Resource Center: Science & Practice

Personality

A comprehensive multi-dimensional instrument to assess personality (Trust, Orderliness, Conformity, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion/Introversion).

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised

An inventory for the measurement of the major dimensions of temperament, such as Extraversion and Introversion.

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Predicting Happiness Using Personality Measured by the EPQ-R

Publication:  Personality and Individual Differences (2003)

Article: Personality, self-esteem, and demographic predictions of happiness and depression

Authors:  H. Cheng & A. Furnham

Purpose of Study

This study examined the causes of, and relationships between, happiness and depression among adolescents.

Hypotheses

The relationship between happiness and unhappiness, measured as depression, was expected to be negatively correlated.

Extraversion was predicted to be a significant predictor of happiness, but not depression. Whereas, neuroticism was predicted to be significantly related to happiness (higher neuroticism related to lower happiness) and depression (higher neuroticism related to higher depression).

Characteristics of participants’ social networks should be related to levels of happiness and depression.

Leisure activities predicted to be related to higher levels of happiness.

Sample

234 participants completed the questionnaires (males = 75; females = 159). All participants were British, age 15 to 35 (M = 18.23).

Measures

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (Short Version) measures  Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, and Social Desirability.

The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale measures feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance.

The Bradburn Affect Balance Scale is a 20-item measure of positive and negative affect.

The Gurin Scale is a single item measure of happiness with three response choices: Very Happy; Pretty Happy; Not too Happy.

Beck Depression Inventory is a very commonly used 21-item measure of depressive symptoms.

The Oxford Happiness Inventory is a 29-item measure of trait happiness.

Demographic data were collected, including information on gender, age, leisure activities, parental employment and marital status, number of siblings, and current participant romantic involvement.

Analyses

Structured hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to predict happiness and depression using a combination of personality and demographic indicators, such as gender, age, parental marital status, etc. Path analyses and exploratory factor analyses were conducted as well.

View Correlation Matrix

Main Findings and Future Implications

This study examined several relationships simultaneously using path modeling techniques. Relationships between demographics and personality factors, self-esteem, “aspects of life,” depression, and happiness, as well as various subcomponents were modeled to gain a better understanding of how each variable influences the others.

Of particular interest to the authors, was “whether happiness and depression were mirror images with respect to their causal pathways.” They are interested in whether these two psychological states occupy mutually exclusive ends of one continuum, such that an individual would not show signs of being both equally happy and depressed.

Factors such as enjoyment and extraversion were related to happiness, though not related to depression to the same degree. This indicates that the causes, or correlates, of both happiness and depression vary and influence these outcomes in unexpected ways. This study found that extraversion was related to self-esteem (higher levels of one lead to higher levels of the other), which influenced leisure and enjoyment, both important components of psychological well-being. However, the link between leisure activities and depression was not supported, as it was for the positive indicators of mental health.

Overall, the most consistent predictor of both happiness and depression was global self-esteem (a general measure of overall self-worth). Additionally, the authors point out that “... individuals with low self-esteem tend to be more prone to depression and being in a depressed state may sustain individuals’ low sense of self-worth…” (p. 937).

These findings reinforce the continued importance of exploring the mechanisms of self-esteem, by including less global measures that focus on more specific types of self-worth and self-acceptance.

Reference
     Cheng, H., & Furnham, A. (2003). Personality, self-esteem, and demographic predictions of happiness and depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 921-942.