Self-esteem and Big Five Personality as Predictors of Happiness

Abstract

Happiness is often viewed as an individual matter and independent of societal conditions. They emphasize that an individual’s happiness is not necessarily tied to a nation’s well-being. There are several ways to enhance individual happiness. Key contributors to happiness are maintaining strong social relationships, self-esteem, personality traits etc. This study was, thus, envisaged to examine the role of self-esteem and personality traits in enhancing happiness. The study was conducted among undergraduate students in various bachelor’s programs at colleges affiliated with L.N. Mithila University. 390 students (150 boys and 240 girls) from different colleges in Darbhanga town participated in the study to ensure a representative sample. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire developed by Argyle and Hills (2002), the Big Five Personality Scale constructed by John and Srivastava (1999) and Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale developed by Rosenberg (1979) were used for the data collection. On computing Pearson’s correlation coefficient, it was found that happiness was strongly associated with self-esteem. At the same time, a mixed association was found between happiness and the five dimensions of personality. Positive association with personality traits like openness and extraversion, negative correlation with neuroticism and conscientiousness and no association with the agreeableness dimension of personality. Multiple regression analysis was computed to evaluate the predictive power of self-esteem and Big Five personality traits on happiness. The analysis revealed that self-esteem (B = .644, p < .000) emerged as a significant predictor of happiness. Findings were discussed in the light of earlier research.