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The Role of a “Happy Personality” in the Relationship of Subjective Social Status and Domain-Specific Satisfaction in China

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Abstract

Most scholars have focused on group differences in overall life satisfaction, and little research has explored group differences in domain-specific satisfaction. This study investigated the variation in the effects of subjective social status on domain-specific satisfaction across personality styles (combined extraversion and neuroticism) in a sample of 1120 female and 745 male Chinese. Participants completed a questionnaire comprising demographics factors, MacArthur Scale, BFI personality scale and self-rated domain-specific satisfaction with interpersonal, health, political, financial, environmental, environmental, and cultural. The findings revealed that subjective social status positively, extraversion positively, and neuroticism negatively predicted six domain-specific satisfactions. Additionally, the results of the hierarchical regression analysis confirmed that the moderating roles of personality traits, but neither extraversion nor neuroticism alone moderated the effects of subjective social status on six domains of life satisfaction. Higher subjective social status related to a substantial increase in domainspecific satisfaction with health, political and environmental for respondents with high extraversion and low neuroticism. Taking together, from the “bottom-up” perspectives, these findings provide support to extend Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory to explain the relationship between subjective social status and domain-specific satisfaction.

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  1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Beibei, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Xuechen Leng, Jinfeng Han, Xiaoyong Hu & Hong Chen

  2. Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Xiaoyong Hu & Hong Chen

  3. Developmental Psychology for Armyman, Department of Medical Psychology, Amy Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China

    Yingcan Zheng

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  1. Xuechen Leng
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Leng, X., Han, J., Zheng, Y. et al. The Role of a “Happy Personality” in the Relationship of Subjective Social Status and Domain-Specific Satisfaction in China. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 1733–1751 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09839-w

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