Katharina Buczek
New research published by the American Psychological Association (APA) has found that specific personality traits are linked with life satisfaction.
And regardless of the responsibility, social role, or age changes that individuals experience over the course of their lives, the association with satisfaction in life remains stable.
“Many studies have shown that people with certain personality profiles are more satisfied with their life than others. Yet, it had not been extensively studied whether this holds true across the lifespan,” said Gabriel Olaru, the study’s co-author.
“For example, extraverted– that is sociable, talkative– people might be particularly happy in young adulthood when they are typically forming new social relationships.”
So, the research team set out to determine whether certain personality traits are more relevant or less relevant to social, work, and life satisfaction in different phases of life.
To study this, data collected between 2008 and 2019 by a nationally-representative survey of Netherlands households– known as the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS)– was analyzed.
A total of 9,110 Dutch participants between the ages of 16 and 95 years old answered various questionnaires to determine their Big Five personality traits– which include extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability/neuroticism. Additionally, the participants’ social connection satisfaction and life satisfaction overall were assessed.
At the time of the survey, only 5,928 participants were employed. So, this subgroup also answered questions related to work-life satisfaction.
The researchers found that the majority of associations between personality traits and life satisfaction remained the same throughout life.
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