Openness to Experience and Subjective Well-Being among University Students in Macedonia

Openness to experiences is a global personality trait that is used to describe human personality in a Five Factor Model. People who score highly in openness to experiences are considered to be unconventional in their outlook and behavior, have a wider range of interests and tend to have more liberal political views. On the other hand, within the science of psychology, the interest in studying subjective well-being, happiness, quality of life and related phenomena has been gaining more attention in recent years. This research investigates the relationship between the personality factors of openness to experience and subjective well-being. More concretely, the research investigates the relationship between the six sub-factors of the openness to experience (fantasy, aesthetics, emotions, action, ideas and values) along with subjective well-being. The sample consisted of 209 first year university students from six faculties within the Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. The following instruments were used for this research: NEO-PI-R (The Revised NEO Personality Inventory) and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. The results have shown that subjective well-being is positively related only with an openness to emotions. Also, the results have shown that subjective well-being is related to an openness to values, but this correlation is negative. That means that as openness to emotions increases happiness will also increase, and by contrast, as openness to values increases happiness will decrease.