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Individual Pathways to Life Satisfaction: The Significance of Traits and Motives

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Abstract

This article examines the relationship between life satisfaction and specific facets of psychological well-being (positive relations with others and environmental mastery) by considering the moderating effect of significant components of personality, i.e., traits, values, and implicit motives. Constructs were assessed by the Satisfaction With Life Scale, the Scales of Psychological Well-Being (two subscales), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Schwartz Value Survey (two value types), and a picture-story test (implicit motives for achievement and affiliation–intimacy). Analyses revealed that values, implicit motives, and personality traits moderated the relationship between both types of well-being measures. Findings indicate that personality components reflecting significant strivings and needs play a crucial role in seeking well-being by assigning meaning to given life domains.

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Notes

  1. Following Winter (1994), motive imagery for n Affiliation and n Intimacy are coded for a single image category because of the overlap of scoring content (n Aff–Int).

  2. Cohen’s d is reported as effect size measure for mean differences in which ds of .20, .50, and .80 reflect small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively (see Cohen 1988).

  3. Effect sizes of interactions will be reported in terms of f 2 in which values of .02, .15, and .35 reflect small, medium, and large effects (see Cohen et al. 2003).

  4. Three-way interactions (e.g., environmental mastery * n Achievement * achievement values) tested in additional analyses did not explain additional variance in life satisfaction. This indicates that deeply rooted individual motives and more socially adopted values both serve as weighing dispositions independently of each other.

  5. The inclusion of implicit needs and achievement values as additional predictors in Block 1 did not lead to findings substantially different from the ones reported.

  6. Exploring this issue, data on life satisfaction, fulfillment of the need for positive relations, and life goals reflecting affiliation (quantity of contact, having a wide circle of acquaintances) and intimacy (quality of contact, giving and receiving affection and love) were assessed from 67 students. Whereas affiliation goals did not moderate the association between positive relations and life satisfaction, intimacy goals did: Fulfillment of the need for positive relations and life satisfaction were positively associated only among students with strong emphasis on intimacy goals.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by a grant of the German Research Foundation (2435/2-1).

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany

    Jan Hofer, Holger Busch & Florian Kiessling

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  1. Jan Hofer
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Correspondence to Jan Hofer.

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Hofer, J., Busch, H. & Kiessling, F. Individual Pathways to Life Satisfaction: The Significance of Traits and Motives. J Happiness Stud 9, 503–520 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9086-x

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