Personality Traits and Happiness - Essay Example

Personality Traits and Happiness Introduction: Happiness is the common wish to every human being and many often several people who wish happiness do not enjoy it. It is a fact that many of the elements of life that man considers to bring happiness and joy to life such as money and power, in contrast, do not bring them. Happiness is many a time unreachable status for people. Why is it so or what are the preconditions for happiness? In a profound analysis of happiness, it becomes evident that it is affected by various elements such as wealth, economic growth, close relationships, feeling of belonging, friendship, marriage, faith etc to name a few. Happiness or the state of well-being, especially its emotional aspect is also controlled by the personality traits of an individual and affecting these traits can, as pointed out by research findings, ensure happiness for individuals. It is, therefore, significant to note that “global subjective well-being can be influenced by regulating two out of its three main components: positive and negative affect [and] due to the ‘negativity bias,’ the down regulation of negative affect may be more important to global subjective well being than the up-regulation of positive affect.” (Larsen and Prizmic, 259). Thus, it becomes evident that personality traits affect the happiness of individuals and some of the pertinent questions come up in this background. What personality traits seem to correlate with happiness? Would a person be prepared to undergo a kind of therapy that changed his personality if it made him happier? Would your view be different if one was very happy after taking the therapy (or moderately happy/acceptably happy/pretty miserable)? These are the questions dealt with in this paper and the conclusions of such an attempt can be most encouraging as the personality traits affect one’s personality. The role of personality traits in the enjoyment of happiness is evident and this is possible only through the specified efforts in the enhancement of happiness, including therapeutic assistance. In relation to the personality’s role in the development of happiness, there have been research evidences suggesting the individual differences in the enjoyment of happiness. These evidences prove the significance of practices and therapies that provide for the enhancement of happiness on the basis of individual differences. Only specific efforts catering to the needs of individual realities with regard to personality traits can be effective in the development of one’s happiness. “Behavioral–genetic studies show that at least some portion of the variance in well-being can be explained by genes. And, of course, genes must express themselves through some physiological process… Genes may influence physiological systems that only indirectly influence well being through their effects on environmental choice or other behaviors.” (Lucas, p. 177). All these are valuable points suggesting the development of happiness through one’s personality development which focuses mainly on the individual in relation to genes. Part I: Relation between Personality Traits and Happiness The various aspects of human personality contribute to the happiness of human beings and it is by affecting the personality traits of a person that he/she can affect effectively the enjoyment of happiness. “Temperament and personality appear to be powerful factors influencing people’s SWB, in part because individuals usually adapt to some degree to good and bad conditions.” (Diener, 34-43). There are research evidences proving the relation between religion and happiness. A relative finding of survey after survey is that people who are religiously active enjoy more happiness in life. There are also research findings suggesting that the religious people are more effective in coping with sufferings and losses. “An active religious faith hardly precludes stress or suffering…Yet religious does correlate with expressed happiness, and it may help buffer stress.” (Myers, 326). In this background, it is important also to understand that happiness has great value in the lives of humanity and only people who are happy can contribute to the society’s progress as well. It is especially notable that “happy people are more likely to engage in an active social comparison process sometimes determining social comparisons are not relevant to their mood and self-concept.” (Fujita, 242). The natural conclusion one can derive is that happiness has important role in the lives of people and there are various aspects of one’s personality that can contribute one’s happiness. To be specific, when it is said that the personality traits and personality are interrelated, one needs to comprehend that happiness is greatly influenced by the big Five personality traits which includes openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These have significant role in the state of happiness of humans. To understand the big five personality traits it can be seen that they include neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. Neuroticism can mean a tendency to easily experience unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, anger, or depression. Extroversion is the energy, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others. Agreeableness may be comprehended as a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others whereas conscientiousness is the tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement. Finally, openness includes appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. (Big Five Personality Traits – Overview). These all are very important traits of human personality as they form vital part of one’s happiness. In short, these are important aspects of one’s personality which can determine one’s enjoyment of happiness. It is also important to consider that several of the studies on happiness in relation to personality traits have been conducted. In one important paper “The Happy Personality: A Meta-Analysis of 137 Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being” by DeNeve, Kristina M. and Harris Cooper (1998) it was found that personality was very much predictive of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive affect etc. However, these are significantly less predictive of negative affect. The traits most closely associated with one’s happiness included repressive-defensiveness, trust, emotional stability, locus of control-chance, desire for control, hardiness, positive affectivity, private collective self esteem, and tension. The development of these can contribute to one’s happiness. Neuroticism had important function as it was found to be the strongest predictor of human happiness. “When personality traits were grouped according to the Big Five factors, Neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction, happiness, and negative affect. Positive affect was predicted equally well by Extraversion and Agreeableness.” (DeNeve and Harris p 197). Thus, the relative importance of personality traits in improving happiness has been proved by research evidences. It is very much relatable here that various SWB theories suggest that personality is closely tied to SWB. Thus, top-down models of SWB, among SWB theories stress the direct importance of personality. It may be noted that the top-down theories of SWB presume a global tendency, which has derived from stable personality traits, to experience life in a positive or negative manner and this global tendency in turn consistently influences the interpretation of momentary events. There are also evidences supporting top-down models such as large scale studies which constantly demonstrate little change in SWB on the basis of different combinations of reactions to specific life domains. “These diverse theoretical formulations point to a single conclusion: Personality should be among the most influential factors for predicting SWB.” (DeNeve and Harris p 198). It is important to especially understand that the personality traits that affect happiness can be comprehended as the Big Five factors. The first factor Extraversion can be best known as the Surgency factor. The next factor, Agreeableness, refers to the quality of ones interpersonal relations and in contrast to Extraversion, which focuses primarily on the quantity and intensity of relationships, focuses on specific behaviors undertaken during interpersonal interactions such as cooperating and trusting others. Conscientiousness or Constraint mainly describes task behavior and socially accepted impulse control. Neuroticism is the most frequently labeled as either or Emotional Stability and for normal populations, this factor identifies aspects related to adjustment or lack of adjustment. Openness to Experience is the final factor and it “contains components of intelligence, culture, creativity, broad interests, and cognitive complexity. However, of the five factors, the fifth factor is the most "controversial,” as it is not entirely clear which personality variables should be included in it and which should not.” (DeNeve and Harris p 198). These aspects of one’s personality can very well influence one’s happiness and research evidences prove this argument. Part II: Need for therapy which makes one happier – Personal Response The well-being of individuals, whether they are students in classrooms, patients in clinics, athletes on the playing field, or employees in the workplace, has been the concern for many significant studies and some of them have come up with encouraging findings that contribute to the development of happiness by some psychological training which affects one’s personality traits. Thus, Self Determination Theory or SDT suggests that “if the social contexts in which such individuals are embedded are responsive to basic psychological needs, they provide the appropriate developmental lattice upon which an active, assimilative, and integrated nature can ascend.” (Ryan and Deci, 76). However, unwarranted control, undesirable challenges, and lack of connectedness can disturb the natural actualizing and organizational tendencies. Therefore, such unwarranted practices can cause the lack of initiative and conscientiousness as well as anguish and psychopathology which are opposite conditions of happiness. In an analysis of the scope for some kind of therapy in the development of happiness just as in the case of personality traits, it is essential to consider all these artifacts. Nevertheless, awareness about the nutriments fundamental for positive motivation, experience, enhanced performance, and well-being of individuals has extensive consequences. Such practices help people in cognitive and personality development as they reveal the conditions for the enhancement of happiness. These also help in facilitating motivation and commitment and it is relatable that motivation is the decisive element in affecting maintained change in personality which, in turn, brings about happiness. Therefore, it can be maintained that “by attending to the relative presence or deprivation of supports for basic psychological needs, practitioners are better able to diagnose sources of alienation versus engagement, and facilitate both enhanced human achievements and well-being.” (Ryan and Deci, 76). There are various situations that contribute to happiness and these situations will depend on how an individual practices all the good ways of life which create happier situations in life. In an analysis of the several such conditions, it will be noted that people with good behavior and character seem to be happier. It has been strengthened by the view that the people who are more religious and faithful seem to be happier in life. Thus, the aspects of life that make a person suited for the specific functions of a religious life may be comprehended as necessary condition for happiness. Several of the personality aspects which contribute to happiness can be gained through practices and therapies. The personality traits of social support, meaning and purpose, durable self esteem, terror management, promotion of positive virtues of humility, forgiveness, gratitude, and compassion have great validity, as researcher of studies on religion’s relation to happiness suggest, with regard to happiness. These are necessary traits of a happy personality which may be achieved only through some practices or therapies. Therefore, selecting a way of personality development therapies has great validity in the achievement of greater happiness. To respond to the need for therapies designed to increase one’s happiness, I personally recommend undergoing one such, as happiness is the result of several conditions that individuals can create with the help of practices and therapies. Personality traits have great significance in the development of happiness and therefore, I feel, therapies which identify such personality characteristics and help in the acquirement of these traits is highly recommendable. “If personality matters for subjective well-being, then it should be possible to identify specific personality characteristics that are reliably associated with well-being…” (Lucas, 184). In this background, the scope for therapies that aim to increase the situations of happiness is high. As a person who eagerly wishes for greater happiness in life, I always appreciate the therapies and practices that make me happier. Part III: Are you happy at the moment? Every human being from time immemorial has craved for the state of being happy and it is one of the life forces, which helps one to realize the ultimate goal of life. The attainment of happiness may be perceived as the most cherished goal of many people. However, it is a fact that most of the people who long for it do not achieve it as much as they wish. I belong to such group which earnestly wishes for happiness but does not gain much of what is cherished for. Therefore, it may be established that, to make a personal evaluation, I don’t enjoy happiness as much as I wish and the scope for therapies which aim at the development of happiness has a great value n my life. In this sense, the role of happiness enhancement programs, just as the personality development programs, are most appreciated by me. Conclusion: Happiness is a state of being that every human being wishes to enjoy and there are several aspects of life which contribute to the happiness of different people. “There is an immense amount of information about the effects of the demographic variables of age, sex, occupation, and the rest, which are normally included as the causes and correlates of happiness in social surveys.” (Michael 1999, p. 353). Among all these, the personality traits of an individual have greater relevance in the enjoyment of happiness as these are consistent influences on happiness. “Personality is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of subjective well-being.” (Diener et al, 279). Therefore, it can be concluded that personality traits seem to correlate, heavily, with happiness. These are acquired mainly through such practices that contribute to the enhancement of good personality characteristics. Hence, it is advisable to undergo a kind of therapy that can change one’s personality if it made one happier. Works Cited Biswas Diener, Robert M. “Material Wealth and Subjective Well-Being”: ch.15. The Science of Subjective Well-Being, 319. Diener, Ed. “Myths in the Science of Happiness, and Directions for Future Research”: ch.24. The Science of Well-Being, 511. Diener, E., Suh, E.M., Lucas R.E., and Smith, H.L. Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276-303, 1999. Diener, Ed. Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and a Proposal for a National Index. American Psychologist, 55, 34-43, 2000. Fujita, Frank. “The Frequency of Social Comparison and Its Relation to Subjective Well-Being”: ch.12. The Science of Subjective Well-Being, 242. Larsen, Randy J and Prizmic, Zvjezdana. ‘Regulation of Emotional Well-Being’ in The Science of Happiness’: ch.13. The Science of Subjective Well-Being, 259. Lucas, Richard E. “Personality and Subjective Well-Being”: ch.9. The Science of Subjective Well-Being. 184. Lucas, Richard E. “Personality and Subjective Well-Being”: ch.9. The Science of Subjective Well-Being. 188. Myers, David G. “Religion and Human Flourishing”: ch.16. The Science of Subjective Well-Being. 326. Myers, David G. “Religion and Human Flourishing”: ch.16. The Science of Subjective Well-Being. 333. Ryan, R. M and Deci, E. L. Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78. 2000. Michael, Argyle. (1999). Causes and Correlates of Happiness. p 353. In Kahnemann, D., Dienderm E. & Schwarz (Eds.) (1999). Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 353-73. Lucas, Richard E. “Personality and Subjective Well-Being”: ch.9. The Science of Subjective Well-Being, p 177. Big five personality traits – Overview. Oneness Commitment. 11 Jun. 2008. . DeNeve, Kristina M. and Harris, Cooper. (1998). The Happy Personality: A Meta-Analysis of 137 Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being. Psychological Bulletin 124(2): 197-229. Read More