Riordan, Katherine (2015) Subjective Well-Being: How much is it driven by Personality and Life Events? Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Executive Summary This thesis examines the influence of Personality Traits and stressful Life Events (LE) on Subjective Well-Being (SWB) in a sample of university undergraduates. The International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999) has received little attention in the field of SWB research but has emerged as an adequate measure of the Big-Five Model of personality, particularly for online use. The factors, whilst labelled by different names (Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect), describe structurally similar attributes and behaviours to that of Costa and McCrae’s FiveFactor model (Saucier & Goldberg, 1996). Each of these factors exists on a bipolar continuum with high and low scores possible on each dimension. Emotional Stability is considered the polar opposite to Costa and McCrae’s Neuroticism, while Intellect is equivalent to Openness. Examination of the results from Study 1 revealed correlations between personality traits and SWB closely resemble the findings of Steel, Schmidt, and Schultz’s (2008) metaanalysis which found Neuroticism (-.45), Extraversion (.35), Agreeableness (.19) and Conscientiousness (.27) were all significantly related to SWB. Contrary to Steel et al., the current study found Intellect (Openness to Experience) was also significantly correlated with SWB adding to the debate that there may be an underlying difference in Intellect/Openness traits used across personality research. Study 1 examined the importance of LE in predicting levels of SWB. The relationship between Personality and LE were also considered in this study. Results indicated that LE did not significantly predict SWB levels and it was thought that the single score Life Events Scale used in this study was inadequate in capturing the positive or negative influence of each event for the individual. While there is a body of research supporting a relationship SWB, DRIVEN BY PERSONALITY AND LIFE EVENTS? ix between personality and life events, Study 1 failed to find a significant association between these two constructs. The key finding from Study 1 was the utility of ES in the prediction of SWB, when measured across single-item, multi-item and domain item measures of SWB. Results from Study 1 support previous research that indicates personality plays a greater role in understanding SWB than previously thought. Moreover, ES was the prominent personality trait of the Big Five traits in predicting SWB where higher scores on ES resulted in higher SWB. Consequently, the focus for Study 2 was to further examine the relationship between Emotional Stability/Neuroticism and SWB across different personality trait measures which were readily available in the public domain. Only those sub-scales relating to Emotional Stability/Neuroticism were used within Study 2 and comprised of IPIP-Emotional Stability, the Big Five Aspects Scale-Neuroticism, the Big Five Inventory-Neuroticism and the HEXACO-60 Emotionality scales. Results from the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling in Study 2 provided further evidence for the usefulness of Emotional Stability/Neuroticism in predicting SWB. Specifically, the Big Five Aspects Scale-Neuroticism was identified as the greatest predictor of global and domain level SWB. The HEXACO-60 Emotionality scale and the IPIP-Emotional Stability scale also emerged as significant predictors of SWB, while the Big Five Inventory-Neuroticism scale did not significantly predict SWB. Overall the findings from Study 1 and Study 2 provide evidence supporting the importance of personality and specifically Emotional Stability/Neuroticism for understanding and predicting SWB. While there are limitations in this study with respect to the restricted population derived only from university undergraduates, the personality measures used show promise for providing clinicians with a personality measure readily available within the SWB, DRIVEN BY PERSONALITY AND LIFE EVENTS? x public domain which can identify individuals who may be more susceptible to low levels of SWB.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
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| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Paul Bramston |
| Qualification: | Doctor of Psychology (Clinical) |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Aug 2025 00:42 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Aug 2025 00:42 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52700 |
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