Personality has been found to be more strongly associated with subjective well-being in many instances than are life circumstances. In part, this might be due to the fact that temperament and other individual differences can influence people’s feelings and evaluations of their lives, but also because people’s emotions are an inherent part of personality. This chapter discusses the heritability of “happiness,” that portion of subjective well-being that is due to genetic differences between individuals. The stability of subjective well-being over time is substantial, and this is likely due in part to the stability of personality. Specific personality traits are related to various types of well-being. For example, extroversion appears to be more strongly related to positive emotions, while neuroticism is more related to negative feelings. Although personality is an important correlate of subjective well-being, situations and life circumstances can in some cases have a considerable influence as well. Furthermore, personality can to some degree change over time, and with it, levels of subjective well-being can change.

Personality and Subjective Well-Being

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life.

Understanding subjective well-being (SWB) has historically been a core human endeavor and presently spans fields from management to mental health. Previous meta-analyses have indicated that personality traits are one of the best predictors. Still, these past results indicate only a moderate relationship, weaker than suggested by several lines of reasoning. This may be because of commensurability, where researchers have grouped together substantively disparate measures in their analyses. In this article, the authors review and address this problem directly, focusing on individual measures of personality (e.g., the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and categories of SWB (e.g., life satisfaction). In addition, the authors take a multivariate approach, assessing how much variance personality traits account for individually as well as together. Results indicate that different personality and SWB scales can be substantively different and that the relationship between the two is typically much larger (e.g., 4 times) than previous meta-analyses have indicated. Total SWB variance accounted for by personality can reach as high as 39% or 63% disattenuated. These results also speak to meta-analyses in general and the need to account for scale differences once a sufficient research base has been generated.

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Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being.

Personality may directly facilitate or constrain coping, but relations of personality to coping have been inconsistent across studies, suggesting a need for greater attention to methods and samples. This meta-analysis tested moderators of relations between Big Five personality traits and coping using 2,653 effect sizes drawn from 165 samples and 33,094 participants. Personality was weakly related to broad coping (e.g., Engagement or Disengagement), but all 5 traits predicted specific strategies. Extraversion and Conscientiousness predicted more problem-solving and cognitive restructuring, Neuroticism less. Neuroticism predicted problematic strategies like wishful thinking, withdrawal, and emotion-focused coping but, like Extraversion, also predicted support seeking. Personality more strongly predicted coping in young samples, stressed samples, and samples reporting dispositional rather than situation-specific coping. Daily versus retrospective coping reports and self-selected versus researcher-selected stressors also moderated relations between personality and coping. Cross-cultural differences were present, and ethnically diverse samples showed more protective effects of personality. Richer understanding of the role of personality in the coping process requires assessment of personality facets and specific coping strategies, use of laboratory and daily report studies, and multivariate analyses.

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Relations between personality and coping: a meta-analysis.

We quantitatively integrated 169 samples (N= 35,265 employees) that have been used to investigate the relationships of the following 7 work-related stressors with job performance: role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job insecurity, work–family conflict, environmental uncertainty, and situational constraints. Overall, we obtained a negative mean correlation between each job performance measure and each stressor included in our analyses. As hypothesized, role ambiguity and situational constraints were most strongly negatively related to performance, relative to the other work-related stressors. Analysis of moderators revealed that (a) the negative correlation of role overload and performance was higher among managers relative to nonmanagers; (b) publication year moderated the relation of role ambiguity and role overload with performance, although in opposite directions; (c) the correlations obtained for published versus unpublished studies were not significantly different; and (d) using the Rizzo et al. scale of role ambiguity and role conflict decreased the magnitude of the correlations of these stressors with performance, relative to other scales. Theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.

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A meta-analysis of work demand stressors and job performance: examining main and moderating effects

Summary The effects of age, gender and prior computing experience upon attitudes towards computers were investigated in 278 secondary school pupils drawn from the 11‐12 and 15‐16 years age‐groups. Males from both age‐groups reported greater experience with and more positive attitudes towards computers than females. Younger pupils, both male and female, were found to have greater experience with and more positive attitudes towards computers than older pupils. After controlling for ownership and use of a home computer by means of analyses of covariance, female and male pupils reported similar levels of enjoyment of computers, but age differences in enjoyment and gender and age differences in confidence with computers remained significant. Similar analyses using length of experience as a covariate did not significantly affect gender or age differences. The need to investigate and address the level of confidence of female pupils is briefly discussed.

The effects of age, gender and computer experience upon computer attitudes

▪ Abstract Strategies to achieve ambitious targets for reducing road accidents (34) have largely focused on engineering and technological advancements, the modification of occupational demands, and, to a lesser extent, human factors. These factors include stress and psychological states; sleep, fatigue, and alertness; and health status. Physical activity appears to influence all these human factors but has not previously been systematically considered as a direct or indirect risk factor for driver accidents. This chapter provides an overview, within an evidence-based framework, of the impact each of these human factors has on driver performance and risk of at-work road traffic accidents and then examines how physical (in)activity may moderate and mediate these relationships. Finally, we consider practical implications for work site interventions. The review aims to offer an evidence base for the deployment of resources to promote physical activity, manage stress, facilitate sleep, reduce fatigue, and enha...

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STRESS, FATIGUE, HEALTH, AND RISK OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AMONG PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS: The Contribution of Physical Inactivity

Effects of stress on driving performance can depend on the nature of driver's stress reactions and on the traffic environment. In an experimental study, we assessed multiple dimensions of vulnerability to driver stress by a questionnaire that was validated in previous field studies and related those dimensions to performance on a driving simulator. Results were broadly consistent with prediction. A dimension of habitual dislike of driving was associated with reduced control skills, greater caution, and disturbance of moods. A measure of aggressive driving predicted more frequent and more error-prone overtaking, which are effects attributed to the use of confrontive coping strategies in interaction with other vehicles. An alertness measure predicted speed of reaction to pedestrian hazards. This research has practical applications for system design, automated monitoring of driver performance, selection and assessment of drivers, and training.

Driver stress and performance on a driving simulator.

Personality correlates of driver stress

Road traffic accident involvement rates show clear age and gender differences which may in part be accounted for by differences in risk perception and perceptions of driving competence. The present study extends and replicates that of Matthews and Moran (1986). Young (18-30 years) and older (45-60 years) male and female drivers responded to a questionnaire on perceived accident risk and driving competence (judgment and skill) with respect to themselves and four target groups, and also rated a series of videotaped driving sequences with respect to likelihood of accident occurrence and perceived driving competence. Results showed that effects of rater characteristics were generally confined to the questionnaire. Younger males were perceived as most likely to experience an accident and were judged to be lower than other groups in driving competence. Younger groups showed little bias against older groups and vice versa, but gender-related bias was apparent. The findings of Matthews and Moran were generally confirmed. The results are discussed with reference to four main issues: (1) demographic bias effects--which are generally weak; (2) stereotyping on the basis of gender and/or age of driver; (3) group-specific bias; (4) self-appraisal bias.

Lisa Dorn

Papers

The effects of age, gender and computer experience upon computer attitudes

STRESS, FATIGUE, HEALTH, AND RISK OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AMONG PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS: The Contribution of Physical Inactivity

Driver stress and performance on a driving simulator.

Personality correlates of driver stress

Age and Gender Differences in Perceived Accident Likelihood and Driver Competences