In this study we will look at the relationships between the Big 5 and wellbeing.
Specifically, HPS307 students will look at the Big 5 and one of the three constituent
parts of subjective wellbeing, satisfaction with life. HPS791 students will look at the Big
5 and satisfaction with life as well as one constituent part of psychological wellbeing,
positive relations with others. You will learn about the trait perspective in week 2, so we
won’t go into any detail about the Big 5 here. But what about wellbeing? The most
commonly used wellbeing measure is subjective wellbeing; there’s a huuuuge literature
on it and its relationship to other things. Perhaps less commonly used, but no less
useful, is psychological wellbeing. So what’s the difference, I hear you ask?
Subjective wellbeing (HPS307 & HPS791):
Subjective wellbeing (SWB) is a construct that is made up of three things, positive
affect, negative affect, and satisfaction with life. Ed Diener is the most prominent SWB
researcher, so you will find a lot of references cite his conceptualisation. To measure
SWB we measure those three things separately, so you will see in the list of scales