Personality and Quality of Life: The Importance of Optimism and Goal Adjustment

This article concerns the relations between personality and quality of life. In the first part, we discuss different conceptualizations of personality and quality of life. We argue that personality affects quality of life by influencing how people approach and react to critical life situations. In t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inQuality of life research Vol. 12; pp. 59 - 72
Main Authors Carsten Wrosch, Scheier, Michael F.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands Kluwer Academic Publishers 01.01.2003
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adaptation, Psychological
Attitude to Health
Depressive disorders
Emotions
Goals
Humans
Individuality
Internal-External Control
Life Change Events
Motivation
Older adults
Optimism
Personal goals
Personal Satisfaction
Personality
Personality psychology
Personality traits
Psychometrics
Quality of life
Quality of Life - psychology
Regret
Wellbeing
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Summary:This article concerns the relations between personality and quality of life. In the first part, we discuss different conceptualizations of personality and quality of life. We argue that personality affects quality of life by influencing how people approach and react to critical life situations. In the second part, we address the beneficial role played by two individual difference variables in promoting quality of life: dispositional optimism and goal adjustment. Literature is reviewed demonstrating that dispositional optimism facilitates subjective well-being and good health, mediated by a person's coping behaviors. In addition, we discuss studies that examine people who confront unattainable goals. The reported evidence supports the conclusion that individual differences in people's abilities to adjust to unattainable goals are associated with a good quality of life.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-3
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ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:0962-9343
1573-2649
DOI:10.1023/A:1023529606137