Which Personality Traits Are Most Predictive of Well-Being?

Posted on January 24, 2017

Photo: flickr

Well-being goes beyond the typical image of a smiley, laughing person! It actually involves eleven dimensions, which includes things like self-acceptance, engagement, life satisfaction and low negative emotions. Researchers studied whether or not these dimensions are influenced by one's personality. Specifically, a new model of the Big 5, which involves five major dimensions of personality broken down into two aspects.

Led by Jessie Sun, five personality traits were identified that included enthusiasm, low withdraw, industriousness, compassion and intellectual curiosity. Sun and her team claimed that capitalizing on these traits can help someone increase their well-being, but it is not the only way! Although personality changes have a direct effect, there are other ways to achieve a higher well-being, such as just being happy or optimistic.

If you're afraid you lack the five traits most associated with high well-being, fear not. With time and effort, you can change certain aspects of your character. Setting short-term and realistic goals are a great way to start!

Source material from Scientific American

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