Personality is the strongest and most consistent cross-sectional predictor of high subjective well-being. Less predictive economic factors, such as higher income or improved job status, are often the focus of applied subjective well-being research due to a perception that they can change whereas personality cannot. As such there has been limited investigation into personality change and how such changes might bring about higher well-being. In a longitudinal analysis of 8625 individuals we examine Big Five personality measures at two time points to determine whether an individual’s personality changes and also the extent to which such changes in personality can predict changes in life satisfaction. We find that personality changes at least as much as economic factors and relates much more strongly to changes in life satisfaction. Our results therefore suggest that personality can change and that such change is important and meaningful. Our findings may help inform policy debate over how best to help individuals and nations improve their well-being.
To get access to this content you need the following product:
Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"
Online-Abonnement
Mit dem Kombi-Abo erhalten Sie vollen Zugriff auf über 1,8 Mio. Dokumente aus mehr als 61.000 Fachbüchern und rund 500 Fachzeitschriften aus folgenden Fachgebieten:
Mit dem Wirtschafts-Abo erhalten Sie Zugriff auf über 1 Mio. Dokumente aus mehr als 45.000 Fachbüchern und 300 Fachzeitschriften aus folgenden Fachgebieten:
Ameriks, J., Caplin, A., & Leahy, J. (2003). Wealth accumulation and the propensity to plan.
Quarterly Journal of Economics,118, 1007–1047.
CrossRef
Ameriks, J., Caplin, A., Leahy, J., & Tyler, T. (2007). Measuring self-control problems.
American Economic Review,97, 966–972.
CrossRef
Anand, P., Hunter, G., Carter, I., Dowding, K., Guala, F., & Van Hees, M. (2009). The development of capability indicators.
Journal of Human Development and Capabilities,10, 125–152.
CrossRef
Argyle, M. (1999). Causes and correlates of happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Scwarz (Eds.),
Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Strauss, J. P. (1993). Conscientiousness and performance of sales representatives - test of the mediating effects of goal-setting.
Journal of Applied Psychology,78, 715–722.
CrossRef
Berry, D. S., Willingham, J. K., & Thayer, C. A. (2000). Affect and personality as predictors of conflict and closeness in young adults’ friendships.
Journal of Research in Personality,34, 84–107.
CrossRef
Blanchflower, D. G., & Oswald, A. J. (2004). Well-being over time in Britain and the USA.
Journal of Public Economics,88, 1359–1386.
CrossRef
Borghans, L., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J. J., & ter Weel, B. (2008). The economics and psychology of personality traits.
Journal of Human Resources,43, 972–1059.
CrossRef
Bowles, S., Gintis, H., & Osborne, M. O. (2001). Incentive-enhancing preferences: Personality, behavior, and earnings.
American Economic Review,91, 155–158.
CrossRef
Boyce, C. J. (2010). Understanding fixed effects in human well-being.
Journal of Economic Psychology,31, 1–16.
CrossRef
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2010). Money or mental health: The cost of alleviating psychological distress with monetary compensation versus psychological therapy.
Health Economics, Policy and Law,5, 509–516.
CrossRef
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011a). Personality and the marginal utility of income: Personality interacts with increases in household income to determine life satisfaction.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,78, 183–191.
CrossRef
Boyce, C. J., & Wood, A. M. (2011b). Personality prior to disability determines adaptation: Agreeable individuals recover lost life satisfaction faster and more completely.
Psychological Science,22, 1397–1402.
CrossRef
Boyce, C. J., Wood, A. M., & Brown, G. D. A. (2010). The dark side of conscientiousness: Conscientious people experience greater drops in life satisfaction following unemployment.
Journal of Research in Personality,44, 535–539.
CrossRef
Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Reimers, S., Hsu, A., & Ahmetoglu, G. (2009). Who art thou? Personality predictors of artistic preferences in a large UK sample: The importance of openness.
British Journal of Psychology,100, 501–516.
CrossRef
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1995). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development.
Psychological Assessment,7, 309–319.
CrossRef
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being - happy and unhappy people.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,38, 668–678.
CrossRef
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1988). Personality in adulthood—a 6-year longitudinal-study of self-reports and spouse ratings on the Neo Personality-Inventory.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,54, 853–863.
CrossRef
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (2006). Age changes in personality and their origins: Comment on Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006).
Psychological Bulletin,132, 26–28.
CrossRef
DeNeve, K. M., & Cooper, H. (1998). The happy personality: A meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being.
Psychological Bulletin,124, 197–229.
CrossRef
Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being—the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index.
American Psychologist,55, 34–43.
CrossRef
Diener, E., & Lucas, R. E. (1999). Personality and subjective well-being. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Scwarz (Eds.),
Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A. (2005). Income and well-being: an empirical analysis of the comparison income effect.
Journal of Public Economics,89, 997–1019.
CrossRef
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & Frijters, P. (2004). How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happiness?
Economic Journal,114, 641–659.
CrossRef
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A., & van Praag, B. M. S. (2002). The subjective costs of health losses due to chronic diseases. An alternative model for monetary appraisal.
Health Economics,11, 709–722.
CrossRef
Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping.
American Psychologist,55, 647–654.
CrossRef
Frijters, P., Johnston, D. W., & Shields, M. A. (2011). Life satisfaction dynamics with quarterly life event data.
Scandinavian Journal of Economics,113, 190–211.
CrossRef
Fumham, A., Swami, V., Arteche, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2008). Cognitive ability, learning approaches and personality correlates of general knowledge.
Educational Psychology,28, 427–437.
CrossRef
Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality-traits.
American Psychologist,48, 26–34.
CrossRef
Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., & Tobin, R. A. (2007). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person X situation perspective.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,93, 583–599.
CrossRef
Graziano, W. G., & Tobin, R. M. (2009). Agreeableness. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.),
Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior. New York: Guildford Press.
Groves, M. O. (2005). How important is your personality? Labor market returns to personality for women in the US and UK.
Journal of Economic Psychology,26, 827–841.
CrossRef
Gutierrez, J. L. G., Jimenez, B. M., Hernandez, E. G., & Puente, C. P. (2005). Personality and subjective well-being: Big Five correlates and demographic variables.
Personality and Individual Differences,38, 1561–1569.
CrossRef
Headey, B., & Wooden, M. (2004). The effects of wealth and income on subjective well-being and ill-being.
Economic Record,80, S24–S33.
CrossRef
Helson, R., Jones, C., & Kwan, V. S. Y. (2002). Personality change over 40 years of adulthood: Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of two longitudinal samples.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,83, 752–766.
CrossRef
Hill, P. L., Turiano, N. A., Hurd, M. D., Mroczek, D. K., & Roberts, B. W. (2011). Conscientiousness and longevity: An examination of possible mediators.
Health Psychology,30, 536–541.
CrossRef
Hogan, R. (2005). In defense of personality measurement: New wine for old whiners.
Human Performance,18, 331–341.
CrossRef
Hogan, J., & Holland, B. (2003). Using theory to evaluate personality and job-performance relations: A socioanalytic perspective.
Journal of Applied Psychology,88, 100–112.
CrossRef
Judge, T. A., Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, G. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review.
Journal of Applied Psychology,87, 765–780.
CrossRef
Judge, T. A., & Ilies, R. (2002). Relationship of personality to performance motivation: A meta-analytic review.
Journal of Applied Psychology,87, 797–807.
CrossRef
Kanfer, R., Wanberg, C. R., & Kantrowitz, T. M. (2001). Job search and employment: A personality—motivational analysis and meta-analytic review.
Journal of Applied Psychology,86, 837–855.
CrossRef
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,90, 179–196.
CrossRef
Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism.
American Psychologist,64, 241–256.
CrossRef
Layard, R. (2006). Health policy: The case for psychological treatment centres.
British Medical Journal,332, 1030–1032.
CrossRef
Losoncz, I. (2009). Personality Traits in HILDA: Australian Social Policy No. 8.
Lucas, R. E., & Donnellan, M. B. (2011). Personality development across the life span: Longitudinal analyses with a national sample from Germany.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,101, 847–861.
CrossRef
Lucas, R. E., & Dyrenforth, P. S. (2006). Does the existence of social relationships matter for subjective well-being? In E. J. Finkel & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Self and Relationships: Connecting Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Processes. New York: NY: Guildford Press.
Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon.
Psychological Science,7, 186–189.
CrossRef
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?
Psychological Bulletin,131, 803–855.
CrossRef
MacLean, K. A., Johnson, M. W., & Griffiths, R. R. (2011). Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness.
Journal of Psychopharmacology,25, 1453–1461.
Matzler, K., Renzl, B., Muller, J., Herting, S., & Mooradian, T. A. (2008). Personality traits and knowledge sharing.
Journal of Economic Psychology,29, 301–313.
CrossRef
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1987). Validation of the 5-factor model of personality across instruments and observers.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,52, 81–90.
CrossRef
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal.
American Psychologist,52, 509–516.
CrossRef
McGregor, I., & Little, B. R. (1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well and being yourself.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,74, 494–512.
CrossRef
Mueller, G., & Plug, E. J. S. (2006). Estimating the effect of personality on male and female earnings.
Industrial and Labor Relations Review,60, 3–22.
Neyer, F. J., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2001). Personality-relationship transaction in young adulthood.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,81, 1190–1204.
CrossRef
Nyhus, E. K., & Pons, E. (2005). The effects of personality on earnings.
Journal of Economic Psychology,26, 363–384.
CrossRef
O’Cleirigh, C., Ironson, G., Weiss, A., & Costa, P. T. (2007). Conscientiousness predicts disease progression (CD4 number and viral load) in people living with HIV.
Health Psychology,26, 473–480.
CrossRef
O’Connor, D. B., Conner, M., Jones, F., McMillan, B., & Ferguson, E. (2009). Exploring the benefits of conscientiousness: An investigation of the role of daily stressors and health behaviors.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine,37, 184–196.
CrossRef
Oswald, A. J., & Powdthavee, N. (2008a). Death, happiness, and the calculation of compensatory damages.
Journal of Legal Studies,37, 217–251.
CrossRef
Oswald, A. J., & Powdthavee, N. (2008b). Does happiness adapt? A longitudinal study of disability with implications for economists and judges.
Journal of Public Economics,92, 1061–1077.
CrossRef
Pai, M., & Carr, D. (2010). Do personality traits moderate the effect of late-life spousal loss on pychological distress?
Journal of Health and Social Behavior,51, 183–199.
CrossRef
Paunonen, S. V., & Ashton, M. C. (2001). Big Five factors and facets and the prediction of behavior.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,81, 524–539.
CrossRef
Piedmont, R. L. (2001). Cracking the plaster cast: Big Five personality change during intensive outpatient counseling.
Journal of Research in Personality,35, 500–520.
CrossRef
Plumper, T., & Troeger, V. E. (2007). Efficient estimation of time-invariant and rarely changing variables in finite sample panel analyses with unit fixed effects.
Political Analysis,15, 124–139.
CrossRef
Powdthavee, N. (2008). Putting a price tag on friends, relatives, and neighbours: Using surveys of life satisfaction to value social relationships.
Journal of Socio-Economics,37, 1459–1480.
CrossRef
Proudfoot, J. G., Corr, P. J., Guest, D. E., & Dunn, G. (2009). Cognitive-behavioural training to change attributional style improves employee well-being, job satisfaction, productivity, and turnover.
Personality and Individual Differences,46(2), 147–153.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W. (1997). Plaster or plasticity: Are adult work experiences associated with personality change in women?
Journal of Personality,65, 205–232.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., & Bogg, T. (2004). A longitudinal study of the relationships between conscientiousness and the social-environmental factors and substance-use behaviors that influence health.
Journal of Personality,72, 325–353.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., Caspi, A., & Moffitt, T. E. (2003). Work experiences and personality development in young adulthood.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,84, 582–593.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., Helson, R., & Klohnen, E. C. (2002). Personality development and growth in women across 30 years: Three perspectives.
Journal of Personality,70, 79–102.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006a). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
Psychological Bulletin,132, 1–25.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W. (2006b). Personality traits change in adulthood: Reply to Costa and McCrae (2006).
Psychological Bulletin,132, 29–32.
CrossRef
Roberts, B. W., Wood, D., & Caspi, A. (Eds.). (2008).
The development of personality traits in adulthood (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Ryff, C. D., Love, G. D., Urry, H. L., Muller, D., Rosenkranz, M. A., Friedman, E. M., et al. (2006). Psychological well-being and ill-being: Do they have distinct or mirrored biological correlates?
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics,75, 85–95.
CrossRef
Schmitt, P., Shupp, R., Swope, K., & Mayer, J. (2008). Pre-commitment and personality: Behavioral explanations in ultimatum games.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,66, 597–605.
CrossRef
Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being - informative and directive functions of affective states.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,45, 513–523.
CrossRef
Schwarz, N., Strack, F., & Mai, H. P. (1991). Assimilation and contrast effects in part-whole question sequences - a conversational logic analysis.
Public Opinion Quarterly,55, 3–23.
CrossRef
Scollon, C. N., & Diener, E. (2006). Love, work, and changes in extraversion and neuroticism over time.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,91, 1152–1165.
CrossRef
Semykina, A., & Linz, S. J. (2007). Gender differences in personality and earnings: Evidence from Russia.
Journal of Economic Psychology,28, 387–410.
CrossRef
Srivastava, S., Angelo, K. M., & Vallereux, S. R. (2008). Extraversion and positive affect: A day reconstruction study of person-environment transactions.
Journal of Research in Personality,42, 1613–1618.
CrossRef
Srivastava, S., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,84, 1041–1053.
CrossRef
Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being.
Psychological Bulletin,134, 138–161.
CrossRef
Swope, K., Cadigan, J., Schmitt, P., & Shupp, R. (2008). Personality preferences in laboratory economics experiments.
The Journal of Socio-Economics,37, 998–1009.
CrossRef
Watson, D., & Humrichouse, J. (2006). Personality development in emerging adulthood: Integrating evidence from self-ratings and spouse ratings.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,91, 959–974.
CrossRef
Winkelmann, L., & Winkelmann, R. (2008). Personality, work, and satisfaction: Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel.
The Journal of Positive Psychology,3, 266–275.
CrossRef
Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., & Maltby, J. (2008). Gratitude uniquely predicts satisfaction with life: Incremental validity above the domains and facets of the five factor model.
Personality and Individual Differences,45, 49–54.
CrossRef
Worthington, R. L., & Whittaker, T. A. (2006). Scale development research—A content analysis and recommendations for best practices.
Counseling Psychologist,34, 806–838.
CrossRef
About this article
Title
Is Personality Fixed? Personality Changes as Much as “Variable” Economic Factors and More Strongly Predicts Changes to Life Satisfaction
Authors:
Christopher J. Boyce Alex M. Wood Nattavudh Powdthavee
Publication date
01-03-2013
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0006-z
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Journal
Social Indicators Research
An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement
Issue 1/2013
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0921
