Browsing by Author "Seppänen, Milka"

Aim. Research shows that personality is associated with psychological well-being. Specifically neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness correlate the most with different aspects of psychological well-being. However, research about the association between personality change and change in psychological well-being is scarce. This study tries to clarify whether the association between personality and psychological well-being remains while examining the change in personality and psychological well-being i.e. is personality change associated with change in psychological well-being. Methods. The data used was from MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.) longitudinal study. The measures were conducted in three different time-points: 1995–1996, 2004 and 2014. The sample consisted of 4058 Americans from which 55.1 % was women. Multilevel modeling was used in analyzing the data. First the analyses examined how personality traits predict each of the six aspects of psychological well-being. Thereafter, the analyses examined whether the average differences in personality traits between the individuals were associated with the differences in psychological well-being between the individuals. Also, the association between personality change and change in psychological well-being was examined. Results and Conclusions. Changes in neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness were associated the most with change in psychological well-being. Change in openness was associated with change in autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth and self-acceptance while change in agreeableness was associated with change in purpose in life, positive relations with others and personal growth. This study supports the idea that personality traits and psychological well-being are causally associated, and the previous research has not discovered this causal association yet.