Abstract
The present study examined the role of psychological acceptance in the relationship between neuroticism, extraversion and happiness. 216 adults from a Chinese society ranging in age from 18 to 30 years (M = 19.7, SD = 1.48) completed the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, The Chinese version of the EPQ (CEPQ), and the Chinese People Happiness Scale (CPHS). As predicted, psychological acceptance had a significant negative correlation with neuroticism (p < .01) and a significant positive correlation with extraversion (p < .01) and with happiness (p < .01). In the linear mediation models, psychological acceptance was found to partially mediate the relationship between neuroticism and happiness (β = −.34, p < .01). Psychological acceptance was found to partially mediate the relationship between extraversion and happiness (β = .19, p < .01). The non-linear mediation model analyses also support both neuroticism and extraversion on happiness are mediated by psychological acceptance. Accordingly, these results suggest that the effects of neuroticism and extraversion on happiness can be at least partially accounted for by psychological acceptance. These findings imply that interventions aimed at enhancing psychological acceptance as a way to improve happiness is a good strategy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boelen, P. A., & Reijntjes, A. (2008). Measuring experiential avoidance: Reliability and validity of the Dutch 9-item acceptance and action questionnaire (AAQ). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 30(4), 241–251.
Bond, F. W., & Bunce, D. (2003). The role of acceptance and job control in mental health, job satisfaction, and work performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(6), 1057–1067. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.6.1057.
Bond, F. W., Hayes, S. C., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2006). Psychological flexibility, ACT, and organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 26(1–2), 25–54. https://doi.org/10.1300/J075v26n01_02.
Bond, F. W., Lloyd, J., & Guenole, N. (2013). The work-related acceptance and action questionnaire: Initial psychometric findings and their implications for measuring psychological flexibility in specific contexts. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86(3), 331–347. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12001.
Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., & Kashdan, T. (2017). Emotion regulation strategies in daily life: Mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 46, 91–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2016.1218926.
Butler, J., & Ciarrochi, J. (2007). Psychological acceptance and quality of life in the elderly. Quality of Life Research, 16(4), 607–615. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-9149-1.
Cloninger, C. R. (2006). The science of well-being: An integrated approach to mental health and its disorders. World Psychiatry, 5(2), 71–76.
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403–425. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145056.
Donaldson-Feilder, E. J., & Bond, F. W. (2004). The relative importance of psychological acceptance and emotional intelligence to workplace well-being. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 32(2), 187–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/08069880410001692210.
Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (junior and adult). Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.
Feeney, T. K., & Hayes, S. C. (2016). Acceptance and commitment therapy: A contextual view of "positive" and "negative" as applied to positive clinical psychology. In A. M. Wood & J. Johnson (Eds.), The Wiley handbook of positive clinical psychology (pp. 445–459). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Garcia, D. (2011). Two models of personality and well-being among adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(8), 1208–1212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.009.
Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy and the new behavior therapies: Mindfulness, acceptance, and relationship. In S. C. Hayes, V. M. Follette, & M. M. Linehan (Eds.), Mindfulness and acceptance: Expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition (pp. 1–29). New York: Guilford Press.
Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K. (1996). Experimental avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1152–1168.
Hayes, S. C., Masuda, A., Bissett, R., Luoma, J., & Guerrero, L. F. (2004). DBT, FAP, and ACT: How empirically oriented are the new behavior therapy technologies? Behavior Therapy, 35, 35–54.
Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006.
Herbert, J. D., Forman, E. M., & England, E. L. (2009). Psychological acceptance. In W. O.’. Donohue & J. E. Fisher (Eds.), General principles and empirically supported techniques of cognitive behavior therapy (pp. 77–102). Hoboken: Wiley.
Hrebickova, M., Blatny, M., & Jelinek, M. (2010). Personality as a predictor of subjective well-being in adulthood. Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 54(1), 31–41.
Iani, L., Lauriola, M., Cafaro, V., & Didonna, F. (2017). Dimensions of mindfulness and their relations with psychological well-being and neuroticism. Mindfulness, 8(3), 664–676. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0645-2.
Kashdan, T. B., & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865–878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.001.
Kendler, K. S., Kuhn, J., & Prescott, C. A. (2004). The interrelationship of neuroticism, sex, and stressful life events in the prediction of episodes of major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(4), 631–636. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.4.631.
Kendler, K. S., Gatz, M., Gardner, C. O., & Pedersen, N. L. (2006). Personality and major depression: A Swedish longitudinal, population-based twin study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(10), 1113–1120. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.63.10.1113.
Keogh, E., Bond, F. W., Hanmer, R., & Tilston, J. (2005). Comparing acceptance and control-based coping instructions on the cold-pressor pain experiences of healthy men and women. European Journal of Pain, 9(5), 591–598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpain.2004.12.005.
Khoury, B., Sharma, M., Rush, S. E., & Fournier, C. (2015). Mindfulness-based stress reduction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 78(6), 519–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.03.009.
Kotov, R., Gamez, W., Schmidt, F., & Watson, D. (2010). Linking "big" personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(5), 768–821. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020327.
Latzman, R. D., & Masuda, A. (2013). Examining mindfulness and psychological inflexibility within the framework of big five personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(2), 129–134.
Lauriola, M., & Iani, L. (2015). Does positivity mediate the relation of extraversion and neuroticism with subjective happiness? PLoS One, 10(3), e0121991. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121991.
Lauriola, M., & Iani, L. (2017). Personality, positivity and happiness: A mediation analysis using a bifactor model. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18, 1659–1682. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9792-3.
Levinson, D. F. (2006). The genetics of depression: A review. Biological Psychiatry, 60(2), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.08.024.
Lin, C. H. (2003). Scale validating and norm establishing of the SF-36 Taiwan version (Unpublished master thesis). China Medical University, Taichung.
Lopes, P. N., Salovey, P., Cote, S., & Beers, M. (2005). Emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. Emotion, 5(1), 113–118. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.113.
Lu, L. (2008). The individual-oriented and social-oriented Chinese bicultural self: Testing the theory. Journal of Social Psychology, 148(3), 347–373. https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.148.3.347-374.
Lu, L. (2010). The relationship between subjective well-being and psychosocial variables in Taiwan. Journal of Social Psychology, 135(3), 351–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1995.9713964.
Lu, L., Kao, S. F., Chang, T. T., Wu, H. P., & Jin, Z. (2008). The individual-and social-oriented Chinese bicultural self: A subcultural analysis contrasting mainland Chinese and Taiwanese. Social Behavior and Personality, 36(3), 337–345. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2008.36.3.337.
McCracken, L. M., & Gutierrez-Martinez, O. (2011). Processes of change in psychological flexibility in an interdisciplinary group-based treatment for chronic pain based on acceptance and commitment therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49(4), 267–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.02.004.
McCracken, L. M., & Zhao-O’Brien, J. (2010). General psychological acceptance and chronic pain: There is more to accept than the pain itself. European Journal of Pain, 14(2), 170–175.
McHorney, C. A., Ware Jr., J. E., & Raczek, A. E. (1993). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36): II. Psychometric and clinical tests of validity in measuring physical and mental health constructs. Medical Care, 31(3), 247–263.
Nakamura, Y. M., & Orth, U. (2005). Acceptance as a coping reaction: Adaptive or not? Swiss Journal of Psychology, 64(4), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185.64.4.281.
Ng, W. (2015). Processes underlying links to subjective well-being: Material concerns, autonomy, and personality. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(6), 1575–1591. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9580-x.
Olvet, D. M., Carrion, R. E., Auther, A. M., & Cornblatt, B. A. (2015). Self-awareness of functional impairment in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 9(2), 100–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12086.
Ozer, D. J., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 401–421. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190127.
Paulus, D. J., Vanwoerden, S., Norton, P. J., & Sharp, C. (2016). Emotion dysregulation, psychological inflexibility, and shame as explanatory factors between neuroticism and depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 376–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.10.014.
Petrides, K. V., Mikolajczak, M., Mavroveli, S., Sanchez-Ruiz, M.-J., Furnham, A., & Pérez-González, J.-C. (2016). Developments in trait emotional intelligence research. Emotion Review, 8(4), 335–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073916650493.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(4), 717–731.
Roemer, L., & Orsillo, S. M. (2002). Expanding our conceptualization of and treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: Integrating mindfulness/acceptance-based approaches with existing cognitive-behavioral models. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9(1), 54–68.
Sabucedo, P. (2017). The psychological flexibility model from a cultural perspective: An interpretative analysis of two native American healing rituals. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 10(4), 367–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/17542863.2017.1323935.
Shiah, Y.-J. (2016). From self to nonself: The nonself theory. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(124). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00124.
Southwick, S. M., Vythilingam, M., & Charney, D. S. (2005). The psychobiology of depression and resilience to stress: Implications for prevention and treatment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 255–291. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143948.
Steel, P., Schmidt, J., & Shultz, J. (2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134(1), 138–161. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.1.138.
Stewart, A. L., Hays, R. D., & Ware Jr., J. E. (1988). The MOS short-form general health survey: Reliability and validity in a patient population. Medical Care, 26(7), 724–735.
Tasi, H-H., Shiah, Y.-J. & Hwang, K.-K. (2010).Acceptance and Well-being: Chinese version of Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Taiwan Counseling Psychology Association, Taipei, Taiwan. (in Chinese).
Tseng, H. M., Lu, J. F. R., & Tsai, Y. J. (2003). Assessment of health-related quality of life in Taiwan (II): Norming and validation of SF-36 Taiwan version. Taiwan Journal of Public Health, 22(26), 512–518 (in Chinese).
Von Humboldt, S., Leal, I., & Pimenta, F. (2014). Living well in later life: The influence of sense of coherence, and socio-demographic, lifestyle and health-related factors on older adults’ satisfaction with life. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 9(3), 631–642.
Webster, J. D., Westerhof, G. J., & Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2014). Wisdom and mental health across the lifespan. Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69(2), 209–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbs121.
Wood, A. M., & Joseph, S. (2010). The absence of positive psychological (eudemonic) well-being as a risk factor for depression: A ten year cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 122(3), 213–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2009.06.032.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Grants 105-2410-H-017-002-SSS and 104-2420-H-017-001-MY3 from the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Techonology.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical Approval
The study had been approved by the Chung-Ho Hospital Institutional Review Board of the Kaohsiung Medical University.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Juang, HL., Chang, Y.YC., Tseng, BL. et al. Role of psychological acceptance between personality and happiness. Curr Psychol 40, 1048–1055 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0026-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0026-1