Well-Being in Relation to Personality

Personality is a set of psychological qualities or dispositions that may affect individual behaviour (Zimbardo, Weber, & Johnson, 2000). Subjective well-being is a psychological component of quality of life. The current study was planned to analyze the relationship between well-being and personality. The sample consists of 423 undergraduates, studying in different colleges of Karnal and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana, and Roorkee and Haridwar, districts of Uttarakhand. Well-being inventory (Sell & Nagpal, 1992) and The Neo- personality inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1991) were used to measure the Big Five personality traits and psychological well-being. The data were analyzed by using Pearson's Product Moment correlation and stepwise Regression. Results showed that (i) neuroticism - a factor of personality was inversely related to all the three dimensions of psychological well-being and (ii) extroversion dimension of personality evidenced strong positive associations with three dimensions of well-being well-being (iii) Conscientiousness dimension of personality also correlated significantly with two dimensions of well-being i.e. well-being positive affect and overall well-being. Stepwise regression analysis revealed two predictors of well-being i.e. Extraversion and Neuroticism. These results have important implications with regard to our current understanding of the relationships between well-being and personality.