Traits That Lead to a Better Life

This week’s article summary is The Five Personality Traits That Make a Better Life.

As teachers, we devote so much of our time and attention to our students that we can neglect to take care of ourselves.

The article below focuses on research on the most important personality traits that support well-being.

The Big Five determinants for happiness and satisfaction are as follows:

• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

The article details five other important qualities:

• Enthusiasm
• Low Withdrawal
• Industriousness
• Compassion
• Intellectual Curiosity.

In some cases, having little of a quality is preferable:  Who really wants to be neurotic?

Whenever I read articles like this, I am reminded how lucky I am to have found teaching as my profession where so many of the key well-being traits are cultural norms in most schools, especially Trinity!

I hope all of you have a fun-filled Thanksgiving Break! Thank you all for everything you do to make these early education and elementary school years so magical and rewarding for our students!

Joe

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Psychology researchers have time and again identified two personality traits that tend to correlate with greater well-being.

One is extroversion. The more extroverted you are, the more likely you are to be happy and satisfied with your life.

The other is neuroticism. The lower your score in neuroticism, the higher your overall well-being tends to be.

These findings are based in what’s known as the Big Five, a widely used model for studying and understanding five major dimensions of personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

A recent study, however, found five other traits predictive of well being.

Enthusiasm: This is a trait defined by such phrases as “has a lot of fun” and “laughs a lot,” and so it is not surprising that the human golden retrievers who score high in enthusiasm would also report leading more enjoyable lives. This aspect of personality has to do with how you relate to others: enthusiastic people tend to make friends easily, and they warm up quickly to others.

Low withdrawal: This is rather inelegantly named, as it’s primarily defined by what it isn’t. People who are high in this trait have an uneasy relationship with themselves — they are easily embarrassed, easily overwhelmed, and easily discouraged.

Industriousness: Industriousness is a side of conscientiousness, and it’s marked by a tendency toward planning ahead, working hard, and finishing what you start, without wasting time or getting distracted in the process. Leave me to my lists; I am happiest with them.

Compassion: This is an aspect of agreeableness, and it describes the sort of person who is interested in other people’s lives and problems, and who likes to do little acts of kindness for loved ones and strangers alike.

Intellectual curiosity: This is a trait defined by a love of complex problems, difficult books, and meandering philosophical conversations. People with intellectual curiosity are quick learners and thinkers, with rich vocabularies and the capacity to handle high volumes of information at once. Curiosity about the world around you turns out to predict your happiness within it.

Well-being does not seem to depend much on whether or not you are particularly polite or tidy, a finding that should be heartening for blunt, messy people everywhere. Also not linked to well-being was volatility.

As you might’ve surmised from that exclamation point, Kaufman is excited about these “optimistic” new findings, though he acknowledges this may mostly be his enthusiasm talking.