Abstract
According to McAdams and Pals, American Psychologist, 61(3), 204-217 (2006), personality is not only expressed through traits but also through characteristic adaptations, including values. In the present study we analyze how two aspects of personality - temperament traits (Strelau 2008) and values (Schwartz 2007) - are related to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Earlier studies showed that temperament is linked to hedonic well-being, but the links between values and hedonic well-being are unclear. There is only little data on how traits and values are linked to eudaimonic well-being. We hypothesised that traits predict hedonic well-being, while values predict eudaimonic well-being because the roots of eudaimonia require the realization of one’s potential that may be achieved through realization of value related goals, while hedonic well-being is more closely linked to stable differences in emotionality. 130 adults reported on their temperament, values, hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. We conducted hierarchical regressions for each well-being component. All components of hedonic well-being (positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction) were predicted by temperament only, while eudaimonic well-being was predicted by temperament and by value dimensions: positively by Openness to change, Self-transcendence, Conservation and negatively by Self-enhancement. This shows that mechanisms governing the experience of well-being are attached to at least two levels of personality - one stable and partly linked to human biology and the other to a culturally determined set of individual values. It also shows that the experience of eudaimonia relies on culturally acquired values, while hedonia may be determined more by temperamental dimensions.
Highlights
For some time studies have indicated, that people differ in their experience of well-being
Earlier studies have suggested that temperamental characteristics such as Briskness, Endurance, and Activity were positively and Emotional reactivity was negatively related to hedonic well-being (Bojanowska and Zalewska 2017) but the links between temperament and eudaimonic well-being have not been previously analyzed
The most general conclusion from this study is that hedonic and eudaimonic well-being have their own unique sets of predictors and that while hedonic well-being is mostly determined by stable personality traits, eudaimonic well-being is subject to more diverse impacts of traits and values
Summary
For some time studies have indicated, that people differ in their experience of well-being These stable differences have been discussed in numerous conceptions, such as the ‘baseline of well-being’ concept (Brickman and Campbell 1971), the ‘happy personality’ (Costa and McCrae 1980) or the ‘happy temperament’ (Bojanowska and Zalewska 2016). All these theories indicate that stable personality traits are responsible for a significant variance of well-being experience, but more recent discussions have suggested that our understanding of the relationships between those two areas. New gaps in the knowledge on well-being and personality have been identified: traits, and individual level culture expressed in values must be analyzed for their impacts on well-
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