reason for this reanalysis is twofold. First, there hasbeen an explosion of interest in positive psychology in the newmillennia ( , Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), generatingconsiderably more data since DeNeve and Cooper (1998) con-ducted their study. For example, their earlier investigation of thepersonality trait Psychoticism s Relationship with SWB was basedon five samples, whereas we were able to obtain over 43 samplesfor the present meta-analysis.

6 This allowed us to refine our esti-mates to a much greater degree. Second and more importantly,despite the frequent citations of DeNeve and Cooper s meta-analysis, as well as other summaries indicating that Personality isone of the strongest predictors of SWB, the previously establishedassociations are still weaker than expected. As DeNeve and Coo-per reported, on average, Personality variables were associatedwith [only] 4% of the variance for all indices of SWB (p. 221).Specifically, the correlations of overall SWB with the Big Fivetraits are as follows.

7 17 (Extraversion), .17 (Agreeableness), .21(Conscientiousness), .22 (Neuroticism), and .11 (Openness toExperience). We argue that these results are substantially smallerthan those that would be expected from theoretical analyses andempirical studies, especially with regards to Extraversion, whichshould be considerably stronger than Agreeableness and begin by considering four major reasons that thepersonality SWB Relationship should be particularly strong. Afterthis, we review how the Relationship Between SWB and personalitycould be better assessed. Because of the recent proliferation ofSWB research, several improvements to the meta-analytic proce-dure are now available.

8 To begin with, previous research wasprimarily univariate, examining the Relationship of individual traitswith SWB. We examine the multivariate impact of all majorpersonality traits simultaneously. More important, we review howpast meta-analyses aggregated dissimilar operational definitions ofPiers Steel, Human Resources and Organizational Dynamics, Universityof Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Joseph Schmidt and Jonas Shultz,Industrial/Organizational Psychology, University of Shultz in now at the Calgary Health Region, Calgary, Alberta, would like to thank the International Well-Being Group as well asRichard Lucas, Robert Cummins, and Ruut Veenhoven specifically forproviding commentary and encouragement on a draft of this concerning this article should be addressed to PiersSteel, 444 Scurfield Hall, 2500 University Drive NW, Universityof Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.

9 BulletinCopyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association2008, Vol. 134, No. 1, 138 1610033-2909/08/$ DOI: and SWB constructs, likely affecting the summaryestimates. We argue that a multivariate analytic approach thatcontrols for measurement differences should yield the most appro-priate and accurate meta-analytic effect the SWB Personality Relationship Is LikelyUnderestimatedIn the following sections, we review four arguments that suggesta far greater connection Between SWB and Personality than whatis presently found. We first note that there are strong theoreticallinkages Between Personality and SWB.

10 Second, at a definitionalor conceptual level, there are impressive similarities Between spe-cific Personality traits and SWB components. Third, we examineresearch regarding genetic determinants of SWB. This literatureindicates that long-term SWB is largely determined by personalitytraits. Fourth, we note that the situational strength does not affectthe results as would be expected. In particular, life satisfactionshould be more closely connected to SWB than job satisfaction;however, the opposite effect has been LinkagesThere are a wide variety of theoretical linkages Between per-sonality traits and SWB, prompting Diener and Lucas (1999) toconclude, it appears a substantial portion of stable SWB is due topersonality (p.)