The Happy Personality in India: The Role of Emotional Intelligence

This study examined the relations among the big five personality traits, emotional intelligence, and happiness. Participants included 205 (51 females, 154 males) university students in India. A series of mediational path analyses tested whether emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between personality traits and feelings of happiness. The analyses revealed that emotional intelligence mediates associations between several personality factors and happiness for females but not for males. Specifically, for females, emotional intelligence mediated the associations from conscientiousness and emotional instability to happiness, while males evidenced only direct associations. The findings suggest different associations than those of past studies regarding personality and happiness in Western samples. According to these results from an Indian sample, emotional intelligence may serve as an intermediary from personality to happiness for females, but has independent contributions to happiness for males.