Personal projects, life stories, and happiness: On being true to traits

In three studies (Ns between 125 and 176), happiness in life was the highest for undergraduates whose personal goals and life-story identities were supported by thematically consistent personality traits. In Study 1, happiness was highest among participants who were pursuing highly social goals that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of research in personality Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 551 - 572
Main Authors McGregor, Ian, McAdams, Dan P., Little, Brian R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.10.2006
Subjects
Goals
Happiness
Identity
Life stories
Personal projects
Traits
Personal projects
Happiness
Life stories
Goals
Identity
Traits
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Summary:In three studies (Ns between 125 and 176), happiness in life was the highest for undergraduates whose personal goals and life-story identities were supported by thematically consistent personality traits. In Study 1, happiness was highest among participants who were pursuing highly social goals that were supported by sociable traits. This relation between trait–goal consistency and happiness was partially mediated by perceptions of goal manageability. In Study 2, happiness was highest among participants who had highly social life-story identities that were supported by sociable traits. Study 3 replicated the main results of Studies 1 and 2 and also found a significant relation between the extent to which participants’ goals and life-story identities were social in theme.
ISSN:0092-6566
1095-7251
DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2005.05.002