Within-Person Associations Between Subjective Well-Being and Big Five Personality Traits

This study examined the temporal within-person associations between subjective well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, low negative affect) and the Big Five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). A representative American sample was used, collected over a period of approximately two decades and at 3 time points. To separate between-person and within-person levels, the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model was used. Results at the within-person level showed that higher-than-usual levels of subjective well-being were associated with higher-than-usual levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness after about a decade. Higher-than-usual levels of openness were associated with higher-than-usual future levels of subjective well-being. Whereas neuroticism was the strongest correlate of subjective well-being at the between-person level, it had no association with subjective well-being at the within-person level. The results illustrate the importance of distinguishing within and between levels when examining associations between personality traits and well-being.