Putting them together:
Personality and wellbeing are very stable constructs and seem to play important roles
in how we go about our daily life, and move through life more generally. As you will see
in the Anglim et al. paper, there are very robust and persistent correlations between
personality and wellbeing. The correlations are moderate to strong, and the findings
are almost always the same (i.e. we keep finding the same correlations, and the more
times different people find the same thing, the more confidence we can have that the
relationship is real). So, with that in mind, and knowing that personality and wellbeing
are really stable constructs, we can safely assume that the relationships are unlikely to
change easily. Perhaps they may not change at all, perhaps no experience or life event
would be impactful enough to meaningfully alter those relationships. Perhaps, but we
don’t know. Before 2020, we didn’t have a way to test that idea (at least not an ethical
way). But, as we find ourselves immersed in a radically changed world where our daily
lives have been altered in various ways, and the way we will continue to move through
life still uncertain, we have an opportunity to test that idea.
In order to look more closely at this issue, we will investigate whether the relationships
between the Big 5 and specific components of wellbeing remain statistically unchanged
under conditions of rapid, unexpected change and prolonged stress. HPS307 students
will develop their hypotheses using any one of the Big 5 factors and satisfaction with
life. HPS791 students will develop their hypotheses using any one of the Big 5 factors,
and both satisfaction with life (SWB) and positive relations with others (PWB).