Previous studies have shown that individuals with certain personality profiles tend to be more satisfied with their lives than others. However, it has not been extensively researched whether this holds true over the course of a person's lifespan. For example, sociable and talkative individuals (i.e., those who are extraverted) may be particularly happy during young adulthood, when they are forming new social relationships. To explore this further, the study's co-author, Gabriel Olaru, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Tilburg University, said that they wanted to investigate whether certain personality traits are more or less relevant to life, social, and work satisfaction during specific life phases.

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published the findings of the research.

The study aimed to investigate how the relationship between personality traits and life satisfaction changes over time. To achieve this, researchers analyzed data collected between 2008 and 2019 by the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel survey, which is a nationally representative survey of households in the Netherlands. The survey comprised of 9,110 Dutch participants between the ages of 16 and 95, who completed multiple questionnaires over 11 years to assess their Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability/neuroticism. They also reported their satisfaction levels with their social connections and overall life. Among the participants, only 5,928 individuals were employed at the time of the survey, and they answered additional questions about their satisfaction with their work lives.

The study found that most of the relationships between personality traits and satisfaction remained consistent throughout the adult lifespan. Emotional stability was found to be the trait most strongly associated with people's satisfaction with their life, social connections, and career.

Manon van Scheppingen, Ph.D., another co-author on the study and assistant professor at Tilburg University, stated that "Our findings demonstrate that personality traits are relevant for our satisfaction with life, work, and social contacts throughout young, middle, and older adulthood, despite differences in life challenges and social roles. Some personality traits became even more interconnected over time for work satisfaction."

The researchers also discovered that various personality traits were associated with people's satisfaction with their social lives and careers, including conscientiousness for work satisfaction and extraversion and agreeableness for social satisfaction. Participants who reported an increase in these traits over time also reported an increase in their overall life, social, and work satisfaction.

Age had the most significant impact on participants' work satisfaction levels. As individuals in the study grew older, the correlation between career satisfaction and emotional stability grew moderately stronger.

Although there was a weaker correlation between openness and overall life satisfaction, the researchers discovered that individuals who experienced an increase in openness also experienced a rise in life satisfaction over the 11-year duration of the LISS survey. According to the researchers, this connection may be explained by indirect processes.

"Emotional stability likely has a strong link with global and domain-specific satisfaction because this trait affects people's overall perspective of the world," Olaru explained.

"In the workplace, personality interacts with the environment in fascinating ways. We discovered that the correlation between emotional stability and work satisfaction grows stronger as individuals age. This might be due to the fact that emotionally stable people are less afraid to leave unsatisfying jobs and are more likely to apply for more challenging positions that could be more fulfilling and enjoyable in the long run," van Scheppingen commented.

The researchers suggest that future studies should investigate how age-related variables, such as income, employment status, marital status, and health, impact the connection between personality traits and overall life satisfaction.

"Although we did not explore the factors behind these changes, our research highlights that our personalities and happiness are not fixed," van Scheppingen noted. "Perhaps we can even influence the changes by striving to become more organized, outgoing, and friendly, which could increase life, social, or work satisfaction."

A new study has identified a strong connection between personality and life satisfaction